Va'etchanan (—Hebrew for "and I will plead," the first word in the parashah) is the 45th weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the second in the Book of Deuteronomy. It comprises Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11. The parashah tells how Moses asked to see the Land of Israel, made arguments to obey the law, recounted setting up the Cities of Refuge, recited the Ten Commandments and the Shema, and gave instructions for the Israelites' conquest of the Land. The parashah is made up of 7,343 Hebrew letters, 1,878 Hebrew words, 122 verses, and 249 lines in a Torah Scroll (Sefer Torah). Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in late July or August.
It is always read on the special Sabbath Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath immediately after Tisha B'Av. As the parashah describes how the Israelites would sin and be banished from the Land of Israel, Jews also read part of the parashah, Deuteronomy 4:25–40, as the Torah reading for the morning (Shacharit) prayer service on Tisha B'Av, which commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem.
Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot. In the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Parashah Va'etchanan has six "open portion" (, petuchah) divisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (peh)). Parashah Va'etchanan has several further subdivisions, called "closed portions" (, setumah) (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (samekh)) within the open portion divisions. The first reading is divided by the first open portion. From the middle of the first reading to the middle of the second reading is the second open section. The third open portion concludes the second reading. The fourth open portion corresponds to the third reading. The fifth open portion spans the fourth and fifth readings. And the sixth open portion spans the sixth and seventh readings. Several closed portion divisions, notably one for every commandment, further divide the fourth and sixth readings.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2009), pages 26–53.
First reading—Deuteronomy 3:23–4:4 In the first reading, Moses pleaded with God to let him cross over and see the other side of the Jordan River. But God was wrathful with Moses and would not listen, telling Moses never to speak of the matter again, and Moses blamed his punishment on the Israelites. God directed Moses to climb the summit of Pisgah and look at the land. And God told Moses to give Joshua his instructions and imbue him with strength and courage, for Joshua was to lead the people and allot to them the land. The first open portion ends here with the end of the chapter.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 27.
Moses exhorted the Israelites to heed God's laws, not to add anything to them, and not to take anything away from them, so that they might live to enter and occupy the land that God was giving them.. Moses noted that in the sin of Baal-peor, God wiped out every person who followed Baal-peor, while preserving alive those who held fast to God. The first reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 28.
Second reading—Deuteronomy 4:5–40 In the second reading, Moses argued that observing the laws faithfully would prove to other peoples the Israelites' wisdom and discernment, for no other great nation had a god so close at hand as God, and no other great nation had laws as perfect as God's.
Moses urged the Israelites to take utmost care not to forget the things that they saw, and to make them known to their children and children's children: how they stood before God at Horeb, the mountain was ablaze with flames, God spoke to them out of the fire, and God declared to them the Ten Commandments.. At the same time, God commanded Moses to impart to the Israelites laws for them to observe in the land that they were about to occupy..
Because the Israelites saw no shape when God spoke to them out of the fire at Horeb, Moses warned them not to make for themselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever—the form of a man, woman, beast, bird, creeping thing, or fish.. And when they looked up and saw the sun, moon, stars, and heaven, they were not to be lured into bowing down to them or serving them, for God allotted those things to other peoples, but God took the Israelites and brought them out of Egypt to be God's very own people..
Moses said that God was angry with him on account of the Israelites, and God swore that Moses would not enter the land but would die in the land east of the Jordan.. Moses cautioned the Israelites not to forget the covenant that God concluded with them, and not to make a sculptured image, for God is a consuming fire, an impassioned God.. The second open portion ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 33.
Moses called heaven and earth to witness against the Israelites that should they make for themselves a sculptured image when they were in the land, then God would scatter them among the peoples, leaving only a scant few alive.. There in exile they would serve man-made gods of wood and stone, that would not be able to see, hear, eat, or smell.. But when they were in distress and they searched for God with all their heart and soul, returned to God, and obeyed God, then they would find God, even there.. For God is a compassionate God, Who would not fail them, let them perish, or forget the covenant that He made on oath with their fathers..
Moses invited the Israelites to consider whether any people had ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire and survived, or any god had taken one nation from the midst of another by prodigious acts and awesome power as their God had done for them in Egypt before their very eyes.. Moses said that it had been clearly demonstrated to them that the Lord alone is God and that there is none beside God.. Moses thus admonished them to observe God's laws and commandments, which Moses enjoined upon them that day, that it might go well with them and their children, and that they might long remain in the land that God was assigning to them for all time.. The second reading and the third open portion end at verse 40.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 37.
Third reading—Deuteronomy 4:41–49 In the third reading, Moses set aside three cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan to which a manslayer who unwittingly slew a person without having been hostile to him in the past could escape and live: Bezer among the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead among the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan among the Manassites.. The third reading and the fourth open portion end with Deuteronomy 4:49.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 39.
Fourth reading—Deuteronomy 5:1–18 (or 5:1–22) In the fourth reading,A note on verse numbering: The Mechon Mamre Hebrew-English Bible, to which footnotes in this series link, numbers its verses according to the Lower Trope Marks system, in which the verses are numbered naturally in their form for study. Many Jewish Bibles in both Hebrew and English (including the 1917 Jewish Publication Society Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text, the New Jewish Publication Society Tanakh, and the ArtScroll Chumash) use the numbering of the Upper Trope Marks system as used for public readings. Parallel verse numbering thus appears in footnotes for the Ten Commandments in and here in . Moses summoned the Israelites and called on them to hear the laws that he proclaimed that day, to study and observe them faithfully.. At Horeb, God made a covenant with them—not with their fathers, but with them, the living, every one of them.. God spoke to them face to face out of the fire on the mountain.. Moses stood between God and them to convey God's words to them, for they were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.. A closed portion ends here.
God said the Ten Commandments: "I the Lord am your God.". "You shall have no other gods beside Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them."; 5:7–9 in NJPS. A closed portion ends with Deuteronomy 5:10.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 40. "You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God."; 5:11 in NJPS. A closed portion ends here. "Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy."; 5:12 in NJPS. A closed portion ends with Deuteronomy 5:15.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 41. "Honor your father and your mother."; 5:16 in NJPS. A closed portion ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 42. "You shall not murder." A closed portion ends here. "You shall not commit adultery." A closed portion ends here. "You shall not steal." A closed portion ends here. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."; 5:17 in NJPS. A closed portion ends here. "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. A closed portion ends here. You shall not crave your neighbor's house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's."; 5:18 in NJPS. The fourth reading and a closed portion ends here.
Fifth reading—Deuteronomy 5:19 (23)–6:3 In the fifth reading, God spoke these words to the whole congregation at the mountain, with a mighty voice out of the fire and the dense clouds, and God inscribed them on two stone tablets, which God gave to Moses., 5:19 in NJPS. When the Israelites heard the voice out of the darkness and saw the mountain ablaze with fire, the tribal heads and elders asked Moses to hear all that God had to say and then tell the people, and they would willingly obey.; 5:20–24 in NJPS. The fifth reading and the fifth open portion end with Deuteronomy 6:3.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 45.
Sixth reading—Deuteronomy 6:4–25
In the sixth reading, Moses imparted God's instructions, the Shema and V'ahavta, saying: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk, and when you lie down, and when thou rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house, and upon your gates.". A closed portion ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 47.
Moses exhorted the Israelites, when God brought them into the land and they ate their fill, not to forget the God who freed them from bondage in Egypt, to revere and worship only God, and to swear only by God's name.. Moses warned the Israelites not to follow other gods, lest the anger of God wipe them off the face of the earth.. A closed portion ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim/Deuteronomy, page 48.