Unusually Rabbi Steinsaltz does not examine any of the verses in the parsha. He sees this parsha as transitional, and that later sections describe the same ideas with greater force. Instead, he comments on Moses’ purpose, which is to provide wisdom and memory to a new generation that will be living a very different life than in the Wilderness. Moses, like a parent with young adult children, is trying to share his life’s learnings, while fully aware of the limits of words in capturing that experience.
they will be entering a world of personal responsibility and personal work, a world without a feeling of protection that shields them and saves them from their sins and errors and from all the troubles around them. In a certain sense, Moses’ words are like a father’s parting words to his maturing children, when he explains to them that from now on they are going to live in a different world, by no means a worse world but a world that is certainly different.
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They find it difficult to relate to Moses’ warnings about pitfalls they are likely to encounter in the future, or about the new life they are about to lead. The truth is that Moses does not want to discourage or dishearten them. All that he wants to do is to explain to them that they are now mature and on their own.
In this spirit, will use this time to discuss an ethical will we would leave our children. What are the opportunities and pitfalls they will face? How can they lead a moral life? What ends do we want them to seek? How will they continue and renew Jewish life? How, like Moses, would we instruct our children through interpreting our life journey?