Every parent has at one time or another instructed his/her child to “use your words” when asking for something instead of using pointing, grunting, crying, yelling or such nonverbal behavior.
Human beings are verbal creatures, and if children are going to be successful in living in a family, in a community or in a country, it is imperative that they learn to communicate “using their words.”
Those who have had the experience of visiting or residing in another country have quickly learned that verbal communication is key to understanding and being understood. A friend of mine put it best: “I wanted to shout out that I really am an intelligent person. I just don’t know the words!”
This week’s Torah portion begins the fifth and final book of the Torah, and it is named “Devarim” or “Words.” The context of the first portions of this book seem to be a summary of the Israelite experience from the Exodus until the point at which they find themselves: on the verge of entering the Promised Land 40 years later. This was the impetus behind the Greek name of the book, Deuteronomy, the “second Torah.”
However, in this second telling of the story there is something different, for as the text reads in Verse 1, “These are the words which Moses spoke to the Israelites.”
Up until this point, Moses has assumed the role of a prophet, one who channels God, who speaks the words that God places in the prophet’s mouth. In the book of “Devarim,” Moses uses his own words.
At the age of 120, aware that he will not be leading his people into the Promised Land, Moses uses his words to instruct the people as they prepare to enter the next phase of their exodus from bondage, as they prepare to reside in their own land among other peoples.
After all, this is a generation whom he has raised, literally and figuratively, from infancy to adolescence over the course of the last 40 years. They experienced neither the slavery of Egypt nor the freedom and responsibilities of independence. Rather they have led a sheltered existence during which they have been provided with water, food and clothing without having to work for them. They have lived in a closed camp, having very little or no positive contact with other peoples. Their every move was prescribed for them. Once they cross the river, that will change for them, and Moses wants them to be prepared.
One could say that Moses had 40 years to prepare them. Why does he perceive a need to retell Israelite history?
When I drove my firstborn to college, I utilized that seven-hour drive to impart some final “words of wisdom.” Though I had had 18 years during which I could teach her through words and modeling behaviors how to meet the challenges that awaited as she began her semi-independent life at college and independent life thereafter, I wanted to reinforce the main points and to add a couple of others. It was, as it were, my “swan song,” my final lessons in living life. I knew the challenges that would present themselves to her in college, and so I “used my words” to enable her to recognize and to see them. In this manner I was emulating Moses as he delivered his “swan song” to the people whom he had raised.
Words can clarify, and they can obfuscate. One can speak a lot of words and say nothing, while another can use very few words and say much. Words can build up and they can tear down. They can incite love and hate.
This year and at this time of year, there is a plethora of words being spoken through all kinds of media. You may already be weary of hearing or reading them. As candidates vie for election, it is important to listen carefully to their words, for hidden within the promises they make is the agenda they wish to follow.
Are their words positive indicators or negative ones? Do they build up or do they tear down? Do they indicate a grasp of history and its lessons? Do they express in their words and in their deeds values with which you identify? Do their words fill the air or do they fill your heart and soul?
Moses spoke in his own words in order to provide not only the facts of the past but its lessons. He spoke in his own words in order to enable the people to meet the challenges ahead rather than to bemoan a romanticized past as they did during their wandering. Though he physically would no longer lead them, his own words would and continue to do so to this day.
The book of words, “Devarim,” stands on its own as spiritual history and as a guidebook for the future. It teaches us the value of using our own words as motivators for actions that are just, that are fair, that are ethical and that are loving — if we but use our words carefully.
