From Chabad.org

Devarim in a Nutshell

Deuteronomy 1:1–3:22

The name of the Parshah, “Devarim,” means “the words” and it is found in Deuteronomy 1:1.

On the first of Shevat (thirty-seven days before his passing), Moses begins his repetition of the Torah to the assembled children of Israel, reviewing the events that occurred and the laws that were given in the course of their forty-year journey from Egypt to Sinai to the Promised Land, rebuking the people for their failings and iniquities, and enjoining them to keep the Torah and observe its commandments in the land that G‑d is giving them as an eternal heritage, into which they shall cross after his death.

Moses recalls his appointment of judges and magistrates to ease his burden of meting out justice to the people and teaching them the word of G‑d; the journey from Sinai through the great and fearsome desert; the sending of the spies and the people’s subsequent spurning of the Promised Land, so that G‑d decreed that the entire generation of the Exodus would die out in the desert. “Also against me,” says Moses, “was G‑d angry for your sake, saying: You, too, shall not go in there.”

Moses also recounts some more recent events: the refusal of the nations of Moab and Ammon to allow the Israelites to pass through their countries; the wars against the Emorite kings Sichon and Og, and the settlement of their lands by the tribes of Reuben and Gad and part of the tribe of Manasseh; and Moses’ message to his successor, Joshua, who will take the people into the Land and lead them in the battles for its conquest: “Fear them not, for the L‑rd your G‑d, He shall fight for you.”

In the beginning of the meeting, he says that we’re free, right? And there’s like a glimmer of hope all through the crowd. The guy’s on a big rock on the side of the mountain and he’s doing his God’s voice and speaking in first person. You know, honestly it’s a good show if you get high for it. So anyway he’s droning on about himself and saying how wonderful he was to give us all the land. He mentions that the land is already possessed but he doesn’t mention a really reasonable way to do an integration where we might be able to worship God but also live among people who might worship other gods. A hybrid is never a bad idea. Blends are always better than doing anything straight.

You know, you think about these things and they are always about endless civic numbers and self-congratulations. I was thinking, “Oh, the old man’s dying. He’s not going to hold on to us anymore.” But then, you know, things always get so bureaucratic here. We all knew we are in for another huge shit.

While we were sitting there being fed the endless details, the guy next to me gave me an elbow and whispered that we are following a goat farmer. And then he laughed because everybody knows about goat farmers. I reminded him that none of this is even the slightest bit sociable; he’s an Egyptian and he runs the place like an Egyptian and he thinks like an Egyptian. There’s probably nothing worse in the entire world than an Egyptian Jew.

I know I’m being redundant here, I’m just desperately trying to find the words that say something in the ballpark of “convivial is not bad”. Words about non-work are always poorly defined. Some people use the word freedom. But there is always this division between work and play. Even the Shabbos reminds us that there’s a difference. Don’t get me wrong, Shabbos is the greatest invention in the world but it would be even better in a non slave society. How about work and play are both part of the idea of life? This is the hypocrisy that is breaking my brain.

I don’t just fear for myself. Yesterday, I went to the top of the mountain to have a look for myself and all I saw was thousands of years of war, misery, oppression and blood. I just don’t want this for anyone. I just want to grow our food and be nice to each other. We are Jews. Where are the chosen people. I’m 100% sure we could figure this out for ourselves if they would just let us go.

And then he has to start telling us the story of how we got here and where we went and where we’re going. Some of us got to be businessmen, some of us got to be tough guys but some of us had to give way to others favored by God. Basically, he spat on the word society and chained us to his social pecking order.

And then he started reveling in the bloody details of some places that we simply slaughtered entire communities just to get to their meat. I mean, like all the trouble the people in those villages went to to build up a livable place just meant nothing because we said the meat was ours. All for meat. All for the bloodlust of meat. Men, women and children slaughtered. And the Egyptian revels in it and takes glory in the murder.  All of those men, women and children.

  לֹא תִּרְצָח

Excuse me, I think I’m going to be sick from the bloody lies and hypocrisy of it all.

It’s the same thing again and again and again. It’s the same mistake again and again and again. We start listening to one guy. That’s our first mistake. Sure, in certain ways, we are all the same. We all need to eat, we all need fresh air and water and we all need something to do during the day. And because we’re just stupid humans, we need clean food and water, appropriate clothing, pleasing places to live, available medicine so we don’t automatically go into suffering and infection at the slightest mistake and some practical education so we can keep this thing going. What we don’t need is anyone fighting for status or for food or for property. We don’t need anyone fighting over ideologies and we do not need to fight over resources. And we absolutely do not need anyone desecrating this giant blue temple of ours, our spaceship, as we travel through God’s cosmos on our way to our destiny. 

All I’m asking for is to know that just once, I’m going to wake up in a peaceful world and that it’s peaceful because we all know how to live together well. That means everybody works, nobody talks Nazi shit and everybody does their job like they understand what’s at stake. Lets just make gardens. What’s so difficult?