Here, the longest address of Moshe Rabbenu continues. It should not be surprising, since here is the great leader not being allowed himself to go into Eretz Israel (Land of Israel). Yet he knows the great dangers of the plenty that can turn man into complacency.
There, not far away is waiting a good land, a land of wheat and barley. With brooks of water and fountains you can almost hear. A land whose stones are iron and out of its hills copper may be mined… a land of milk and honey.
Here, manna does not have to fall from the heavens. Manna, so chosen for it wasn’t a known substance to this generation and the former generation. Perhaps chosen to be the perfect bland contrast to the plenty of food awaiting them across the Jordan River.
That plenty that’s awaiting them can lead to the faults and ignorance Am Israel has made before. Moshe fears this. And HaShem (The Name) fears it too.
So Moshe could have left it with the ten commandments and call it a day. But no, he spoke into great detail. Small details… how Israel should love HaShem. How HaShem loves Israel. And… how Israel should fear HaShem.
Back and forth. Love… and also the word fear.
Why fear?
Veh-Attah Israel, Ma HaShem Sho-el mimchah….
And now, Israel what does HaShem thy God asks of thee, But to FEAR the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with thy soul; to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes which I command thee this day for THY good.
Ci-Iem Lir-ah et HaShem… but to fear HaShem…
Is not much to ask from Klal Israel. They may have shrugged and thought: ok, I’ll fear God.
But ‘fear’ is mostly understood by Moshe, (the Gemara explains); It is because of his unusual high moral standards that he, Moshe, understands these words perhaps better than anyone. He knows what fear really means.
Ramban says:
The phrase “what does HaShem asks of thee…
Must be understood in relation to the closing phrase…
for THY own good….
Here, Klal Israel is asked to follow instructions carefully so that THEY benefit from it… and not HaShem.
It’s important to realize that never in this address, is HasShem, through Moshe Rabbeinu asking to do good… by or for HaShem….
This is a new beginning… the word “and now” – ve-attah..
Signifies a clean slate for all of Israel.
No matter what the faults were in the past, as carefully repeated by Moshe in his address,
here, close by… is the good land as a gift… now start over and don’t mess it up….
Perhaps here, the greatest fear is that Moshe knows very well that with the gift of good and plenty also comes complacency.
Maybe, the long address to Israel going back and forth between loving God and fearing God is parallel to the Shema.
The first part of the Shema being about Unity and Love.
And the second part, as stated in this sidra, about the acceptance of the yoke of the mitzwot… and fear is certainly central to that.
Moshe Rabbeinu must have been aware of his days coming to an end. And therefore the word Ve-attah… can be read as You… as in ‘And You people’. As if Moshe wanted to distance himself totally from Am Israel, thereby giving them a totally new beginning, without any responsibility to him, but with sole responsibility to HaShem.
Moshe, in his address, carefully balances love and fear.
Good and bad. And with it he gives Klal Israel a post-it note; in the form of tefillin and the order of the mezuzah containing the ever so important Shema.
As if to say, you cannot blame me for anything anymore,
I have told you so.
And now, It’s totally up to you.
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