Our guest author this week is Rabbinic Intern Shawn Weiss, Ziegler Rabbinical School student and Alumni Fellow of the Flesh Family Sinai Temple Israel Center Rabbinical School Fellowship.

When is a story not just a story? 

In this week’s parshah, the first of Deuteronomy, Moses narrates to the people their own journey from slavery in Egypt to the banks of the Jordan as they are on the precipice of crossing over into the promised land. This may seem, at first glance, like a strange thing to do. After all, the people have finally arrived at their destination – after forty years of hardship, disappointment, triumph and loss. Why not just enter the land already, fulfill the promise and get on with it? 

But that’s not what Jews do. 

We pause before significant action, reflecting and acknowledging our gratitude for what’s about to happen. And this pause, this acknowledgement of gratitude, is called prayer; our discourse with God.

Up until this moment, Moses is a character in the Torah; in Deuteronomy, he becomes its narrator. But he does not simply tell the people a story they already know. On one level, Moses recounts to them their journey topographically and chronologically; on another, deeper level, he recounts their journey morally, ethically, holding up a mirror to the people, a mirror of words, reflecting back on them their transformation from slavery—to God—consciousness.

It is not a glamourized portrait that Moses shows the people of themselves. He reminds them of when and where they struggled. He reminds them of how they overcame and triumphed. And he reminds them of the great struggle ahead. In this way, Moses not only assumes the narrative voice of the Torah, but he becomes its first interpreter as well. Moses’s address to Klal Yisrael—to us today—is the great oration of the Jewish drama, a story that is more than just a story; a prayer of gratitude in our ongoing conversation with God.