Deuteronomy.
2025-08-24 09:32![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asher553Deuteronomy is the fifth and final phase of the Torah cycle, the rebirth of the Israelite nation. What began with the creation of the universe and of the tribes of Israel; continued with the emergence of the Hebrew nation from Egyptian bondage to freedom under the rule of God's Torah in Exodus; achieved communion with the holiness of the Divine Presence in Leviticus; and saw its culmination and the downfall of its high hopes with the sin of the spies in Numbers; now reaches its closing chapter and the promise of a new beginning.
"Deuteronomy is unique in the manner of its composition. ... The narrator in the book of Deuteronomy is Moses himself, and he speaks in the first person." - Steinsaltz
The book opens with the man Moses coming to terms with his anguished realization that he himself will never set foot in the Promised land; and that he himself will be numbered among the generation condemned to die in the wilderness. In purely human terms, he is an old man nearing the end of life, looking back on his unfulfilled dreams, turning his attention now to those who will carry on after him and build a new world in a new land - and from these thoughts, finding comfort and strength. [211]
"Deuteronomy is unique in the manner of its composition. ... The narrator in the book of Deuteronomy is Moses himself, and he speaks in the first person." - Steinsaltz
The book opens with the man Moses coming to terms with his anguished realization that he himself will never set foot in the Promised land; and that he himself will be numbered among the generation condemned to die in the wilderness. In purely human terms, he is an old man nearing the end of life, looking back on his unfulfilled dreams, turning his attention now to those who will carry on after him and build a new world in a new land - and from these thoughts, finding comfort and strength. [211]
