Shabbat Table Topics – Parashat Devarim/0/en

Shabbat Table Topics – Parashat Devarim

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Contradictory Accounts

Several episodes in Torah found in one of the first four Chumashim are then also recounted by Moshe in Devarim. Often these accounts differ on key points, and in some case even appear to contradict each other. How are we to understand the variations?

• Compare the accounts of the story of the spies as narrated in both Parashat Shelach and Parashat Devarim. What differences do you note? Which are the most troubling? How might you explain them?
• Do the same for the description of the conquests of Sichon and Og in Parashat Chukkat and Devarim.what messages is Moshe trying to highlight in his retelling?
• What are the overall objectives of Moshe's historical speech in the opening chapters of Sefer Devarim and how might these affect the way that he retells previous stories?
• Is it problematic to say that Moshe intentionally recasts history to promote an agenda?
• For more, see The Story of the Spies in Bemidbar and Devarim and Battles with Sichon and Og in Bemidbar and Devarim.

The Spies' Route and Slander

Did the spies really travel from the Wilderness of Zin all the way to Israel's northern border, evaluating the country's main cities, fortifications, and water sources along the way, and then return to Moshe, all in less than forty days?

• While Rashi asserts that the spies had Divine assistance which hastened their pace and allowed them to explore the entire land, the Netziv claims that the spies scouted in pairs, dividing up the country between them.  Some modern scholars,1 in contrast, suggest that the spies scouted only the southern region of the land, as that would have been their first stop during the Conquest.
• Which verses support each position? Which are difficult?
• How do the different positions shed light on the nature of the Spies' sin as a whole?  How might our evaluation of the spies differ if Chevron was the sole city visited rather than merely one stop of many?  What ramifications might there have been if only one or two of the spies encountered the giants, or if all of them did? For discussion, see The Spies – Where Did They Tour?