Structure – Sefer Devarim/0

Structural Analysis – Sefer Devarim
"Moshe's Farewell Addresses"

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Boundaries of the Book

• Names – The name "אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים", which is derived from the opening words of the book,¹ dates back to antiquity.²  Rabbinic sources refer to the book as משנה תורה, referring to the book's review of earlier history and law.  This name is already found in Devarim itself and in Sefer Yehoshua, though from context it is difficult to know what book/s or chapters the title encompasses.
• Themes – Sefer Devarim is distinct from previous books of the Torah in that it is consists almost entirely of Moshe's various speeches before his death. Though it reviews several previous stories, it contains very little new narrative, and concentrates on Moshe's reinforcing the nation's relationship with Hashem and preparing them for their future in the Land of Israel.
  
• Setting – In contrast to Sefer Bemidbar, whose events occur in multiple sites throughout the wilderness, all of Sefer Devarim takes place in a single location, Arvot Moav.
  
• Timing – While most of the earlier books of the Torah³ span many years (from the thousands of years of Sefer Bereshit to the almost 4 decades of Sefer Bemidbar), the vast majority of Sefer Devarim⁴ transpires over a period of at most 5 weeks.⁵
• Characters – The main characters of Sefer Devarim, like of Sefer Shemot and Bemidbar, are Moshe and the nation.⁶ However, while the Children of Israel are active characters in these earlier books, they are mainly passive in Sefer Devarim.
  
• Speaker and genre – Sefer Devarim is unique in Torah in being written almost entirely in first person, from the perspective of Moshe. This reflects its distinct genre: a series of farewell addresses.
• Law and narrative – Though Sefer Devarim contains both narrative and legal material, similar to both Sefer Shemot and Bemidbar, the proportions of each subject are reversed. While the other books focus on narrative, Devarim is mainly legal in nature. 
  

¹ he first two words of the book are used in the name, or only the second word "דְבָרִים" in the abridged form of the name, in order to differentiate it from the second book of the Torah "וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמוֹת".

² Eusebius cites Origen as writing that this was the name used by the Jews.

³ Sefer Vayikra is an exception.  It contains no explicit dates, and appears to take place in the very short timeframe between the books of Shemot and Bemidbar.  [The verses in Shemot 40:2,17 speak of the first day of the first month in the second year in the wilderness, and Chapters 7 and 9 in Bemidbar also describe events which took place in this same month. For more on the relationship between these events, see Chronology of Shemot 40.]

⁴ Moshe's various addresses encompass the entire book with the exception of the last chapter in which he dies and we are told that the nation mourned him for thirty days.

⁵ The book opens on the first of Shevat, but it is unclear when Moshe died. Most people assume that he died on 7 Adar since we are told that the nation mourned Moshe for a  month, and that they crossed the Jordan on the 10th of Nissan after a 3 day preparation beforehand.  However, it is possible that there was time in between the mourning and the preparation for crossing. In additions the verses discussing the three day period are ambiguous and allow for multiple interpretations, leading others to suggest that Moshe died up to a full month earlier.

⁶ Though Sefer Vayikra similarly speaks of the entire nation, in many cases it singles out the priestly class.