Structure – Sefer Devarim/0

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

Open Outline   Open Flowchart

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.³  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. The book contains very little new narrative as Moshe instead reviews past history and concentrates on 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 Torah⁴ span many years (from the thousands of years of Sefer Bereshit to the almost 4 decades of Sefer Bemidbar), the vast majority of Sefer Devarim⁵ transpires over a period of at most 5 weeks.⁶
• Characters – The main characters of Sefer Devarim, like of Sefer Shemot, Vayikra, and Bemidbar, are Moshe and the nation.⁷ However, while the  Israelites of earlier books constituted the generation that left Egypt (דור יוצאי מצרים), in Devarim they are the next generation, דור באי הארץ. In addition, while the Israelites 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.⁸ This reflects its distinct genre: a series of farewell addresses.
• Law and narrative – Similar to Shemot and Bemidbar, Sefer Devarim contains both narrative and legal material.  However the proportions of each subject are reversed. While the other books focus on narrative, Devarim is mainly legal in nature. 
• Elaborate introduction – Unlike the other books of Torah, Devarim opens with an elaborate five verse introduction setting the book's location, time and purpose, clearly marking that the book is a new unit of its own.
  

Division into Units

I. Double Introduction (1:1-5)
II. The Historical Speech: Lessons from the Past (1:6 – 3:29)
III. The Legal Speech: Laws for the Future (4:1 – 32:52)
IV. The Final Farewell (33:1 – 34:12)

• Plot – Sefer Devarim comprises Moshe's farewell addresses to the nation. The opening verses of the book introduce Moshe's two main speeches. The second unit comprises the shorter of these, a historical speech, while the third unit, the bulk of the book, contains his legal speech. The book closes with Moshe's blessings to the tribes and his death.⁹
  
• Genre – The middle units containing Moshe's speeches are distinguished from each other by their genre, one being historical in nature and the other legal.¹⁰
• Literary Markers – Chapter 4 opens with the declaration, " וְעַתָּה יִשְׂרָאֵל שְׁמַע אֶל הַחֻקִּים וְאֶל הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים", marking it as the beginning of the legal speech.  [Similar declarations serve as a refrain throughout the speech, separating its subsections.]¹¹
• Change of Speaker

Subdivision of Unit II – "The Historical Speech"

A. Appointing Leaders: Aids to Moshe (1:6-18)
B. Year 2: Derailed by a Fear of Giants (1:19-46)
C. Year 40: Conquering the Giants (2:1 – 3:20)
D. New Leadership: Replacing Moshe (3:21-29)

• Plot – The unit is framed by two accounts of leadership appointments, one to aid Moshe and one to replace him. In the middle units, Moshe tries to ensure that the people overcome their fear of giants so as not to repeat the mistake of the spies.  He begins by retelling the fiasco of the spies and ends by recounting a series of conquests over giants to prove that, with Hashem's help, there is nothing to fear.
• Characters – 
• Timing – The first two units recount events that took place towards the beginning of the nation's wandering,¹³ while the last two units speak of events of the 40th year. 
• Setting – 
• Refrains – 
• Literary Markers

Subdivision of Unit III – "The Legal Speech"

¹ The first two words of the book are used in the name (and often only the second word "דְבָרִים" is used), 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 See the Netziv who questions this understanding (as most of the legal material in the book is not in fact a review), preferring Targum Onkelos's translation, "פתשגן אורייתא", meaning an explanation or learning of Torah.

⁴ 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.]

⁵ 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.  The rest of the book takes place in no more than 5 weeks.

⁶ The book opens on the first of Shevat, and ends with Moshe's death, which is not dated. Since we are told that the nation mourned him for a month, and that they crossed the Jordan on the 10th of Nissan after a 3 day period of preparation, many work backwards and assume that Moshe died on 7 Adar. However, as it is possible that there was time in between the mourning and the preparation for crossing, and the verses discussing the three day preparation period allow for multiple interpretations, others suggest that Moshe died up to a full month earlier. If so, all of his addresses might have taken place in just a week.

⁷ Sefer Vayikra is somewhat unique as well, since though it speaks of the entire nation as well, in many cases it singles out the priestly class.

⁸ This is highlighted by the lack of phrases such as "וַיְדַבֵּר י"י אֶל מֹשֶׁה" or "וַיֹּאמֶר י"י אֶל מֹשֶׁה". The former occurs 90 times in Torah, but only once in Sefer Devarim, while the latter appears around 70 tomes but only twice in Devarim.

⁹ Alternative divisions of the book have been offered:

• R. D"Z Hoffmann divides it into four: The Historical Speech (Chapters 1-4), The Speech of the Mitzvot (Chapters 5:1 - 27:8), The Speech of the Covenant (28:9-31:13), and Two Appendices (Moshe's Song in 31:14-32:47, and Moshe's Death in 32:38-34:12).  This structure is not significantly different from the one presented here, and contains two main variations.  While R. Hoffmann views Chapter 4 as the conclusion of the historical speech, we included it instead as the opening to the legal speech.  While he considers the chapters regarding the covenant a unit of its own, and Moshe's song as an appendix, we view all of those chapters as integrally related to and concluding the legal speech.

• Mr. D. Cohen-Tzemakh, in Olam HaTanakh Devarim, (Tel Aviv, 1994): 8, divides the book into three main sections and an appendix: A Historical Introduction (Chapters 1-11), Conditions of the Covenant, or, The Laws (Chapters 12-26), Blessing and Curses (Chapters 27-30), and An Appendix (Chapters 31-34).  This division suggests that the book is built off the structure of ancient near eastern covenants, which began by laying forth the historical background to the treaty, continued with the conditions of the covenant, and ended with warnings to heed the terms laid forth.

¹⁰ One might question the placement of chapters 4-11 which contain both narrative and legal material. As the narrative of these chapters is meant to provide background to and a philosophical basis for observance, this division includes them in the legal speech.

¹¹ See Devarim 4:45 and 5:1, 6:1 and 12:1, and discussion below.

¹² The verses repeat the who, what, where and when of the book several times:

• Who: Verses 1, 3 and 5 all declare Moshe as the one who is speaking.
• What: Moshe is said to either speak "these things" (verse 1), "all that Hashem commanded" (verse 3), or "explain this Torah" (verse 5).
• Where: Both verses 1 and 5 set the location of Moshe's speech. While verse 1 contains a long list of place names, verse 5 only mentions the bak o fthe Jordan in the land of Moav.
• When: A time marker is given in both verse 3 (the fortieth year) and verse 4 (dating the speech to after the conquest of Sichon and Og). Verse 2 further mentions a time (eleven days form Chorev), though its role is unclear.

¹³ The dating of the appointment of judges discussed in the first unit is debated, as it is  unclear to which event Moshe is referring, the appointment of assistants in Yitro 18, or of the elders in Bemidbar 11.  As such, the event might have taken place in either the first or second year.  For a full discussion, see Appointing Moshe's Assistants.