Rashi comments on the opening psukim of our Parasha :’Since these are words of rebuke, and Moshe enumerates here all the places where they angered Hashem, therefore it made no specific mention of the incidents, but rather merely attributes them to them, out of respect for Israel.’

The Netivot Shalom adds: ’Moshe enumerated to them all the places in which they had transgressed, to bring them to submission and to heart-break, as this is the gateway to all the lofty levels of serving Hashem, and they could thereby reach the highest levels of avodat Hashem, and to receive - and retain the Torah, at the level of the Second Tablets - which remained unbroken - that being the level appropriate to them.’

After this introduction (1:5), ‘Moshe began explaining the Torah to’ them.’

Rashi comments: ’Explaining the Torah’: In seventy languages.

The Maharal elucidates the Rashi: ’If not so, what does the word באר: explain , mean, as its meaning is: explained, until all understand it. But Rashi expounded it:’in seventy languages’, as this was written in regard to the word, in Parashat Ki Tavo.’

The Ktav Sofer asks on this Rashi: ’Why the need to explain it in seventy languages specifically at this time, as they were about to enter the Land? - what is the meaning of:’he explained it in seventy languages’?’.

Answers the Rav: ’It seems to me that the intention is that they should not say - in the way of unbelievers - that the Torah was given only in the desert and for the Land of Israel - and only for those places - only when we sit in the desert apart from other people, or in the safety of our Land - but when we are in the lands of other nations, in the midst of the local inhabitants, there is no need to keep the mitzvot, but instead to keep the local customs.

‘Therefore, when they were about to enter an inhabited Land, Moshe explained the Torah ‘in seventy languages’, to teach that wherever they be, and whatever be the local language and custom, they are to keep this Torah and not to diverge from it one iota, for all time.’

Rav Moshe Sternbuch also alludes to this concern: ’In every generation destroyers arise amongst our people, רחמנא לצלן, who seek to sway our people from their avodat Hashem, by saying that, as we are now amongst the people, we should be like them, whilst we are outside our land - and the mitzvot and the Torah only need to be observed when we are in our own Land.

‘As they were now in the desert before crossing the River to enter the Land, lest they think that only when they dwell alone as in the desert, or sit assuredly in their own Land, need they keep the Torah, but not when they are in other lands, which are not ‘the palace of the King’ - he therefore explained the Torah in seventy languages, whilst in the Land of Moab, across the River Jordan - to admonish them that wherever they be, they were to keep the Torah.

‘Today there are those in our Land who change their wiles, and stating that the imperative that bound them outside the Land - to preserve the faith - no longer is necessary, as residing in the Land suffices to keep our people identity- to these we will also pay no heed, and we will not move from the Torah even one iota.’

The Netziv comments that Rashi learned this from its use in Tractate Sotah (58:), where it is so taught in regard to Joshua, who in setting stones, inscribed them in seventy languages.

‘However’ adds the Rav, ‘this clearly is not the plain meaning of the pasuk - rather, there is a second meaning, as this’ - the seventy languages - ‘was only required by the nations, and not Bnei Israel, whereas here the explanation was for Bnei Israel, as can be seen by the words of rebuke which preceded this pasuk.

‘Rather, the Sifri expounded :’Moshe explained it to them, saying: I am close to death, so now whoever hears a pasuk, and forgets it, can come and hear it again from me’.

‘Why can’t he simply look it up in the Sefer Torah, even after Moshe’s departure?

‘The Rambam’s Preface to the Mishnayot, brings the teaching in another way, which addresses this problem:’Whoever forgot a halakha, can come and be taught it again, from Moshe, whilst he lived.’

Haktav veHakabalah elucidates: ’Rashi’s comment - which is from our Sages - ‘seventy languages’ - is not alluding to the languages of the nations, as what benefit would there be in this for Bnei Israel?

‘Further,, our Sages did not speak in the languages of the other nations.

‘Rather, in using the word ‘languages’, they alluded to seventy different understandings, as we find elsewhere:’There are שבעים פנים: ‘seventy faces’ to the Torah - meaning the deeper, hidden meanings beyond the literal one.

‘Thus, the Torah - in relating that Moshe באר:explained the Torah - meant the inner meanings and secrets of the words.

‘We find support for this understanding, as many of the mitzvot are brought again in Sefer Devarim, with additional words which add understanding to the mitzvot, which had been brought on the earlier chumashim.’

The Be’er Mayim Chaim, As is the way of our holy parshanim, brings a different understanding, of Moshe’s words: ’They come to adjure us to keep the words of the Torah as they are, and not treat their literal meaning lightly, to nullify any of it by ascribing to it some other meaning, that we imagine the Torah intended.

‘The Torah, in these words, also alluded to our Sages saying- as Rashi brings- ‘Moshe explained the Torah in seventy languages’, so that all should understand its teachings - even the nations of the world.

‘The inner secrets of the Torah were only revealed to those who merited them, as we read in Ps’ .. 146:19: ’He has declared His words to Yaakov.. He has done this for no other nation; such laws they do not know.’

Chezkuni expounds: ’Moshe explained the Torah: ‘All the mitzvot - as well as the Ten Commandments that they heard from the Almighty - Hashem wanted those who were born in the desert, to hear them from a faithful source.’

Sforno begins his explanation, by saying that the reason for his explanation now, was that they were about to cross the Jordan and enter the Land without him, so he would be unable to warn them at the time of their performance, nor to deal with any doubts which might arise then, and he therefore - now - related to them their failures, by reason of which he would not be crossing with them - so that from then on, they would take care with their ways.

Rav Yehuda Cooperman, commenting on this Sforno, adds: ’The warnings relate to only certain mitzvot, the performance of which Moshe perceived the new environment might affect - and which therefore needed forewarning.’

The Malbim notes that these words of Moshe were said (1:5) בעבר הירדן:

" ’on the other side of the Jordan, in the Land of Moab’, from whence they were to cross into the Land, and this required Moshe to shortly die.

"Therefore, Hashem now commanded him to record these matters, and to explain this part of the Torah - from Parasha 12 onwards, which is called ‘Torah’.

"This, because it is established - as Rabbi Akiva laid down - that whilst all of the mitzvot - both their principles and their particulars - were told to Moshe at Sinai, Moshe did not relate them to Bnei Israel then, but related each parsha and parsha at its time, when Hashem commanded that he relate it to the people.

"In his lifetime, there were some mitzvot which Moshe had not yet related to them - however, as his death now neared, and no other prophet was permitted to add new matters, it was necessary for Moshe to complete teaching the Torah to Bnei Israel, from Parsha 12 onwards.

"This is what the words: הואיל באר: ‘began to explain the Torah’ allude to - the word באר in several other places in the Torah meaning: making that which is written, clear and understood by all who read it- and this is its meaning here."

Abarbanel adds: ’Lest one should say: If Moshe had already told Bnei Israel all of the mitzvot, what need was there to repeat them here?

‘It therefore said further - that though all the mitzvot were said to Moshe, and he had already said them to Bnei Israel, some had only been said briefly and now - due to Moshe’s nearing demise - there was a need to explain them in greater detail, as there would not be anyone able to reveal the secrets of the Torah, once Moshe passed on.

‘This is why it says: After he had smitten Sichon.. and Og.. on the other side of the Jordan.. Moshe began explaining the Torah, - meaning: He saw the two signs which pointed to his impending death, and therefore hastened to explain the Torah, the two signs being: One: the conquest of the Lands of Sichon and Og, which he knew were to be by his hand, and that he would then be gathered to his people; and:Two: that they were already on the other side of the Jordan River - and Hashem had told him: ’Do not cross this River Jordan’ - therefore, whilst in the Land of Moab, which was to be the place of his burial, and he had already seen that he had conquered the two Lands, and that the crossing of the River was nigh, he began to explain the Torah.

‘Hereby, the introduction was completed, which the Divine Wisdom saw was necessary, to this Chumash.’

A parting gem from Rav Zalman Sorotzkin: "The ‘Torah’ that Moshe began explaining, was not the Torah in its narrow sense, meaning a set of 613 mitzvot.

"In a number of places we find the words ‘the torah and the mitzvah’, indicating that ‘the Torah’ includes matters beyond the set of 613 mitzvot.

IIn the Book of Joshua (22) Bnei Israel were adjured: ’Only take great care to perform all the mitzvot and the Torah which Moshe the servant of Hashem, commanded you, to love Hashem and to go in all His ways, to keep His mitzvot and to cleave to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your being’.

"We see that ‘the Torah’ also includes ‘going in Hashem’s ways’, and the foundations of Emunah: the Creation of heaven and earth, the deeds of the holy Avot, of the chosen people, the events at Har Sinai, the mussar of Judaism and more.

"Therefore when it is said here: ’Moshe began to explain this Torah’, the meaning is not only to explain to Bnei Israeo some of the mitzvot which he had received at Sinai but had not passed on to Bnei Israel, for well-known reasons, till his departure from this life - but also words of rebuke and mussar to sway their hearts to follow the way of Hashem as written in the Torah, and to love Him and to cleave to Him.

"Moshe began to explain the Torah’ with words of rebuke and mussar - which ‘precede the Torah, as it says:’The beginning of wisdom is to fear Hashem’ - saying:’Hashem commanded spoke to us at Choreb and said to us: You have stayed too long sitting on this mountain’, and continued to rebuke them, till the words: ’and this is the Torah that Moshe placed before Bnei Israel’ and then (4:45):’’These are the ordinances and laws and mitzvot that Moshe spoke’."

לרפואת נועם עליזה בת זהבה רבקה ונחום אלימלך רפאל בן זהבה רבקה, בתוך שאר חולי עמנו.