parshat Va'etchanan

Weekly Shiur by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks for the weekly portion "Va'etchanan".

It is impossible to understand the beginning of our parasha without connecting it to the end of Parashat Devarim. There we find Moshe giving instructions to the tribes that decided to stay in the East Bank of the Jordan: “I commanded you at that time: ‘Hashem gave you this land to inherit it; you shall go forth as a vanguard before your brothers, Bnei Yisrael, all men of army age” (Devarim 3:18). It was actually Moshe’s words of criticism to these tribes that gave him the resolve to beg and pray before Hashem to let him enter the Land beyond the Jordan.