Covenant and Conversation Family Edition, Vaetchanan, In a Nutshell
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IN A NUTSHELL Vaetḥanan contains some of the most important sections of the whole Torah. First Moshe tells the people how special their laws and history are. Their mitzvot, their laws, were given by God Himself, and their history was written by God. There is no other nation that can say the same.
Moshe then begins his second great speech in preparation for the Israelites to enter the land of Israel. He reminds the people of the Ten Commandments and he retells how they were given to Israel by God at Mount Sinai. He then commands them to remember to make God the centre of their lives – the words he uses will become the first paragraph of the Shema, the greatest expression of our love for God. This love is more than an emotion. It is an ideal that we surround ourselves with. We constantly speak about it with our children, men wear it on their arms and heads in the form of tefillin, and we place it as mezuzot “on the doorposts” of all the rooms in our homes (Devarim 6:9).
QUESTION TO PONDER
Isn’t it enough to do the mitzvot? Why must we love God also?