Vaetchanan 5785

Episode 7 – Vaetchanan: Hear Oh Israel, Hashem is One |This week, we open Parshat Vaetchanan with Moshe who is asking, pleading, even begging, to enter the Land of Israel. Through midrash and commentary, we explore Moshe's humility as he is denied his final wish.There’s too much in this parsha to cover in one episode, but we touch on the Shema and the repetition of the Ten Commandments — two foundational texts of Jewish tradition — and use them as a lens for larger questions:• What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul, and might?• Why is the Shema framed as something spoken to Israel — as if from the outside?• Are Jews a religion, an ethnicity, a nation, or something else?• If God is One, how do we make sense of the bad in the world?• What does it mean to be a people who listen rather than a people who see?• Why is “coveting” forbidden while slavery is permitted in the 10 Commandments (or statements)?• How do we handle commandments that govern not action, but internal thought?• Why didn’t anyone interrupt or correct Moshe’s retelling of the commandments ?| Parshat Vaetchanan 5785Torah: Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11 | Haftarah: Isaiah 40:1–26 |https://miko284.com/2025/08/07/the-sun-moon-and-starts-vaetchanan/Special Thank you to Abigail Seman for her rendition of Lecha Dodi.