Shabbat Parshat Daevarim Shabbat Hazon

This week's Torah Gems were prepared by

Anochi Atoncha
Shabbat Parshat Daevarim
Shabbat Hazon


Eileh ha-DEVARIM asher diber Moshe el-kol-Yisroel

These are the WORDS which Moshe spoke to all Israel...



Polonius: ...What do you read, my lord?

Hamlet: Words, words, words (Act II, sc ii)



The underlying meaning of the root dalet-bet-resh (d-b-r) is uncertain, but probably means "go away" (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Gesenius suggests d-b-r means "range in order". A composite definition renders d-b-r as "go away in a particular direction."



Graphically, d-b-r may be represented as follows:



Fig. 1 (origin) (end point)



The arrow represents the root d-b-r itself. The arrow takes off from an origin, or starting point. The starting point may be God, a person's mouth, a corral, or a hive, as we will see shortly. The end point may be our ears, a patch of grass, or even the oblivion of death.



The arrow itself, the root d-b-r, branches in four directions in biblical Hebrew. Here are three of them:



1.
To go away into oblivion, to perish: This branch gives dever, pestilence, as in the fifth plague on Egypt (Shemot 9:1-7.)
2.
To lead away, to guide: This gives midbar and dover, the wilderness into which a shepherd leads cattle to graze; devorah, a swarm of bees that fly in a (bee) line; and dovrot, rafts that float away (Mlachim 5:23).
3.
To speak, to go away from the mouth in a sequence of words, as in l'dabber.



Branch number three gives us the title of our book. Devarim are words, things, and matters about which one speaks. They possess no intrinsic meaning, but they carry meaning as a boxcar carries cargo. Mathematicians may recognize devarim as vectors, constructs that possess only direction and magnitude. I prefer the biologists' definition of vector, i.e. a creature that carries a disease-causing agent on its back. For example, the deer tick itself doesn't carry Lyme disease: the tick is a vector that carries the germ that causes Lyme disease! L'havdil, devarim are vectors that transport meaning.



A useful analogy is the relationship of lock to key. A key may fit into many locks, but only certain pairs will fit correctly. Devarim may be thought of as keys that may fit into several locks, or meanings, but only certain key-lock pairs will convey meaning. A shared feature of devarim and keys is that both allow the existence of a master key: one key opens all members of a lock set; one devar unlocks a group of meanings.



We find the master key to understanding d-b-r in the fourth branch of meaning:



4.
Devir (dalet-vet-yud-resh) is a synonym for Kodesh Kodashim, the holy of holies, or the innermost chamber of the Beit HaMikdash. In the Shemona Esrei, the "avodah" prayer includes the words "v'hashayv et ha avodah li'devir baytecha" (restore the service to the holy of holies in Your house). The closest relation to devir is an Arabic word meaning "hindmost portion". Unlike the first three branches, devir refers to the origin of the vector, rather than to the end point.



The vector's origin is essential to understanding the meaning of d-b-r. Thus dever, pestilence, is judgment sent out by God. You send out your cattle from your corral/home to graze in the midbar. Devorah fly away from their hive/home led by their queen. And devarim are exquisitely sensitive to their speaker, or Speaker. The root d-b-r invites us to trace the arrow backwards to the origin where fuller understanding may be found.



Sefer Devarim is an invitation to trace words of Torah back to the Origin, where you may locate their essential meanings.



Ki mi-Tzion teitze torah, oo-DEVAR Hashem mYrushalim

For Torah goes forth from Zion, and the WORD of God from Jerusalem