"These are the words that Moses spoke" Deuteronomy 1:1
Words, words, words, as Hamlet might have said when reading this sidrah and indeed the whole of the Book of Devarim (Deuteronomy). And delivering them all is the singular speechmaker, the eloquent, passionate wordmeister, Moses.
The same man who stood at the burning bush in Exodus and begged God not to send him to speak to Pharaoh -"Please, Lord, I am not a man of words"- this week becomes the man of words, to be remembered for eternity for this astonishing swansong which completes the Torah.
Can we track a certain irony from the man who pleaded not to be sent to Pharaoh because he was too inarticulate? He stated it so beautifully in the Exodus passage: "I am not a man of words, neither yesterday nor the day before - nor since you spoke to your servant!"
