The section of Deuteronomy called וָאֶתְחַנַּן/Va’etchanan (3:23-7:11) is precious to my heart, as it is my youngest sons bar mitzvah portion. As I mentioned in my previous devotional on Deuteronomy, Moses is speaking to the next generation as well as those following. At the heart of Va’etchanan, “And I pleaded,” is the legacy of the covenant family. Earlier this year, family legacy became even more real to me when I witnessed the above-mentioned son stand under the Chuppah, the marriage canopy, with his bride. Incidentally, her grandfather performed the ceremony.

We parents sat and watched. While I cannot speak for them, I considered all the twists and turns, those ordained steps of the Lord (Ps. 37:23), that brought these two together. It seems improbable, yet it is. When I gave my short word of exhortation at the reception to the new couple, I told to my daughter in law that from the time my son was an infant I had been praying for his future bride. Twenty-six years of prayer realized in a single moment; and in that moment, what seemed improbable proved to be ordained of the Lord.

It would be easy to focus solely on the theological matter of Va’etchanan. After all, it warns of the dangers of idolatry, reminds them of the continuing battle with “Ba’al Peor” who represents the broad way, records the ten commandments, and has the foundational proclamation of biblical faith: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” But in all this, Moses is speaking to the generations: “that you may live,” “Make them known to your children and your children’s children,” and “When your son asks you in time to come.” It is during those monumental life moments that we pray, “Lord, I hope I testified enough.”

In Deuteronomy 4:9-10 we read, “Only be watchful and watch over your soul closely, so you do not forget the things your eyes have seen and they slip from your heart all the days of your life. You are to make them known to your children and your children’s children. The day that you stood before your God in Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me and I will make them hear My words, so that they learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and so that they teach their children.”

The older you get the more meaningful time with family, and friends, becomes. Inevitably, gatherings become a time of stories and memories, while creating new ones. The laughter, smiles, and recollections of departed family members at our gatherings keep the family connections meaningful and strong and keeps the memories alive. I have personally told the same stories so many times at family gatherings that my siblings and sons can tell them in the same vivid detail, as if they themselves had lived them.

In our text above, it is this living memory that Moses is warning the children of Israel to kindle, remember, honor, and guard. The language that Moses uses is striking, “Only be watchful and watch over your soul closely…do not forget…lest they slip from your heart all the days of your life.” Moses is warning the community of Israel to continually refresh, not only their collective memory, but also the memory of what their eyes have seen: their testimony.

Their testimony, and the communal testimony collected in the Torah, is entrusted to future generations, but it must be living. Testimony without living memory becomes history, something preserved only in books. The Lord desires Israel to remember her experience before Mt. Sinai as a living memory, not solely preserved memory.

This requires us to personally share our memory, our experience and the wisdom received from our textual history and faith tradition (1 Cor. 11:1; 2 Thess. 2:15, 3:6). This sharing is called “discipleship” in the Apostolic Scriptures, as Messiah said, “Go out and make disciples…teaching them to observe all I have commanded you…” (Matt. 28:19-20). Messiah Yeshua/Jesus is commanding us to not only teach, but to build relationships and pass to these precious people the collective memory/testimony to which they have been born-again. Moses is telling us to disciple our children, our grandchildren (Deut. 4:9), and all those coming behind us.

In Deuteronomy, Moses is passing to the next generation, not only a book of laws as some might imagine, but covenant legacy, as if to say: “Israel, this is your history, even you who did not see the Sinai revelation, you were there in promise, and this legacy is yours.” Excuse the poetic license, but this personalization of a history that we did not directly experience, but in which we were included, personalizes the totality of the testimony that we now share.

This testimony is the living chain of redemptive history from creation to eternity. It is the working of our Father in Heaven. It is a work that neither depends on us nor is it completed in us, as it is finished in Messiah. Nonetheless, it is a work, that by his grace, we are included in (Eph. 2:8-10). Pirkei Avot explains, “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it (2:21).”

Moses and Yeshua/Jesus are admonishing us to “watch over our soul closely” to ensure that what really matters in this life is not lost in the busyness of this life. They are instructing us to take time, sit, share, and pass on to the next generation just what the Lord has done for us, for our forefathers, and what he will do in their lives as well. By this we share with them the legacy they are now included in, the legacy of covenant secured by the Blood of the Lamb, Yeshua.

Of course the theology of Va’etchanan matters, but when we rightly kindle the legacy of faith, the theology will be caught up in the living, and exampled for the next generations. 

Maranatha. Shalom.