Towards Understanding Moses’s  Farewell Reminiscences to the Surviving Generation

On several occasions in Sefer Devarim (Deuteronomy) including twice in this week’s Sidra, Moses exhorts the people to “remember that you were slaves in Egypt”.

A fundamental question arises.  Forty years had elapsed since the Exodus.  An entire generation of able-bodied men – those between the ages of twenty and sixty at the time of the rebellion resulting from the spies’ mission – had passed on. A new generation had arisen in its place who had not been slaves in Egypt.  What were they to “remember”?

This question is reinforced by key passages earlier in the book.  Prior to his restatement of the Aseret haDibrot (Ten Commandments), Moses proclaims the following:-

Not with our forefathers did G-D seal this covenant but with us – we who are here today, all of us alive! (Deut 5:3) 

Following the Decalogue text, Moses reminisces how “you approached me” in fear of imminent death having “heard the voice of the Living G-D speaking from the midst of the fire” (5:22)

 A few chapters earlier, an extensive passage makes us in no doubt as to the tenor of Moses’ message.

You should know today that it is not your children who did not know and who did not see …His greatness …His signs and His deeds that He performed in the midst of Egypt … and what He did to the Egyptian army, its horses and riders … and G-D caused them to perish without trace until this day; and what He did for you in the wilderness …and what He did to Dathan and Abiram …when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households and their tents and all their assets …in the midst of all Israel.  Rather it is your own eyes  that see all the great work of G-D which He did! (Deut 11:2-7)\

Extraordinary!  All the miraculous acts of G-D pinpointed and outlined in these passages occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Exodus forty years prior.  A new generation had sprung up. Grown men and women in their twenties and thirties had........

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