The Torah describes itself as a “song.”[1] This is rather telling about the complex structure of the Torah. A song communicates with its listener through multiple means. The words of the Torah are, in the words of the sages, “poor in their place, and rich in another place.” It is full of deliberate literary imbalances, cross-references, hints, multi-dimensional stories and carefully chosen narrative structures. This complex design makes it far richer than a normal linear text. For example, if everything was ordered chronologically, there would be no message to be taught from where something is placed. If every story was told with the same tone, there would there could be nothing learnt from a change of tone. If characters always went by one name, they might appear one-dimensional. Like a song, the Torah expresses much more than what is contained in its words alone.

Many of the best examples of this principle appear in Sefer Devarim. It repeats many of the stories and laws already mentioned in the Torah. Yet, never perfectly so. There is always a change of nuance, detail, reason or explanation. Sefer Devarim adds new perspectives to what was taught in the preceding books. The Torah is not complete until it has multiple perspectives.

One small but pertinent example of this comes at the beginning of Parashat Devarim. Moshe begins his speech, describing leaving Mount Sinai: “God spoke to us at Horev saying…you have spent too long at this mountain, you must get up and travel…and possess the land that I promised to your forefathers…”[2]. Immediately afterwards, Moshe tells a familiar story that........

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