The Jews stood on the cusp of the realization of a dream, first envisioned over a quarter of a millennium earlier. Whether as drifting strangers in the Land of Canaan, beaten slaves in Egypt, or weary wanderers in the wilderness, there was always one dream that would orientate their inner compass: one day they would have a home. God would give them the land He had promised Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov. When that dream became reality, upon entering the land they were commanded to perform a specific ceremony. This is detailed in this week’s parasha:

Moshe and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying: Observe all the instruction that I command you this day. And it shall be on the day you cross the Jordan into the land that The Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and coat them with plaster. You shall write upon them all the words of this Torah in order that you may enter the Land that The Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as The Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you… You shall write on these stones all the words of the Torah, greatly elucidated. (Devarim 27:13,8).

The Talmud[1] explains that this final phrase “באר היטב – greatly elucidated” is a command to write the parts of the Torah was written on these stones in seventy languages. A painstaking task, whose purpose is a mystery, given that this was a ceremony for the Jewish people alone as they entered their homeland. The Torah continues to describe these events:

Moshe and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying: Be attentive and listen, Israel! Today you have become a people........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)