Square with the House

15 Av 5782-Aug. 13, 2022

Deuteronomy/Devarim 3:29 and 4:1

Moses recounts how Joshua received his commission as the people’s new leader atop Mt. Pisgah. While this was happening at the summit of the mountain, the people were stationed down below in the Valley of Pe’or. This valley is infamous because of what happened there at the end of Parashat Balak, when tribal leaders engaged in sexual apostasy there with Moabite women. Twenty-four thousand Israelites lost their lives in the resulting plague.

Why does Moses lead the people back to such a horrible place now, right when his successor is being named? Rashi suggests that Moses was using the valley as a visual prop to teach a lesson about forgiveness. It was as if he said, “You committed idolatry here at Pe’or, but now you are forgiven, so listen to the laws and rules I am instructing you to observe…”

Theword for “and now” or “but now” at the beginning of Deut. 4:1 is ועתה (v’attah). The Vilna Gaon writes that wherever we see this word, it indicates that the verse involves someone’s תשובה (t’shuvah), repentance. He goes on to say that, “Whenever a person repents, all that he did in the past is forgiven and the eyes of God look at him as he is now, and this is what the term (v’attah) means.”