This week we start ספר דברים, which I like because it represents an important change from the Torah dictated by G-d to the Torah understood by human beings. We’ve talked about the way this book is presented:
Rashi and Ramban translate the word הואיל differently:
The two translations come from the first times the word is used, back in פרשת וירא:
Rashi does not comment at all on the first הואלתי (though from his comments on דברים it is clear that he understands it to mean “began”), but does comment on the second (the שפתי חכמים explains that the second cannot possibly mean “began”):
Dr. Yaakov Elman explains the difference:
The key difference is that Ramban sees ספר דברים as Moshe’s own “shiur”, the first example of תורה שבעל פה, and that is how we generally understand the book:
So how does Rashi see ספר דברים? The Dubno Maggid explains:
So ספר דברים is the book of Moshe’s נבואה. The first 4 books are the literal word of G-d. This is how Moshe, a human being, recorded his experience of hearing the word of G-d. The introduction, אלה הדברים אשר דבר משה, is similar to that of other ספרי נבאים:
Rav Kamenetsky notes a problem with this understanding of נבואה:
But he points out that it is impossible to take this literally, that ה׳ gave Moshe all the words of future נ״ך:
The books of נ״ך describe things that had not yet happened, and that depended on Israel’s free will. He explains the concept of כולם נתנו למשה מסיני with a cute story from the gemara:
And Rav Hutner makes an amazing point: the books of נ״ך are תורה שבעל פה! The difference between תורה שבכתב and תורה שבעל פה has nothing to do with “written” vs. “oral”; that is ש halachic distinction that is a consequence of the real difference:
תורה שבעל פה is the רצון ה׳ that given to human beings to understand and transmit, in their own words. It is the concepts that matter, and the concepts are inherent in the literal words of ה׳ but sometimes need to be restated by נביאים and חכמים:
So there isn’t really a huge difference between Rashi and Ramban. Both see ספר דברים as a form of תורה שבעל פה. The difference is whether Moshe was ordered to say it or decided it on his own. But both agree that ה׳ told him to incorporate it into תורה שבכתב. And that was the intention from the beginning: אלמלא לא חטאו ישראל לא ניתן להם אלא חמישה חומשי תורה. ספר דברים demonstrates the essential connection (הקשר ביניהם אמיץ ובל ינותק) between תורה שבכתב and תורה שבעל פה.