Va'etchanan - the Sabbath of Comfort-1

Va’etchanan (And I Pleaded).

The parchment inside a mezuzah is inscribed with the Shema.

This is the portion that will be read in synagogues around the world during the Shabbat (Saturday) morning service. Shabbat Nachamu (Sabbath of Comfort).  This name comes from the first lines of the Haftarah (prophetic portion) read on this day, which begins, “Comfort, oh comfort My people, says your God.”

Parasha Va’etchanan (And I Pleaded)

Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11; Isaiah 40:1–26; John 10:1–42

“Then I pleaded [va’etchanan] with the Lord at that time, saying:  ‘O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds?”  (Deuteronomy 3:23–24) Prior to this the Israelites stood poised at the edge of the Promised Land, on the east side of the Jordan, ready to cross over and possess the Land.  Before they crossed, Moses summarizes for the people their 40-year history of wandering in the wilderness.

Tel Aviv-Jaffa Chief Rabbi Lau affixes a mezuzah (doorpost) to the front

door of the British Ambassador to Israel's Ramat Gan residence in
fulfillment of the Biblical injunction to inscribe the words of the Shema "on
the doorposts of your house (Deuteronomy 6:9)."  The parchment, which
is protected in a decorative case, is inscribed with Deuteronomy 6:4–9
and 11:13–21.

Included in this week’s Parasha are several of the best known and fundamental passages of Scripture in the entire Tanakh (Old Testament), including the Ten Commandments and the Shema (Listen! or Hear and Do!)—a call in Deuteronomy 6:4–9 to love the one true God with all our being. This passage also exhorts us to pass on our faith to the next generation by faithfully teaching the Torah to our children. “Shema, Yisra’el!  Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra’el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength.”  (Deuteronomy 6:4–5) This is the first prayer spoken in the morning and the last said in the evening before sleep.  It is often the final prayer on the lips of a Jewish person on their deathbed, and it has been uttered by many Jewish martyrs as they gave up their spirits to the Lord. These verses of Scriptures are so central to Judaism that they are written on a parchment and placed in a small box worn on the forehead called tefillin (phylacteries) and also in small, decorated boxes called mezuzot (plural of mezuzah) on the doorposts of Jewish homes.  This is done in literal fulfillment of commands found in this week’s Parasha: “Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:8–9)

A Jewish teen recites morning prayers wearing
tefillin (phylacteries), a set of small black leather
boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed
with verses from the Torah.