As Moshe gives his final messages to Israel, bringing the Torah to its close, we are transported through poetic memory to the beginning of the Torah:
Remember the days of eternity, contemplate the years of every generation. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders and they will say to you: When the Most High gave possession to nations, when He separated the children of man (Adam), He set the boundaries of the nations – for the number of the Children of Israel. Because the portion of Hashem is His nation, Ya’akov, the land (measure) of his possession (inHeritance). (Devarim 32:7-9)

Although the 613 commandments of the Torah have been completely elucidated, Moshe suggests here a “command” of another type, an experiential command - “Remember the days of eternity” - to study history. Moshe exhorts us to examine the events of the past, because this will help us to see the will of Hashem from the perspective of history.

In a sense, we have been commanded earlier to recall history:
When your son will ask you tomorrow, saying, “What are the testimonies and the statutes and the laws that Hashem, our God, commanded you?” Then you shall say to your son, “We were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt, and Hashem took us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.” (Devarim 6:20-21)

However, there the Torah obligates us to turn to the lessons of history in response to our children’s questions, and to tell the story of the Exodus. Now, on the other hand, Moshe adds another dimension to the recollection of history - to investigate it ourselves, even before the younger generation asks. All the words associated with the curiosity of the young (ask-remember-tell) are now ascribed to the older generation born in the wilderness who have since grown up. For forty years they have heard from their parents first-hand of the slavery and redemption from Egypt. Their parents succeeded in keeping those memories alive - so much so, that they themselves could say, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.” This reliving of history will be perpetuated for all generations: every parent will be a survivor of Egyptian servitude and the beneficiary of Hashem’s salvation. Every child will become an adult and assume the same role. Memory and reenactment become the keys to continuity.

Moshe expands the lessons of the Exodus to encompass all of history. As Rashi explains, the father and elders whom we are to ask are, respectively, the prophets and the Sages. It is through the combined media of prophecy and Torah study that we will be able to see Hashem’s hand in history.

History is the story of mankind, and thus of necessity fractured and multiformed. But Hashem, the Author of history, is one and unchanging:
The rock, perfect is His action, for all of His ways are justice…(Devarim 32:4).
And so, in studying past events from Hashem’s perspective, we will see the design.

Man, began as one, Adam, reflecting Hashem’s oneness. However, mankind became divided:
When He separated the children of man (Adam), He set the boundaries of the nations…
In this way, we learn, unified man became conflicting nations, each with its distinct territory, its uncompromising ideology. It was at this time, says Rambam (Laws of Idolatry, Ch. 1) that humankind forgot the oneness of Hashem and developed idolatries.

Nevertheless, teaches Moshe, Hashem was simultaneously planning the creation of the people of Israel. All that proceeds was
For the number of the Children of Israel.
As Rashbam and the Chizkuni point out, Canaan’s twelve descendants (Bereishit 10:15-18) including the Perizzim, mentioned later, make way for the twelve tribes of Israel that dispossess them. In the unity of the Children of Israel is found the hope that mankind can reunite under the one and only God:
Because the portion of Hashem is His nation, Ya’akov, the land of His possession.
The world having passed through its phases of dissolution, can strive to return to unity under Hashem, if we learn from our history.


Each individual as well must review his or her own personal history. At this time of the year, with Rosh
Hashanah - “the birthday of the world” - not long behind us, we experience our own rebirth. We recall the purity and the sinlessness of our origins, the idealism of our youth, our unity of purpose and goals. Then, we are reminded how we became fragmented in our identity, inconsistent in our actions, compartmentalized in our thinking.

But, just as the divisions of mankind returned to unity under the rule of Hashem through Israel, so can each of us return, on this Shabbos Shuva - “Return Israel, until Hashem your God” (from the Haftorah, Hoshea 14:2) – each of us can become one.