n3:23] וָֽאֶתְחַנַּ֖ן אֶל־יְהֹוָ֑ה—I entreated the Lord

The parasha opens with the words “I entreated the Lord”. Entreat is such a polite word. It has within it “treat”, so I “treat” you to/with something, almost like a bribe so that you will be nice/merciful to me? It has the sense of one who is below another in “power”, and wants something from his “king”.

אתחנן comes from the root word חנן mercy, beneficence, kindness, niceness, annul a sentence. So, already within its core is the idea of mercy. This, however, being in the reflexive form, speaks of “my mercy” or “the mercy that I receive”, or, as is most common, “the mercy that I ask for” and thus we use “entreat”. However, being as there is a reflexive tense in this form, as in אתקלח, “take a shower” in English, but actually “to shower myself” in Hebrew. So, perhaps, it is the mercy I have, or I show, or I have received that I ask “to the Lord” with?

N{.tag .is-info] In the present, I find it extremely synchronous, to be a time of “entreating the Lord”, with an impending eclipse on Erev Shabbat, 15th Av! Although traditionally a time of great rejoicing, it is also in this conjunction, a time for “asking for mercy”, as the miracle of the moon darkening, and turning red heralds the Shabbat of Va’Etchanan.

n4:1] וְעַתָּ֣ה יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל שְׁמַ֤ע אֶל־הַֽחֻקִּים֙ וְאֶל־הַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים—Now Israel hear the Laws and the Sentences…

And continues, that I will teach you… generally rendered as statutes and judgements. Statutes or laws are generally static agreements that create a societal structure, whereas judgements or sentences are responses or consequences to not carrying out the laws. N One could say that the former are built in the past, and thus the foundation of the society, whereas the latter, are building the future, expressed in the present. Just as your present actions, based upon your past experiences, determine what will happen in the future. When you transgress (in the present) a law (which has been “created” in the past), then you are sentenced (in the present) to a punishment – that will affect your future. You could also say that the first is static, the second dynamic, and the third is the probable result. Once a law is in place, its expressed through the sentence. This brings us to the other meaning of משׁפט, sentence – literally. It speaks of a spoken (or written) sentence. An understandable proclamation. The voice of the law is its sentence. Is it not interesting that in English has the same double meaning to sentence as in Hebrew? A sentence is “proclaimed”. It is like the oral law, which has become fixed, in order to continue to exist, needs to be fluid.

This also points to the fact that there are the laws (mitzvoth) and the practice of these laws (halakha).

v4:2]

G-d states emphatically that "you shall not add anything, nor take anything away from it, but keep the commandments. Yet, we have the Oral Law, a necessary addition to these laws, which should not change any of them, yet have. But what other path was there to take when, for instance, there was no temple to gather and to offer sacrifices in?