Parshat Va'etchanan, Deut. 3:23-7:11

This week's parasha is sponsored by Linda Halton in memory of her parents William and Freda Brayer.

This is my very last parasha as parasha columnist- and what a parasha to end on! Parashat Va'etchanan includes the reiteration of the Ten Commandments and the central prayer of the Shma and Ve'ahavta. Both the Hebrew (in the Torah, Aseret Hadvarim) and the English/Greek term, decalogue, literally mean the ten words. Note that in Hebrew they are never referred to as the Ten Mitzvot, even though that is the Hebrew word for commandment. The Rabbis call them the Aseret HaDibrot-- the ten utterances. No one refers to them as the ten suggestions either.

Originally the Ten Commandments were included in the daily liturgy, but they were removed to avoid over emphasizing them. Although the Torah gives these ten central billing, according to rabbinic tradition there are 613 mitzvot. After the Ten Commandments were removed the Rabbis demonstrated that the Ten Commandments could be found, hidden in phrases in the Ve'ahavta (also found in our parashah) anyway. For example, Adonai eloheinu, Adonai is our God is #1 (I am Adonai your God), Adonai is one is #2 (You shall not have other gods...), this day... is #4 (Shabbat), lying down is #7 (adultery) etc. See if you can find all ten (let me know if you need help).

To further connect the taryag mitzvot to the decalogue, the Rabbis also try to collapse all 613 into the categories of Ten Commandments. The idea of 'Ten Commandments' is so pervasive, one can find numerous versions applied to modern fields: "The Ten Commandments of Good Web Design" "the Ten Commandments of Video Gaming" and "Google's Ten Things," etc. Can I reduce the spiritual lessons in my columns to ten?

Over the three years, I have written about many topics from lentils to mandrakes, from the identity of the mysterious tachash to the origin and significance of the blue thread in tzitzit. Every week I tried to include a spiritual lesson. Last year (5766) when I wrote about the Haftarot or the connection between the Haftarah and the Torah portion I included the take-away message in a pull quote and that year's index has each of these listed, serving as a partial table of contents. This past year, too, (up until the end of the fourth book) I continued with this, so the archive page has a similar list for this current year.

In our new blog format that we began this month, in addition to the 'comments' feature (thanks to the brave individuals who took my challenge last week and tried it out- proving it works! so please visit and share your comments), another feature of the blog is "labels." As Rabbi Shekel writes each week, she adds 'tags' so after a few months there will be dozens of key words that can be used as a topical index. Want to see every blog that talked about 'food' or 'identity' etc.? Just use the labels feature found in the sidebar on right. You can also search this blog with the 'search blog box' found on the blue navigational bar at the top of the web page or, of course, if you are a looking for a particular word you can always search Kolel's entire site with our new enhanced search tool from the front page.

But my first year's columns has neither labels nor an index of titles. Could I retroactively add 'labels' to the columns I wrote? What themes would I find? Here is my list of 10 key themes (in no particular order) and the parasha columns that included them. This is a rough guide; one parasha may contain elements of more than one theme:

• harmony and diversity: Noah, VaYakhel
  
• Sacred time (Shabbat & holidays): Ki Tisa, Emor
  
• culture and identity: Toldot, Miketz, Matot, Re'eh
  
• nature and the environment: VaYetze, Bo, Shoftim, Ha'azinu
  
• the evolution of meaning and interpretation of biblical texts: VaYera, Beha'alotecha, Korach, Vayelech
  
• gender and issues of equality: Breishit
  
• the nature of ritual: VaYechi, Tzav, Shmini, Tazria, Metzora, Acharei Mot, Bechukotai, Naso, Chukat, Balak, Ekev
• prayers and blessings: Chaye Sarah, Behar
• relationship with others, justice and peace: Lech Lecha, VaYishlach, VaYigash
  
• personal spirituality: expressing gratitude, teshuvah and our relationship with the Divine: VaYeshev, Shmot, Va'era, Bo, Yitro, Terumah, Tetzaveh, Pekudei, VaYikra, Bamidbar, Shlach Lecha, Masei, Devarim, Ki Tavo, Nitzavim
  

Kolel now has an incredible library of weekly parasha columns- if you ever have to write a dvar Torah, use the archives. There is also a useful 'how to write a dvar Torah' unit. Writing every week hasn't always been easy; some weeks were more of a challenge than others. As I write this final email, I am feeling saddened, but also a little relieved. I realize how much I have really enjoyed writing, and how much I've learned and changed and grown over these last three years.

So in summary what have I tried to express? A spiritual life of Judaism means living in harmony with others and with nature, feeling awe and expressing gratitude, helping to make the world a better place and taking time every week to be refreshed and using ritual and classical texts to connect to community and our sacred heritage.

Rabbi Harold Kushner taught me that Torah is like a mirror: the mirror never changes, but everyone who looks in it sees a different face. I have been privileged to look in that mirror every week for three years with you and I feel truly blessed to have learned, taught, and reflect back to you what I've seen.

Have a great summer,

Shabbat Shalom,

BDS