By Yisrael Yitzchak Rosenfeld
Our Sages (Chazal) established the Jewish calendar so that Parashat Devarim is always read on the Shabbat preceding Tisha B’Av, known as Shabbat Chazon.
Why?
What connection did they see between this week’s Torah portion and the national day of mourning?
More than forty years before the events described in Parashat Devarim, Moshe said to Hashem at the burning bush:
“Lo ish devarim anochi.”
“I am not a man of words.”
Yet this week’s parashah opens with the words:
“Eileh haDevarim asher diber Moshe.”
“These are the words that Moshe spoke.”
In the end, Moshe became that ish devarim—that man of words—whom he had once believed he could never become.
Most of us know how to speak.
But being an ish devarim is something entirely different.
It is not about eloquence or public speaking.
It means that the words you speak truly become devarim—words with weight, meaning, and presence.
- Words that touch other people.
- Words they feel and absorb deep within.
- Words that truly matter.
Explaining the Torah is not merely about offering beautiful interpretations.
It means breathing life into its words—speaking with depth, vitality, and inspiration.
Such words have the power to open the gates of the Geulah (Redemption).
Such words can transform Tisha B’Av, the day of mourning over the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, into a day of joy.
As Rav Adin Steinsaltz, z”l, once said:
“If there are the living words of God, then there must also be the dead words of God.”
May we be privileged to hear—and to speak—only those words that bring life into the world.
