The entirety of Sefer Devarim, the Book of Deuteronomy, was taught during the last weeks of Moshe’s life.
This parsha, Devarim, is always read on the Shabbos prior to the 9th of Av. The 9th of Av is the day that both Holy Temples were destroyed. It is also the day when the spies returned from the Land of Israel and told the nation that they would not be able to inherit it.
Devarim itself is filled with rebuke; like Yaakov before him, Moshe waited until the last days of his life to deliver this rebuke to the nation.
Sefer Devarim is also the work quoted most by the Founding Fathers when they created modern, Western civilization. It guided them to improve radically upon what had preceded them.
What is the connection between these things?
The Torah teaches us that when bad things happen, we do not simply blame the bad actors and move on. Instead, we are taught to engage in self-reflection, and explore why this bad thing happened to me. What message is Hashem sending? What could we correct and do better?
The destruction of the Holy Temples is, for the whole Jewish nation, the ultimate rebuke. We do not simply blame the Babylonians and the Romans respectively, but look for national lessons. And this is why Chaza”l tell us that the First Temple was destroyed due to the cardinal sins of idolatry, murder, and immorality, and the Second due to needless hatred. We are taught to not merely mourn, but to learn and improve.
So all the disparate pieces come together into one coherent model. The Ninth of Av should be the start of a period of introspection and growth, culminating on Yom Kippur — which, in turn, comes as our reading of Sefer Devarim nears its end. Throughout this book, Moshe offers us lessons in how to improve ourselves and do things better. He says these words at the end of his life, so that when people remember him, they will remember his closing guidance.
And what does he teach us? How to do civilization better. How to improve ourselves, and our neighborhood, and our city, and our nation. And the final expression of that, of course, is when we merit to see the final Redemption, the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, and the restoration of the Divine Presence to Jerusalem — may it come speedily in our days!
