The AmaTorah, A Personal View

Preface
The Torah unlike G*d can be studied. This practice comes down the centuries highly recommended.

Lord Clark titled his great commentary on Europe "Civilization a Personal View." By adding that little phrase "A Personal View" he both signed his work and apologized for its eccentricity. Many reasons prompted me to steal this device from him. Sufficed to say, I will not explain anything about the Torah except my own view of it. Therefore, my goal is obtainable.

My 'personal view' is that The Torah has a 'soul.' Or rather that the Torah is the Soul of Life, as in one aspect, G*d is the Soul of Creation.

You can make the mistakes in study that one makes in love. Pride and infatuation can result. Like love, you will get out of study what you put into it. Study is not an end in itself. I think BESHT is reputed to have said, it is possible to error for there are many “a man who through sheer study of the Law has no time to think about God”

Love can be unhealthy or superficial without a commitment and humility. Our actions are more important than our interpretations. Talmud Torah principles must be enacted to manifest goodness. In our own goodness and the goodness of others it is easiest to perceive G*d. By extension, it is most difficult to perceive G*d when there is injustice. Therefore, we are to act morally with an obligation to work to against injustice. Thus we become aware of what is always true that G*d is ubiquitous\omnipresent. Blessed is He.

The text is powerful. Power is easily misused and misunderstood. There are many levels of meaning in the Torah; some esoteric and others apparent. That sentence is insufficient to express the art and science of Talmud Torah. Both mystical and scholarly, TT is an exceptionally passionate experience captivating the spirit and the mind.

The Torah transforms its students. Each student can find in its pages that the impossible may be obvious and the simple ineffable. Yet for each of us what is impossible and what is simple will be different. The only constant is one G*d who is absolute. What we bring to the Torah shapes what we can learn from it. In many ways, the text only becomes the living Torah when completed by the human heart, when contemplated by our intelligence, and when embraced by the soul.

This journal contains citations of Torah verse, many quotes from modern rabbis, and reference to the thought of the great sages. (ch’zl) So much so that many of my essays are largely summaries of what I studied.

At this point in my studies, I am content simply to familiarize myself with the Torah narrative and focus on the mitzvot in the text. My Hebrew is insufficient and Hebrew is all important.

Each week, I also made an effort to research what is most confusing or obscure to me in the Parsha. In doing so, I hoped to develop a greater reference frame. For example, if the Haftorah is Amos, I might ask myself "Who is Amos?" and read about his life. Those kinds of researches aren't structured but I believe pave the way for more fulfilling and productive further study.

Study without prayer and observance has value but for the Torah to have meaning it must influence our actions not just our thoughts. Study of other Judaic Philosophy and religious texts is both a great joy and a necessity. The available material is abundant. Study of the Prophets, the Psalms, the Rabbas, the Mishna, the Talmud, the Haggadah, the Kabbala, Midrash, and the many biographies of the sages (ch’zl) all appeal deeply to me. I have found that by shifting my focus between these areas I can avoid burning out on any one of them. This approach however is haphazard and I intend to study them more systematically in the future.

The goal of my study was also the goal of my becoming a Jew; namely to increase the amount of time I am conscious of G*d. By centering my life on liturgy, charity, and Torah I have found self worth and purpose; a meaningful and meaning filled life.

I hope that this work has flaws. I pray that people will engage me about them, teach me, and help me correct\expand on these essays.

If you find this work at all useful, I would be greatly honored if you would repay my labors by considering attending minyan, offering charity, and looking for opportunities to encourage others to do both. Finally, as so many ideas in this work are those of Chazal and the great modern Rabbis, I want to state it is not ever to be used for profit. Nor should one view it as authoritative. As stated above: Consult a Rabbi on all questions of observance. (Heck it is my motto to consult and listen to a Rabbi or Elder every chance you get!)

G*d is not just in the Torah, he is within each of us. He is ever-present and all-powerful. His will is justice. Let us serve therefore justice and sanctify his name. May H'' fill our lives with opportunity to act justly, do good deeds, and define ourselves through love and faith.








Forward
This forward reflects my commitment the conservative/Masorti movement. I did not know it existed until 2010. When I discovered it my whole life changed.

If you accept, as I do wholeheartedly, that G*d gave the Torah at Sinai, then it must be perfect. Our understanding however is unequivocally and forever imperfect. The interplay of G*d's unchanging perfection and creation's ever changing imperfection is the what makes life possible. In the main, one finds this taken to flawed extremes; the law is seen as an unreachable ideal or the law is debased by moral relativism. Both the forces of creation and those of destruction are necessary. They must be harmonized for life to thrive. Though we are limited, G*d transcends all opposites. From beyond creation (HaShamim) G*d invests meaning into all things.

We were not made to understand the nature of creation anymore than a dog is able to understand an airplane (Though the dog may bark at the airplane and know it is there.) Nor does the ideal of the Law mean that non-observance is an abomination or that creation is profane.

(Total non-observance or atheism doesn't always ruin a person for life but they are tragic fates. In the extreme such 'distance' from G*d is my idea of hell. I had two such years of being lost. I thank G*d for delivering me.)

I do not believe in the idea of "personal autonomy" in observance as advocated by many progressives. This may be a viable path for the spirit for others but not for me. Even if every musician on stage is a master unless they work together there is nothing greater created. Reform is sometimes necessary. For example, few today can get to synagogue on Shabbat without driving and I want women to pray and to lead. The teachings, however, are on so many levels they shouldn't be rejected ad hoc. For example, we are commanded to give gifts or sacrifices. To question whether we should or not is to deny that all we have comes from G*d to begin with.

In many cases, I have found it is not the reason that justifies the observance but the observance that opens the soul to G*d. Appreciation for an idea can be found in doing but an idea not acted on is of little value. Our being is more than our minds. Our minds are our vanity. Individual reason is not sufficient. Collective wisdom over time shows so much we know and accept at a given time to be laughable in the future. G*d is my eternal light and the Torah my immutable truth.

When taken to the extreme of each individual placing a value on each commandment, Reform undoes the great work. (And frankly in practice the majority always seem to choose the path of least resistance and for some reason Talent Shows. I'm not kidding!)

Individual pride and principle lead to the wounds of faction. My energy is drawn, instead, to the idea of preserving precious traditions (especially ritual). This is certainly because I see the growing lack of such tradition as a great imbalance in the world. If one truly commits to G*d as the meaning of life any system might work. I believe and I see it demonstrable in our society that everyone having their own system results in troubling anarchy. This precludes the pursuit of a common idea of justice and means so much more coordination and translation is necessary. To return the idea of musicians on stage; if they all play their own tune even beautifully they take away from each other. Moreover, they usually just strive to dominate one another. The other extreme of Totalitarianism or Fundamentalism has so many terrible consequences they need not be listed.

There have been many inequalities that were injustices but not all inequality is unjust. If everything were equal nothing would have meaning. Yet, even the most pious can become bigoted. G*d have mercy on us.

I see the mitzvot as the reward itself. Mitzvot are not just the challenge-before-the-reward. Yes I believe observance is needed to restore the Temple. I will never side with those who believe the Temple to be just a metaphor for faith or Israel. The Torah is not subjective. However, we must also remember not resort to medieval ridicule and humiliation for non-observance. We must be encouraged to strive and set the bar high like the orthodox do. Yet we must not debase those who fail to observe. We are all imperfect.

The purpose of the law (and all wisdom about G*d) is not to make us perfect like G*d, but to center our consciousness and actions on G*d; therefore on justice. By orienting ourselves as potential agents of G*d's will, we are only realizing that everything we do (always) fulfills a greater purpose. That purpose and design are for most part incomprehensible to man (at least in the present tense.)

Neither subjectivity nor dogmatism should be allowed to dominate human affairs. Instead the ideas of both should be used as tools to shape our individual and collective consciousness. We can 'improve' ourselves so that we consistently act morally and against injustice. This is the realization of man's true nature. The Torah well illustrates this process in the lives of the people in it. To see G*d as ever-present, as having been present in the past, and as directing the future is to realize what the Avot (Fathers) realized. Subjectivity makes this realization impossible because it insists we cannot know what "morality" or "justice" mean. Dogmatism, on the other hand, defines all terms rigidly making justice and morality removed from human compassion, reason, and experience.

May the Lord Our G*d, G*d of our fathers, G*d of Avraham, Yitzock, and Yaakov change the world so that observance may be the joy of every soul. May that joy reunite and transform Israel so it is worthy to heal the world. May G*d dwell amongst us always and may the day come when G*d's ineffable Name is one and our differences only strengthen us and cease to divide us.
Introduction
It all seemed simple enough: A year of serious but amateur (AmaTorah) study and a journal. I thought "Well, when I finish, I will just write a little introduction." Yet even defining the word Torah is difficult. Moreover, the painful 'authorship' question arises. Both of these issues, however, are fundamental to TT.

Torah consists of the five books of Moses: Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar, and Dvarim. In English\Latin these are the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Torah is often translated as “Law”, “Instruction”, or “Teaching.” The term Torah refers also to the entire body of Jewish sacred texts, their commentaries, and beyond.

The heroic energy of the Israelite people and their sacred writing survived the decline of the Roman Empire and the Roman Church. In both cases, the collapse of authority lead to moral relativism which has come to disturbing fruition in the modern world's pathological skepticism. Everything can be doubted but eventually that leads to a destabilization of the person doubting because of the inability to define themselves by anything else. That is the 'abyss of reason.' Wherein everything can be cut in pieces and smashed to oblivion. It is a necessary force but one that needs balance as does its opposite which is blind faith. Blind faith is not true faith. It fails because it requires conformity we do not have the power to impose on others or experience.

For the first fifteen years of my life I had blind faith, for the last seventeen I believed in G*d but could not conform to any religion. I still remember looking at religious people as a breed of lunatics. After a divorce in 2009, I had a mental and emotional collapse which led me to question all my beliefs and gave me the opportunity to redefine myself. I chose what Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis called “A Committed Life.”

Belief is the basis of perception but perception is not reality; though many argue this premise. We have all met people to whom faith means rejecting or violently attacking evidence and argument to the contrary of their beliefs. Judaism requires the interrogative. Through relentless examination the Torah is given vitality in every generation. Indeed, the arguments, discoveries, and focus of each generation help form the long memory which has served the Jewish people in adversity so well through their history. (Not that the word Zealot isn’t from Judaism!)

The "Authorship Question" of the Torah is contentious. Many non-orthodox Jewish people accept that there is much academic 'evidence' of the Torah not being written by one hand at one time. On the other end of the spectrum, a long tradition insists on Mosaic Authorship even for the writing of Dvarim 34:5, "So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord." Some believe Moshe wrote this sentence in a trance being dictated to by G*d; and could not cry at the words of his own death. Others suggest that Joshua added the rest. Still others argue that Dvarim was written much later than other four "Books of Moshe." (See conjecture on Ezra HaSofer .) Some Talmudic sources even suggest that the Torah may have come over time starting at Sinai. (No doubt that all the years in the direct presence years of Torah, may it be so again- start by making it so for yourself!)

I am not well versed in the nature of evidence contrary to authorship by Moshe Rabenu but I am not orthodox. At this time, I cannot categorically refute it. It is possible that 'transmission' over the centuries introduced textual changes. What is certain, however, is that the standards and methods of this 'evidence' are in most cases quite subjective (and that each of us seldom questions our own ability to understand first instead of last.) The evidence is largely close reading and word comparison. Circumstantial or cumulative approaches of that kind are specious. For example, showing that 'stylistically' a Psalm is related to an earlier Egyptian prayer doesn't bear up as 'evidence' to reject the great revelation at Sinai.

It is a mistake to address the Torah on purely literary terms or to let ontological problems cast a shadow. Ontological problems apply to all human understanding and information. The questions of "How we know what we know" are reductio ad absurdum. Everything can be questioned but that does not mean there is no truth.

One would be hard pressed to find a more exhausting 'probing' and questioning than that of the Jewish faith and particularly the work of students on Talmud Torah over the centuries. No other 'operating system', teaching, or institution that I know of can demonstrate greater self criticism or intellectual honesty (The prophets for example are almost all writings that in no uncertain terms show the Israelites as suffering for iniquities, injustice, apostasy, and hypocrisy.) No people could surpass the historic and ongoing efforts to qualify and explain contextual and textual anomalies in their own sacred writings. Few have such antiquity and perhaps none the expressive power of Hebrew Language; itself esoteric and Holy. The impact, influence, and scope of Torah scholarship is to my knowledge and in my heart unparalleled.

This relentless search for unusual patterns or usage in vocabulary, contradiction, repetition, and inconstancy are a millennial obsession; each instance considered a treasure in itself. They are not inconvenient 'evidence' ignored and explained away by unsupportable tenets of faith. (Like science does when they suggest a big-bang but don't say where all the matter came from.)

In TT even the apparently straight forward events, never attacked by the 'academics' are and have been scrutinized in the same microscopic detail. The greatest minds of each generation of Jewish scholars have devoted themselves to such study for the glory of G*d's ineffable name. Modern secular scholarship is merely the ungrateful and petulant child of Jewish Scholasticism.

As for literary criticism, it is Post Modernism not faith that is the speculative position. Post Modernism is a lack of belief that the author can consciously create something not dictated by the ideas, norms, and conventions of their environs. That concept would support not hinder a belief in revelation.

Attacks on objectivity in modern scholarship were necessary and fruitful. After the Reformation in western Europe, there was a stagnation and institutionalization of dogma in all fields of intellectual activity. Post Modernism began as a potent force that lead to great insights. It was also deeply flawed and ultimately ridiculous and destructive. How can ideas, norms, and conventions exist separate from people?

Moreover, the main arguments for the position that “the Torah was written at different times by different people” all neglect to consider how easily we can imitate other styles of writing. For example, if it were true a later hand wrote a section of the Torah what is to say that a seemingly older section was not also written by the later hand just in that older style? Conventions of writing are not immutable.

A great writer can imitate any style. For me therefore, the belief G*d, the greatest of writers, wrote the Torah means that an argument of differences in style is irrelevant. G*d is not limited by style or time. How can that statement be argued against except by denying G*d exists or suggesting a limitation of G*d is possible?

Such a suggestion would quickly end a conversation with me. I must admit though that I sometimes look at strange verb usages and other oddly written verses as evidence of G*d's eternality. All time is one to him in a way I can't comprehend. (Also, a righteous jew becomes accustom to thinking in a way that transcends time. Esoteric maybe but in lighting candles we are outside of time and one with the fathers. When we go directly from Torah to Haptorah our minds are connecting millennium; and may they always be tied in the bond to life!)

That is also how I understand anachronisms (errors in chronology.) They are more challenging to explain than issues related to literary styles and bad translation to English. However, the examples of anachronism in the Torah are few and indirect. What is actually more interesting is that it has been widely argued that Avot and others in the Torah knew all the commandments found in it! Again, we must be humble before the game-changing idea of eternality and omnipresence. These attributes are not quantifiable in science's world without miracles. Lack of proof is not proof of something being false. Science is constantly proving its former positions wrong. The Torah cannot be measured or consumed; and may it never become distant.

Post Modernism simply became intellectual relativism. Scholarship of this kind will never reconcile with the sacred for such doubt denies truth exists or that we can know anything at all. Value can be gained in considering the Torah as a work of art, literature, history, or philosophy but these are aspects of something greater. (For me that is the Alpeh-Bet itself. The Torah is an exposition of esoteric ideas in the Aleph-Bet through which G*d manifests the creation. The Torah is the substance of creation.) The teaching is literal, metaphoric, esoteric, and mystical. PADRES. I also believe that the Torah manifests out of the letters and that many anomalies are intentional traps for the unguided student.

Modern standards of ontology do not accept revelation nor can they cope with the immeasurable and the mystical.

This is the problem with all human belief. Belief filters reality. Those with different beliefs will accept different 'facts' and therefore draw different conclusions. These conclusions are also 'facts' and so on. If one considers 2 Billion souls and all the souls that have gone before each subject to their own chosen facts, all existence would be nothing more than chaos. The wars over whose views are authoritative are true abominations. G*d have mercy.

As this is my personal view, however, so I must argue from principle that the sacred text of the Torah cannot be considered a response to experience of G*d like the liturgy (R. Hammer). I don't approach it as a creative work of mankind but as sacred in nature having been dictated by the Holy One, Blessed is He.

This is a prejudice. In one sense prejudice can harden the heart and blind the soul, yet in another it is a necessary method to say select the best job applicant. Our society and academia cling to the failed and ephemeral ideal of objectivity. In practice all judgments are subjective when considered by the conventions of secular academics. I prefer the conventions of the Sages who start with the singular idea that G*d is one and our Lord. Admittedly, and you see it everywhere, any ideas can become beliefs. Sadly, we have a great ability to deconstruct beliefs but a very limited control over what we believe. In trying to compensate for this, the idea of objectivity has negated the value in the objects of its own study.

Revelation of G*d is not just accepting a different set of beliefs and defending them. It is understanding that all we are and all we know are subject to G*d. This has lead in many faith traditions to mysticism which rejects empiricism. Unfortunately, without a respect for experience a mystic can lose touch with creation. Ultimately, mystics usually fall down from the heights of metaphysics and glory. We must all strive for balance so long as we live in this world. G*d have mercy on us.

All these arguments could be used spuriously to defend any sacred text. I see no reason to go on to prove that the Torah is Holy; please see the commentary! One might also argue that my position denies the veracity of logic. I believe logic is useful but mercenary. It requires some postulates be accepted as true arbitrarily to produce any conclusions. (However, it is useful when it is thought of as music which can’t be corrected but beautiful when ordered and arranged.)

The postulate I accept on faith is that if one proved G*d did not exist they would only proven nothing could be proven. My final preface regarding authorship is not an argument but instead meant to express my deepest 'prejudice' and lay it in the open. It was articulated off hand by a very righteous modern sage R. Adin Steinsalz in the introduction to his translation of the "Tales of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav" states:

"Moshe attained a higher spiritual level than any other human being who ever lived, and his understanding of the Torah transcended all its interpretations. As a result, his speech was so lofty that other men could hear only fragments of it. In its wholeness and perfection Moshe's speech was as close an approximation to the truth of divine diction, whereas the speech of other men, even prophets, was partial and relative."

May the Books of Moshe never cease to influence the hearts of mankind and increase the sanctification of G*d.

Amen.



























Parashot
The Torah is divided into 54 'portions' called parshot (singular parsha.) Each Parshat is read in conjunction with a Haftorah. A Haftorah is verses from the Ne'vim (Prophets).

At schul they read the Torah on a tri-annual cycle which means the read a third of each parsha (and the full haftorah) each week. This practice varies. In some Reform communities the Torah is read very rarely :( while in strict Orthodox synagogues the parsha is read each week in its entirety. This ritual reading requires a quorum (minyan) of ten people present except in Reform congregations :(.

My journal consists of 54 essays. I wrote one on the parsha each week for 5770-5771.(APR 2010- MAY2011)

Bereshit / Genesis
Bereishit (In the begining)
Genesis 1:1-6:8
Isaiah 42:5-43:11 (Isaiah 42:5-42:21)

Noach (Rest)
Genesis 6:9-11:32
Isaiah 54:1-55:5 (Isaiah 54:1-10)

Lekh Lekha (Go Forth Yourself)
Genesis 12:1-17:27
Isaiah 40:27-41:16

Vayeira (And He Appeared)
Genesis 18:1-22:24
II Kings 4:1-4:37 (II Kings 4:1-4:23)

Chayei Sarah (Life of Sarah)
Genesis 23:1-25:18
I Kings1:1-1:31

Toldot (Generations)
Genesis 25:19-28:9
Malachi 1:1-2:7

Vayeitzei (And He Went Out)
Genesis 28:10-32:3
Hosea 12:13-14:10 (Hosea 11:7-12:12)

Vayishlach (And He Sent)
Genesis 32:4-36:43
Hosea 11:7-12:12 (Obadiah1:1-1:21)

Vayyeshev (And He Settled)
Genesis 37:1-40:23
Amos 2:6-3:8

Miqeitz (At the End)
Genesis 41:1-44:17
I Kings 3:15-4:1

Vayigash (And He Drew Near)
Genesis 44:18-47:27
Ezekiel 37:15-37:28

Vayechi (And He Lived)
Genesis 47:28-50:26
I Kings 2:1-12

Sh'mot / Exodus

Shemot (Names)
Exodus 1:1-6:1
Isaiah 27:6-28:13; 29:22-29:23 (Jeremiah 1:1-2:3)

Va'eira (And I Appeared)
Exodus 6:2-9:35
Ezekiel 28:25-29:21

Bo (Enter or Go)
Exodus 10:1-13:16
Jeremiah 46:13-46:28

Beshalach (When he let go)(Shabbat Shirah)
Exodus 13:17-17:1
6 Judges 4:4-5:31 (Judges 5:1-5:31)

Yitro (Jetrho 'abundance')
Exodus 18:1-20:23
Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5-9:6 (Isaiah 6:1-6:13)

Mishpatim (Judgements/Ordinances)
Exodus 21:1-24:18
Jeremiah 34:8-34:22; 33:25-33:26

Terumah (O)
Exodus 25:1-27:19
I Kings 5:26-6:13

Tetzaveh (You shall command)
Exodus 27:20-30:10
Ezekiel 43:10-43:27

Ki Tisa (When you elevate)
Exodus 30:11-34:35
I Kings 18:1-18:39 (I Kings 18:20-18:39)

Vayaqhel (And He assembled)
Exodus 35:1-38:20
I Kings 7:40-7:50 (I Kings 7:13-7:26)

Pequdei (Accountings of)
Exodus 38:21-40:38
I Kings 7:51-8:21 (I Kings 7:40-7:50)

Vayikra / Leviticus
Vayiqra (When He Called)
Leviticus 1:1-5:26
Isaiah 43:21-44:23

Tzav (Command/Commanded)
Leviticus 6:1-8:36
Jeremiah 7:21-8:3; 9:22-9:23

Shemini (8th)
Leviticus 9:1-11:47
II Samuel 6:1-7:17 (II Samuel 6:1-6:19)

Tazria (She bears seed)
Leviticus 12:1-13:59
II Kings 4:42-5:19

Metzora (Infected One - like a leper)
Leviticus 14:1-15:33
II Kings 7:3-7:20

Acharei Mot (After the death)
Leviticus 16:1-18:30
Ezekiel 22:1-22:19 (Ezekiel 22:1-22:16)

Qedoshim (Holy Ones)
Leviticus 19:1-20:27
Amos 9:7-9:15 (Ezekiel 20:2-20:20)

Emor (Say)
Leviticus 21:1-24:23
Ezekiel 44:15-44:31

Behar (On the Mount)
Leviticus 25:1-26:2
Jeremiah 32:6-32:27

Bechuqotai (In my statues)
Leviticus 26:3-27:34
Jeremiah 16:19-17:14

B'midbar / Numbers

Bamidbar (In the wilderness/desert)
Numbers 1:1-4:20
Hosea 2:1-2:22

Nasso (Elevate)
Numbers 4:21-7:89
Judges 13:2-13:25

Beha'alotkha (In you making go up)
Numbers 8:1-12:16
Zechariah 2:14-4:7

Shelach (Send for yourself)
Numbers 13:1-15:41
Joshua 2:1-2:24

Qorach (Korah - 'baldness')
Numbers 16:1-18:32
I Samuel 11:14-12:22

Chuqat (Ordinance of)
Numbers 19:1-22:1
Judges 11:1-11:33

Balaq (Balak - 'destroyer')
Numbers 22:2-25:9
Micah 5:6-6:8

Pinchas (Phinehas - 'dark-skinned')
Numbers 25:10-30:1
I Kings 18:46-19:21

Mattot (Tribes)
Numbers 30:2-32:42
Jeremiah 1:1-2:3

Masei (Journeys of)
Numbers 33:1-36:13
Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4 (Jeremiah 2:4-28; 4:1-4:2)

D'varim / Deuteronomy

Devarim (Words)
Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22
Isaiah 1:1-1:27

Va'etchanan (And I besought)
Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Isaiah 40:1-40:26

Eiqev (Because)
Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25
Isaiah 49:14-51:3

Re'eh (Behold)
Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17
Isaiah 54:11-55:5

Shoftim (Judges)
Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9
Isaiah 51:12-52:12

Ki Teitzei (When you go out)
Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19
Isaiah 54:1-54:10

Ki Tavo (When you come in)
Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8
Isaiah 60:1-60:22

Nitzavim (Are standing)
Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20
Isaiah 61:10-63:9

Vayeilekh (And went)
Deuteronomy 31:1-31:30
Isaiah 55:6-56:8

Ha'azinu (Give Ear)
Deuteronomy 32:1-32:52
II Samuel 22:1-22:51

Vezot Haberakhah (May your strength be firm)
Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12
Joshua 1:1-1:18 (Joshua 1:1-1:9)