Sefer Vayikra concludes with the pasuk: “These are the mitzvot that Hashem commanded Moshe to [tell] b’nai Yisrael on Har Sinai.” In contrast, the final verse of Sefer Bamidbar states: “These are the mitzvot and mishpatim that Hashem commanded b’nai Yisrael b’yad Moshe b’Arvot Moav (on the Plains of Moab), by the Jordan at Jericho.”
A comparison of our two pasukim reveals that the latter verse adds the words “mishpatim” and “b’yad Moshe,” and replaces Har Sinai with Arvot Moav. The singular import of these changes cannot be overstated.
In his Torah commentary, Ha’emek Davar, HaRav Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin, sheds light upon the meaning of these textual variations.
He notes that Sefer Vayikra contains many instances of dinei mamonot (monetary laws) that are included under the rubric of mishpatim; this category of halacha, however, is not mentioned in the sefer’s concluding pasuk. The Netziv therefore concludes that Sefer Bamidbar’s use of the term “mishpatim,” in its final pasuk, is not referring to the class of laws entitled mishpatim, but rather to “the analyses that are derived from the 13 principles of exegetical interpretation (yud gimmel middot). These, opines the Netziv, were decidedly something new for the vast majority of the Jewish people, since “on Har Sinai this manner of analysis was revealed solely to Moshe and his immediate followers, as we find in Talmud Bavli, Nedarim page 38.”
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The Netziv now suggests that this new category of mishpatim is a major turning point in the history of our people: “For it was only in Arvot Moav that Moshe began to interpret the entire Torah according to logical arguments (pilpul) and analyses [derived from the yud gimmel middot], as is explained in the beginning of Sefer Devarim.”
At this juncture, the Netziv suggests that although this is not the Torah’s first instance of the phrase, “b’yad Moshe,” its use in the concluding verse of Sefer Bamidbar enables us to perceive Moshe as the authentic rebbe of klal Yisrael.
Until now, Moshe had acted as the Almighty’s shaliach to bring His exact words to the world. At Arvot Moav, Moshe found his own unique voice, and with the support of Heaven, created his own words of Torah — Torah She’beal Peh — derived from pilpul and the yud gimmel middot, for his beloved nation. In sum, in the view of the Netziv, Moshe’s Torah on Arvot Moav represents the transition from Torah She’Bichtav (written law) to Torah She’beal peh.
In a crucial passage cited from the Yarchei Kallah (Rabbinic Convocation) of 1977, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik underscores the notion that Sefer Devarim was originally Torah She’beal peh that became Torah Shebichsav only upon the final day of Moses’ life. This crucial idea differentiates Sefer Devarim from the preceding four books of the Torah in the sense that it, and it alone, is endowed with the “double sanctity of both Torah Shebichsav and Torah She’beal peh.”
Based upon the illuminating insights of the Netziv, and the Rav’s powerful analysis, the final verse of Sefer Bamidbar, and the entire Sefer Devarim, portray Moshe’s transition from Har Sinai, wherein he served as Hashem’s loyal prophet and repeated the Creator’s words, to the Moshe of Arvot Moav where he acted as Moshe Rabbeinu, the ultimate creative talmid chacham who brought the Torah She’beal peh to klal Yisrael.