Devarim: language and existence

 Devarim: language and existence

אֵ֣לֶּה הַדְּבָרִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֨ר דִּבֶּ֤ר מֹשֶׁה֙ אֶל־כׇּל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּעֵ֖בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּ֑ן בַּמִּדְבָּ֡ר

These are the words ( or things)  that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan.—Through the wilderness,

 In the first sentence of  the parsha the three letter root דְּבָרִ֗ dvr , appears three times. In this translation, the first usage, devarim, means "words, " the product of  dibar, speech.  The last usage is midbar, wilderness, a type of physical space. 

Three words are used in the parsha in relation to speech. DABER, speak, EMOR, say , and TZAV, command. Tzav, command,  is used sparingly at the beginning, but becomes frequent at the end. In part, this is a consequence of the structure of the parsha. There is an introduction that anticipates the arc of the story. It is a telling. The end of the parsha details instructions necessitated by events that have occurred ( the conquest of Sichon and Og, the Amorite kings)  or will occur ( the death of Moses and the entry into the Promised Land) 

EMOR is generally  used to describe communications from Gd. It echoes back to creation. The statements that bring the familiar universe into existence are introduced by וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱ, Vayomer E.., Gd said. Emor is not a command, it is operator, it invokes a force with consequences. Emor has two 2-letter phonemes: אמֶ, meaning mother and מֶר meaning responsible party ( but not quite master).   EMOR carries hints of parenthood, birth and accountability. 

Devarim emerges as the key word of this parsha  - and this, the final, book of the Torah. The definitions of  דְּבָרִ֗ dvr include speech, business, occupation, acts, matter, case, something. Google, presumably based upon common modern usage,  translates dvarim as "stuff."  and  דְּבָרִ֗ dvar, as "nothing."   דְּבָרִ֗ dvr  is also an operator. It imparts utterability, the ability to say something, and thus a level of potential reality. Thus,  דְּבָרִ֗ davar  means "thing."  The Latin word for "thing" is res, the root of the English word: reality. Does Dvarim anticipate Wittgenstein in telling us that the set of real things consists of those thigs we can talk about?

Computer coding is a special use of language. It is a demonstration of the power of words. Computer instructions can coordinate global communication and transportation.  Some lines of code can launch enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world.  Coding contains two kinds of statements. Comments are clarifying words, describing intentions (דְּבָרִ֗,dibur). Commands  invoke actions that yield results (אמֶר, emor). In machines, these functions of words, declaration and instruction, are demarcated and separate. In human communication, they are confused [note the etymology :con= together and fused=unified).  There are so many messages. Which require action? 

Comments construct our reality. The words, הַדְּבָרִ֗ים  hadevarim, that Moses said,   דִּבֶּ֤ר, diber,  contextualized the things (דְּבָרִ֗ים, devarim) that were done in the wilderness ( מִּדְבָּ֡ר midbar).  They justified the Exodus into a desolate expanse. They legitimized the breaking of the Tablets and the giving of the law. They give a version of the story of the spies and an explanation for 40 years of wandering. The instructions that generated these events were a different kind of transmission.  Sometimes the comments are added after debugging, occasionally they are the debug. 

What you say creates your reality. 

Watch what you say.