"Ve'zot Ha-Torah - A Liturgical Reassurance"

The verse Ve'zot Ha-Torah...al pi Ha-Shem beyad Mosheh, sung by the
congregation when the scroll is raised aloft, presents a major problem. Being a
conflation of two part-verses (Deut 4:44 and Nu.4:37), it contradicts a wellestablished
Talmudic principle that, 'wherever Moses did not conclude a verse,
we may not do so' (Ber.13b). Furthermore, among other difficulties, this newlycreated
verse embodies a superfluous repetition: "This is the law which Moses
set...according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses."

Jeffrey Cohen demonstrates how prominent halachists and commentators had
admitted their inability to resolve this problem or to determine when and why
this hybrid verse had been created. In a fascinating survey of the sources he
offers a novel theory to explain the origin and the purpose of its recitation.

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