Va'etchanan
Va'etchanan (—Hebrew for "and I pleaded," the first word in the parashah) is the 45th weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the second in the Book of Deuteronomy. It comprises . The parashah tells how Moses asked to see the Land of Israel, made arguments to obey the law, recounted setting up the Cities of Refuge, recited the Ten Commandments and the Shema, and gave instructions for the Israelites' conquest of the Land. The parashah is made up of 7,343 Hebrew letters, 1,878 Hebrew words, 122 verses, and 249 lines in a Torah Scroll (Sefer Torah). Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in late July or August. It is always read on the special Sabbath Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath immediately after Tisha B'Av. As the parashah describes how the Israelites would sin and be banished from the Land of Israel, Jews also read part of the parashah as the Torah reading for the morning (Shacharit) prayer service on Tisha B'Av, which commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem. Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot. In