Parsha discussion

Question:  When was the תורה meant to be written on the stones? 27:3 implies before moving them to הר גריזים והר עיבל, but 27:8 implies afterwards Approach: It would seem that the general instruction is given in the first few verses, and then the details are given thereafter. And as such, the stones were only placed once, on the mountains

Question:  Why is it only a נערה מארשה that we can assume she was coerced? Why not other cases of married women? Approach:  We might suggest that a married woman would normally be a part of her family, and perhaps a perpetrator would be less willing to try to force a married woman out of the city and into a more secluded area. The נערה מארשה, being "between" her parent's home and the married home, may be more likely to be vulnerable to an attack.

Question:  Why are we told explicitly that שבט לוי don’t have a land inheritance? This is clear from previous discussions of the topic Approach: Here the initial reference is actually to the כהנים לוים. This is strengthened by the fact that the "inheritance" is the קורבנות. It would seem that this is also a lead in to the מצוה of giving the זרוע לחיים וקיבה to the כהנים from non-sacrificial meat.

Question:  12:6 and 12:11 appear to be virtually identical in content. What are the differences? Approach: The major difference is that the first reference seems to relate to a situation where the "place" is chosen from amongst the various tribes, rather than a specific place in the land. This would imply that perhaps the first reference is to the local במה גדולה in the times of היתר במות, to where certain קורבנות had to be brought to.