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 the masoretic text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Parashah Va'etchanan has six "open portion" (, petuchah) divisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (peh)). Parashah Va'etchanan has several further subdivisions, called "closed portions" (, setumah) (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (samekh)) within the open portion divisions. The first reading is divided by the first open portion. From the middle of the first reading to the middle of the second reading is the second open section. The third open portion concludes the second reading. The fourth open portion corresponds to the third reading. The fifth open portion spans the fourth and fifth readings. And the sixth open portion spans the sixth and seventh readings. Several closed portion divisions, notably one for every commandment, further divide the fourth and sixth readings. First reading — Deuteronomy 3:23–4:4 In the first reading, Moses pleaded with God to let him cross over and see the other side of the Jordan River. But God was wrathful with Moses and would not listen, telling Moses never to speak of the matter again, and Moses blamed his punishment on the Israelites. God directed Moses to climb the summit of Pisgah and look