דברים לג:ד - תורה צוה לנו משה, מורשה קהלת יעקב
Devarim 33:4 records, “Torah commanded us Moshe, a morasha for the congregation of Yaakov.”
33:4 is a relatively well-known verse. The Talmud (Sukkah 42a, quoted by the Rambam, Laws of Talmud Torah 1:6, and Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh Deah, 245:5) records that Rav Hamnuna said that when a child begins to speak, he/ she should be taught 33:4. If my memory is correct, in my very early years of schooling we chanted the verse, and I assume that this practice continues today. Also, in the Siddur that I used growing up, Shilo Prayer Book (1980, p. 1), the verse appears amongst the prayers that people are to recite when waking up after reciting modeh ani and doing netilat yadim. However, in more recent Siddurim, such as Rinat Yisrael, ArtScroll and one version of the Koren Siddur, the verse is no longer listed amongst the prayers to be said when a person gets up in the morning. In a different Koren Siddur, the verse is moved to after the blessings on the Torah under the heading “some say.” Maybe the verse was removed from the Siddur or moved since recently there began to be a desire not to recite verses from Tanakh before reciting the blessings on the Torah.
One question concerning 33:4 is the word "us." 33:1 records that Moshe is the speaker of the ensuing verses. Why would Moshe use the word “us” in 33:4? Also, in 33:4, Moshe is referred to in the third person which is little strange if he was the person stating 33:4. Rav Mecklenburg (Germany, 1785-1865, Haketav Vehakabbalah on 33:4, also Altar, 2004, p. 1050) suggests that 33:4 was spoken by the people after they heard Moshe saying 33:2,3. Note, a similar case occurred by 27:14, that the Levites shouted out in response to Moshe's statement regarding which tribes would be on which mountain to recite blessings and curses, see our discussion above on 27:11-26, "Curses, blessings and curses."
The word morasha in 33:4 means an inheritance. Tigay (1996, p. 321) notes that the word “connotes something vital and cherished, like its synonym nahalah.” 33:4 should then be understood to mean that the Jewish people stated that Moshe had given them a special inheritance, the Torah. This would be an appropriate response of the people after hearing 33:2,3. In those verses, Moshe recalled G-d's appearance and the special relationship between G-d and the Jewish people, and then in 33:4 the people expressed their thanks and appreciation to Moshe and G-d for giving them the Torah.
The word morasha only appears one other time in the Torah in Shemot 6:8 when G-d was giving Moshe instructions to take the people out of Egypt. Shemot 6:8 states that G-d told Moshe that after he took the people out of Egypt, he was to take them to the land that He promised to Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov (the land of Israel), and that He was going to give the Jewish people the land as a morasha, a (special) inheritance.
These two occurrences of the word morasha in the Torah indicate the two special inheritances that G-d gave to the Jewish people, the Torah and the land of Israel. The Jewish people then have a dual obligation to build and develop these inheritances that they received from G-d, to learn and follow the Torah and to live in and to develop the land of Israel.