Shalom Friends;
This week, our Parshat HaShevua Ha’azinu is being sponsored by Dr. Eliyahu and Shuli Gherman of Ramat Beit Shemesh to commemorate Eliyahu’s Bar Mitzvah parsha — Haazinu and dedicated for Hatslucha for the Gherman family in Eretz Yisrael. To Mishpochat Gherman, many thanks for your sponsorship and your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
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Parshat Haazinu falls out this year two days before Succot.
Our Parshat begins with Moshe’s words at the beginning of his final address to B’nei Yisrael:
“Ha’azinu HaShemayim V’adabeirah…”
“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and may the earth hear the words of my mouth.” (Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash, Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posuk 1)
Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch z’l, in the Hirsch Chumash (Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posuk 1, pages 742-743) renders Moshe’s statement “Ha’azinu HaShemayim V’adabeirah…” and comments:
“Incline your ear, O Heaven, I would speak, And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.” (Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posukim 1-2)
“V’adabeirah — I wish to speak, I have something to say. This is the request addressed to heaven. Moshe is willing to speak only after heaven [perhaps euphemistically meaning Hashem?, although the “h” of heaven is not capitalized in R’ Hirsch’s English rendering — MB] has inclined its ear to listen to his words.”
Ha’azinu: This is appointment of the heaven and earth as witnesses and guarantors of Hashem’s Covenant with Israel and of what will be said regarding Israel’s future.
Ha’azin is to be distinguished from Shema. Ha’azin means to incline one’s ear; the Ma’azin [the one asked to incline — MB] turns to the speaker in order to listen to his words. By contrast, one can hear (L’shmo’ah) without wishing to do so.
Heaven and earth are called upon to represent Hashem’s Covenant, and this representation is carried out primarily by Heaven, and only indirectly by the earth. Heaven is active; the earth is essentially passive, because all of the blessing and curse in the physical development of the earth… results from the cosmic changes that occur outside the earth, and these are included in the concept of HaShemayim [Heaven].
In the service of the purposes of Hashem’s rule, heaven is active, dispensing its gifts, whereas the earth is essentially passive, a receiver.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin provides commentary on our Parshat Ha’azinu in his sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text,” Sefer Devarim (pages 353-354 ):
Moshe’s final communications to the nation are delivered through two specific mediums: shira and bracha (song and blessing).
In Shirat Ha’azinu, the song recorded… ,Moshe reviews Hashem’s past kindnessses toward the nation and applies the theme of Divine reward and punishment to the people’s future. (citing Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posukim 1-47)
[He, R’ Goldin] would suggest that the manner in which Moshe delivers his final words to the nation is far from accidental…. By saying goodbye to the nation through shira [and through bracha in Parshat V’zot HaBracha], Moshe models two very different yet equally essential ways of relating to… [our world].
The realm of shira focuses on the heart.
Many of the earliest songs of our people are born spontaneously, with no reasoned forethought or considered calculation. Moved beyond measure by specific experiences, events or feelings, an individual or a group “erupts” in song, expressing through word the unprompted emotions of the heart
…Early shirot — such as the Az Yashir, the song of B’nei Yisrael on the banks of the Reed Sea, and Shirot Devorah, the victorious song of the prophetess Devorah — are fundamentally subjective and reflective, mirroring unfolding events from the perspective of the songwriter. No attempt is made through th shira to objectify, control or determine the [future] course of these events…. Existing reality is accepted, recorded and spontaneously celebrated or mourned.
Here, [in the shira of Ha’azinu], the songwriter deliberately sets out not only to mirror unfolding events and ideas, but to draw the listener into the songwriter’s subjective reality…. These songs, such as Shlomo HaMelech’s Shir Hashirim, are carefully designed to touch the hearts of each listener, inducing emotions that could not be effectively conveyed through any other medium.
Shem Mishmuel describes Ha’azinu as;
A poem which Moshe Rabbeinu recited to Klal Yisrael… It discusses the uniqueness of Klal Yisrael, their future, how they should conduct themselves, how they will stray, and how Hashem will treat them mercifully. (Shem Mishmuel, translated to English, Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein, Parsha Ha’azinu, pge 433)
R’ Goldin provides many scholarly commentaries discussing the Shir Ha’azinu and what are seen to be omissions, such as the Yetziyot Mitzrayim and the Revelation at Har Sinai. To discuss all of them here would severely elongate this vort. But this author relates just a couple commentaries cited by R’ Goldin in sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text,” (pages 361, 363):
The Ralbag… detect[s] within Moshe’s poetry references to the B’nai Yisrael’s positive rsponse at Sinai and to their subsequent failure.
“He found him in a desert land.” The B’nei Yisrael found Hashem in the wilderness, where they experienced His wondrous acts.
“And in the desolation, a howling wilderness.” The nation then, however, turned against Hashem through the unjust complaints and baseless protests that characterized the sin of the spies.
“He encompassed them.” Hashem’s plan to bring the nation directly into the land of Canaan after the Revelation could, therefore, not be brought to fruition. Instead, Hashem had to “encompass them,” to lead the nation in ciruitous fashion, during forty years of wilderness wandering.
“And instructed them.” …. Hashem instructed the next generation in critical areas of wisdom, preparing them for nationhood. (citing Ralbag on Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posuk 10 as rendered to English by by R’ Goldin in sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text”)
…. Hashem becomes for the B’nei Yisrael. R’ Hirsch explains, what, “the soil of their land is for other nations.” (citing Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posuk 9) In contrast to the geographical forces that govern and shape the identity of other peoples, the central force uniting Am Yisrael, on and off its land, will always be the relationship of the Jews to their Creator and His law.
Within this context, R’ Hirsch continues:
Moshe’s statement [Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posuk 10 in quotes broken down above in citing Ralbag] speaks to the unique role that the wilderness plays in developing the national character of B’nei Yisrael. Unlike the other nations who acquire their identity “with firm land under their feet,” the B’nei Yisrael are forged “where no verdant meadows and no town stand[s] out, where man is forsaken by all help from nature and fellow man.” They become a nation in “the desolation… where man is thrown back to his inner self, is alone with his own inner self and Hashem.” (citing Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch on Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posuk 10)
Rabbi Artscroll (Artscroll Stone Chumash, Commentary on Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posukim 7-9, pages 1101-1102) cites S’forno recalling from history that Hashem created the world so that all of the nations would join together in achieving Hashem’s goal of righteousness. But when they failed, He chose B’nai Yisrael as the paradigm of that goal. Hashem gave them a Land where they could serve Him according to Torah’s laws with simcha, success and prosperity. But when the B’nai Yisrael rebelled, forgot and forsook Hashem for other counsel and avodah zora, they deserved destruction. But to avoid Chillul Hashem; desecration of His Name, Hashem, in His mercy, only exiled them in order that they be redeemed in times of Moshiach and the Ge’ula Shlaima.
In our times, this rebellion seems to take the shape of fake and false “morality,” mercy toward the cruel, which inevitably leads to cruelty to the merciful, abomination and perceived dependence on a so-called super-power, on third-party nations and their leaders rather than on The Almighty.
Tehillim Psalm 81 clearly expresses the point of Hashem’s mercy where B’nai Yisrael rebelled, forgot and strayed from Hashem and Torah (Artscroll Nusach Ashkenaz siddur, page 169):
“I am Hashem, your G’d, who elevated you from the land of Mitzrayim, open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But My people did not heed My voice and Israel did not desire Me. So I let them follow their heart’s fantasies, they follow their own counsels. If only My people would heed Me, if Israel would walk in My ways. In an instant, I would subdue their foes, and against their tormentors turn My hand…. He would feed him with the cream of wheat, and with honey from a rock sate you.”
There are two posukim in our Parshat which bring to mind today’s malaise — the new “normal”, today’s so-called western “morality, so-called “human rights”:
“…They would anger Him with abominations. They would slaughter to demons without power, gods whom they knew not, newcomers recently arrived, whom your ancestors did not dread.” (Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posukim 16-17, as rendered in the Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash)
Rabbi Artscroll (Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash, page 1105) briefly comments on these posukim:
Israel will anger Hashem by… performing such acts as… Hashem regards as abominable. They will bring offerings … to newly invented gods that their ancestors never knew…
Rav Zelig Pliskin, in his sefer “Growth Through Torah” (pages 467-468) goes much further in discussing the abovementioned posuk (Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posuk 17). He first renders the end of the posuk slightly different and then comments:
“…Newcomers recently arrived, whom your forefathers did not know.”
“The process of new false ideologies,” commented Rabbi Avigdor Miller (in his sefer “Rejoice O Youth,” page 25), “is part of the constant test of virtue which living men must endure all of their lives. But the Torah and the Torah people are an old and established firm, which has been in business for few thousand years and has weathered many crises and outlived many competitors. We view the opponents, physical or ideological, who rise up against us in every generation…; and we know that they will go down into oblivion as did all the upstarts who preceded them.”
We are, after nearly 2,000 years, a national sovereignty, in OUR OWN Land, Eretz Yisrael. We who live in Eretz Yisrael are no longer in cities, towns, nations dominated by other religions who would demand that we renounce the Almighty, as was the case of the Jews of Mainz where the Bishop demanded that R’ Amnon convert with the implied perilous threat to the Jews of Mainz should he refuse. Instead, we suffer governance by groups who, by and large, at heart, seek to turn Jews into Israelis who are devoid of Torah spirituality.
As Jews in OUR LAND, we have the responsibility to behave as Jews — both in words and actions — between the governing and the governed, between our brethren in all sectors and, on battlefields of mandatory wars for Torah, for our survival, versus adversaries who seek nothing less than our total annihilation.
Can it be said, despite the evolvement in our national governance of forsaking Hashem, our roots, our heritage for other counsels and avodah zora, that Hashem continues to protect us with his Clouds of Glory? What of the appointment of the heaven and earth as witnesses and guarantors of Hashem’s Covenant with Israel? We must all collectively ponder and internalize our responsibilities in living up to our obligations to this Covenant with Hashem going forward to Succot and to the years ahead.
R’ Goldin sums up (ibid, page 364):
Finally, [one] might add to… the above approaches by suggesting that Moshe omits any mention of Yetziyot Mitzrayim and Revelation [at Har Sinai] from his narrative simply in order to stay on message.
Standing before Am Yisrael during the final hours of his life, …[Moshe Rabbeinu] has a single agenda. He desperately wants to convince his people to keep faith with Hashem, to remain loyal to their Creator and to His law over the long term.
….The quality and strength of your relationship with another is determined by whether or not your partner can trust you to “be there.”
During the years that have brought you to this point, the most important lesson you have learned is that you can trust in Hashem’s constant presence and personal care…. The true measure of Hashem’s love for you has been shown through His constancy, through His personal care for you over the course of your wilderness wanderings, day after day.
Day after day, year after year, century after century, you must prove to Hashem that He can trust you.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them and that the twice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes, at government expense; both due to alt-leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized Yassamnik gunpoint. May our dear brother Jonathan Pollard be liberated and truly free — which can only occur upon his coming home to Israel, and that the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of four years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people; an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with the nations; and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al Kol HaGoyim;, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu; speedily, in our time; Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt is an Oleh, writer and commentator on news and events in Eretz Yisrael. He is the founder and director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network and lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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