Shalom Friends:
Our Parshat HaShavua Ha’azinu is being sponsored by Eliyahu and Shuli Gherman of Ramat Beit Shemesh to commemorate Eliyahu’s Bar Mitzvah Parsha and dedicated for Refuah Shleima for the cholim of Am Yisrael, for Hatslucha for the Gherman family in Eretz Yisrael and for the safety of the Chayalim and the liberation of all remaining hostages and their return home without experiencing any further harm. . To the Gherman family, 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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This year, our two day Rosh Hashana runs into Shabbos Parshat Ha’azinu making for a three-day Yom Tov…
We begin with an excerpt from Rabbi Shmuel Goldin’s Parsha Summary for Parshat Ha’azinu in his sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text,” Sefer Devarim (page 351) :
…Moshe raises his voice in song as he shares Shirat Ha’azinu, the song recorded in Parshat Ha’azinu, with the Jews on the last day of his life. Over the course of this song, designed to serve as eternal testimony to the nation, Moshe recalls Hashem’s kindnesses to the people and predicts their future sins, punishment and eventual redemption. In spite of national failure, suffering and exile, Moshe proclaims, the bond between Am Yisrael and Hashem will never be severed.
Torah relates In the fifth and sixth posukim of our Parshat Ha’azinu:
“Corruption is not His — the blemish is His children’s, a perverse and twisted generation. Is it to Hashem that you do this, O vile and unwise people? (Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posukim 5 – 6 rendered to English in the Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash)
The Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash provides commentary on these posukim (page 1101) :
Posuk 5: “Corruption is not His.” True, there is evil and corruption in the world, but Hashem does not cause it. People, not Hashem are at fault. (Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash citing Rashi)
Or HaChaim (also Ramban) renders when [Israel] acts corruptly against Him, it is their own blemesh [because they proclaim themselves to be] not His children, whereas when they do His will, Hashem lovingly calls them His children.
Posuk 6: “Is it to Hashem that you do this.” Moshe asks incredulously how Israel could have been so vile and unwise to sin against Hashem, Who did everything for them. How could they be so ungrateful? They were vile in their lack of gratitude and unwise in not considering the dire consequences of their rebellion against Hashem. (Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash citing Rashi)
Rabbi Goldin’s cites Sefer Devarim, Perek 33, posuk 2 (below, from V’zot HaBrachah) and provides additional commentary on Parshat Ha’azinu in his sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text,” (pages 360 – 361) :
“He [Moshe] said: Hashem came from Sinai — having shone forth to them from Seir, having appeared from Mount Paran. and then approached with some of the holy myriads — from His right hand He presented the fiery Torah to them.” (Sefer Devarim, Perek 33, posuk 2 as rendered to English in The Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash)
According to the Midrash, this posuk references Hashem’s initial approaches to the nations of Edom in Seir and Yishma’el in Paran, requesting that they accept the Torah. When these… and all other nations of the world reject Hashem’s offer, refusing to obligate themselves to the personal restrictions that such acceptance would entail, Hashem turns to the Jews who readily bind themselves to Hashem’s law. (Rabbi Goldin citing Sifrei on Sefer Devarim, page 343) It is this laudatory act on the part of the Jews, Rashi maintains, that is referred to by Moshe as he begins his historical overview in Shirat Ha’azinu. (Rabbi Goldin citing Rashi on Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posuk 10 which, as expressed in the Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash, is “Hashem’s kindness to Israel.”)
The Ramban… argues [that]… the entire tone of the Shira is one of reproof, as Moshe admonishes the nation for their ingratitude and for their failure to appreciate the kindnesses bestowed upon them by Hashem. A commendation for the Jews’ actions at Sinai, Ramban insists, would therefore be totally out of place at the beginning of this song. (Rabbi Goldin citing Ramban on Sefer Devarim, Perek 32, posuk 7: “Remember the days of yore, understand the years of generation after generation.”)
Shem Mishmuel comments (translated to English, Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein, Parsha Ha’azinu, pages 433 – 434) :
The [relation] between the seventy souls of Yisrael and the seventy nations of the world is very important in Judaism’s thought. …Each primary world nation corresponded to one root member of Klal Yisrael.
As history wore on, those seventy nations became a multitude of peoples across the globe, and in correspondence with this, Klal Yisrael grew from seventy members to an entire people. The details of the relationship between the members of Klal Yisrael and the other nations of the world became much more complex. The soul of each member of Klal Yisrael was now linked to dozens, or hundreds of non-Jewish nations. Thus the acts of every Jew affect not only himself and his nation, but, in no small part, the spiritual welfare of many people and nations throughout the world.
R’ Goldin sums up (Sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text,”, page 364):
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.
The many factions and resultant disunity among Am Yisrael which, in turn, manifest itself in equivocal governamce; agendization in judicial courts, mainstream media, “intelligencia” and universities; restrictive glass ceilings in the military high command limited only to those of certain factions and ideologies, as well as the self-aggrandizing arrogance of the military “elites” displayed before enemy nations and animalistic terror groups — all are not akin to proving and maintaining Hashem’s trust in us.
It would seem that the War of Simchat Torah, with its myriad of intelligence and strategic misreadings and miscalculations are a wake up call to Am Yisrael, in Israel and worldwide, regarding coming near to Hashem, and justifying His continued love for, and trust in us.
May it be that our Chayalim, regardless of the machinations of their high command, emerge totally victorious — eradicating from the face of the earth Hamas, their terrorist buddies and the so-called “innocent civilians” of Gaza who joined with Hamas in their murderous deeds, that the Chayalim return home whole — physically, mentally and spiritually and that the Chayalim Liberate and bring home all remaining hostages. And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually and may all of the remaining hostages brutally taken by the wild beasts of Hamas be liberated and brought home to their families. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his fourth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of ten 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 see, in 5785, the REAL Jews from the Ukraine and Russia as well as the US and Canada, the real Jews via matrilineal descent, make Aliyah enmass — via thorough review by Misrad HaPanim. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab corona virus pandemic and all like viruses and variants. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei 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!!!
May You, All of My Brothers and Sisters, be Inscribed and Sealed for another Year of Life… Now and always! L’Shana Tova!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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