Parashat Ha'azinu - Yom Kippur, and a Famous Mashal

Saturday 26 September 2015                Tishrei  13  5776

Parashat Ha'azinu    -    Yom Kippur, and a Famous Mashal 
Deut 32:1-52;  2 Samuel 22:1-51; Acts 24–26

Our parasha this week is placed in the book that many scholars consider to be a covenant document between God and our people. Thus, it cannot be taken lightly or brushed off as a piece of nice poetry, as it is written: For this is not a trivial matter for you; on the contrary, it is your life! (Deut. 32.44). When we look at our calendar, and see that Ha’azinu occurs around Yom Kippur on a yearly basis, the context for our portion becomes even stronger. We read Ha’azinu during the season of our national turning to God every year.

Ha’azinu is a mnemonic device, employed to remind our nation to turn to God when we find ourselves in times of waywardness and distance from him. Our parasha in the original Hebrew is a beautiful, rhythmic poem sung to a melody for easier memorization. Even today in modern Israel, religious school children memorize this parasha by singing it. Ha’azinu is haunting to me. Its rhythms, by themselves, form an audio background by which the words pierce deeply into the reader (or reciter). In its poetry lay the path to our nation’s closeness to God.

Moshe recited the words of Ha’azinu to the nation: Moshe came and proclaimed all the words of this song in the hearing of the people and of Hoshea (Joshua) the son of Nun (Deut. 32.44, CJB). The very opening words are a powerful, haunting call to the nation. They occur in doublet poetry, where the first half of the sentence is mirrored by the second half: Listen Heavens, and I will speak! (first half of the sentence) . . . listen to the words of my mouth, then act, Earth! (second half of the sentence, my translation). The two witnesses, Heaven and Earth, are being summoned to come to this part of Israel’s covenant renewal. The message of Ha’azinu was to be used to educate each generation to follow God: You can use them (the words of Ha’azinu) in charging your children to be careful to obey all the words of this Torah (32.46, CJB). The stakes for internalizing the message of Ha’azinu were high: Through it (the words of Ha’azinu) you will live long in the land (32.47b, CJB).

So what was the message of Ha’azinu? In short, v. 39 sums it up: See now that I, yes, I, am he—and there is no god beside me. God simply wanted the people to know this fact internally, to act upon it, and to conduct their lives in light of this truth. That is, they were to be covenantally faithful to him by keeping his Torah.

The following verses from Ha’azinu describe the interplay between God and Israel. Moshe describes how the people in the past had broken covenant with God:

They roused him to jealousy with alien gods—provoked him with abominations.
They sacrificed to demons, non-gods—gods that they had never known,
New gods that had come up lately—which your ancestors had not feared.
You ignored the Rock who fathered you—you forgot God, who gave you birth. (32.16-18, CJB)

We can recall times when the above occurred: the incident of the golden calf, and the abominations with the Moabite women, just to name two. We read Ha’azinu today, and we learn the words and lessons found in it. But the generation Moshe addressed here knew the very people who had broken covenant, who are being described here, and saw with their own eyes the results of such behavior. These lessons were not lost on them! They saw some of their family members die because of these problems. And they experienced the situation called hester panim in rabbinic literature, when the Heavens turned as brass to their prayers. They lost battles; they lost leaders; they needed 40 years to do what God would have done in 40 days!

Thus, Ha’azinu becomes a strong tool for helping future generations remember how they must live to experience the blessings that had been enumerated in Deut. 28.1-14. Remember how the old days were—think of the years through all the ages.
Ask your father—he will tell you, Your leaders too—they will inform you. (32.7, CJB)

I am reminded of a mashal (a rabbinic story) told by our Holy Rabbi Yeshua, the story of the two wayward sons, as recorded by Luke. One was prodigal; he ran away from home to do “fun” things in a foreign nation that he wasn’t free to do in the Land of Israel. The younger son left home and went off to a distant country, where he squandered his money in reckless living. (Lk. 15.13, CJB)

The other son stayed home to work the family farm, but allowed himself to be filled with anger and rejection towards his prodigal brother, and related to his own father as to a banking clerk. Yeshua’s point in the mashal was that it is not hard to do teshuva (to turn to God in repentance). The father, upon seeing his son in the far distance, ran like mad to take him into his arms and receive him back. The son hadn’t even apologized to him yet. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran and threw his arms around him and kissed him warmly. (Lk. 15.20, CJB)

As perhaps a 50-year old man, the father wouldn’t have found it easy to sprint to the young man. This father took off running and didn’t stop till he had his beloved son in his arms. And even when his older son displayed a rotten attitude towards his prodigal brother, the father relayed his love and willingness to share his all with him, too, even before the elder son apologized and “turned it around”. In fact, the father approached the older son for reconciliation, and not vice-versa: So his father came out and pleaded with him (v. 28, CJB). And again, "Son, you are always with me," said the father, "and everything I have is yours" (v. 31, CJB).

That is God’s heart towards our people.

Whether our lives are in periods of waywardness, or we think we are the “faithful of the faithful”, we all can perform teshuva (that is, we all need to come to him as our loving, compassionate Father, with no fear, with no hesitation, through the merit of our Holy Messiah Yeshua). Ha’azinu reminds us to be covenantally faithful, and to be ready to turn to God quickly when we have distanced ourselves from him. God will always be there for Israel as a nation, and as individuals. He is also there for those who have attached themselves to Israel through the root of the olive tree (see Romans 11.17-20).

A friend of mine, another UMJC rabbi, approached me twelve years ago with this text. He told me, “This is the message, embodied in parashat Ha’azinu, that you need to bring to Israel.” He was right. It is a message of the willingness of a compassionate Father to bring his children close to him, if all we will do is take one step in his direction. May all Israel be encouraged by this week’s parasha: our God has educated us to turn to him. May we listen well.

May you be inscribed and sealed for life in Messiah Yeshua.
From Jerusalem, Rabbi David Friedman