Parashat Haazinu is one of the Torah portions found in the Book of Deuteronomy (Devarim). It is a particularly unique and poetic portion, primarily consisting of a song that Moses recites to the Israelites as part of his farewell address before his passing. This song, often referred to as the “Song of Haazinu” or “Shirat Haazinu,” is a powerful and emotionally charged message that serves as a witness against the Israelites and a reminder of God’s guidance and faithfulness.
Key themes and lessons from Parashat Haazinu include:
God’s Faithfulness: The song highlights God’s unwavering faithfulness to the Israelites throughout their history. It recounts God’s role as the Creator, the Rock, and the Redeemer of Israel, emphasizing that God has always been there to guide, protect, and sustain the Jewish people.
Human Frailty: The song also acknowledges the imperfections and waywardness of the Israelites. It speaks of their ingratitude, rebellion, and tendency to stray from God’s path. This acknowledgment of human frailty serves as a cautionary reminder to remain faithful and obedient to God’s commandments.
Covenant Renewal: Parashat Haazinu underscores the importance of the covenant between God and the Israelites. It emphasizes that God’s promises are conditional on the people’s adherence to the Torah and their faithfulness to the covenant. The song serves as a covenant renewal ceremony, calling on the Israelites to reaffirm their commitment to God.
Future Consequences: The song also predicts future consequences for the Israelites’ actions, including periods of suffering and exile. It foreshadows the Israelites’ straying from God’s ways and the resulting hardships they will face, all while emphasizing that God’s mercy and salvation remain available.
Teaching and Remembrance: Moses instructs the Israelites to teach this song to future generations, ensuring that it remains a witness against them. This underscores the importance of passing down traditions, teachings, and historical lessons to maintain a strong connection to Jewish heritage and faith.
Universal Message: While Parashat Haazinu addresses the Israelites specifically, its message is universal. The themes of God’s faithfulness, human frailty, and the importance of adherence to moral and ethical principles resonate with people of various faiths and backgrounds.
Parashat Haazinu, with its poetic and prophetic qualities, offers a profound and timeless message about the relationship between humanity and the divine, the consequences of our actions, and the enduring faithfulness of God. It serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of upholding the covenant and remaining faithful to one’s spiritual commitments.
האזינו
דברים ל״ב:א
הַאֲזִ֥ינוּ הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וַאֲדַבֵּ֑רָה וְתִשְׁמַ֥ע הָאָ֖רֶץ אִמְרֵי־פִֽי׃
Ha’Azinu
Deuteronomy 32:1
Let the earth hear the words I utter!
My speech distill as the dew,
Like showers on young growth,
Like droplets on the grass.
Give glory to our God!
Yea, all God’s ways are just;
A faithful God, never false,
True and upright indeed.
That crooked, perverse generation—
Their baseness has played God false.
O dull and witless people?
Is not this the Father who created you—
Fashioned you and made you endure!
Consider the years of ages past;
Ask your parent, who will inform you,
Your elders, who will tell you:
And set the divisions of humanity,
[God] fixed the boundaries of peoples
In relation to Israel’s numbers.
Jacob, God’s own allotment.
In an empty howling waste.
[God] engirded them, watched over them,
Guarded them as the pupil of God’s eye.
Gliding down to its young,
So did [God] spread wings and take them,
Bear them along on pinions;
No alien god alongside.
To feast on the yield of the earth;
Nursing them with honey from the crag,
And oil from the flinty rock,
With the best of lambs,
And rams of Bashan, and he-goats;
With the very finest wheat—
And foaming grape-blood was your drink.
You grew fat and gross and coarse —
They forsook the God who made them
And spurned the Rock of their support.
Vexed [God] with abominations.
Gods they had never known,
New ones, who came but lately,
Who stirred not your forebears’ fears.
Forgot the God who labored to bring you forth.
And spurned these sons and daughters.
And see how they fare in the end.
For they are a treacherous breed,
Children with no loyalty in them.
Vexed Me with their futilities;
I’ll incense them with a no-folk,
Vex them with a nation of fools.
And burned to the bottom of Sheol,
Has consumed the earth and its increase,
Eaten down to the base of the hills.
Use up My arrows on them:
Deadly pestilence, and fanged beasts
Will I let loose against them,
With venomous creepers in dust.
As shall the terror within,
To youth and maiden alike,
The suckling as well as the aged.
Made their memory cease among humankind,
Their enemies who might misjudge
And say, “Our own hand has prevailed;
None of this was wrought by יהוה !”
Lacking in all discernment.
Gain insight into their future:
Or two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
יהוה had given them up?”
In our enemies’ own estimation.
From the vineyards of Gomorrah;
The grapes for them are poison,
A bitter growth their clusters.
The pitiless poison of vipers.
Sealed up in My storehouses,
At the time that their foot falters.
Yea, their day of disaster is near,
And destiny rushes upon them.
And take revenge for God’s servants,
Upon seeing that their might is gone,
And neither bond nor free is left.
The rock in whom they sought refuge,
And drank their libation wine?
Let them rise up to your help,
And let them be a shield unto you!
There is no god beside Me.
I deal death and give life;
I wounded and I will heal:
None can deliver from My hand.
And say: As I live forever,
And My hand lays hold on judgment,
Vengeance will I wreak on My foes,
Will I deal to those who reject Me.
As My sword devours flesh—
Blood of the slain and the captive
From the long-haired enemy chiefs.
For He’ll avenge the blood of His servants,
Wreak vengeance on His foes,
And cleanse His people’s land.
ישעיהו
י״ד:ב׳-י׳
מיכה
יואל
ב׳:ט״ו-כ״ז
Hosea
For you have fallen because of your sin.
And return to GOD.
Say:
“Forgive all guilt
And accept what is good;
Instead of bulls we will pay
[The offering of] our lips.
No more will we ride on steeds;
Nor ever again will we call
Our handiwork our god,
Since in You alone orphans find pity!”
Generously will I take them back in love;
For My anger has turned away from them.
He shall blossom like the lily,
He shall strike root like a Lebanon tree.
His beauty shall be like the olive tree’s,
His fragrance like that of Lebanon.
They shall bring to life new grain,
They shall blossom like the vine;
His scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
“What more have I to do with idols?
When I respond and look to [God],
I become like a verdant cypress.”
Your fruit is provided by Me.
The prudent will take note of them.
For the paths of GOD are smooth;
The righteous can walk on them,
While sinners stumble on them.
Micah
7:18-20
Forgiving iniquity
And remitting transgression—
Not staying angry forever
Toward the remnant of Your own people,
Because You love graciousness!
Quashing our iniquities.
You will hurl all our sins
Into the depths of the sea.
Loyalty to Abraham,
As You promised on oath to our fathers
In days gone by.
Joel
Solemnize a fast,
Proclaim an assembly!
Bid the congregation purify themselves.
Bring together the old,
Gather the babes
And the sucklings at the breast;
Let the bridegroom come out of his chamber,
The bride from her canopied couch.
Let the priests, GOD’s ministers, weep
And say:
“Oh, spare Your people, ETERNAL One !
Let not Your possession become a mockery,
To be taunted by nations!
Let not the peoples say,
‘Where is their God?’”
In behalf of this land
And had compassion
Upon this people.
GOD declared:
“I will grant you the new grain,
The new wine, and the new oil,
And you shall have them in abundance.
Nevermore will I let you be
A mockery among the nations.
I will thrust it into a parched and desolate land—
Its van to the Eastern Sea
And its rear to the Western Sea;
And the stench of it shall go up,
And the foul smell rise.”
For [ GOD ] shall work great deeds.
For GOD has wrought great deeds.
For the pastures in the wilderness
Are clothed with grass.
The trees have borne their fruit;
Fig tree and vine
Have yielded their strength.
Rejoice in the ETERNAL your God.
For you have been given the early rain out of kindness,
Now the rain is made to fall [as] formerly—
The early rain and the late—
And vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
Consumed by swarms and hoppers,
By grubs and locusts,
The great army I let loose against you.
And praise the name of the ETERNAL your God
Who dealt so wondrously with you—
My people shall be shamed no more.
That I am in the midst of Israel:
That I the ETERNAL One am your God
And there is no other.
And My people shall be shamed no more.”
Ha'azinu
more on Parashat Haazinu
Quick Guide: The Five Books of Moses
Genesis | Exodus | Leviticus | Numbers | Deuteronomy |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bereshit (1:1-6:8) |
Shemot (1:1-6:1) |
Vayikra (1:1-5:26) |
Bemidbar (1:1-4:20) |
Devarim (1:1-3:22) |
Noach (6:9-11:32) |
Va'era (6:2-9:35) |
Tzav (6:1-8:36) |
Naso (4:21-7:89) |
Va'etchanan (3:23-7:11) |
Lech Lecha (12:1-17:27) |
Bo (10:1-13:16) |
Shemini (9:1-11:47) |
Behaalotecha (8:1-12:16) |
Ekev (7:12-11:25) |
Vayera (18:1-22:24) |
Beshalach (13:17-17:16) |
Tazria (12:1-13:59) |
Shelach (13:1-15:41) |
Re'eh (11:26-16:17) |
Chaye Sarah (23:1-25:18) |
Yitro (18:1-20:23) |
Metzora (14:1-15:33) |
Korach (16:1-18:32) |
Shoftim (16:18-21:9) |
Toledot (25:19-28:9) |
Mishpatim (21:1-24:18) |
Achare Mot (16:1-18:30) |
Chukat (19:1-22:1) |
Ki Tetze (21:10-25:19) |
Vayetze (28:10-32:3) |
Teruma (25:1-27:19) |
Kedoshim (19:1-20:27) |
Balak (22:2-25:9) |
Ki Tavo (26:1-29:8) |
Vayishlach (32:4-36:43) |
Tetzave (27:20-30:10) |
Emor (21:1-24:23) |
Pinchas (25:10-30:1) |
Nitzavim (29:9-30:20) |
Vayeshev (37:1-40:23) |
Ki Tisa (30:11-34:35) |
Behar (25:1-26:2) |
Matot (30:2-32:42) |
Vayelech (31:1-30) |
Miketz (41:1-44:17) | Vayakhel (35:1-38:20) |
Bechukotai (26:3-27:34) |
Masei (33:1-36:13) |
Haazinu (32:1-52) |
Vayigash (44:18-47:27) |
Pekude (38:21-40:38) |
V'Zot HaBeracha (33:1-34:12) |
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Vayechi (47:28-50:26) |
Parashat Aharei Mot Weekday reading Moroccan te’amim