With Ha‘azinu we climb to one of the peaks of Jewish spirituality. For a month Moses had taught the people. He had told them their history and destiny, and the laws that would make theirs a unique society of people bound in covenant with one another and with God. He renewed the covenant and then handed the leadership on to…
…contempt. But the stranger, with great dignity, says to him in effect, “The Torah is my inheritance as well as yours. Since you have much, and I have none, share a little of what you have with me. Instead of dismissing me, teach me.” Few ideas in the history of Judaism have greater power than this: the idea that Torah…
…that everyone has access to learning? If you could have one character from Tanach be your modern-day teacher, who would you want to learn from? Parsha in Passing Ha’azinu features a poetic song delivered by Moshe on his final day on earth. He calls upon heaven and earth as witnesses and urges Bnei Yisrael to remember their history, and how…
The Parsha in a Nutshell This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks, available to read in full via the left sidebar (or below, if you are viewing this on your phone) In Ha’azinu we climb to one of the peaks of Jewish spirituality. Moshe had spent a month teaching the Jewish people. He had…
…ourselves. The fault lies not in our stars but ourselves. Moving into the prophetic mode, Moses foresees what he has already predicted, even before they have crossed the Jordan and entered the land. Throughout the book of Deuteronomy he has been warning of the danger that, in their land, once the hardships of the desert and the struggles of battle…
…that you have to take thought and turn it into song. That is Ha’azinu, Moses’ great hymn to God’s love for His people and his role in ensuring, as Martin Luther King put it, that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” In Ha’azinu, the man of intellect and moral courage becomes the figure…
The Parsha in a Nutshell The majority of Ha’azinu is 70 lines of a song that Moshe sings to the Israelites. He then blesses them and climbs Mount Nevo so that he can view the Israel before he dies. The song of Ha’azinu is one long, beautiful poem describing the relationship between the God who is always just, and…
The Parsha in a Nutshell Parshat Ha’azinu mainly consists of the song Moshe sings as his last lesson to the Israelites, before he blesses them and ascends Mount Nebo to die. The song expresses in poetry the relationship between God and Bnei Yisrael, and the promises we made to one another. The image created through the verses is that of…
Ha‘azinu consists, for the most part, of the song sung by Moses as his last lesson to the Israelites before blessing them and ascending Mount Nebo to die. This song expresses in poetic form the relationship between the God of righteousness and His often recalcitrant people. The basic idea behind the song belongs to the logic of covenant, in which…
…31:2) As Rashi notes, it is written, “shall not”, although Moses is still physically capable. He is still in full bodily vigour, “his eyes had not grown dim, nor his vitality fled.” (Deut. 34:7) But he has reached the end of his personal road. The time had come for another age, a new generation, and a different kind of leader….