Parshat Ha’azinu

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 one of the parties can bring a case against the other for non-fulfilment of duties agreed to in the covenant itself. This kind of lawsuit (known in biblical Hebrew as a riv) is referred to often by the later prophets, usually an accusation by God against the Israelites but occasionally the opposite.

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