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From:
"Yeshivat Har Etzion's Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit
Midrash"
To:
yhe-intparsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject: INTPARSHA -51:
Parashat Ha'azinu
Yeshivat Har Etzion
Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash
Introduction to Parashat HaShavua
Parashat Haazinu - Structure and Themes
By Michael Hattin
Introduction
At last ready to take his leave from the
people for the
final time, Moshe departs from the
conventional approach
that he has employed throughout the rest of Sefer
Devarim.
Containing neither a review of mitzvot, nor straightforward
words of exhortation and warning as
we have typically
encountered in the remainder of this Book, the
Parasha of
Haazinu is instead composed in
the form of a song.
Eschewing readily comprehensible prose, the 'Shira'
(song)
rather relies upon poetic metaphor, meter, and
sometimes-
obscure imagery to drive home its
timeless and profound
message. This week we shall study some of
the pertinent
themes of this song, viewing them in particular through the
enlightening prism of Ramban's
(13th century, Spain)
commentary.
Five Sections - Deconstructing the Song
Although it is sometimes difficult to pinpoint
the exact
references of some of the Song's allusions,
nevertheless a
general structure of its subject matter can be outlined. It
would be useful to first peruse the text of the Song, found
in Chapter 32, verses 1- 43 of Sefer Devarim, while bearing
in mind that there is much discussion
among the primary
sources and the commentaries concerning the
exact meaning
and import of specific phrases. Consider
also that the
commentaries have made various plausible attempts to
break
down the Song into its component sections, and the following
approach should therefore not be viewed as
definitive, but
rather as a constructive tool for
organizing the Song's
themes.
The first section, verses one through six (1 - 6), serve as
an introduction. In these verses, Moshe invokes
the names
of heaven and earth as his 'witnesses,'
and proceeds to
proclaim God's greatness, as well as
His justice. His
children, the people of Israel, are
at fault, for the
generation that God sustained and nurtured has
repaid His
kindness with ingratitude.
In section two, verses seven through twelve (7 - 12), Moshe
exhorts the people to remember the days of old,
to ponder
the events of earlier times. He describes how God chose the
people of Israel from among the other nations as
His own,
and assigned them a unique
mission. Turning to the
experience of the
Wilderness, Moshe recalls God's
providential care of the people, how He shielded them in His
protective embrace from a barren
environment that was
hostile and hazardous.
Thus far, Moshe's has described events in the
past, both
distant as well as recent. The remaining sections, in which
he employs the medium of prophecy, relate to
events after
Moshe's lifetime, as he sees them unfold in his mind's eye.
However, since for the Prophet, past, present and future are
perceived as progressing along the
same continuum, the
grammatical tenses in the Song remain constant throughout.
Thus, in section three, verses thirteen through eighteen (13
- 18), Moshe sees the people enter the
land. God causes
them to conquer and to settle its 'high places,' and to then
partake of and enjoy its choice products: honey, oil, milk,
meat, wheat and wine. The people wax fat from
all of the
goodness that the land graciously bestows, but rather
than
turning to God in gratitude, they abandon Him
and instead
worship the alien gods of Canaan as their patrons. Adopting
the abominable rituals of those pagan cults, their
conduct
angers God, as they forget the loving concern of the One Who
had fashioned them into a nation.
Section four, verses nineteen through twenty-six (19 - 26),
spells out the frightening consequences of the
conduct of
the people of Israel. God will 'hide His face'
from them
and they will fall prey
to the surrounding nations.
Stricken by famine, fever, and plague, the people
will be
attacked by 'wild beasts' as the iron grip of the besieging
enemy closes around their cities. They will be exiled
from
their land and almost forever lost as a people.
But, a remnant will survive. Section four,
verses twenty-
seven through thirty-three (27 -
33), describes God's
'reluctant' preservation of His people. The taunts
of the
enemy, who might otherwise ascribe their victory over Israel
to their own strength and to the power of their gods,
will
paradoxically be the cause of Israel's deliverance. Lacking
merits on their own, it will be for the sake of
His name
that is inextricably bound up with His people, that God will
intervene to save. The nations, in turn, will
not escape
punishment but will drink from the very 'wine of Sodom' that
they themselves have poured, for
their motivations in
attacking Israel were self-interested and self-serving.
Section five, verses thirty-four through forty-three
(34 -
43) speaks of God's rescue. When all hope
appears to be
lost and the very existence of the people of Israel hangs in
the balance, when the nations will question God's ability or
desire to save and will gloat over their
imminent demise,
God will show Himself. The One Who alone can kill and bring
back to life, the One who crushes and brings healing,
will
exact vengeance from His foes, for they desired to
destroy
Israel for their own conceited purposes. On
that dreadful
Day of Reckoning, God will obliterate the enemies of Israel
and they will once more dwell securely in their land.
Reassembling the Sections
Considering the structural outline of the
Song, we can
appreciate that in fact it is very much telling a
coherent
tale, namely the history of the Jewish people.
It begins
with the story of our ancestors, who were selected
by God
and were first charged
with the responsibility of
introducing His name and moral laws to
the world. That
mission was to be achieved by their descendants,
who were
given the framework of a fertile land in order
to realize
that goal.
Seduced by the bounty of that land and by the immoral rites
and ethical equivocation of its gods, the people of
Israel
strayed from their exalted but difficult
task, and were
therefore exiled. Condemned to wandering among the nations,
their initial association with the idea of an
Absolute God
of stern morality and indulgent lovingkindness could not be
cast off, for wherever they went in the
lands of their
dispersion they carried the idea with them.
Although the nations subjected Israel to constant attack,
they could not be destroyed, for their demise
would have
spelled the end of God's interaction with the world.
Thus,
a remnant always survived, patiently waiting
for the day
when God would again cause His favor to shine
upon them.
That day, Moshe assures a people no doubt taken aback by the
harshness of his hymn, will one day dawn.
The people of
Israel will be reconciled with their God and
restored to
their land, much to the chagrin of their enemies
who will
perceive in those portentous events their own downfall.
The Ramban - A Biographical Sketch
Moses ben Nachman (1195 - 1270) was born in Gerona,
in the
province of Aragon. The period during which he
lived was
pivotal for Spanish Jewry, for at the
dawn of the 12th
century, much of Northern Spain fell under the sway
of the
Christian kings who had reconquered it
from its Moslem
overlords. Additionally, the conquest of Andalusia
by the
fanatical Moslem Berbers of North Africa in 1148
put many
Jews to flight northwards, and as
result of these two
developments, the centers of Jewish life in
Spain changed
from Moslem to Christian hands.
While still a youth, Ramban acquired fame
as a Talmudic
scholar. Combining his Talmudic acumen with
philosophical
and scientific training, he soon became recognized
as the
spiritual leader of Spanish Jewry. A prodigious
writer, he
authored important commentaries on
the Talmud and the
Chumash, as well as critical comments on the works
of the
Rif and the Rambam.
In 1263, James the King of Aragon called upon the Ramban to
publicly represent the Jews in a
debate with a Jewish
apostate by the name of Pablo Christiani, whose
patron was
the head of the Dominican Order of Friars. In the
presence
of the dignitaries of the
Church, Ramban stated his
arguments forcefully and convincingly, defendinthe tenets of
the Torah and undermining the leading dogmas of Catholicism.
The Dominicans were sufficiently unhappy with the results of
the debate to appeal to the Pope for an order of banishment,
and James reluctantly sent the Ramban into exile.
Taking the opportunity to fulfill a
lifelong dream, the
Ramban set his sights for the barren shores of the
Land of
Israel, and arrived in Jerusalem on the ninth of Elul of the
year 1266. Greeted by a landscape of desolation
and ruin,
he found only two Jews residing
permanently within the
city's environs. Nevertheless, he made Jerusalem
his home
and soon a small community of Jews
coalesced around his
leadership. During the final three years of his
life, he
completed his commentary on the Chumash. It is
useful to
keep the above brief biography in mind as we
consider the
Ramban's words concerning the Shira of Haazinu.
The Commentary of the Ramban on the Shira
"This Song constitutes
for us a true and faithful witness, for it explicitly
spells out all that will befall us. It
begins by describing the act
of compassion that God performed by taking
us to Him as His portion, and
recalls His care of us in the wilderness. He caused us to
possess the land of great and powerful nations and we
enjoyed goodness, wealth and honor in
that place. Becoming complacent and demonstrating ingratitude, we rebelled
against God and served idolatry. God
responded in anger, and we were stricken with pestilence, famine, wild
beasts and the sword, until we were
exiled and scattered to every corner of the globe. These
historical facts are well known.
"The Song proclaims
that in the end, God will exact vengeance from our enemies, for all of
their oppressive cruelty had as its underlying
motivation a hatred for God, rather than simply an antipathy
towards us.
"It is obvious that the final
vindication of which the Song speaks refers to the Future
Redemption, for its words were not fulfilled at the time of
the Return from Babylonian captivity. In fact,
political weakness and subservience to
foreign kings characterized the beginning of the Second Temple period,
and God did not 'atone' for the land of His people at
that time.
"Behold, this Song contains
no exhortations to return to God and to serve
Him. Rather it is a testimonial document attesting to our
abandonment of God and His angry response, which will, however, not
result in our complete disappearance. God will
again have compassion upon us and will
severely punish our foes. Thus, the Song constitutes
a categorical promise of future redemption, negating the arguments of
the heretics who anticipate otherwise (commentary to
verse 40).
Conclusion
For the Ramban, the significance of the Song
lies in its constituting an unassailable monument to our past,
present
and future. The Song does not enjoin upon us what
we must
do, or command us concerning how we should serve
God. It
contains no mitzvot, and makes no provisos on us to observe
the Torah. It states no warnings, and lays down no
rewards
for observance or punishments for abrogation.
It is not
even a prayer, for Moshe composes the Song neither
in the
form of supplication, nor as inspired words of exhortation,
but rather as a prophetic statement of the destiny
and the
eternity of the Jewish people. As such, the Song
becomes a
text sui generis, for it describes not what ought to be, nor
what must be, but rather what will be.
With an inevitability that in no way undermines our freedom
to choose otherwise, Moshe proclaims the story of the Jewish
people. God has given us a mission in the world,
a unique
responsibility that sets us apart from all
other peoples,
but throughout our history we
will often oppose that
remarkable fact to adopt the worldview and way of
life of
the other nations. Our attempts to surrender
our heritage
will never entirely succeed, for though we may
stray far
from our spiritual moorings, our identity and
our destiny
will always remain bound up with the name of
the God of
Israel. Conversely, though mighty nations may rise up
with
intent to destroy us, they too will not succeed,
for with
our demise, God's faintly perceived role in the
history of
humanity would perish as well.
In the end, God will return to His people and return them to
His land, if not on account of their merits
then for the
sake of 'His great Name.' The
Jewish people, the only
living remnant to have survived from antiquity, is
offered
the promise of eventual redemption; through their redemption
the return of God's presence
to the world will also
inevitably transpire, and the purpose
of Creation will
finally be realized.
Shabbat Shalom
YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433
Copyright (c) 1999 Yeshivat Har Etzion
All Rights Reserved
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