50 Ha'azinu

הַאֲזִינוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם וַאֲדַבֵּרָה וְתִשְׁמַע הָאָרֶץ אִמְרֵי־פִי׃

Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

Ha’azinu is remarkable in two respects: what it says, but let’s note with regard to his final address to the Children of Israel before a set of farewell blessings, Moses reviews all of his people’s past, present, future and strengthens the notion; the Lord addresses heaven and earth, calling to serve as everlasting witnesses to His words and remind them of earlier, harmonious days in their relationship with God (Deut. 32:7), and of days  their collective disobedient behavior (32:15–16). Encourage them to seek a closer, more intimate relationship with God.

About halfway through Moses’s poem of Parashat Ha’azinu, he describes God’s response to Israelite disloyalty. God is portrayed as “hiding the Divine face”: “The Lord saw and was vexed and spurned His sons and daughters. God said, ‘I will hide My countenance from them, and see how they fare in the end. For they are a treacherous breed, children with no loyalty in them’” (Deut. 32:19–20).

He prophesies that despite all that God and Moses have said and done, Israel will abandon God, as they had in the past. In the end, God and Israel will reconcile. Why, Moses pleads, can you not understand the truth that Adonai alone is God. Remember these words, he concludes, for they are your very life and the length of your day, God tell Moses that his days are over. (Deut. 32:46-50).

The poem Ha'azinu (Deut. 32:1-43) which covers most of this week's reading, presents a brief review of the chronicles of the Israelites from their beginnings until entering the land of Israel and states that the way of corrective moral reproach, values the teachings of Faith and encourages us to applied them while in a soul-searching and in rectifying our behavior before our Creator.