Parashat Ha'azinu — Give ear (listen)
הַאֲזִינוּ
Ha'azinu (הַאֲזִינוּ) means "give ear (listen)" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.
The Readings
Torah Deuteronomy 32:1-52 Read →
Haftarah II Samuel 22:1-51 Read →
B'rit Chadashah Romans 15:7-13 Read →
What Happens in Ha'azinu
Give ear — haazinu — O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. The song Moshe was commanded to write now fills the portion, laid out in the scroll in two parallel columns like bricks in a wall. It opens with rain: let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew — for I will proclaim the name of YHVH; ascribe greatness to our God. The theme is announced like a verdict: the Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice; a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He. They have corrupted themselves... a perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus repay YHVH, O foolish people? Is He not your Father who bought you?
The song then sings Israel's story from heaven's side. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the children of Yisrael — for YHVH's portion is His people; Yaakov is the lot of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness; He kept him as the apple of His eye — as an eagle stirs up her nest and flutters over her young, YHVH alone led him. He fed him honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock. And then the turn, hinging on a single fattened word: but Yeshurun grew fat, and kicked... and he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They sacrificed to demons, not God — of the Rock who bore you, you were unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
The judgment verses burn: they have moved Me to jealousy with a no-god; I will move them to jealousy with a no-people — the verse Paul hears fulfilled as the Gospel goes to the Gentiles. Famine, plague, and sword; scattering stopped only lest the enemy say, our hand is high — for their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. Vengeance belongs to God alone: to Me belongs vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time. And then mercy has the last stanza: for YHVH will judge His people and relent concerning His servants, when He sees that their power is gone... See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal. The song ends summoning the nations: rejoice, O nations, with His people... He will make atonement for His land and His people. Moshe urges Israel to set their hearts on all these words — for it is your life — and the same day is commanded up Mount Nevo: view the land, and die on the mountain, as Aharon died on Hor... you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there.
Main Themes
Heaven and earth called to witness The Rock — perfect, faithful, without injustice Yeshurun grew fat and kicked I kill and I make alive — no god besides Me Torah as your very life
Key Events
· The song taught to all Israel
· The remembrance of God's fatherly care
· The prophecy of prosperity turning to apostasy
· Judgment and the turning to compassion
· The nations summoned to rejoice with His people
· Moshe commanded up Mount Nevo
Key People
Moshe Yehoshua (Hoshea) Yeshurun — Israel poetically named
Key Verses
Deuteronomy 32:4 Read →
“The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.”
Deuteronomy 32:39 Read →
““See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.”
Deuteronomy 32:47 Read →
“For it is no vain thing for you, because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.””
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