The Power of Song Parshat Ha-azinu 5781 ​

Deuteronomy 31:19 (19) Therefore, write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Israel.

Deuteronomy 32: 1-20

Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; Let the earth hear the words I utter!

May my discourse come down as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, Like showers on young growth, Like droplets on the grass.

For the name of the LORD I proclaim; Give glory to our God!

The Rock!—His deeds are perfect, Yea, all His ways are just; A faithful God, never false, True and upright is He.

Children unworthy of Him— That crooked, perverse generation— Their baseness has played Him false.

Do you thus requite the LORD, O dull and witless people? Is not He the Father who created you, Fashioned you and made you endure!

Remember the days of old, Consider the years of ages past; Ask your father, he will inform you, Your elders, they will tell you:

When the Most High gave nations their homes And set the divisions of man, He fixed the boundaries of peoples In relation to Israel’s numbers.

For the LORD’s portion is His people, His own allotment.

He found him in a desert region, In an empty howling waste. He engirded him, watched over him, Guarded him as the pupil of His eye.

Like an who rouses his nestlings, Gliding down to his young, So did He spread His wings and take him, Bear him along on His pinions;

The LORD alone did guide him, No alien god at His side.

He set him atop the highlands, To feast on the yield of the earth; He fed him from the crag, And oil from the flinty rock,

Curd of kine and milk of flocks; With the best of lambs, And rams of Bashan, and he-goats; With the very finest wheat— And foaming grape-blood was your drink.

So Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— You grew fat and gross and coarse— He forsook the God who made him And spurned the Rock of his support.

They incensed Him with alien things, Vexed Him with abominations.

They sacrificed to , no-gods, Gods they had never known, New ones, who came but lately, Who stirred not your fathers’ fears.

You neglected the Rock that begot you, Forgot the God who brought you forth.

The LORD saw and was vexed And spurned His sons and His daughters.

He 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.

מדרש תנחומא א׳:ט״ז Tanchuma, ​ The enumerated ten songs at key סימן י moments in the life of the nation. There was ( כנגדן אמרו ליה ישראל עשר שירות. הראשונה .the song of the in Egypt (see Is ​ במצרים, שנאמר, השיר יהיה לכם כליל התקדש the song at the Red Sea (Ex. 15), the ,(30:29 חג (ישע' ל כט). השנית על הים, שנאמר, אז ישיר song at the well (Num. 21), and ​ ​ משה. השלישית על הבאר, אז ישיר ישראל את .Ha’azinu,’ song at the end of his life ​ ​ ​ השירה (במדב' כא יז). הרביעית אמר משה, ויהי sang a song (Josh. 10:12-13). So did ​ ​ ככלות משה לכתוב וגו' (דברי' לא כד). החמישית, (Jud. 5), Hannah (1 Sam. 2) and ​ ​ אז ידבר יהושע לה' ביום תת ה' את האמורי (2 Sam. 22). There was the Song of (יהוש' י יב). הששית, ותשר דבורה וברק בן , Shir ha-Shirim,about which ​ ​ ​ ​ אבינועם (שופט' ה א). השביעית, וידבר דוד לה' Akiva said, “All songs are holy but the Song ​ ​ את דברי השירה (ש"ב כב א). השמינית, מזמור of Songs is the holy of holies.” The tenth ​ ​ שיר חנוכת הבית לדוד (תהלי' ל א)...שירה song has not yet been sung. It is the song of התשיעית של שלמה, שיר השירים. העשירית the Messiah ("Sing to Adonai a new song, for ​ ​ לעתיד, מזמור שירו לה' שיר חדש כי נפלאות .(God has worked wonders," Ps. 98:1 עשה (תהלים צח א):

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Schneersohn, Sefer Ha-Zikhronot (Kefar Chabad 1983, p. 125) ​ ​ One of the traditions handed down by Maharal is to recite Ha’azinu every day, before prayers, ​ ​ for Maharal viewed this song as having a special quality that purifies the heart and mind. In Maharal’s opinion, also merchants and craftsmen should recite Ha’azinu several times a day, ​ ​ since it has a special quality bringing success; hence everyone should know Ha’azinu by heart. ​ ​ Maharal also viewed recitation of Ha’azinu several times a year as having the special quality of ​ ​ ensuring long life.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, Likutei Sihot, part 24, Ha’azinu (1982, p. 237) ​ ​ ​ ​ But God commanded that they [Moses and Joshua] write many copies of this poem to give to every person, so that every man and woman would know it and be fluent in it, singing it in thanksgiving, and He gave the reason for this poem, saying, “in order that this poem may be … My witness against the people of Israel,” that is to say, that it be in the mouths of Israel so that they not need to look it up in a sefer , rather this poem will be present in their mouths ​ ​ and it will be a witness against the people of Israel.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Faith is more like music than science. Science analyses, music integrates. And as music connects note to note, so faith connects episode to episode, life to life, age to age in a timeless melody that breaks into time. God is the composer and librettist. We are each called on to be voices in the choir, singers of God’s song. Faith is the ability to hear the music beneath the noise. ​ ​

So music is a signal of transcendence... The history of the Jewish spirit is written in its songs.

I once watched a teacher explaining to young children the difference between a physical possession and a spiritual one. He had them build a paper model of . Then (this was in the days of tape-recorders) he put on a tape with a song about Jerusalem that he taught to the class. At the end of the session he did something very dramatic. He tore up the model and shredded the tape. He asked the children, “Do we still have the model?” They replied, No. “Do we still have the song?” They replied, Yes.

We lose physical possessions, but not spiritual ones. We lost the physical Moses. But we still have the song.

● What role has song played in your life? When are you most likely to be touched by song or music? What songs do you remember best?

Deuteronomy 32:48 48And the Lord spoke to Moses on that very day, saying, ​ 49Go up this Mount Avarim [to] , which is in the land of Moab, that is facing ​ Jericho, and see the Land of , which I am giving to the children of Israel as a possession,

50And die on the mountain upon which you are climbing and be gathered to your people, ​ just as your brother died on and was gathered to his people

51Because you betrayed Me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Merivath ​ , [in] the desert of Zin, [and] because you did not sanctify Me in the midst of the children of Israel.

52For from afar, you will see the land, but you will not come there, to the land I am giving ​ the children of Israel.

Midrash on the End of Ha’azinu A divine voice came forth and said, "The time has come for you to depart from the world." Moses pleaded with the Holy One, "Master of the universe, for my sake, remember the day when You revealed Yourself to me at the bush; for my sake, remember the time when I stood on Mount Sinai forty days and forty nights. I beg You, do not hand me over to the of death." Again a divine voice came forth and said, "Fear not, I Myself will attend you and your burial." Moses pleaded, "Then wait until I bless Israel. On account of the warnings and reprimands I heaped upon them, they never found any ease with me." Then he began to bless each tribe separately, but when he saw that time was running short, he included all the tribes in a single blessing. Then he said to Israel, "Because of the Torah and its precepts, I troubled you greatly. Now, please forgive me." They replied, "Our master, our lord, you are forgiven." In their turn they said to him, "Moses our teacher, we troubled you even more, we made your burden so heavy. Please forgive us." Moses replied, "You are forgiven."

(From Midrash Petirat Moshe, quoted in New Studies in the Book of by Nechama Leibowitz, and from Sefer Ha’aggadah/The Book of Legends, ed. Chayim Nachman Bialik, excerpted and adapted)

Haazinu – A Call for Personal Moral Improvement

By: Dr. Gottlieb* ​ Ha'azinu, which this year follows immediately after the New Year, is also Shabbat ​ ​ ​ Shuvah, the Sabbath during the Ten Days of Repentance. These days are propitious moments ​ for forgiveness and atonement, and hence a special time for personal thoughts of repentance and soul reckoning.

Shabbat Shuvah is so named after the opening words of the from Hosea, "Shuvah ​ ​ ​ ​ Yisrael—Return, O Israel, to the Lord your G-d, for you have fallen because of your sin" ​ (14:2).[1] "To the Lord" is understood as meaning to try your utmost and then some, rising ​ ​ above oneself by special effort. The 's use of the plural - in "Take words with you and return to the Lord" - attests to the aspiration towards oneness of the Jewish people, emphasizing that each and every person individually must mend and improve his or her ways. The conclusion is that the wise and sensible person will seek and find the failings in himself and not in another, as expressed in sayings of the Sages, who were deeply versed in human nature: "Do not impute to your neighbor a fault that is in yourself" (Bava Metzia 59b), or "First judge ​ ​ yourself truly and then judge others" (Bava Metzia 107b; this translation is based on a play on ​ ​ the word keshot, reading it as Aramaic for "truth" as opposed to Hebrew for "adorn" ​ ​ [Translator's note]), and the like. The underlying didactic value is: "Do not judge others until you stand in their place," as Hillel the Elder[2] said (Avot 2.4), meaning that one should not ​ ​ ​ ​ judge others or pry into their souls, their private realms, for we do not know everything about others, nor should we. It is our duty only to deal with our selves, to mend and improve our own ways.

Returning to the Lord after having deviated from the straight path finds expression in the poem, Ha'azinu: deep individual soul-searching in the wake of having failed through sinful and ​ improper behavior, and subsequent mending of one's ways in order to return to the proper road of morally befitting behavior.