Song of Moses, Called the Shirat Ha’Azinu (Song of ‘Give Ear’) Taken from the First Words of the Poem, and "Give Ear" Is the Meaning of Ha'azinu
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Parasha Ha’azinu Chavurah Shalom Saturday 9/15/18 This Parasha is the Song of Moses, called the Shirat Ha’azinu (Song of ‘Give Ear’) taken from the first words of the poem, and "Give Ear" is the meaning of Ha'azinu. Deuteronomy 31:19 reveals that ADONAI is the source of this song. This song was given to Israel as a legal witness, a part of the covenant relation with His People. It was a warning of the consequences of rebellion, a call to faithfulness, and a testimony to God’s faithfulness to the Covenant, either bad or good. Moshe wrote this song the same day he finished the Scroll of the Torah, the same day on which he was to die. This is Hebrew poetry, and even critical scholars agree that this is one of the oldest poems/songs we have. Hebrew poetry is built on parallelism, so that the first line is explained, expanded as it is duplicated in the second line. When a word in one line is obscure, its parallel line helps to define it. The song embraces the whole of the future history of Israel, and bears all the marks of a prophetic testimony from the mouth of Moses, in the perfectly ideal picture which it draws, on the one hand, of the benefits and blessings conferred by the Lord upon His people; and on the other hand, of the ingratitude with which Israel repaid its God for them all. “This song, soaring as it does to the loftiest heights, moving amidst the richest abundance of pictures of both present and future, with its concise, compressed, and pictorial style, rough, penetrating, and sharp, but full of the holiest solemnity, a witness against the disobedient nation, a celebration of the covenant God, sets before us in miniature a picture of the whole life and conduct of the great man of God, whose office it pre- eminently was to preach condemnation” (O. v. Gerlach ).--Keil & Delitzsch. No text within Deuteronomy has received more attention through the years than the Song of Moses (32:1–43), from ancient scribes who copied it to modern critical scholars who ponder its structure and meaning. The text is hauntingly beautiful, even in translation; and it touches on familiar themes found elsewhere throughout the whole Hebrew Bible. Talmudic rules require that two songs in the Pentateuch (Exod 15; Deut 32) be written in a distinctive manner (b. Meg. 16b). Up to this point in L, the text is in three narrow columns of twenty-seven lines each per page—until we reach the , “these words,” in 31:28, which mirror the opening words ofהדברים האלה words , “these are the words.” On the next page of theאלה הדברים ,the book in 1:1 - 1 - codex, the first six lines extend across the full width of the page with numerous spaces and large dots between the words of 31:28c–30. A large space follows, separating this introduction from the text of the Song of Moses in 32:1–43, which follows in two columns, as stipulated by the Talmud, for twenty more lines on that page and seventeen on the next page, a total of thirty-seven lines. A smaller space separates the poem from the text of 32:52a, ending with the word .the land,” so as to make twenty-seven lines of Hebrew text on each page“ ,הארץ The following page resumes the standard three narrow columns of Hebrew text per page to the end of the book. Such special treatment is anticipated in the Dead Sea Scrolls containing Deut 32, though in different ways (see Tov, “Special Layouts”).--Word Biblical Commentary, p. 785. With this brief introduction, let us now dive on into this song. Deuteronomy 32:1-3 “Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth. 2 “Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the droplets on the fresh grass And as the showers on the herb. 3 “For I proclaim the name of the LORD; Ascribe greatness to our God! Vv. 1-3 The poem opens calling upon Heaven and Earth to bear witness and give testimony to the words of this song. This has a double connotation. For the eyewitnesses had to be first in carrying out the punishment of the wicked and cast the first stone. In this case, the heavens would withhold the rain, and the earth the produce, just as ADONAI had promised in the Shema. This expression "Give Ear," and Shema, "Hear," is common language in the wisdom literature of a teacher addressing his student. Moshe’s words are compared to rain, dew and droplets on fresh grass, for the Torah nourishes and fosters growth. The Torah is refreshing to the Soul. Water is life in this world of the Middle East. That which gives life to the plants and animals, the Mayim Chayim. The Ruach HaKodesh is described in the same kind of language by Yeshua – John 7:37-38 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will - 2 - flow rivers of living water.’” 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. There are many passages which give either the one or the other, or the double entendre, the two meanings in one statement. This is a resplendent theme in the Scripture, as our God uses the necessity of water for life in the physical realm as a metaphor for describing the necessity of God for life in the spiritual realm. Ezekiel 47:5 Again he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not ford, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be forded. 6 And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me back to the bank of the river. 7 Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river there were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Ezekiel 47:9 “And it will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live. And there will be very many fish, for these waters go there, and the others become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Ezekiel 47:12 “And by the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.” John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” Revelation 7:17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 21:6 And He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. Revelation 22:1 And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who - 3 - hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. Thus the calling upon the heavens as the source of water, and understanding the water to be the source of life, has a double connotation – the life on this earth, so dependent as it is upon water, and the eternal life, so dependent as it is on the water of the Ruach and the Torah which gives life eternal. The Chofetz Chaim wrote that the heavens represented the Written Torah and the earth, the Oral Torah. The heavens are associated with the rain, the earth with the dew. He noted that the rain can be counted, but the dew has no discrete countable elements. It is also possible to count the elements of the Written Torah – the letters, the words, the mitzvoth, but it is not possible to measure the Oral Torah....claiming that in this world, only the light of the Oral Torah has been revealed; the Written Torah, embodying the Or HaGanuz, the Hidden Light of creation will only be fully revealed with the appearance of Elijah heralding the coming of the Messiah.--The Chumash, p. 204. I have included these words to emphasize the assertion of the rabbinical writings to the Oral Torah. This is an important understanding of the Jewish people of more modern times and their beliefs. It is a false assumption to believe that the Jewish people or their rabbis study and know the Old Testament, the Tanach. What they Study is the commentary of the Mishnah and the Talmud on the Torah.