SHABBAT SHUVAH: PARASHAT HAAZINU, SEPTEMBER 27, 2014 LISA D. GRANT Imagine… The first third of your life, you lived in the lap of luxury, wanting for nothing. And yet…there was a hole, an emptiness that you didn’t quite know how to fill. One day, your eyes open to the injustice that has surrounded you all this time and you take action. Thus ends your youth and begins your exile from this princely existence. You enter the next chapter of your life – a time of quiet, of Building a family, of contemplation. And then again, one day everything changes. This time, you lift up you eyes and see your calling, reluctant as you may Be. You take up the charge and this leads to greatness – miracles and wonders and total transformation of the world. The journey along the way is filled with challenges – danger, Boredom, rumbling and unrest. You lead as best you can – walking a tightrope Between advocating for your community and admonishing them for their selfishness and shortsightedness. You are overworked – this Business of community-Building is no small task. You lose your temper one time too many. Your loved ones die. You are alone and your life draws to a close. Parashat Haazinu marks the end of the final third of Moses’ amazing life. Curiously, though Moses is the central character in most of Torah, the Book is not really his story. The grand narrative of Torah is aBout the formation of Am Yisrael – the Jewish People – and our complicated, But ultimately loving relationship with our God. Moses is God’s spokesperson, God’s messenger, God’s sparring partner and ultimately God’s defender. We know very little of Moses’ family life, But can imagine that he wasn’t home very much. He was swept up in an almost overwhelming mission to Bring us God’s instruction and teach us how to “choose life” – to build a just society, to create a sacred calendar, to mark our days with ritual and service. Here, in this parasha, is Moses’ penultimate song. The final parasha of the Torah (which is not part of the weekly Torah cycle) are his final words – words of intimate Blessing, assurance and praise for each and every member of the Am/the People. Perhaps the entire Am is his family. Moses is about to die. He knows it and the people know it. Ha’azinu is his last attempt to deliver God’s teaching to us. This parasha, like the Book of Deuteronomy as a whole, is filled with stark contrasts – images of a wrathful and deeply disappointed God and a God of compassion, steadfastness and hope. Hold onto God’s teaching Moses pleas with dramatic imagery and poetic power. The parsha is aligned with the season – the time of year when we are given the opportunity to call ourselves to task, to take stock, to consider our lives, to contemplate our deaths. Torah gives a choice – “choose life” By embracing this teaching, By struggling with it to find the way to live with justice and compassion, to Be true, to Be loving – to care for each other and to build a world of goodness and plenty. It’s a simple recipe, But oh so difficult to enact. Imagine – Few of us have the vigor and presence to Be aBle to make such a deathBed speech. But, what if we could? What would Be our last words to our loved ones, our community? What teaching would we wish to impart? Building a progressive Jewish community in Brooklyn WORSHIP SPACE: 1012 Eighth Avenue * Brooklyn, NY 11215 ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE: Kolot Chayeinu * 540 President Street, 3rd Fl. * Brooklyn, NY 11215 718-395-9950 | www.kolotchayeinu.org | [email protected] SHABBAT SHUVAH: PARASHAT HAAZINU, SEPTEMBER 27, 2014 LISA D. GRANT Contemplating the words of Haazinu Brings to my mind not just issues of leadership and “large justice” but also issues of “small justice” – how we connect and interact with our loved ones. Here, a very different set of song lyrics come to mind –Nanci Griffith’s “From Clare to Here” – a song of lost opportunities, Broken dreams, distance and unresolved relationships. “It’s a long long way, it get’s further By the day, it’s a long long way from Clare to here.” It’s so easy to let relationships slip. We make mistakes, we misspeak, we keep silent, we hurt the ones we love the most By ignoring them, But not leaving enough room for them to grow, By guilt and shame, By too much ego and not enough compassion, respect and care. How do we keep the distance from getting further By the day? The work of repair and healing is ongoing. Like Moses, we need to keep lift up our eyes to be open to the moments of potential, for action and change. Waiting until the end is not a good strategy. A deathbed speech can’t repair the world. But, mayBe it can mend a Broken heart, or at least bring a bit of peace to a relationship gone awry. I think that’s what Moses is trying to do in Haazinu on a grand scale. And mayBe the message to us is to do the same on a more personal level. Moses tells us to: “Remember the days of old, consider the years of ages past; Ask your parent, who will inform you, Your elders who will tell you… For Adonai’s portion is this people, JacoB, God’s own allotment.” Ask your parent (imperfect as they may Be), whether living or dead, seek your elders. What is the wisdom of their lives that has shaped you, guided you? How can they serve as models and inspiration for the values you hold, the commitments you make to your own loved ones, to the Jewish people, to the world? And as you (we) Become the elders, what is the “Torah” we hope to impart? How can we live that Torah every day – in our words and our deeds? Don’t wait for the end to share this message - be a living Torah as best we can. We know we will err and hurt and leave things unfinished. But, we have the chance to do teshuvah – to turn our hearts back, to seek healing and bring each other closer. That’s the message of the parsha, of this season, and I hope of our lives. Building a progressive Jewish community in Brooklyn WORSHIP SPACE: 1012 Eighth Avenue * Brooklyn, NY 11215 ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE: Kolot Chayeinu * 540 President Street, 3rd Fl. * Brooklyn, NY 11215 718-395-9950 | www.kolotchayeinu.org | [email protected] .