 |
|
 |
Parshat Ha'azinu
1997
For the last five cycles of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur I have been responsible for delivering sermons as the rabbi of a congregation in Ontario. This year, I have taken on a new position: Director of the Newberger Hillel Center at the University of Chicago.
For the first time, I will be teaching on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur rather than preaching. My preparation for the Days of Awe have been more relaxed than in the past. Ironically, my own experience of these days can be more focused on the texts, themes and purpose of this time in our year.
Parashat Ha'azinu (Deuteronomy chapter 32) represents one of the less prominent texts of the Days of Awe. As is the case this year, Ha'azinu is sometimes read on Shabbat Shuvah, the Shabbat of Repentance that comes between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This Shabbat is unique for falling within the Ten Days of Repentance, when the theme of God's judgement figures so prominently: "You are judge and arbiter...inscribing and recording all forgotten things.... The day of judgment is here!... How many shall pass away and how many shall be brought into existence..." (Unetaneh Tokef, from the liturgy of the High Holy Days).
Ha'azinu, likewise, deals with God's judgment. In his introduction to Ha'azinu, Moses says: "Gather to me all the elders of your tribes...that I may call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that, when I am dead, you will act wickedly...and that in time to come misfortune will befall you for having done evil in the sight of the Lord" (Deut. 31:28,29). One of the few long poems of the Torah, Ha'azinu outlines God's faithfulness to the people of Israel and contrasts it with Israel's ingratitude. Israel abandon's God for idols and God responds by punishing His people. Ultimately, God delivers Israel from the hands of its enemies.
In Ha'azinu Israel is saved, but not on account of its own merit. Even the theme of teshuvah, or turning back to God, plays no part in the flow of the poem. Ha'azinu thus stands in strong contrast to the Haftarah (prophetic reading) of Shabbat Shuvah:
"Yet even now" - says the Lord - "Turn back to Me with all your hearts, And with fasting, weeping, and lamenting." Rend your hearts... And turn back to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in kindness, And renouncing punishment. (Joel 2:12-13)
It is also striking to compare Ha'azinu to the Haftarah for Yom Kippur, in which the king of the wicked city of Nineveh tells his citizens: "Let everyone turn back from his evil ways and from the injustice of which he is guilty. Who knows but that God may turn and relent? He may turn back from His wrath, so that we do not perish." God saw what they did...and God renounced the punishment... (Jonah 3:8-10).
Teshuvah is present in these passages from the Prophets. It is not present in Ha'azinu. So it is appropriate that, while we read Ha'azinu during the days of Repentance, the Shabbat of Ha'azinu is named Shabbat Shuvah after its Haftarah rather than Shabbat Ha'azinu after its Torah reading.
One might say that Ha'azinu is part of the story, but not the whole story. a'azinu is honest about our inadequacies:
"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 sacrificed to demons, no-gods..." (Deut. 32:15,17)
Ha'azinu also describes our sufferings in language that bespeaks the memories of our own cruel century: "I will hide My countenance from them, And see how they fare in the end... I will sweep misfortunes on them, Use up My arrowss on them: Wasting famine, ravaging plague, Deadly pestilence, and fanged beasts" (Deut. 32:20,23,24)
By itself, Ha'azinu is part of the story, but not the whole story: There is impiety, and there is punishment, but there is neither teshuvah nore forgiveness. If we only had Ha'azinu, we would all be inspired to be self-righteous and judgmental towards those who are less pious than us. Ha'azinu might inspire us to lash out at fellow Jews with "the venom of asps, the pitiless poison of vipers" (Deut. 32:33).
Since Ha'azinu describes God as having no patience, we would have no patience either. Since Ha'azinu describes God's punishment in violent terms, we would become violent and punishing. Might it be that the heinous name calling and spitting that some Jews directed at other Jews at the Kotel this past Shavuot was inspired by such an understanding of God's ways?
If Ha'azinu were the whole story, some Jews might feel compelled to put in place a policy of "zero tolerance" towards Jews who do not lead a traditional Jewish life. But Ha'azinu is not the whole story. Teshuvah, forgiveness and forbearance must also be included in a Jewish understanding of the relationship of people and God. This is a central message of Yom Kippur, during which it is traditional to read the book of Jonah.
The last chapter of that book is dedicated to Jonah's learning, the hard way, that God wants human teshuvah and responds to it. Jonah learns that God prefers that his creatures live: "Should not I care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left...?!" (Jonah 4:11).
In a world where "zero tolerance" is a popular attitude, where repentance and forgiveness are rare commodities, we need to read Shuvah/Return! after reading Ha'azinu. We need regular reminding that strict justice--divine or human--must be tempered with rachmones.
Prepared by Rabbi David Rosenberg, Director, Newberger Hillel Center at the University of Chicago.
|
 |
|
 |