“How can one
have routed a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock
had sold them, the Lord had given them up?”

(Devarim
32:30)

OUR SUCCESS IS DEPENDANT UPON OUR SPIRITUAL CONDITION, NOT
UPON OUR MILITARY MIGHT.

“How can one
have routed a thousand” – If you do
not observe the Torah, how can I keep my promise to you? You asked that one of
you rout a thousand, and two, ten thousand; now one of the nations rout a
thousand and two, ten thousand.

“For their
rock is not like our Rock”  – the authority which you give us is
unlike the authority which you give them; when you give them supremacy, they
behave towards us with brutality, killing, burning, and crucifying us.

“Though our
enemies are judges” – You had
decreed for us that a foe may not serve as witness or judge, as is written, “and he not
be his enemy” (Devarim 35) – he shall
testify; “and
did not seek his harm” – he shall judge him – but you
appointed over us enemies to be witnesses and judges.

(Sifrei, Haazinu,
Pesikta 323)

Had
not Israel been forsaken by its Rock, had not the Rock of Israel wanted Israel
to be enslaved by the nations – and to this
end, surrendered Israel to their hands – had the conflict between the nations
and Israel been a struggle between the rock of the nations and the Rock of
Israel, then not Israel, but the nations, would have been defeated, Israel
would not have been vanquished. The rock of the nations cannot stand up to the
Rock of Israel.

(Rabbi Shimshon R.
Hirsch on Devarim 32:30-31)

THE
MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF HAAZINU

Gideon Admanit

            The
Haazinu poem, which the Torah commands be not only written but also “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.”(31:19)
raises a number of problems. The main difficulty is not on a stylistic/linguistic
level, but rather on the conceptual and ideological level.

          The
poem’s content – content
which totally contradicts one’s
natural anticipation of a poem composed at the end of Moshe’s great life achievement of forty
years – leaves us in
shock. Moshe had transformed the Israelite people from a rabble of slaves
(survivors of the sword), lacking national and spiritual backbone, into a
nation proudly exiting Egypt, following its God “on
a path unsowed”, and
receiving the Torah in an awe-inspiring scene.  Surprisingly, the poem makes no mention of these important
events.

          This
and more. Unlike other poems in the Bible, which include praise and gratitude
to The Holy One, Blessed Be He, for great miracles (for individuals and the
entire nation), the essence of the Haazinu poem is severe admonition for Israel’s ingratitude and its betrayal of God
through idolatry – despite
God’s many favors and
his choosing of his people:  “Indeed, the portion of God became His
people… He found
him in a wilderness land …
He surrounded him, he paid him regard, he guarded him like the pupil of his
eye; like an eagle protecting his nest, over its young birds hovering… He had them mount on the high places
of the land, he fed them the crops of the field.”

          The emotional
difficulty is great: the place of Pharaoh as the villain of the Song of
the  Sea – whom God
severely punishes –
is taken in Haazinu by the people of Israel which ‘merits’
not-too-encouraging epithets; Israel is castigated and receives prophecies of
wrath for the distant future.

          Despite
this somber vision, we learn in the Sifrei, Chap. 333: “This poem is great, for it contains
the past, the present, and future to come; it encompasses this world and the
world to come.”

            What
is the greatness of this song, and what is its message?
The Ramban answers: “This poem,
which is, for us, a true and reliable witness, clearly relates all that happens
to us… and the poem says
than in the end He will return vengeance upon his foes and he will repay those
who hate him… and it is
clear that it is relating to the future redemption, for during the rebuilding
of the Second Temple, the nations did not shout for joy, they merely mocked
them… ”

          In
his footsteps – and even
more forcefully – wrote the
author of the Beiur (Rabbi Naftali Hertz Weisel, 18^th
cent.):

This poem
encompasses all matters of the nation…
from the day of its exodus from the Land of Egypt until the end of generations… it is a wondrous thing, and as the enlightened
reader continues to contemplate and to study this chapter, so will his wonder
of it increase, the more will he delight in it, will he be comforted by it for
all the trials and tribulations which have passed over us from the day of our
exile until this day… so will the
hope for the future be strengthened in our hearts, that He will console himself
regarding us at the time known only to Him, to lead our feet to freedom, and to
set us up again as a nation as in times of old.

          Thank
God, we have been privileged to experience the realization of the great hope of
which many generations dreamed, and, in the beautiful rhetoric of the author of
the Bieur: God has taken us out to freedom, and has set us up as a nation (we
might add ‘from the
ashes’) as in times of
old.

          But
we still lack clarification of the nature of the consolation mentioned in the
closing verse of the poem: “Shout
for joy, O nations, over his people, for the blood of his servants he will
avenge. Vengeance he will return upon his foes, effecting atonement for the
soil of his people!”   The
words of Ramban are reasonable: “…
for there are not in this poem (in contrast to Chap. 30 in Devarim – G.A.) conditions of repentence and
service; it is rather a document testifying that we will transgress, and that
he, the Blessed One, will wreak his wrath upon us, but he will not obliterate
all memory of us, and He will return and console himself. On the other hand, it
is difficult to accept his determination that “this
song is a clear promise regarding the future redemption…” for there is quite a difference
between atonement (kapparah) and redemption (geula).

          Professor
Dov Rappel presents a different approach in an encompassing article which he
wrote on Parashat Haazinu (first published in Beit Hamikra, 5728), and these
are some of his words:

“The
Song of Haazinu is meager in facts because it is not prophecy. It is a general
scheme of Jewish history…
it is composed of cycles, differing from each other in details, but sharing one
general configuration… it shows us
the general structure of our history…
the idea of historical cycles arouses man’s
opposition, because according to this idea, reality is affected by laws which
we unwittingly obey – even
against our will. This idea denies man part of his free choice… the Song of Haazinu, describing  a typical cycle, does not answer the
question: Are these cycles “spiral”, i.e., is each cycle a perfect copy
of its predecessor, or does each cycle progress somewhat beyond its
predecessor?

          The
Song assumes: 1) All of human history is to be seen as a result of the
relationship between God and Israel, 2) That God rules his world justly, He
created a good world and planted Israel in the choicest of lands. These are
acts of benevolence from which the Children of Israel learned about God’s love for them, and which obligated
Israel to serve God in gratitude, love, and trust. Were the Children of Israel
to have served God as charged, the world would be blessed with total harmony – between
God and his people, and between the nations themselves. The transgressions of
Israel caused dissonance, and led to a series of misfortunes which adversely
affected the entire universe. 
This, until all the misfortunes have ceased, all the sins have been
committed, and humanity –
perhaps just Israel – has learned
the lesson of history, and the sins have been atoned for, and the world returns
to the beginning of the cycle.”

The conclusion
reached from study of the final chapters of the Book of Devarim is that there
are two different descriptions of the process of the future history of the
Jewish nation. The first (optimistic –
speaking of geula) describes the future as open, contingent upon Israel’s walking in the path of the Torah.
Disobedience of God’s voice will
lead to great misfortune (the admonition in Chapter 28, and its continuation in
Chapters 29, 30) which will end with complete exile and suffering. As a result
of all this, the Children of Israel will repent (30:1-2), and God’s reaction will be to gather in his
people, to treat them well, and to redeem them (30:3-10).

          The
second scenario (pessimistic-cyclic) is
detailed in Parashat Haazinu (actually beginning with Moshe’s oration in Chapter 31:27-29,
influenced by God’s earlier
harsh prophecy to Moshe in passages 16-18).  According to this description, the nation’s future deviation from the path of
God is certain.  Even though the
nation will reach the understanding that: “Was
it not because God was not in my midst that there have befallen me these ills?” God will conceal his face from
them.  The peak of all the
misfortune is not exile, but the horrific plagues and God’s desire to destroy his sinning people
(32:21-26).  The plan will be not
be executed because of concern lest the name of God be desecrated – “except
that I feared the vexation from the enemy” – as
they scorn the Jewish people, attributing its defeat to their power and might.
The end of this process will find God having pity upon his people, consoling
them for their severe punishment, and granting atonement for their sins.

          Jewish
thought throughout the ages emphasized and concerned itself with the first
possibility – the
redemption scenario – almost
totally ignoring the second option. Our own education, from childhood, was
based upon the first picture. What was the Torah’s
intention in juxtaposing the two scenarios? And why was the “pessimistic” option chosen for the Haazinu
poem?  In my humble opinion, it
seems that the Torah wanted us to be educated in both ideological directions;
only the integration of the two can produce the desired balance. The Talmud (Rosh Hashana 31a) informs us
that the song sung by the Levites during the Mussaf service, in a six-Shabbat
cycle, included excerpts of the Haazinu poem.  This would seems to indicate that there is an educational
preference for a religious consciousness which does not have geula –redemption – at its nucleus (as per Rambam: “… and let man never engage in the words
of the hagadot… in these
matters… let them
not be considered primary, for they lead neither to awe nor to love”), in contrast to the mainstream
ideology prevalent in the past and current generations.

          On
the other hand, it is possible that the determination of which of the two
processes is to be realized is dependent upon our daily behavior, our ability
to examine our souls and to modify crooked habits and grave social deviations,
to diminish intolerable social inequalities, and to establish a relationship of
affection, love, and true partnership in destiny with every man created in the
image of God. Would that we merit to realize the objective of Yom Kippur: “That we cease to do violence” (conclusion of the Neilah service)
and of the Sukkot festival: To bring joy to the Levite, the stranger, the
orphan, and the widow (Devarim 16),
“For one who brings
joy to the hearts of these poor is comparable to the Shekhina” (Rambam, Laws
of Megilla), and God will grant us the
privilege of rejoicing in the tabernacle of peace over Israel and the entire
world.

                                                                        Gideon Admanit is an educator

“A
faithful God, never false, just and upright is He”

“A
faithful God” – who believed in the world and created it.

“Never false”  — Humans did not come into the
world to be wicked, but to be tzaddikim – righteous
men. And thus it is written “God made man plain, but they have
engaged in too much reasoning” (Kohellet
7:28).   “True and upright is he” – he deals
uprightly with all people.   
(Sifrei, Haazinu 307)

 “A faithful God” – to repay the
righteous for their righteousness in the world to come, and even though their
reward may be delayed, his promise will eventually be kept.

“Never false” – Even the
wicked are awarded by Him in this world for the good deeds they performed.

“Just  and upright is He” – all justify
his justice and this is proper and just of them,

declared ‘just’ by men; he
is upright, and it is proper to justify him. (Rashi,
Devarim 32:4)

“A faithful God, never false, just and upright is He”… these praises are intended to justify God’s
destruction of the two temples, as will be explained: “A faithful God, never false” – referring to the destruction of the first and second
temples, “just and upright is
He” – referring to
the destruction of the first and second temples …It is known that the first destruction was due to idolatry, sexual
immorality, and the shedding of blood which angered The Holy One, Blessed Be
He; the second temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred, and we have
explained (Bemidbar 35:34) that they did practice study of Torah and the
service of God, but most of the shedding of blood was done for the sake of
heaven, for they would condemn one who commits some transgression
as being a Saduccee, one worthy of death and incarceration, etc. In this, their
behavior became very corrupted – all in the name of heaven… “never false” – even though they acted for the sake of heaven, He cannot bear iniquity.
  (Haamek Davar, ibid., ibid.)     

‘Just
and straight is He” – Meaning that the
world should act according to law and beyond the letter of the law [lifnim
meshurat hadin], meaning ‘just’ – according to law and justice, ‘straight’ – beyond the measure of the law. (Noam Elimelech, Parashat Haazinu)

Said
Rabbi Yochanan: “Yerushalayim
was destroyed only because they ruled according to the law of the Torah.”  What? Are we then to judge according to
the laws of the gentiles?!  Rather say
“Because they
based their law on the law of the Torah and did not act beyond the letter of
the law.  (Bavli,
Bava Metsia 30b).

A basic tenet of the Torah of Moshe, our teacher, and all
who follow the Torah, is that man’s ability is total, this is to say,
that he has the nature, the choice, and the desire to do anything which man is
capable of doing, without necessitating the creation of anything new…Another
basic principle in the Torah of Moshe, our teacher, is that the Blessed one is
in no way false. (Rambam,
Guide for the Perplexed, III 17)

This
book, which is called Sefer Bereishit, was called by the prophets “Sefer
Hayashar” – “The Book of
the Upright”
as is written (Tractate Avodah Zara 25a): 
Rabbi
Yochanan expounds: “This
is the book of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov, who were called “the upright”: as is
written, “May
I die the death of the upright”. It is
important to understand why Bil’am chose to call our fathers “upright” and not “tzaddikim” or “hassidim” [degrees of
righteousness], etc., and why is this book in particular called “The Book of
the Upright”.

The
explanation is to be found in the verse “The Rock, whole and perfect are his
deeds… rue and upright is He” from the
Haazinu Poem.  The tribute “upright” is given to
justify The Holy One’s destruction of the second temple – a crooked
and perverse generation. We had previously explained that they were tzaddikim
and hassidim and devoted great efforts to Torah, but they were not
upright in their actions. Because of the baseless hatred they harbored for each
other, they suspected those whose fear of God was expressed differently than
their own, accused them of being Saduccees and epikorsim, and this led
to bloodshed and division and to all the evils in the world, until the House
was laid waste. The tzidduk hadin – the
justification of the sentence – was for this; The Holy One, Blessed
Be He, is upright, and he does not tolerate this brand of tzaddikim. [He accepts] those who walk on the path
of the upright even in their civil behavior, not in crookedness – even though
it [the crookedness] be for the sake of heaven, for this is what leads to the
destruction of creation and the desolation of civilization.

(The Netziv, from
the introduction to his commentary Haamek Davar, on the Humash
Bereishit)

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Translation:
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