Parshat Ha'azinu - Sukkot

Remember the days of old,

Give thought to the years of times past.

Ask your father, that he may tell you,

Your elders, that they may say to you.

(Devarim 32:7)

 

Remember the days of old. After completion of the introduction to the poem, in which he announces his intention to justify the ways of the exalted God, that He is a God of trust who benefits those who do His will, who does not retract his blessings, and there is no injustice in His application of the measure of the law to them, Moshe now proceeds to explain this by telling of the past and the future: First, how it was the intention of the exalted God to achieve this goal with all mankind in the days of old and the years of times past, and how, not having succeeded in this, He did great things, raising Israel on high, as He will do in the end of days with the remainders He will call. Secondly, that He provided them with a proper location to worship Him in joy and good feelings for His abundance, yet they rebelled and repaid good with bad. And no doubt those who perverted His intentions deserve speedy punishment. Thirdly, because of the enormity of their sin they fell into the nets of the wicked and were deserving of complete obliteration, but because of the desecration of His name, He prevented this. Fourth, Moshe tells them the reason why they will be redeemed in the end of days. Fifth, he describes how the redemption will occur, and the Lord's revenge against the oppressors of His people, and these are the sections of Parashat "Haazinu" for which our Sages supplied signs: HaZiv Lach [an acronym composed of opening letters of said sections, which form the Hebrew words for "yours is the radiance"]. He said, therefore, Remember the days of old and you will understand the ways of His goodness, and how much He intended to benefit the first human at beginning of time, and He placed him the Garden of Eden, but he ruined his condition: Give thought to the years of times past, and you will again understand how much good He did to the generations prior to the flood, but they were corrupt. And a third time, from the flood to the split [Tower of Babel] yet they behaved in a destructive manner.

(Seforno, Devarim 32:7)

 

Heaven, earth, rain and dew

Dalia Marx

"Give ear, O heavens, that I may speak; hear, O earth, the utterance of my mouth" (Devarim 32:1) - in his parting poem, Moshe invites the heavens and the earth. He speaks to the heavenly and lofty and to the earthy and material. In the same words he addresses the refined and the routine, Not only can different people understand the words in different ways, simple or abstract, but even the same person can hear in poetry different voices. This is the power of poetry at its best.

Immediately, also in poetic form, there follows a similar reference to extremes. Moshe calls forth: "Let my teaching drip like rain, let my words flow like dew" (Ibid. ibid. 2). Sometimes the Torah, compared to water, is revealed to its learners as torrential rains, sometimes as delicate dew. Relating to this, Rava said: "If the scholar is a worthy person then he is like unto dew, but if he is not then drop him like rain" [Soncino commentary elaborates: "Drop him with all your might just as the heavy rains coming down with force on the crops crush them"] (Bavli, Tannit 7a). The text continues with a third variation on the same theme: "like se'irim [cloudbursts, also goats] on new-growth, like revivim [showers] on grass". Se'irim are, at least according to some commentary, pouring rain, whereas revivim are "white clouds resembling sheep, like white, fine rain"¹. A midrash states: Just as these showers fall on grass and nurture them and pamper them, so do the words of my Torah (Sifri Devarim 16)². This is to say that there are those who require knowledge poured over them or flooding them like a rainstorm, and those who hear the words of the Torah as the patter of a light drizzle. The very same words can reach different people in different ways, addressing varied intellectual, spiritual and emotional needs.

This year, Parashat Haazinu is read before the Sukkot festival. The Mishnah cites Sukkot as one of the four seasons at which the world is judged: "On the festival [Sukkoth] they are judged for water" (Rosh Hashanah 1:2). The Sukkot festival is closely related to rain: In the Talmud, the ceremonial pouring of water on Sukkot is explained as an appeal for the year's rains to be blessed³. The dwelling in the Sukkah itself is reminiscent of the clouds of glory which sheltered Israel in the desert⁴, and clouds are condensations of water. On Shemini Atseret, the Eighth Day of Assembly, we begin to recite "Who causes the winds to blow and the rains to fall" as part of the second blessing in the Amida. The mention of God's rain prowess in the prayer is inaugurated with a special prayer, the Prayer for Rain, recited during the Mussaf service on Shemini Atseret. This prayer enfolds the fear and the hopes related to rain. It seems that today we understand more and more that not only were the lives and well-being of the ancient farmers dependent upon rains of blessing, but that so are ours, we who live the modern and industrialized world.

Sukkot and Pessach divide the Jewish year into two equal parts, both beginning in the middle of the month with the full moon, both celebrated for a week, both having an "atzeret", an additional day of assembly (Shmini Atzeret following Sukkot, Shavuot following Pessach). Both also serve as important stations of passage in the human experience and in the Jewish liturgy - with Sukkot begins the rainy season, with Pesach, the dry season. On Pesach the prayer for dew - "Tal" - is recited and from then on the request for dew is incorporated into the Amida; in the Mussaf service of Shemini Atseret, we recite the prayer for rain - "Geshem" - and from then on mention of rain becomes part of the Amida. (Later in the winter, a request for rain is appended to the blessing/request for a good year). These two festivals serve as gatekeepers for summer and winter; they separate between them, but also connect them.

The tie between winter and summer and between rain and dew can be detected also in the opening of the Haazinu poem, read immediately before the changing of the guard between rain and dew; '"Let my teaching drip like rain, let my words flow like dew". Parashat Haazinu also concludes with water, but this time its judgmental and harsh aspects are stressed. Moshe complains about his people: "Because you betrayed me in the Wilderness of Zin" (Ibid. 51), recalling that because of this offense he was forbidden to enter the land. From this we learn that water, whether understood literally or as a metaphor for Torah, contains blessings but also dangers.

Another matter related to the beginning of Haazinu and the Sukkot festival. From an anthropological point of view, the taking of the lulav and its shaking in all four directions and up and down, is a symbolic creation of a protected area. Similar ceremonies exist in many cultures (and when we wrap ourselves in tsitsit we desire to envelop ourselves in the entire world, in all its four corners). One who performs the lulav ritual holds in his hands the four species and surrounds himself with the four points of the compass, thereby asking for security and protection. According to a midrash brought in the name of Rabbi Simai, there are four types of wind [Translator's note - In Hebrew 'wind' and 'compass points' are both ruach]:

R' Simai used to say: From where do we know that just as Moshe appointed heaven and earth to serve as witnesses against Israel, he also appointed the four winds of heaven? For it is written "Let my teaching come down like the rain" - this is the wind from the West, which is the nape of the world and is all blessing; "Let my words flow like dew", this is the North wind which makes the world clean as gold; "Like se'irim on new-growth", this is the East wind, which darkens⁵ the firmament like goats; "Like showers on grass" - this is the South wind which overweaves the firmament as with a thick lining. (Sifri Devarim 306)

R' Simai learns the meaning of the four directions which face the walls of the Sukkah and towards which the lulav is shaken, from the song of Haazina, the opening of which represents the four directions, four qualities from which the world is made. When we take the four species - the lulav, the etrog, the myrtle and the willow - we shake them not only towards the four corners of the universe, but also upwards and downwards (the order of directions is subject to custom). Even these two latter directions, the horizontal and the vertical, represent the desire for orientation in the world and for conservation. Both are represented in the song of Haazinu, as Moshe invites both heaven and earth to be witnesses: "Give ear, O heavens, that I may speak; hear, O earth, the utterance of my mouth".

On these days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot we ask to be attentive. Attentive to the world and its sighs, attentive to our souls, attentive to the exalted in our lives. The prophet Isaiah said: "Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth." (1;2). The 'vertical' listening of the exalted is inseparable from the 'horizontal' listening, that between man and his fellow. Without it there can be no world; without it repentance is impossible.

1. Ben-Yehuda Dictionary, Vol.13, p. 6377. I first read this idea in Rabbi Shmuel Avidor HaCohen's book, Likrat Shabbat, Tel-Aviv 5737, p. 215

2. Some commentators give an opposite interpretation. Rashi explains "revivim" as droplets of rain, and it seems to me that it because it shoots like an arrow it is called raviv. A different interpretation of these two words is that se'irim refers to the male sheep, and revivim to the females.

3. For the controversy over whether the sukkot were clouds of glory, as claimed by Rabbi Eliezer, or actual booths, as held by Rabbi Akiva, see Bavli, Rosh HaShanah 16a

4. Bavli, Sukkot 11b.

5. Variant readings - 'stormy' or 'purifying' (Ben Yehudah 3, 6378)

Dr. Dalia Marx teaches in the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem

 

"Give ear, O heaven": Moshe was close to heaven, therefore he said "Give ear, O heaven. And because he was far from the earth he said: "Let the earth hear the utterances of my mouth". Came Isaiah and, basing himself upon this, said: "Hear, O heavens and give ear, O earth" (Isaiah 1:2). "Hear, O heavens" because he was far from the heavens, and "give ear, O earth" because he was close to the earth.

"Heaven and earth" are parts of man.

This is also to say that he spoke with the two components from which man is created, the spiritual - symbolized by "heaven" and the physical, symbolized by "earth". Similarly did our Sages refer (Sanhedrin 91b) in explaining the verse "He summoned the heavens above" (Psalms 50:4), and when he addressed the spiritual in man, he called to him, saying "Give ear, O heaven", to those heavenly parts, those hidden in the unseen, he called to listen. And he addressed it with harsh speech, because the soul is able to accept authority in Godly matters, because it recognizes its obligations. But when addressing the body, which is exposed, he said "And let the earth hear" addressing the physical component, "the utterances of my mouth" because the body's nature is far from the divine truths and requires gentle address in order to listen.

 (Ohr HaHayyim, Devarim 32:1)

 

"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)

 

The explanation is to be found in the verse The Rock, whole and perfect are his deeds... rue and upright is He from the Ha'azinu Poem. The tribute upright is given to justify The Holy One's destruction of the Second Temple - [in the days of] 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 apikorsim, 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 Ha'Amek Davar, on the Bereishit)

 

The Limits of Power and the Danger of its Glorification

 How can one [person] pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their [Mighty] Rock has sold them out, and the Lord has given them over? (Devarim 32:30)

Israel's lack of power and failure to resist its enemies could have proved to them that their easy victory did not come to demonstrate their superiority arising from their national genius, but that they rather vanquished Israel because it had been cast aside and deserted by God. Until now the Lord was its rock of salvation and the surety of its strength, and now Israel was, once again, unworthy of its Rock's help.

...our enemies sit in judgment - oyveinu plilim. Plilim - see my commentary (Bereishit 48:11) - pilel and the noun palil are never used anywhere in the sense of the application of state power. These terms always refer to decisions and legal rulings based upon judgment and the drawing of conclusions.

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

 

Our yeshiva students of Zion have taken upon themselves to glorify and exalt this disgraceful era and to establish in the world a positive attitude towards war. During all the ten years since the war (World War I) these yeshiva students of Zion have never ceased to sing songs about the new heavens and new earth created by the war.

How great is the pain! How terrible the loss! If there were only one truth in the world it was the Congregation of Israel, pining for Isaiah's vision: Nation will not raise up sword against nation. Now our young Balfourists have come and contaminated it as well... For the sword has never left the hands of the nations for even a moment, and they are sunk in feuds and attacks from generation to generation. The force of inertia pushed them to wars. But the Jews who suddenly love the beauty of "the hero's thigh" girded with a sword - they aggressively blaspheme the prophet Isaiah.

(R. Shmuel Tamrat - Knesset Yisrael. Quoted in Eli Holtzer: Herev Pipiyot BeYadam pg. 151)

 

The four species: man, nation and the world

Rabbi Mani opened his discourse with the text, "All my bones shall say: Lord, who is like You!" (Ps.35:10). This verse was said in allusion to nothing else than the lulav. The rib of the lulav resembles the spine of a man; the myrtle resembles the eye; the willow resembles the mouth, and the etrog resembles the heart. David said: There are none among all the limbs greater than these, for they outweigh in importance the whole body. This explains, "All my bones shall say."

(Lev.Rabba ch.30)

 

"Fruit of the tree": twice in the tradition, "where there is fruit of the tree", "fruit of the citrus tree" (Lev.23:40), hinting to what is written (Gen. Rabba 15:8): "The tree from which Adam ate was an etrog tree."

(Baal HaTurim Gen.1:29)

 

"A righteous person will bloom like a palm tree". For on Succot we are occupied with revealing His kingship to all there is in the world, even to the seventy gentile nations, since this is the secret of the seventy young bulls that we are offering as a sacrifice for them on Succot. And this is what we say after the waving of the lulav and the hakafot.

(Likutei Moharan ch.33)

 

Seventy young bulls of the festival for the seventy nations of the world"

"As the dove atones for iniquities, so Israel atone for the other nations, since the seventy bullocks which they offer on Succot are only for the sake of the seventy nations, so that the world should not be made desolate through them; and so it says, 'In return for my love they are my adversaries; but I am all prayer' (Ps.59:4).

(Midrash Song of Songs Rabba, 1)

 

"Seventy young bulls. The bulls of the festival are seventy, except for [Shemini Atzeret], corresponding to the seventy nations, to atone for them, so that the rains would fall in THE WHOLE WORLD; for on this festival it is decided concerning the water."

(Rashi on T.B. Succah, 55b)

 

Rabbi Yehoshua from Sichnin says in the name of Rabbi Levy: Great is peace, that the blessings end with 'peace' (Shalom); at the reading of the Shema (Hear, O Israel): 'spread over us the shelter (Succah) of Your peace', in the [Amida-] prayer: '...Who makes peace', in the priestly blessings: '...and establish peace for you'.

These are just blessings, and whence in the sacrifices? The teaching says: 'This is the law of the Mincha (afternoon) elevation-offering ... and the peace-offering'. This is just in this world, whence, then, in the World to Come? The teaching says: 'Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river...' (Is.66:12). The rabbis say: Great is peace, for when the anointed king will come, he will begin by nothing else but peace, as it is said: 'How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that announces peace...' (Is.52:7).

(Yalkut Shimoni)

 

 

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