Parshas Ha'azinu: Moses Delivers a Nation and Poetic Inspiration

While studying our Torah portion this week, Ha'azinu: Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:1-52, I thought of my Father, may his memory be a blessing. My Dad loved me very much. I know that now and I knew it back in the day when only a father could love me through my rotten phases. I will always be grateful that I grew up in time to deepen my relationship with him and show him in so many ways how much I loved and appreciated his kindness and patience. He tried beyond what I consider reasonable to prepare me for life. It is because of his hard work and love for his family that I am alive today and writing this.

Moses is very, very worried about the survivability of the Jewish people. Their behavior and dependency on him over the past 40 years show their chances are slim. He's spent most of the day repeating the blessings and the curses, and writing down the Torah. His hour of death is fast approaching and he must make one more effort to prepare them for the certain dangers ahead. As the day closes on his life, he takes a few more precious minutes to try again to make them understand the message he suspects has fallen on deaf ears. Perhaps the people will hear better if the message is put in a poem, so he recites his Song of Moses, 43 lines of love and concern and remonstration and inspiration. He finishes, and God sends him up to Mr Nebo to rest his weary bones. I wish we could all go back in time to hear him recite his poem. It must have been lyrical and powerful and memorable.

This being the last book in the Torah, we ought to know the message by now. Life works only when God leads and we follow happily and faithfully. So simple but so elusive. Our history reveals a chronicle of self managed attempts and failures as we find ways to complicate and circumvent a simple and successful way of being, only to discover we've make a terrible mess with no way out except to look up to Heaven and call for help. And Heaven will help us if we aren't done having our own way by letting us suffer just a little longer! The message ends on a high note of repentance and forgiveness, and peace everlasting. Thank you, Moses.

And thank you to prophets who repeat this message long after Moses rests his bones on Mt Nebo. Our Haftarah this week, Hosea 14:2-10 and Micah 7:18-20, features two loyal prophets who appeal to Israel to repent, as we are called to repent in the 10 days now between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Hosea assures us that God's forgiveness follows swiftly after repentance. Micah encourages us with a guarantee of God's love and mercy for us, and a reminder that God keeps His promises even when we can't.

For many of us, the act of admitting our faults and accepting Divine mercy makes spiritual transformation possible. Our errors may be of omission or commission, or simply that we lack faith in Him during difficult times. However we falter, God gives us countless opportunities to experience a return to Him throughout our lives. This process makes life worth living, and allows the eventual era of peace and holiness that God promises us all through Torah and that is repeated by Moses in his poem. So cry your tears of regret and shame, and promise sincerely to be a different person, not by your own efforts but through God's ever available help, and enjoy a blessed and happy New Year.

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Cecily Routman

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.