Deuteronomy Cycle 3 HaAzinu 32:1 to 32:52

HaAzinu


HaAzinu is mostly a song. Therefore in order to really grasp this parsha it is important to discern Tanach-song from Tanach-narration. Here’s a question. Why are the ten songs in Tanach placed where they are? Jacob’s blessings for his sons…why aren’t they a song, for example? If a song or a poem has…for its purpose…to raise us above the ordinary through metaphor and symbol…then one would think that all of our sacred writings could be in poetic form. But they aren’t.

So this is what I think. While Torah itself raises consciousness, adding poetic form gives the words a healthy boost. In other words while first we’ve been diligently raising pardes to sod, now, we are instructed to enter into the sod of sod, the essence of the spiritual intention. I see a good example of this in Shir HaShirim. What looks like a maiden looking for her man, if brought to its essence, is (according to Rabbi Akiba) the holy of holies itself, the reflection of an erotic mythology in which the Shechinah and the god-head are merged as one (Green, The Song of Songs in early Jewish mysticism).

HaAzinu reflects the same merge. But its diction is very different. The focus is more on teshuva. Even the beginning of the Haftorah section (Hosea) begins with the idea of return. Therefore, given both the merge and the meaning of the words, HaAzinu can easily be seen as the blueprint of a viddui for Moses (who is about to die) and therefore for the Israelite people as one.
In terms of the Moses/Israelite merge…we see this everywhere in HaAzinu. Simply calling heaven and earth as witnesses (32-1) brings Moses and the Israelites together as those who are being witnessed. Rashi says that this is done in case Israel denies the covenant. After all, humans are finite, heaven and earth are eternal.

The enlarged hey (line 32:6) as well infers the sacred merge of Moses with the Israelites. In the Zohar we learn that the previous small hey (line 32:3) is Sabbatical and the large one is Jubillee. In other words, according to symbolism in the Zohar, one (the small hey) is the Shechinah (the 7th of the lower sefirot) and the other is Binah (the divine mother, the source of redemption). One is large and full and the other is not. Still, all is fine (the Zohar says)…all descend as one. Therefore, it seems clear that Moses, represented by the enlarged hey and the Israelites (who are aligned with the Shechinah) also all descend as one.

The format as well helps us to see how Moses is merging with the Israelites. HaAzinu creates a central pillar between the two columns of letters. This can easily be seen as the pillar that (according to kabbalists) aligns the sefirot in our center. In other words, it is the pillar that aligns the shechinah with tiferet and then with keter. So the seeming separation in human eyes within the lines is actually white space that represents the motion of enlightenment and merging in the eyes of God.

The words of Moses, so vivid, can be seen as a spoken confession of the Israelite people and therefore of himself. We begin with the recognition of the sins (is this the way you repay God, you ungrateful nation?) then we continue with remorse when Moses describes the beauty of God (like an eagle arousing its nest, hovering over its young, He spread His wings…). Finally, and this is the larger part of the poem, we witness and experience the verbal recognition (viddui) of the sins of the Israelites. Then, we experience the punishments and finally we and Moses (as one) are granted ultimate redemption.

In the words of Micah who is a God like You who passes over sin and forgives the transgressions of the remnant of His heritage?

The remnant includes Moses. It includes the Israelites. It is all of us and here we are given a way to move through, to allow God to pass over our sins. This is a beautiful gift.

So when we see a poem in Tanach may we dare to bring it to a place of divine radiance. When we do our own teshuvah may we see and embrace the process here in HaAzinu. And may we include Moses in our viddui as well as our friends, and family, spirits from the past, ancestors, beings who aren’t there. What we recognize as our distance from God can be healing to those who have the same distance. Our inner search and our spoken words can raise sparks a million miles away. So may we have the compassion and love for everyone during these days of awe so we all may rise as one