We are about to enter Rosh haShanah. Before we get too caught up in it, I want to draw attention to our small, but hugely important parsha (weekly Torah portion). It is called HaAzinu, whose root is the word, “Ear,” and means to give ear or cause to listen. It also happens to be the first word of our pasha, and also the first word to the song that haShem (god) told Moshe (Moses) to teach the people. If you recall from last week, this song is to be witness against us when we stray from haShem. The song goes (kind) of like this…
First we have heaven and earth called to listen to the teachings that are compared to various ways water falls to the earth and onto the vegetable life. Now that we have our witnesses, Moshe calls god itself, with a description of the most perfect one, especially when compared to humanity, which is likened to god’s children. The song continues by asking us to look at how we will repay haShem for all he has done for us. We are asked to talk to our ancestors to remember our past and how she set the nations’ boundaries based on the children of Yaakov (Jacob) whom he found in a desert land and enlightened and woke up like an eagle shaking its wings over its young and takes them and carries them on its wings. We are told about all that haShem has given us – things like food and oil.
Our parsha then relates how we became fat and coarse and scorned haShem and aroused his jealousy. HaShem responded by hiding her face to see what will happen to this faithless generation. HaShem continues by saying that if the nation will make him jealous with a non-god/power, then she will make the nation jealous of those that are not a nation. A fire blazed down to the netherworlds and consumed the land and its produce and the foundations of the mountains. Our parsha continues with a description of the terrors that would befall this generation if not for the fact that their oppressors would attribute their success as their own and not related to haShem at all (one of the things that we did to make haShem mad in the first place).
Instead we read what our enemies really are and how haShem will pay them when their feet collapse. At this point, haShem will relent concerning us because we were overpowered and had no help. HaShem will then show that there is no god/power that can stand with him.
After we read the words of this song, we read how Moshe and Hoshay’a (Joshua) spoke these words into the ears of the nation. When they finished, Moshe told them to pay attention to all the words that he testified in them so the people would command their children to guard and do all the words of the Torah. We are told it is not an empty thing for us, rather it is our life and this thing will increase our days in the promised land.
HaShem then tells Moshe to climb the mount and see the promised land and that he will die on that mountain and be gathered to his people, just like his brother Aharon was. The parsha ends with us being told why Moshe will only see the land from afar – that they (Moshe and Aharon) betrayed haShem within the children of Yisrael at the waters of holy dispute of the wilderness of Tzeen on that they did not sanctify haShem within the children of Yisrael.
Some parsha, no? It certainly makes for a lot of interesting points. It tells us a lot about haShem, and also a lot about ourselves. Most important though, I see it telling us two very important things. The first is how haShem plans on interacting with us, and the second is what is most important to haShem.
Before we can understand how haShem plans on interacting with us, we need to know what haShem most wants from us. Now I know a lot of things have been said on this subject, and I do not want to dispute any of them. However, there are two verses in our parsha that really stand out for me on this matter. The first one is 32:15 and the second is 32:27 (both from the book of D’varim/Deuteronomy).
The first verse reads as follows, “The upright grew fat and kicked out, you grew fat and coarse and obese; he forsook her god that made him and scorned the rock of his salvation.”
The verses that follow say that their ignoring and forgetting haShem and his ways, and getting involved in other deities that had no power, caused haShem to be jealous. We then read all that haShem wants to do to us because we have forgotten her.
And then we get to verse 27. Verse 27 explains why haShem won’t do these things. The reason is very simple. He was afraid that the nations that she was using to afflict us would believe that it was not haShem who allowed them to hurt us; rather, it was their own power. Verse 27 reads, “If not for the stored anger of the enemy, lest they recognize its dissonance, lest they say, ‘our raised hand did all this, and not haShem.’ ”
What I see from this passage is what haShem really desires: to be recognized for all that happens. haShem is ready to make life, “Unpleasant,” for us when the nation becomes fat and forgets that haShem was the cause of it. The only thing that stops haShem is that the agents he wants to use against the nation will also not believe that haShem was involved. In other words, the peoples who haShem would send against the nation, she can’t because they are no better than the nation is.
Now that we understand what haShem wants most from us, lets look at how haShem interacts with us. Verse 32:21 tells this to us. It reads, “They caused me to be jealous with no-god/power and caused my anger with their scorn, and I will cause them to be jealous with a no-nation, with a vile people I will cause them to be angry.”
What I see this verse telling us is that haShem is going to be a mirror for us. In other words, what we do to him, she will do to us. Some of you might see this as tit-for-tat. I see it as haShem helping us to learn how to act by mirroring back to us our own actions.
The next question is why does haShem use this method to teach us how to be? Couldn’t he just tell us via a loud voice in our heads, “You screwed up! Do it this way!”?
She could. However, would we really learn that way?
Once upon a time, I tutored math and I found that those I tutored learned better when they figured it out on their own, as opposed to me telling them the answer. I think a similar approach is going on here. HaShem could tell us, but I don’t think we would really have LEARNED anything until we finally, “See,” how we are acting ourselves.
The trade-off in this approach is that it might take a very long time to learn the lessons.
Now, what does being a mirror have to do with haShem’s desire to be recognized?
The answer to this question is that this is what haShem wants us to learn.
In other words, what haShem is mirroring back to us are the ways we show recognition, or don’t show recognition, where we acknowledge haShem, or forget that haShem exists. And the reason haShem can mirror this is because one of the ways we are made in god’s image is in the desire to be recognized.
Hence, we can really feel the difference when recognition (or a lack thereof) is being reflected back at us. When we can learn this lesson, when we can learn to recognize haShem’s actions in the world, we also learn to recognize all others’ actions in the world. This means we also learn to recognize our own actions and their consequences.
When we learn this lesson, then we have also learned that we are responsible for our own actions. And these lessons will teach us how to live in harmony with ourselves, with each other, and with haShem.
This, to me, is one of the many lessons of our Torah, and of our parsha. I bless us that we can learn these lessons and that this year will be the start of nothing but goodness being mirrored back to all of us.
Before I go, however, there is one little thing that is begging me to reveal to you.
Remember when I said that haShem prefers to mirror for us her desires, rather than tell us?
Well, the truth is, he is doing both. As I mentioned above, she told us in the parsha what it is that is important to her: recognition. And then, to help us internalize the lesson, he mirrors back to us how well we have learned the lesson. So, I guess our parsha is giving us one more lesson: how to teach something to somebody.
If you want to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.