BS”D
Ha’azinu
At this stage, lets
reflect on Parshas Ha’azinu,
last weeks Torah reading. It was Rosh Hashana and
then Shabbos, so we couldn’t have our shiur at the
regular time, but I would like to explore Parshas Ha’azinu because really this is really encapsulating all of Torah in
one song.
The Torah is called
a song – go and write for yourself this song. So when the Ba’al
Koreh reads the Torah, he doesn’t read it. He sings
it. And of course Bar Mitva boys learn the well
documented trop for each word. So we see at the beginning of Ha’azinu – “listen” it says. “And give me your ear”. In
other words, open your ears. “O Heaven” – “ will speak
and may the earth hear the words of my mouth”.
א הַאֲזִינוּ
הַשָּׁמַיִם,
וַאֲדַבֵּרָה;
וְתִשְׁמַע
הָאָרֶץ, אִמְרֵי-פִי
This is the most curious
statement. Who really comprehends that the heavens are listening. And the earth
is listening to the words of a person’s mouth. The sky, the karka,
the dirt under one’s feet. The mountains, the rocks.
It is a strange thing – mystical to the extreme – that you’ve got all these
ears, so to speak – listening to you. So it says in the commentary according to
Rashi – why does Moshe call the heaven and the earth as witnesses against Am
Yisrael? As it says, I am giving warning to Bnei
Yisrael and the witnesses should bear note to his matter. Yisrael – you will
have witnesses who will bear testimony against you; who are these witnesses? Shomayim va’ Aretz. Hwo does it work? Moshe said in his last days, “I am flesh
and blood and tomorrow I will have left this world. So, if there are those
amongst you in Yisrael who are harboring a thought in your heart or mind, to
say we don’t accept this covenant upon ourselves, and anyway, when Moshe Rabbeinu has gone, who will testify against us? This is why
Moshe Rabbeinu called as witnesses against those of
Am Yisrael that harbour a tragic misconceived thought
– heaven and earth themselves will come and testify against you. Why? Because these witnesses are forever. It says in the Nevi’im as long as there is heaven and earth there will be
Am Yisrael. So what can we learn from this? That Am Yisrael in Netzach Netzachim, eternity of
eternities. Just like torah, just like Eretz Yisrael, Am Yisrael will exist for
eternity. Moshe told Bnei Yisrael, these are eternal
witnesses that will rebuke you. Moshe Rabbeinu says,
I am flesh and blood, my time has come to depart, but if you think you can get
away with anything after I am gone, the earth that you stand on and the heavens
that you hope to go to, these are the very things that will come and testify.
So, we explore a little
further.
First the witnesses begin the
punishment for the idolator, and then the community come and complete the job. Heaven and Earth join
in the punishment of the one who thinks he got away with his crime. As it says
in the Shema, H will restrain the heavens, and there
will be no rain, and the ground will not produce its produce. Such a simple thing, Devarim posuk 11,
17. Such a simple thing. Just by locking up the
dew, the waters of the heavens, mayim mishamayim – the ground will be laid waste, it will become
barren and parched, and the life that it was supporting will quickly perish.
Afterwards you will swiftly be banished. If a person can’t make a living in a
certain place, he has to quickly move to a place where he can maker a living.
The punishment which comes from heaven and earth, represents the hands of the
first edim,
that will be upon him, while banishment, to the other nations of the
world, it says here, he will be banished to the other nations of the world,
constitutes the hand of the entire people.
We see an amazing thing from
this. In Pirkei Avos it says, please be careful with
your words lest you be driven out of the land, with the talmidim,
and drink from the poisoned waters of the other lands of the earth and quickly
perish. The death of your disciples will be on your hands. Their blood will be
on your hands. H calls Eretz Yisrael, Eretz HaKodesh the good land, no other land has that title. Aperson may have a parev thought about iyt – I’d
like to visit but to tell you the truth my parnassa
is in another place in the world, so if a person can contemplate, this is not
less than Egypt and the best he can accomplish there is to build pyramids. If
he insists on building pyramids, he will be buried in his pyramid. With Torah
he will be zoche quickly to come to Eretz Yisrael and
experience TOras Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael. The next world and this world. The tragedy is someone
addicted and stuck to galus – their children can be
swallowed up, assimilated and annihilated, has veshalom,
and that blood will be upon his hands. Chazal say, a person who did not teach his son loshon
hakodesh has his blood on his hands. Loshon hakodesh and Torah. Otherwise it is as though he
murdered his child. How much blood over the years has been shed in galus? And whatever it is coming to the land to daven and learn torah brings
infinite blessing. Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to come, the
Vilna Gaon wanted to come. Countless numbers wanted
to come to Eretz Yisrael but H has created in our generation that within 24
hours, every Jew in the world could be home. So a person has that awesome
responsibility and privilege. Either he can come home and experience Olam haba in Olam
haze, heaven on earth so to speak, Utopia, Gan Eden
in this world as well, and excel to the greatest level of his potential which
he will be rewarded for in the next world, or he can bury himself and his
children in the pyramids of Galus. As we learnt, in pirkei Avos, if he leads his children to drink from the
poisoned waters of Galus, they will quickly perish
and that blood will be upon him.
So we have to be tremendously
sensitive, in awe, terrified, tremble and plead to H’, that H’ will allow us
another year of life. A year of Torah – the Etz Chaim
– Tree of Life, living in the land of life, Eretz Hakoedsh,
coming home to these great aspirations and inspirations, and acquiring our
ultimate potential, to create a world that is better than the one we came to. So we refelect. If
If we aren’t doing the ratzon of H’, we are not fulfilling our purpose. If a person just stands still, he will be
burnt up in the furnaces of Gehenom. If a person
doesn’t use his potential he loses it for good.
It goes on and says, “my teachings are like the rain.” Now we have to concentrate, there are 4 levels,
The word יַעֲרֹףmeans anything but droplets.
This is a very powerful word. We see this with the Egel
Arufa. If a person is murdered and they cannot find
the culprit, the Sages of the nearest towns have to put their hands on a calf and
swear that they did not cause the death. Then they cut of the head – aruf, from behind.
The
first is a threat, if we don’t take the mitvos
seriously, it will figuratively cut off the head, kares.
A person has to cry out on Rosh Hashana – plead for
another year. A person should not be arrogant and trust himself too much. The Gemoro in
The dew
represents the fact that the Torah is totally beneficial like the dew, and
subtle like dew. Dew settles overnight and in the morning appears as beautiful
pearls on leaves and cars. We would have thought flowing would apply to rain
and dripping, to dew. It uses droplets of rainwater because rain is not always
good for everyone, whereas dew is described as flowing but it is always
desirable. Rav Moshe Sternbuch once addressed a mixed
community in
So we go
further. I would like to concentrate on the inte4nsity of the water. It can be
a ferocious torrent that can chop off the heads of the arrogant that bow down
to nothing. Those that believe in themselves and nothing
else. They believe that their hand and their strength will save them.
They are subject to terrible blows.
The
four expressions can also represent four levels of Torah learning. From that we
have to understand something tremendous. Incredibly, the level of Torah
learning goes according to one’s behaviour. So we see an amazing insight in Chinuch here. Similarly there are 4 types of children at
the Pesach seder and each
needs to be taught Torah at his own level. For the Tzadik,
his level of Torah can be the most gentle because he is very receptive to the
subtleties of Torah. He already accepts H Elokeinu H Ehad, he is already on his way, but asks, how can I serve H to perfection – by learning His laws. He
doesn’t have to worry about basic proofs of H’s existence. He is way beyond
that. He is solid that H exists and is the source of all that exists in the
world. The second son, the Rasha – if he doesn’t
humble himself, and Yom Kippur is the ideal opportunity, - it can repair every aveira, turning them into mitzvos.
If he doesn’t take the opportunity and deosn’t fast,
especially this Yom Kippur, which is Shabbos as well,
then he is exposing himself to infinite dangers of being cut off and destroyed.
This is an infinite opportunity for a person to really connect with his
creator. A person who has a cell phone who doesn’t pay his dues, eventually his
cell phone will be cut off. He sees everyone else using their cell phone and
can’t comprehend what they are doing. He thinks they are bablling
but they are having a real personal conversation with H’. H allows His children
to communicate with Him. H can listen to millions of people individually at the
same time. He provides for all the living creatures. Can we comprehend all the
people in the world? He provides 6-9 billion meals a day. H provides for every
living creature from an elephant to an insect, bird and fish. We’re all here to
serve H’. Man has a unique quality that for man H the hold world continues to
exist because of his merits. If not, there would be a mabul
and it would return to hevel verick
and oy vavoy. If a person
does not go in the right way, he has a personal oy vavoy. If he follows H’s ways, he gets Olam
Haba. So the Rasha needs to
be left speechless. H can make us slaves
has Veshalom to Nazis or other tyrants, taking us
captive and seeking to destroy us. We have to be infinitely grateful for our brochos from H’. Helping the stubborn son is like a last
attempt at CPD, resuscitation. If not, defibrulate
his heart that is hard as rock. If a person insists on worshipping idols or other
gods he loses his protection. For the person who doesn’t know how to ask, the
Torah has to be very gentle and soft. The four levels relate to the four types
of chinuch a person might need to give to his
children. According to the vessel, so is the ability to fill it. Beginners need
short exposures, whilst others might be able to learn for hours without a
break. H’ knows everyone’s potential. There is a version of a famous story of
the Netziv an\bout a Rav who dreamt that he went
to shomayim and they asked him why he destroyed
certain sefarim. He said that he had never seen these
sefarim. The reply was that theses were the sefarim he was sent to earth to write for Am Yisrael. He
failed the nation and was held to account for destroying the sefarim.
We cry
out as a community together and not less, we cry out for merxcy
to protect and save our lives. I would like to reflect on something here from
Rav Soloveitchiik. He writes that Yom Kippur is akin
to Yom Hakippurim. Purim – what does a day filled
with remorse and fear have to do with a day of
celebration and mishloach manot?
Rav Soloveitchik wrote that Pur
donates a lottery. The ‘chance’ of every person was decided at one time, on
Purim. On Yom Kippur similarly our actions are weighed up. The goat for H and
the scape goat for Azazel
looked the same and were identical in many ways. The Cohen Gadol
picks their fate by lots. Both make us aware of the subtleties of life. Life is
about H’s intervention. When the Jews is Shushanm
fasted and prayed with all their heart, soul and abilities. Then, like the
illusion of the purim
costume, we heave the opportunity to turn things around. Our aveiras are a mask. If we tear off the mask, H tears of His
mask keveyahcol and reveals Himself. In the Beis Hamikdash there were the Chruvim.
When it was being destroyed the faced away from each other. When they entered
the Beis Hamikdash, they
were shocked to see something beyond any explanation. This nation say that they
are commanded not to make a god of wood and stone, and nnot
to make a picture or statue of anything in the earth, sky or seas and oceans. These two Angels made by klal Yisrael (on H’s command of course) were hugging in an
eternal embrace. It was H’s message to the eternal nation. Even though I am
leaving my eternal home, I am leaving with you and we are coming back together.
Let it
be very soon in our days that we will be able to celebrate in H’s eternal home,
and may we all experience a Shabbat Shalom, a yom
Kippur of Teshuvba and may we soon be returned to the
Beis hamikdash, Binmheira Veyameinu, Moshiach Tzidkeinu, Guelah Shleima, and a wonderful Shabbos to every one of Am Yisrael and the whole
world.