Sep 30/06 - Parashat Ha'azinu / Shabbat Shuvah

Commentary by Rabbi Alan Green

And God spoke to Moses, this very day, saying: “Ascend these heights of Abarim to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, facing Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving the children of Israel as their possession. You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend, and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his kin, because you both rose up against Me among the children of Israel, at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin.

You did not sanctify Me among the children of Israel. (Therefore) from a distance, you may view the land—the land I am giving to the children of Israel—but into it, you shall not go.” (Deuteronomy 32:48-52)

With this Parashah, we are getting close to the end of the Torah, even as we have just begun the New Year. Here, we experience a curious mixture of the old, and the new. Autumn is that time of year when the first hints of winter and the death phase of the natural cycle are in the air. And in the cycle of Torah readings, Moses is also about to leave the physical world behind.

At the same time, the people of Israel are set to begin a new, dramatic phase in their existence, poised as they are to enter and conquer the Promised Land. And we too, having begun the New Year, may well be poised to conquer new worlds of knowledge and experience in our lives.

Much of the success of the people of Israel's conquest of the land, and the success that we may experience in our new ventures, depends on the ability to let go of the past. These words may sound strange from the mouth of a rabbi—we who are the teachers of Jewish tradition, whose roots are so bound up in the distant and not-so-distant past. And in the magnificent speech that Moses makes in this Parashah, he explicitly states, “Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders, and they will explain to you.” (Deut. 32:7)

In this way, Judaism is a profoundly conservative tradition. It is in love with its past, which it tends to idealize in the same way that long married couples often will idealize the early stages of their relationship—forgetting the bad times, of course. Judaism also idolizes its ancient sages and teachers. In one memorable passage of the Talmud, referring to the masters of an early era, it says: “If we are humans, then they were angels; and if they were human, then we are donkeys.”

At the same time, Judaism has its more subversive side as well. One of the early Hasidic masters asked, “Why does the Amidah say, ‘God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob,’ when it could much more easily have said, ‘God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’? Because each of the patriarchs had their own path, their own vision, their own struggle to know God. And just as each came to know God in his own way, so we should each come to know God in our own way.”

Similarly, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev had a unique take on Genesis 12:1, where God tells Abram to “Leave your country, your birthplace, your father’s household, and go to the land that I will show you.” According to Levi Yitzchak, these seemingly repetitive phrases each have a profound, precise meaning.

“Leave your country,” means that we must extricate ourselves from the dullness that growing up in our country has inflicted upon us. “Leave your birth place,” means that we must extricate ourselves from the dullness that our mother has inflicted upon us. “Leave your father’s household,” means that we must extricate ourselves from the dullness that our father has inflicted upon us. Only then, will we be strong or clear enough to get to the Promised Land that God wishes to reveal to each one of us.

The circumstances surrounding the death of Moses, just as his life-dream is about to be fulfilled, seem cruel and unfair. The people cry out for water. God instructs Moses to speak to the rock. Instead, Moses, seized by anger and overcome by his irritation with the complaints of the people, strikes the rock with his staff. Water then gushes forth, but in venting his anger in this way, Moses has failed in his essential task: to sanctify God in the eyes of Israel.

But really, was it so terrible a mistake? In the context of Moses’ long, sterling career, was it really something important enough to exclude him from entering the Land of Promise? My thought is that hitting the rock, instead of speaking to it, was only God's excuse for teaching Moses and the people of Israel a much more interesting lesson.

Moving forward means letting go of the past. And in this case, with the people of Israel primed for the battle of their lives, Moses was the past. And what a great past it has been: confronting Pharaoh; the Ten Plagues; the Ten Commandments; and the various desert rebellions, along with their consequences. The foundation for the whole future of the Jewish people has been carefully put into place under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.

But now, that era has drawn to a close. A very different leadership must be put into place, to sustain a very different life-situation. The children of slaves are about to become an invading army. And once they’re successful, they will have to learn to shift from being a simple pastoral people, to being sophisticated farmers, and eventually, even more sophisticated city-dwellers.

It’s an excellent time for Moses to make his exit. And, at least according to the text, Moses doesn’t fight God’s decision. However, in the Midrash, we find out that Moses may well have pleaded with God for a few more days of life and for the privilege of entering the Promised Land, even as a bird.

But God knows what He’s doing in turning down Moses’ request. Rabbi Larry Kushner puts it this way: “And then I understood. God understands all our humanity, and says to Moses (and to us if we want): ‘Moses, My faithful shepherd, I will bestow on you something even more wonderful than visiting yet another new land. I will take you up this mountain, and let you see with new eyes.’”

Shabbat Shalom.