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Torah Portion -
HaAzinu
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Written by yehuda katz
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HAAZINU
" Give ear, heavens, and I will speak; and may the earth hear the words of my mouth" (32:1)
Mosha is summoning the heavens and the earth to bear witness to the truth that he is now conveying to Israel at the last moments of his life. I would like to ,Bezrat Hashem, understand the significance behind the use of the heavens and earth as witnesses in a symbolic manner, and perhapes arrive at a very important lesson that might be of benefit to us all in our quest for "Ruchnious" (spirituality). This is an original Torah thought. A person is comprised of 2 components, a soul and a body. The heavens represent mans soul, and the earth represents mans physical side. This can clearly be derived since the heavens are lofty, and the earth is comprised of dirt which is physical and mundane. When Mosha summoned the heavens and earth to bear witness, he was in actuality calling for man in his totality to bear witness (Soul and body). The soul and body must compliment one another, if Man is going to grow spiritualy.
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Torah Portion -
HaAzinu
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Written by Daniel Sandground
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Parashas Haazinu – The Harmony of Creation
This week's sedra is Parashas Haazinu which is a mere 52 possukim and is made up predominantly of a shirah (song) which Moshe spoke of at the end of last week's Parasha, Vayeilech. According to the Ramban, Haazinu is called a shirah because it always chanted by Klal Yisrael and the actual format that it is written in is in the form of poetic verses. The shirah is therefore both a poetic depiction of the calamities that will befall Israel if it sins and also an upbeat description of the ultimate joy that will come with the final redemption and how Hashem will punish those who rose up against us whilst we were in exile. It is therefore described by the mefarshim as prophetic, with it spelling out exactly what will happen to the Jewish people until the end of days. Parashas Haazinu is therefore literally meant to have everything and everyone in it, a concept we shall discuss in more detail below
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Torah Portion -
HaAzinu
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Written by d fine
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The pasuk ‘when I call out the Name of HaShem, ascribe greatness to our God’ (32:3) is explained by various gemarras to refer to the pre-Birkas Hamazon zimun and also to the obligation to make a bracha on the Torah. Interestingly, both are communally-focussed. Zimun obviously has a communal facet, for it is only recited when there are three people eating together. And Birkas Hatorah is also centred around the communal as opposed to the individual, as evidenced by the constant reference to the nation in the bracha (asher kideshanu…anachnu ve’tzetza’einu…ahser bachar banu’). The idea seems to be that, firstly, we were given the Torah as a nation, and more importantly, a proper acceptance of the Torah only occurs when we are united as a nation as opposed to a bunch of individuals.
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Torah Portion -
HaAzinu
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Written by d fine
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In the second pasuk of our sedra (32:2) we are told that ‘My lessons (I.e. the Torah) should drop like rain, and My words should flow like dew.’ Why the two expressions dew and rain? The idea has been said that rain and dew represent the two types of ‘religious initiation/inspiration’ one can have. Rain falls from the sky, and thus represents the times when religious inspiration comes from Above - for example the day of Shabbos (which is fixed by HaShem), or general times when HaShem lights a Divine spark within you. Dew, on the other hand, comes from the ground, and thus represents times of religious inspiration which come from us - for example Yom Tov (which we fix) or general times in the year when we produce our own inspiration by working on ourselves. Therefore, our pasuk is telling us that Torah should encompass both types of inspiration - it is Divine Wisdom and thus comes from Above, but it also must be developed and internalised by ourselves, from below.
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Torah Portion -
HaAzinu
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Written by Administrator
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