Parashat Ha'azinu (Deuteronomy 32:1-52) for Sept. 30, 2006

This week's parasha study has been generously sponsored by Susan Gerhard in honour of her grandparents, Reuven and Golda Kreitzman and in memory of her father Harry Kreitzman.

I can think of no better way to start the process of Teshuvah, than by beginning to be grateful .

Study with Baruch Sienna

This year's cycle of weekly Parasha study explores what connections and insight we can find by examining the Torah portion together with the Haftarah.

On Shabbat Shuvah we read the final Haftarah of the weekly Shabbat cycle. Like the past few months, the haftarah is chosen for its connection to the calendar (this week is the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), and not the weekly Torah reading of Haazinu. The passage from Joel begins, "Blow a shofar in ZIon, Sanctify a fast..." After the holidays of Sukkot and Simchat Torah, we will begin a new cycle of Torah readings once again with Parashat Bereishit, and will return to studying the Torah portion.

Every Shabbat can be referred to by the name of the Parasha, (Shabbat Bereishit) or in some weeks, when a special additional portion is read, the Shabbat has a special name taken from this additional 'maftir' (Shabbat Zachor). Sometimes, when a holiday falls on Shabbat and interrupts the regualr weekly readings, Shabbat gets its name from the holiday (Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach). So, I think it is fitting, that this week, our last column on the haftarot, this Shabbat takes its name (Shabbat Shuvah), not from the Torah portion, but from the haftarah: Shuvah Yisrael, Return O Israel.

The Haftarah is also unusual in that it is taken from more than one book; selections from Hosea, and Micah or Joel form the Haftarah (depending on whether the Torah portion VaYeleich or Ha'azinu falls on Shabbat Shuvah and whether Ashkenazic or Sephardic custom is being followed). (Note also that the passage from Hosea is included in the regular Shabbat Haftarah read on Parshat VaYetze.)

Hosea is the first prophet included in the second section of the Jewish Bible (Tanakh), after the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. He lived around 700 BCE and was a contemporary of Amos. After the death of Solomon, the united kingdom had split into two. The northern tribes were called Israel (or Ephraim after the tribe of their first king Jeroboam) and the southern kingdom was called Judah. Although this was a time of material prosperity, it was also a time of moral laxity and growing paganism.

This is the only Haftarah that includes a passage from the prophet Joel. Joel speaks of the Day of Judgment, and describes a plague of locusts. The Sages believed Joel was a contemporary of Amos and Hosea, but scholars are unsure of the book's composition. Joel is a short (4 chapter) book, and includes the famous verse: "Your elders shall dream dreams, and your youth shall see visions" (3:1 or 2:28 in some translations). The passage from Joel seems like a description of Rosh Hashanah: "Blow the shofar...Gather the people..."

This week's Torah portion Ha'azinu, the last regular Shabbat reading, is a one chapter poem anticipating the Israelites forsaking God. (The Torah's final two chapters are read on Simchat Torah, and then we begin the cycle anew with Shabbat Breishit.) Moses describes the history of God's relationship with Israel: God is faithful, and the Israelites, in return, worship other gods and do not show gratitude. God's anger will then flare up, and visit famine upon them. The passage from the prophet Joel balances the Torah. Joel too describes a famine caused by a plague of locusts, but God will be roused by the nation's return, and God will again honour the covenant with the Israelites, showering them (literally) with rain, so their crops (of grain, wine, and oil) will be abundant.

Joel says: "And you shall eat your fill and praise the name of Adonai your God Who dealt so wondrously with you...I am Adonai your God, there is no other" (Joel 2:26, 27). This is a paraphrase of Deut. 8:10, "You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Adonai your God..." In both places, the idea is that the earth's bounty is a gift from God, and that abundance should be a sign of God's blessings. Perhaps because of the family meals around the holidays, I am conscious of feeling overly full. But the Torah worries that instead of being grateful and loyal, precisely the opposite will happen: "When you have eaten your fill, have built fine houses to live in... beware lest your heart grow haughty and you forget Adonai your God who freed you from the land of Egypt..." (Deut 8:12, 14).

How curious. The more we have to be thankful for, the less we seem to be grateful. In Judaism, saying blessings is our way of expressing gratitude. Indeed, the verse quoted above is the 'prooftext' for Birkat HaMazon, the Grace after Meals. The rabbis said that one should offer 100 blessings a day! That might seem like a lot, but think of all the people (seen and unseen) that we should be grateful to each day: the bus driver, the grocer, the farmer, the truck driver, the city hydro workers. This past summer, after a severe summer storm knocked out power in the Muskoka cottage country area, how grateful were we when we heard the familiar hum of the refrigerator turn on, indicating that power had finally been restored!

It's easy to complain. Nothing is perfect. But how many blessings we have each day! Let us thank those around us, family, friends, and even strangers. In this season of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I can think of no better way to start the process of Teshuvah, than by beginning to be grateful.

 

Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah,

BDS