September 29, 2012

Haazinu, Deuteronomy 32:1–52

A World of Words 
Yael Splansky

Back at the Burning Bush, God commands Moses to return to Egypt, to go before Pharaoh and deliver God’s message: “Let us go...to sacrifice to the Eternal our God” (Exodus 3:18). Moses tries to dodge the command, saying: “Please, O my lord, I have never been a man of words (Lo ish d’varim anochi), either in times past or now that You have spoken to Your servant: I am slow of speech (k’vad peh), and slow of tongue (u'ch'vad lashon)” (Exodus 4:10).

Well, Moses has come a long way since then! Some forty years later, Moses delivers the longest monologue in all of Jewish history–the Book of D’varim, the "Book of Words." He has certainly found his tongue, found his voice. The self-doubting man who once said, “I have never been a man of  words,” now launches the Book of D’varim, the Book of Words and it seems he can’t stop talking. According to our Sages, the day Moses performs this prophetic poem of Haazinu is the day of his death (Targum Yonatan on Song of Songs 1:1; Tanchuma,B’shalach 12). It is his last attempt to move them with words, to shape them into the people they are becoming.

“Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; 
Let the earth hear the words I utter!
May my discourse come down as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew, 
Like showers on young growth,
Like droplets on the grass.
For the name of the Eternal I proclaim; 
Give glory to our God!" (Deuteronomy 32:1–3)

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