Reflections from Rabbi Ellis

Haazinu is a small and impenetrable Parsha, like a black hole. I have different Chumashim strewn all over my living room. For each verse I must reference different commentators and translations in order to understand the literal meaning of the verse. Words appear here in forms that are rarely seen anywhere in the Torah. Rashi has to offer multiple explanations of the meaning of many words ostensibly because he himself is left mystified.

Why is Haazinu so difficult to understand? At first, I thought that it was because of Moshe. After all the first thing he tells G!d at the burning bush is that he doesn’t speak well. I had always thought this referred to his physical ability to speak, but maybe what he meant is that he is an egghead, and his speech is impossible for others to understand.  This is his song, it’s the first time we get to hear Moshe expressing himself as himself and not the mouthpiece of the Almighty. Now that we finally get a glimpse into Moshe’s inner world, we find out how complex it is. But Moshe’s gift is his ability to make the divine graspable, the overly complex quality of our Pasha is not a mistake, rather it is a literary tool employed by our greatest author.

So why is Haazinu so difficult to unravel? Last week Moshe told us that the point of this week’s song is to explain what will happen to us, the Children of Israel, in the future. In Haazinu Moshe attempts to explain the “what and why” of Jewish history, and he can’t do it either. Even the greatest prophet ever is at a loss to explain the suffering and persecution that has fallen upon us. Moshe himself can’t reconcile the fact that G!d is just, loves Israel and yet brings such suffering upon us. So, he uses big words and mystifying constructs to extract himself from having to justify the pain that we suffer.

As I write this it is almost Yom Kippur. I am preparing myself to stand in front of G!d and justify the flipside of this coin. I can’t explain the good that has been bestowed to me, the unending blessings that pour into my life daily. I don’t deserve it, appreciate it or use it properly to benefit others. I can’t give G!d a reason that he should keep sending me such an abundance of good. I also can’t explain why our generation merits to live as free Jews in Jerusalem if we are still plagued by the same hatred and intolerance of other Jews that caused its destruction two thousand years ago. If I can’t explain the suffering of the righteous or the tranquility of the wicked, then like Moshe I will just have to keep singing and hope that it is enough to carry us through.

Gmar Tov,

Shabbat Shalom!

Yehoshua