Ha’azinu (Deuteronomy 32) To Whom Or What Shall We Return

Deuteronomy 32, our portion for this week, presents us with some interesting images. There are multiple names for God and the power of metaphor is quite present. This is Moses’s final oration, as it were, a poem that reflects some history, discusses God’s impact, and for some, ambivalence, and concludes with a dramatic scene of God letting Moses see the land “from a distance”. Knowing that he may not enter it. All of this in one chapter!
We have the famous verse on 32:7 that calls on the people to “Remember the days of old”, and to seek counsel from elders. The poem continues to cite history and God’s role with the Israelites who insist on straying from God’s path. For this is a people “void of sense and lacking in discernment” (32:28) who despite conquering enemies, all too often forgot that their success was due to God. In a dramatic verse, we read “See, then, I am He, there is no God but me. I deal death and give life, I wounded, and I will heal. None can deliver from my hand.” (32:39). There are some interesting interpretations of this poem and the role of and depiction of God. One that, I suggest, can be reflective of us as we grow older. It is a look at the question of why we do what we do, and do we live out of concern what others will think, or as we wish to live?
God’s place and role in this portion is filled with concern as Israel do often strays. Yet, God promises that He will always eventually come to their aid. This alone is a huge question of faith in our post Holocaust, present Israel age. A key verse in this view of God presence can be seen in 32: 26-27. In the Plaut commentary to this portion (p.1564), we read of an interpretation of God’s support of Israel not from compassion, rather “it is His honor that must be protected. Israel is both endangered and saved because it is close to Him and is thereby involved in His needs as well. God must be seen to be God, and if Israel endangers His majesty, it must suffer the consequences. At the same time, it will be rescued from perdition because God cannot allow Israel to be destroyed.” This alone is filled with huge theological implications. Are we pawns of a capricious God? We are a people of history, and we constantly must ask, who controls that history?
But the other question that struck me is embedded also in this portion. God “protects” Israel eventually so that the nations of the world will continue to fear God. Do we thus live out life under that protection? How free are we to live and choose the life we wish, and thus, ready to live with those consequences, without the belief of a Divine shelter of protection? Do we live out life as we think others view us, defined by what others think; or have we the courage to live our own “authentic self”, standing on our own?
This portion raises many significant questions of faith and theology. It is a perfect portion for the Shabbat between Rosh Hoshonnah and Yom Kippur, our “Shabbat T’shuvah” (Sabbath of repentance). We are called to “return” to God. But this Shabbat, as do these Holidays, also ask us to consider to which God shall we return?
Shabbat shalom, Shannah Tovah
Rabbi Richard F Address

Rabbi Richard Address

Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min, is the Founder and Director of www.jewishsacredaging.com. Rabbi Address served for over three decades on staff of the Union for Reform Judaism; first as a Regional Director and then, beginning in 1997, as Founder and Director of the URJ’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns and served as a specialist and consultant for the North American Reform Movement in the areas of family related programming. Rabbi Address was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 and began his rabbinic career in Los Angeles congregations. He also served as a part time rabbi for Beth Hillel in Carmel, NJ while regional director and, after his URJ tenure, served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ from 2011-2014.