Dvar Torah for Parashat Ha’azinu/Shabbat Shuvah (2020/5781)
(Friday 9/25/20)
As you might imagine, I’m still pretty fully occupied with preparing for Yom Kippur which starts Sunday night. Like many of my colleagues, who has time to write a substantial sermon for this Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur!?
That’s sort of ironic, since, apparently, in olden times, this particular Shabbat --- the Sabbath between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – was one of only two times each year that a local rabbi would give a sermon. Those two times were Shabbat Hagadol (the Sabbath before Passover – when the Rabbi would remind people about all the intricate rules for keeping Kosher for Passover) and Shabbat Shuvah (this Sabbath during the Aseret Ymei Teshuvah/10 Days of Repentance). On Shabbat Shuvah the subject of the sermon would be essentially – REPENT YE SINNERS.
Well, it’s just as well I don’t have time to write a long sermon for this evening. Teshuvah/Repentance is a journey that’s different for each individual --- even if we still root for each other in community. What does it mean to return to God? To recalibrate our moral sensors? To take stock of our souls? I don’t presume to tell you that. Each of us must search inside and listen to what that voice of conscience tells us.
So, I’ll just share one teaching about the Torah portion for this week that has intrigued me and that we discussed in our Friday noon Torah study earlier today.
The parasha this week “Ha’azinu” is mostly taken up by a “Shirah” --- a “poem” or “song” that Moses not only recites but also teaches to the Israelites. As we learned in the previous Torah portion Vayelekh (which we read prior to Rosh Hashanah) – God said to Moses:
“Therefore, write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Israel. When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised on oath to their fathers, and they eat their fill and grow fat and turn to other gods and serve them, spurning Me and breaking My covenant, and the many evils and troubles befall them—then this poem shall confront them as a witness, since it will never be lost from the mouth of their offspring. For I know what plans they are devising even now, before I bring them into the land that I promised on oath.“ That day, Moses wrote down this poem and taught it to the Israelites. (Deut. 31: 19-22)
So, as I was saying, that poem or song (the Hebrew word “shirah” can be translated either way) takes up most of this week’s Torah portion. It starts out by invoking Heaven and Earth as witnesses, then it talks about how God has lovingly cared for the children of Israel but then Israel rebelled and served false Gods. Adonai gets angry and punishes Israel, leaving Israel at the mercy of conquering nations. But in the end God rescues Israel from those dangers.
The poem is linguistically archaic and in many places difficult to translate. And there were varying ancient Hebrew manuscripts of the poem that led to varying versions. All way too complicated to review right now.
But I’d just like to say a few words about the end of the poem:
The last three words in the poem, at Deuteronomy 32:43 are
וְכִפֶּ֥ר אַדְמָת֖וֹ עַמּֽוֹ׃
“And He will cleanse the land of His people”.
Sort of an ominous phrase, like in that old Twilight Zone episode where a book entitled “To Serve Man” turns out to be a cookbook authored by malevolent extraterrestrials…
However, the classic Jewish commentators say no – God is not going to wipe out all God’s people (i.e., us) from the land. Rather, God will cleanse our people’s land.
Cleanse from what? The sufferings of foreign occupation. The sufferings of moral decay and material wants.
Nice. But there are grammatical obstacles to that interpretation. If you translate the Hebrew word for word
Vechiper --- Means “he will atone” – YEP that’s the same verb as in “Yom Kippur” “Day of Atonement” – which I guess we can think of as a day of spiritual cleansing.
Admato means his land.
Amo means his people.
(It’s not in the correct grammatical form to imply that word “of” in the English translation. To do so the second word in the phrase would technically need to be “admat” rather than “admato.” )
So how then should we translate וְכִפֶּ֥ר אַדְמָת֖וֹ עַמּֽוֹ׃ / “vechiper admato amo?”
I’ll just share with you a commentary by Bechor Shor, who lived in France in the 12th century. I had never come across this commentary before today but I find it resonates with me a lot:
As Rabbi Zev Farber writes in an article on the website www.thetorah.com
“R. Joseph Bechor Shor (12th cent) understood the verse as a promise that in the distant future, the people and the land would both be cleansed, and thus Israel would be able to resettle the land and return to its previous relationship with God.”[1]
And here’s that 12th century commentary:
וכפר אדמתו – מכל חט[א] ועון עמו – אדמתו הוא עמו, שיכפר על עמו, ולכך אדמה מכופרת, כיון שהעם מכופר, כמו: למה נמות לעיניך גם אנחנו גם אדמתינו. כי כשהעם מת – האדמה מתה, וכשהעם מכופר ומטוהר – האדמה מטוהרת ומכופרת. וזה יהיה לימות המשיח.
And his land will atone – from all sins and iniquities of his people – the land is equivalent to his people, for it atones for his people, that is why the land is atoned for, since the nation is atoned for […] For when the nation dies the land dies, and when the people are atoned for and purified the land is purified and atoned for. This is a reference to the days of the messiah.[2]
What moves me about this commentary is how it emphasizes the visceral, fundamental connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel – something we can take for granted in the 21st century when we have a secure and flourishing State of Israel but which was only a dream during centuries of exile, including when Bechor Shor was writing his Torah commentary in the 12th century.
Israel, like the US and the rest of the world, is currently struggling with the corona virus and other woes. But we can feel happy that in recent weeks expanded diplomatic relations have been achieved with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with more to come in the coming days and weeks.
One does not have to be a fan of the Trump administration or the Netanyahu administration to be encouraged by these developments.
As you may also know, these diplomatic breakthroughs were made possible by israel’s agreement to defer any talk of unilateral annexation of parts of the West Bank. May this create a window of opportunity for progress in achieving a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
Shabbat shalom u’gmar chatimah tovah.
© Rabbi David Steinberg (September 2020/ Tishri 5781)
[1] https://www.thetorah.com/article/haazinu-the-songs-enigmatic-climax
[2] https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.32.43?lang=bi&aliyot=0&p2=Bekhor_Shor%2C_Deuteronomy.32.43.3&lang2=bi
