Moshe’s final message becomes a poetic speech in our weekly chapters. According to Rambam, in some traditional centers, this hymn used to be sung at the conclusion of daily religious services. The Talmud mentions that the six stanzas of this hymn were sung by the leviyim when the musafim, the additional holiday sacrifices, were offered at the Beit HaMikdash, the Temple of Jerusalem.
Our text begins with the following sentence, haazinu hashamayim vaadabera, vetishma haarets imrei fi, which means listen, oh heavens and I will speak and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. According to Rashi, heaven and earth do not constitute images of poetic expression, but rather become the real witnesses of our behavior. Heaven and earth outlive mortals and can therefore bear witness to the activities and deeds of different human generations. (According to the Midrash, the people of Israel are also eternal, as are heaven and earth.) Furthermore, heaven and earth may be the first to react to our behavior. If we keep mitzvot, the heavens are generous with rain and the earth offers its fruits in abundance. Otherwise, heaven and earth are the first to punish us by denying the essential elements for existence.
The prophet Yeshayahu in his admonition to the people uses the same terms. Shimu shamayim vehaazini erets, “Hear, O heavens, and prune your ear, Oh earth,” exclaims the prophet. Our Chachamim points out that the word haazinu is used by Moshe with reference to heaven, while Yeshayahu uses it in relation to the earth. According to Sifri there is a semantic difference. Haazinu implies listening closely, and tishma refers to hearing from afar. Moshe who was close to the Divine uses the first word when referring to the heavens, but Yeshayahu was closer to the earth and therefore the different use of the words.
At the dawn of our national history we were closest to the sources of our religious tradition. The Talmud states that during the period of yetsiat mitsrayim, the exodus from Egypt, a servant girl saw a greater display and clearer revelation of Divinity than Yechezkel did in his prophetic visions. Moshe conversed with God panim el panim, which means face to face. In the case of the Neviim, on the other hand, the Creator appears as a reflection in a mirror, and for the Gentile prophet God appears, coincidentally, in a dream. The respective use of the word haazinu by Moshe and Yeshayahu serves our Chachamim as an illustration of their interpretation of human history. With the passing of time, according to this opinion, we move away from the heavenly, and get closer and closer to the earthly. We turn away from the spiritual and become attached to the material, in our obsessive compulsion to acquire and possess objects.
In the same spirit of our previous reflection, Moshe exclaims, vayishman yeshurun vayivat, that means, Yeshurun (the people of Israel) when getting fat, reared up; shamanta avita kasita, vayitosh Eloha asahu, vayenabel tsur yeshuato, “by covering himself with fat, he abandoned God, his Creator and forgot the Rock of his salvation.” Material abundance desensitizes the individual and blinds him to the needs of others. Indeed, the person ends up saying kochi veotsem yadi asa li et hachayil haze, which means by my strength and the power of my hand I have achieved this wealth. It is clear, then, that the pending task is to the helm that allows a radical change of course, so that we begin to direct our gazes towards spiritual values, in accordance with the teachings contained in the Torah. Probably the ideal is to find the middle ground that allows an appreciation of the surrounding material world (which is also the result of Divine creation) and to value even more what is transcendent and permanent, and what is heavenly.
In the conception of the Jewish tradition, nature responds to human moral behavior. The development and growth of vegetation are not the consequence of an unconscious and automatic process. The Midrash tells the kol esev vesev omed alav malach, which means that there is an angel on each blade of grass that prompts it to grow.
The moral teaching is that our ethical behavior has repercussions and influences the world around us. (The environmental pollution we face in our day is the result of physical irresponsibility and probably also has a moral ingredient, which is what makes us aware of the serious consequences of our actions).
Moshe uses various images of nature in his farewell message. Yaarof kamatar likjí, “my teaching will fall (on you) like rain”, is one of the first images used. Just as rain does not discriminate and spills the same amount of water on every surface, similarly the Torah is available to everyone. The comment of the Sifri, ma matar chayim leolam, af divrei Torah chayim leolam, which means just as rain provides life for the world, so the Torah also gives life to the world. Just as when there is no life there is death, in the absence of the Torah, violence and intolerance, brutality and destruction emerge. The alternative to Torah study is not ignorance and apathy. Where there is no Torah, wickedness and depravity grow and mature. Each person has the ability to use this source of life, that is the Torah, and this depends solely on their personal effort and perseverance. Just as a persistent rain can pierce the strongest rock, so constant study broadens horizons, softens hardened hearts, and stimulates our feelings of identification and sympathy for the less fortunate.
We conclude with an additional reflection suggested by our text. Jewish tradition requires introspection, the search for internal reasons to explain how events unfold. According to the teachings of our sages, we are victorious in our confrontations with enemies, because we fulfill the mitzvot. We suffer defeats because of our sins. In this way, for example, the Talmud explains that the destruction of the first Beit HaMikdash was due to the fact that we did not know how to completely separate ourselves from idolatry. The invading forces that destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem were the Divine instrument to punish the people. Ramban, instead, suggests that our text affirms that some Gentile nations will be punished. Because these nations not only serve as a Divine instrument and persecute and mistreat the Jewish people. They even delight in punishing us because of arrogance and deep hatred for those who demonstrate loyalty and fidelity to the Divine message. But, Ramban continues, the Geulah process, which is the final redemption, cannot be stopped. Since there is this Divine promise of an eventual Geulah, there must necessarily be a turn and a change of course in our lives. The return to the roots, represented by the concept of teshuvah, return to our roots, is the obligatory path we have to take.
