This week’s Torah reading:
Ha’azinu
– Deuteronomy 32: 1 – 52
Ha’azinu
is the last
parasha
read at
Shabbat
services and is only one chapter long. (The final Torah portion,
V’zot Ha’brachah
is read at
Simchat
Torah
services.) It is almost entirely poetic in content, and this is reflected in the text of the Torah itself, written in the “split column” form reserved for poetry. Moses calls upon heaven and earth to bear witness to the poem. “Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; let the earth hear the words I utter!” (Deut 32:1)
The poem returns to the themes written about in the beginning of the book of
Devarim
(Deuteronomy). God is described as gracious and giving to the people of Israel. The people, though, will not always be faithful to God, they will betray God and worship idols. Ultimately though God will forgive them and they will return repentant.
As the poem concludes, God tells Moses to ascend Mount Nebo and to view from afar the land that God has promised to the people of Israel. Moses is reminded, yet again, that he may view the land, but not enter it.
The Torah portion is in some ways reflective of the time we have just completed. As we move forward into the year ahead, we also think of those who, like Moses will not have the opportunity to see the "promised land", our loved ones whom we mentioned at
Yizkor
on
Yom Kippur
. Yet we, like the people of Israel, are now ready to cross the "Jordan River" into the new year with a sense of great joy. That joy is represented by the holiday of
Sukkot
, which is described in the liturgy as
z'man simchateynu
, the time of our rejoicing. Interestingly though, a
sukkah
need not have four walls. Three are enough to render it "kosher". Perhaps that is the reminder to us of both Moses and our loved ones who are no longer with us. Even at times of great joy, they are still in our hearts. So we enter the new year and celebrate
Sukkot
with both full joy and a sense that our
sukkah
may lack something as essential as one of the walls. Just as the people must have felt, as they parted from Moses and entered the land, a sense of gratitude tinged with sorrow, so too as we sit in a
sukkah
that may not be quite so complete, we feel both joy with a bit of emptiness symbolized by that three walled
sukkah
. Life and joy continues on, but Moses, and our loved ones, still remain a part of who we are.
Shabbat Shalom
,
Rabbi Steven Kane
