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✡︎ Shalom and Good Shabbos, Friends ✡︎
Parshas Ha'azinu: Moses Delivers a Nation with Poetic Inspiration
In Parshas Ha’azinu, Moses reminds us that children are our future. We pray that God will soon deliver us from those within our culture who wage war against our innocent unborn children.
Moses Sings a Song of Love and Concern
In our Torah portion this week, Ha'azinu: Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:1-52, Moses is very, very worried about the Jewish people's survivability. Over the past 40 years, their repeated distrust of him and defiance of his authority as God’s ambassador show their chances are slim.
He's spent most of the day repeating the blessings and the curses, and writing down the Torah. His hour of death is fast approaching and he must make one more effort to prepare them for the certain dangers ahead.
As the day closes on his life, Moses takes a few more precious minutes to try again to convey the message he suspects has fallen on deaf ears. Perhaps the people will hear better if the message is put in a poem, so he recites his Song of Moses, 43 lines of love, concern, remonstration and inspiration.
Moses completes his last task. God sends him up to Mr Nebo to rest his weary bones. I wish we could all go back in time to hear him sing his poem. It must have been lyrical and powerful and memorable.
David’s Song of Thanksgiving
The Haftorah portion this week, II Shmuel (Samuel) 22:1-51, presents another poetic song, this one thanking God for Divine intervention. A young David sings praises to God for allowing him to escape Saul’s military campaign to locate and murder him. David loves God and serves Him with righteousness, and this is why David believes he is saved from this formidable adversary among his own people.
A Simple Way of Life Made Difficult
As our study of Torah closes, we ought to know the message by now. Life works only when God leads and we follow happily and faithfully. So simple but so difficult. Our history reveals a chronicle of self directed attempts and failures to complicate and circumvent a simple and successful way of being.
Invariably. we discover we've make a terrible mess with no way out except to look up to Heaven and call out for help. And Heaven will let us suffer a little bit longer if we aren't done having our own way!
Children are our Future
In Devarim, 32:46-47, Moses reminds us that children are the vital element to our survivability. We pray that God will soon deliver us from adversarial elements within our communities who wage war against our innocent unborn children and our future. Get ready to sing!
“Pay close attention to all the words with which I am warning you this day, in order that you be inspired to command your children to safeguard the Torah’s teachings by studying them diligently, in order to properly do all that is contained in the words of this Torah.
For it is not an unrewarding pursuit for you; rather, it is your very life, and by means of this thing, you will lengthen your days upon the land into which you are crossing over the Jordan River to possess.”
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