Welcome to Ha’Azinu (Listen), this week’s Parasha (Torah Portion). We know you will be blessed as you join us in reading this Torah portion. It is the last one in the annual cycle to be read on a Shabbat (Sabbath).

The next Torah portion reading is special and celebrates the Festival of Sukkot.

The concluding Torah portion of the annual cycle, V’Zot HaBerachah (And This is the Blessing), will be read on Simchat Torah, which begins on Monday, October 5th. On the next Sabbath, October 10, the regular cycle of Torah readings will begin again.


HA’AZINU (Listen!)
Deuteronomy 32:1–52; 2 Samuel 22:1–51; Romans 11:1–36

“Give ear [Ha’Azinu], Oh heavens, and I will speak …” (Deuteronomy 32:1)

Last week, Parasha Vayelech concluded with Moses foreseeing that Israel would turn away from their covenant with God, causing Him to hide His face from them. Still, Moses promised that the words of the Torah would not be “forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants.” (Deuteronomy 31:21)

Moses gathered the people together to listen to a shir (song) called Ha’Azinu (Listen). That song would always be a reminder of the consequences of turning from the Lord.

This week’s Torah portion (Parasha), which is called Ha’Azinu, consists primarily of the 70-line song that Moses sang to the people of Israel on the last day of his life.

At the end, God commands Moses to go up to the top of Mount Nebo to catch a glimpse of the Promised Land before being “gathered unto His people.”

“Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 32:52)

Moses is allowed to see the land, but not enter in. It is a devastating disappointment and, yet, he ends his public life with a song.

What is the nature of this song? It begins by describing God’s loving kindness and faithfulness toward Israel, and it ends with a promise of vengeance, redemption and atonement for God’s land and people.

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people.” (Deuteronomy 32:43)

It is not only the people of Israel who will rejoice with this final redemption. The Gentiles will rejoice together with God’s people.

God’s salvation is for all people — of every tongue, tribe, race and ethnic background. All people — Jews and Gentiles — can rejoice together in unity at the goodness of God.

A portion of this song has severe words of rebuke against Israel for infidelity and unfaithfulness to God.

Not only would God “hide His face” from His people but He would also render judgment.

“I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger, devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, with the poison of serpents of the dust.” (Deuteronomy 32:23–24)

Although these rebukes seem quite harsh, they reveal that the discipline of God is for our good and will ultimately end in our final redemption.

Provoking God and His People to Jealousy

Moses' song foresees that the people of Israel will make God jealous with their worship of other false gods and idols and that God in turn will provoke His people to jealousy with those who are called “not a nation.”

“They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.” (Deuteronomy 32:21; see also Romans 11:13–15)

This reference to not a nation is in Hebrew loh ami. It is found again in the Book of Hosea:

“I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one.' I will say to those called 'Not my nation,' (loh ami) 'You are my nation'; and they will say, 'You are my God.'" (Hosea 2:23)

It was this ability to sing in the face of apparent tragedy that set Moses apart from the others.

All but a few of his generation had died in the wilderness because of their unbelief. Moses himself was about to die, having never entered the Promised Land. But he still praised God in song—reminding Israel of God’s power, love, and faithfulness.