The Entwined Themes of Ha’azinu and Rosh Hashanah
Temple Avodat Shalom, River Edge, Reform
This year, the schedule for Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat Ha’azinu is one made for people who really love services. We go from Erev Rosh Hashanah on Wednesday evening straight through Shabbat on Saturday. Shabbat Ha’azinu, also Shabbat Shuvah, is essentially part of our Rosh Hashanah experience this year (not that it is ever too far away).
For context, Moses delivers the song Ha’azinu shortly before his death. It is the closing song of his leadership and encapsulates the Israelites’ past and future. It is a culmination of the teachings that Moses has shared with the Israelites over the book of Deuteronomy. These are the Israelites who were very young or not yet born at the time of the Exodus. They, like us, did not experience the miracles and the revelations. This allows Deuteronomy, and this poem, to speak directly to every generation of Israel, including us, in a way that is unique within the Torah.
Ha’azinu, meaning “Give ear / listen,” is one of the great poems of the Tanach, and one of the few true poems in the Torah. It is full of metaphor, allegory, reflection, transgression, repentance, prophecy. It is also an incredible example of the use of parallelism in Ancient Near Eastern poetry, but exploring that will need to be a different article, or an entire class. I highly encourage reading the poem.
For now, let us consider some of the meta themes of Moses’s poem of farewell, and how it relates to the themes of our Jewish New Year: accountability and sovereignty, hearing and answering, renewal and hope.
Accountability and Sovereignty:
Accountability is one of the major themes of Deuteronomy as a whole. The laws the book includes, the changes and agenda in how Moses retells previous events from the Torah, and Moses’s personal injunctions emphasize that every person is accountable for their actions, and every person’s actions affect the entire community. This Deuteronomic world view is backed by God’s unilateral sovereignty. Ha’azinu’s allegorical story arc articulates the consequences of Israel’s disobedience and the promise of divine justice.
These themes connect to the aspects of Rosh Hashanah that are about preparing us for the next holy day — Yom Kippur. We recognize God’s rulership with Avinu Malkeinu. We begin the process of cheshbon hanefesh, considering our actions over the past year, as we prepare for Tshuvah. How have our actions negatively impacted ourselves, our community, and our world? How can we do better? How have we lived in alignment with our values? In Ha’azinu, the stark imagery of consequences prompts us to consider the weight of our decisions. The poem, and the Days of Awe, emphasize that our actions matter.
Hearing and Answering:
Moses’s insistence to “give ear” resonates with the essential symbol of Rosh Hashanah: The Shofar. Moses entreats the heavens and earth to listen…but Rosh Hashanah demands it. The sound of the Shofar, the alarm clock of the new year, is undeniable. But we can open our ears to listen beyond its clarion call. We can listen to our liturgy, inspirational readings, and words of Torah to inspire us for a new year. Most importantly in these days of introspection, we listen to the deeper call of our own conscience. We must prepare to answer what we hear on Yom Kippur.
Renewal and Hope:
After the unapologetic narrative of transgression and the consequences, Ha’azinu concludes with a message of hope and renewal. Moses emphasizes God’s commitment to God’s people, which ultimately transcends all else. The Gates of Repentance are always open. We can renew our days as we have in the past. Rosh Hashanah is also called, “the birthday of the world.” The theme of renewal coming from the start of a fresh year also represents the opportunity for transformation. It represents change as opportunity, including the self improvement we reach for on Yom Kippur through repentance. Just as Moses encourages the people to turn back to God after their mistakes in Ha’azinu, Rosh Hashanah prepares us to enter Yamim Noraim knowing that no matter how far we may have strayed, the path of redemption is always there for us.
So on this Shabbat Ha’azinu, aka Shabbat Shuvah, aka Rosh Hashanah Day 3, let us take inspiration from our New Year celebrations and Moses’s poem. May we face the accountability of our actions, trusting in our traditions and God. May we embrace the call to listen and awaken. Let us enter the new year with a spirit of renewal and the (much, much needed) hope that we can transform ourselves and the world into a better place, moving ever closer to a world redeemed.
Shanah Tovah!
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