Haazinu, Ha'azinu, or Ha'Azinu (הַאֲזִינוּ — Hebrew for "listen" when directed to more than one person, the first word in the parshah) is the 53rd weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the 10th in the book of Deuteronomy. It constitutes Deuteronomy 32:1–52. Jews in the Diaspora read it on a Sabbath between the holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot, generally in September or October.
The parshah sets out the Song of Moses — an indictment of the Israelites’ sins, a prophecy of their punishment, and a promise of God’s ultimate redemption of them.
The bulk of the parshah, the song of Deuteronomy 32:1–43, appears in the Torah scroll in a distinctive two-column format, reflecting the poetic structure of the text, where in each line, an opening colon is matched by a second, parallel thought unit.
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Moses called on heaven and earth to hear his words, and asked that his speech be like rain and dew for the grass. (Deuteronomy 32:1–2.) Moses proclaimed that God was perfect in deed, just, faithful, true, and upright. (Deuteronomy 32:3–4.) God’s children were unworthy, a crooked generation that played God false, ill requiting the Creator. (Deuteronomy 32:5–6.) Moses exhorted the Israelites to remember that in ages past, God assigned the nations their homes and their due, but chose the Israelites as God’s own people. (Deuteronomy 32:7–9.) God found the Israelites in the desert, watched over them, guarded them, like an eagle who rouses his nestlings, gliding down to his young, God spread God’s wings and took Israel, bearing Israel along on God’s pinions, God alone guided Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:10–12.) God set the Israelites atop the highlands to feast on the yield of the earth and fed them honey, oil, curds, milk, lamb, wheat, and wine. (Deuteronomy 32:13–14.) So Israel grew fat and kicked and forsook God, incensed God with alien things, and sacrificed to demons and no-gods. (Deuteronomy 32:15–18.)
God saw, was vexed, and hid God’s countenance from them, to see how they would fare. (Deuteronomy 32:19–20.) For they were a treacherous breed, children with no loyalty, who incensed God with no-gods, vexed God with their idols; thus God would incense them with a no-folk and vex them with a nation of fools. (Deuteronomy 32:20–21.) A fire flared in God’s wrath and burned down to the base of the hills. (Deuteronomy 32:22.) God would sweep misfortunes on them, use God’s arrows on them — famine, plague, pestilence, and fanged beasts — and with the sword would deal death and terror to young and old alike. (Deuteronomy 32:23–25.)
God might have reduced them to nothing, made their memory cease among men, except for fear of the taunts of their enemies, who might misjudge and conclude that their own hand had prevailed and not God’s. (Deuteronomy 32:26–27.) For Israel’s enemies were a folk void of sense, lacking in discernment. (Deuteronomy 32:28.) Were they wise, they would think about this, and gain insight into their future, for they would recognize that one could not have routed a thousand unless God had sold them. (Deuteronomy 32:29–31.) They were like Sodom and Gomorrah and their wine was the venom of asps. (Deuteronomy 32:32–33.) God stored it away to be the basis for God’s vengeance and recompense when they should trip, for their day of disaster was near. (Deuteronomy 32:34–35.) God would vindicate God’s people and take revenge for God’s servants, when their might was gone. (Deuteronomy 32:36.) God would ask where the enemies’ gods were — they who ate the fat of their offerings and drank their libation wine — let them rise up to help! (Deuteronomy 32:37–38.) There was no god beside God, who dealt death and gave life, wounded and healed. (Deuteronomy 32:39.) God swore that when God would whet God’s flashing blade, and lay hand on judgment, God would wreak vengeance on God’s foes. (Deuteronomy 32:40–41.) God would make God’s arrows drunk with blood, as God’s sword devoured flesh, blood of the slain and the captive from the long-haired enemy chiefs. (Deuteronomy 32:42.) God would avenge the blood of God’s servants, wreak vengeance on God’s foes, and cleanse the land of God’s people. (Deuteronomy 32:43.)
Moses came, together with Joshua, and recited all this poem to the people. (Deuteronomy 32:44.) And when Moses finished reciting, he told them to take his warnings to heart and enjoin them upon their children, for it was not a trifling thing but their very life at stake. (Deuteronomy 32:45–47.) That day God told Moses to ascend Mount Nebo and view the land of Canaan, for he was to die on the mountain, as his brother Aaron had died on Mount Hor, for they both broke faith with God when they struck the rock to produce water in the wilderness of Zin, failing to uphold God’s sanctity among the Israelite people. (Deuteronomy 32:48–52.)
Moses calls heaven and earth to serve as witnesses against Israel in Deuteronomy 4:26, 30:19, 31:28, and 32:1. Similarly, Psalm 50:4–5 reports that God “summoned the heavens above, and the earth, for the trial of His people,” saying “Bring in My devotees, who made a covenant with Me over sacrifice!” Psalm 50:6 continues: “Then the heavens proclaimed His righteousness, for He is a God who judges.” And in Isaiah 1:2, the prophet similarly begins his vision, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken."
In Deuteronomy 32:4, 32:15, 32:18, and 32:30–31, Moses calls God a "Rock." The Psalmist does so as well in Psalm 19:15 and Psalm 95:1. Psalm 18:3 analogizes God's role as a Rock to a "fortress" and a "high tower."
Deuteronomy compares God's relationship with Israel to that of a parent and child in Deuteronomy 1:31, 8:5, and 32:5. For similar comparisons, see Exodus 4:22–23, Isaiah 1:2, and Hosea 11:1.
In Deuteronomy 32:10, God finds Israel in the wilderness, much as in Hosea 9:10, God says, "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig tree at her first season."
Psalm 91 interprets the role of God as an eagle expressed in Deuteronomy 32:11. Psalm 91:4 explains, “He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you take refuge,” and Psalm 91:5 explains, “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.”
The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael counted 10 songs in the Hebrew Bible: (1) the one that the Israelites recited at the first Passover in Egypt, as Isaiah 30:29 says, “You shall have a song as in the night when a feast is hallowed”; (2) the Song of the sea in Exodus 15; (3) the one that the Israelites sang at the well in the wilderness, as Numbers 21:17 reports, “Then sang Israel this song: ‘Spring up, O well’”; (4) the one that Moses spoke in his last days, as Deuteronomy 31:30 reports, “Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song”; (5) the one that Joshua recited, as Joshua 10:12 reports, “Then spoke Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites”; (6) the one that Deborah and Barak sang, as Judges 5:1 reports, “Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam”; (7) the one that David spoke, as 2 Samuel 22:1 reports, “David spoke to the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul”; (8) the one that Solomon recited, as Psalm 30:1 reports, “a song at the Dedication of the House of David”; (9) the one that Jehoshaphat recited, as 2 Chronicles 20:21 reports: “when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed them that should sing to the Lord, and praise in the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and say, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for His mercy endures for ever’”; and (10) the song that will be sung in the time to come, as Isaiah 42:10 says, “Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth,” and Psalm 149:1 says, “Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise in the assembly of the saints.” (Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael Shirata 1:5.)
The Gemara instructs that when writing a Torah scroll, a scribe needs to write the song of Deuteronomy 32:1–43 in a special two-column form, with extra spaces. (See the image at the top of this article.) If a scribe writes the song as plain text, then the scroll is invalid. (Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 103b.)
Rabbi Samuel ben Nahman asked why Moses called upon both the heavens and the earth in Deuteronomy 32:1. Rabbi Samuel compared Moses to a general who held office in two provinces and was about to hold a feast. He needed to invite people from both provinces, so that neither would fell offended for having been overlooked. Moses was born on earth, but became great in heaven. (Deuteronomy Rabbah 10:4.)
The Sifre taught that Israel would come before God and acknowledge that heaven and earth, the witnesses that God designated in Deuteronomy 32:1, were present to testify against her, but God would say that God would remove them, as Isaiah 65:17 reports that God would "create a new heaven and a new earth." Israel would say to God that her bad name endured, but God would say that God would remove her bad name as well, as Isaiah 62:2 reports that Israel "shall be called by a new name." Israel would ask God whether God had not prohibited her reconciliation with God when Jeremiah 3:1 says, "If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return to her again?" But God would reply in the words of Hosea 11:9, "I am God, and not man." (And thus God would forgive Israel and restore her original relationship with God.) (Sifre to Deuteronomy 306:2–3.)
Rav Judah and Rava inferred from Deuteronomy 32:2 the great value of rain. Rava also inferred from the comparison in Deuteronomy 32:2 of Torah to both rain and dew that Torah can affect a worthy scholar as beneficially as dew, and an unworthy one like a crushing rainstorm. (Babylonian Talmud Taanit 7a.)
Rabbi Abbahu cited Deuteronomy 32:3 to support the proposition of Mishnah Berakhot 7:1 that three who have eaten together publicly should say the Grace after Meals (Birkat Hamazon) together as well. In Deuteronomy 32:3, Moses says, “When I (who am one) proclaim the name of the Lord, you (in the plural, who are thus at least two more) ascribe greatness to our God.” Thus by using the plural to for “you,” Moses implies that at least three are present, and should ascribe greatness to God. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 45a.)
Rabbi Jose found support in the words “ascribe greatness to our God” in Deuteronomy 32:3 for the proposition that when standing in the house of assembly saying, “Blessed is the Lord who is to be blessed,” people are to respond, “Blessed is the Lord who is to be blessed forever and ever.” Rabbi Jose also found support in those words for the proposition that Grace after Meals is said only when three are present; that one must say “Amen” after the one who says the blessing; that one must say, “Blessed is the Name of the Glory of His Kingdom forever and ever”; and that when people say, “May His great name be blessed,” one must answer, “Forever and ever and ever.” (Sifre to Deuteronomy 306:30.)
Rabbi Hanina bar Papa taught that to enjoy this world without reciting a blessing is tantamount to robbing God, as Proverbs 28:24 says, “Whoever robs his father or his mother and says, ‘It is no transgression,’ is the companion of a destroyer,” and Deuteronomy 32:6 says of God, “Is not He your father Who has gotten you?” (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 35b.)
The Sifre expanded on the metaphor of God as an eagle in Deuteronomy 32:11, teaching that just as an eagle enters her nest only after shaking her chicks with her wings, fluttering from tree to tree to wake them up, so that they will have the strength to receive her, so when God revealed God’s self to give the Torah to Israel, God did not appear from just a single direction, but from all four directions, as Deuteronomy 33:2 says, “The Lord came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them,” and Habakkuk 3:3 says, “God comes from the south.” (Sifre to Deuteronomy 314.)
The Gemara read the word “Rock” in Deuteronomy 32:18 to refer to God, and the Gemara employed that interpretation with others to support Abba Benjamin’s assertion that when two people enter a synagogue to pray, and one of them finishes first and leaves without waiting for the other, God disregards the prayer of the one who left. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 5b.)
Rabbi Judah ben Simon expounded on God’s words in Deuteronomy 32:20, “I will hide My face from them.” Rabbi Judah ben Simon compared Israel to a king's son who went into the marketplace and struck people but was not struck in return (because of his being the king’s son). He insulted but was not insulted. He went up to his father arrogantly. But the father asked the son whether he thought that he was respected on his own account, when the son was respected only on account of the respect that was due to the father. So the father renounced the son, and as a result, no one took any notice of him. So when Israel went out of Egypt, the fear of them fell upon all the nations, as Exodus 15:14–16 reported, “The peoples have heard, they tremble; pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia. Then were the chiefs of Edom frightened; the mighty men of Moab, trembling takes hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away. Terror and dread falls upon them.” But when Israel transgressed and sinned, God asked Israel whether it thought that it was respected on its own account, when it was respected only on account of the respect that was due to God. So God turned away from them a little, and the Amalekites came and attacked Israel, as Exodus 17:8 reports, “Then Amalek came, and fought with Israel in Rephidim,” and then the Canaanites came and fought with Israel, as Numbers 21:1 reports, “And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the way of Atharim; and he fought against Israel.” God told the Israelites that they had no genuine faith, as Deuteronomy 32:20 says, “they are a very disobedient generation, children in whom is no faith.” God concluded that the Israelites were rebellious, but to destroy them was impossible, to take them back to Egypt was impossible, and God could not change them for another people. So God concluded to chastise and try them with suffering. (Ruth Rabbah Prologue 4.)
The Gemara read the word reshef (“fiery bolt”) in Deuteronomy 32:24 to refer to demons, and the Gemara employed that interpretation with others to support Rabbi Isaac’s assertion that reciting the Shema in bed keeps demons away. (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 5a.)
Rav Hisda taught that one walking in a dirty alleyway should not recite the Shema, and one reciting the Shema who comes upon a dirty alleyway should stop reciting. Of one who would not stop reciting, Rav Adda bar Ahavah quoted Numbers 15:31 to say: “he has despised the word of the Lord.” And of one who does stop reciting, Rabbi Abbahu taught that Deuteronomy 32:47 says: “through this word you shall prolong your days.” (Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 24b.)
The Sifre taught that God told Moses in Deuteronomy 32:50 that Moses would die “as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people,” because when Moses saw the merciful manner of Aaron’s death, as reported in Numbers 20:23–28, Moses concluded that he would want to die the same way. The Sifre taught that God told Aaron to go in a cave, to climb onto a bier, to spread his hands, to spread his legs, to close his mouth, and to close his eyes, and then Aaron died. And at that moment, Moses concluded that one would be happy to die that way. (Sifre to Deuteronomy 339:3.)
The Gemara implied that the sin of Moses in striking the rock at Meribah compared favorably to the sin of David. The Gemara reported that Moses and David were two good leaders of Israel. Moses begged God that his sin be recorded, as it is in Numbers 20:12, 20:23–24, and 27:13–14, and Deuteronomy 32:51. David, however, begged that his sin be blotted out, as Psalm 32:1 says, “Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is pardoned.” The Gemara compared the cases of Moses and David to the cases of two women whom the court sentenced to be lashed. One had committed an indecent act, while the other had eaten unripe figs of the seventh year in violation of Leviticus 25:6. The woman who had eaten unripe figs begged the court to make known for what offense she was being flogged, lest people say that she was being punished for the same sin as the other woman. The court thus made known her sin, and the Torah repeatedly records the sin of Moses. (Babylonian Talmud Yoma 86b.)
Saadiah Gaon interpreted heaven and earth in Deuteronomy 32:1 to mean the angels and the people of the earth. (Ibn Ezra on 32:1.)
Rashi explained that Moses called upon heaven and earth to serve as witnesses in Deuteronomy 32:1 in case Israel denied accepting the covenant, because Moses knew that he was mortal and would soon die, but heaven and earth will endure forever.(Rashi on 32:1; see also Ibn Ezra and Nachmanides on 32:1.) Furthermore, said Rashi, if Israel acted meritoriously, then the witnesses would be able to reward them, as the earth would yield its produce and the heavens would give its dew. (Zechariah 8:12.) And if Israel acted sinfully, then the hand of the witnesses would be the first to inflict punishment (carrying out the injunction of Deuteronomy 17:7), as God would close off heaven’s rain, and the soil would not yield its produce. (Deuteronomy 11:17.) (Rashi on 32:1.)
Rashi interpreted Deuteronomy 32:2 to refer to Torah, which, like rain, provides life to the world. Rashi interpreted the request of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:2 for his speech to rain down “as the dew,” “as the rain,” to mean that it should come in small droplets. Rashi interpreted that Moses wanted to teach the children of Israel slowly, the knowledge "raining" down on the people in small portions, for if they were to be subject to all knowledge coming down at once, they would be overwhelmed and thus wiped out. (Rashi on 32:2.)
Harold Fisch described the witness function of the song as "a kind of time bomb; it awaits its hour and then springs forward into harsh remembrance." (Poetry with a Purpose: Biblical Poetics and Interpretation, 51. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1988. ISBN 025334557X.)
A midrash interpreted the report of Deuteronomy 32:8 that God "fixed the boundaries of peoples in relation to Israel's number" (l'mispar b'nei Yisrael) to teach that before the days of Abraham, God dealt harshly with the world: The sins of Noah's generation resulted in the flood; the generation that built the Tower of Babel was dispersed throughout the globe, prompting the proliferation of languages; the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were answered with fire and brimstone. According to the midrash, when Abraham came into the world, God ceased the cataclysmic punishments and set the punishments of other peoples in relationship to Israel's presence in the world. This midrash conveys that the Israelites' presence somehow lessened God's anger, bringing greater stability to the world. The midrash teaches that Jews, then, have a unique ability and responsibility to bring peace and stability to the world. (myjewishlearing.com)
Nahama Leibowitz noted that Deuteronomy 32:27 contains a “very daring anthropomorphism indeed, attributing to God the sentiment of fear.” (Studies in Devarim: Deuteronomy, 328.)
Maimonides cites the parshah for one negative commandment:
(Maimonides. Mishneh Torah, Negative Commandment 194. Cairo, Egypt, 1170–1180. Reprinted in Maimonides. The Commandments: Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth of Maimonides. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, 2:189–91. London: Soncino Press, 1967. ISBN 0-900689-71-4.)
According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, however, there are no commandments in the parshah. (Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 5:443. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1988. ISBN 0-87306-497-6.)
And according to others, the parshah contains a commandment to listen, hear, and learn one's ancestral history, as Deuteronomy 32:7–9 instructs one to "ask your father and he will tell you."
The haftarah for the parshah is the song of David, 2 Samuel 22:1–51. Both the parshah and the haftarah set out the song of a great leader. Both the parshah (in Deuteronomy 32:4 and 18) and the haftarah (in 2 Samuel 22:1 and 2) refer to God as a Rock.
Moses’ characterization of God as “the Rock” in Deuteronomy 32:4 is reflected in Psalm 95:1, which is in turn the first of the six Psalms recited at the beginning of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer service, as well as in Psalm 92:16, which is recited later in the Kabbalat Shabbat service after the Lekhah Dodi liturgical poem. (Reuven Hammer. Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, 15, 23. New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2003. ISBN 0-916219-20-8.)
Many Jews recite the words, “as an eagle that stirs up her nest, hovers over her young,” from Deuteronomy 32:11 as part of the declaration of intent before donning the tallit. (Menachem Davis. The Schottenstein Edition Siddur for Weekdays with an Interlinear Translation, 5. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2002. ISBN 1-57819-686-8.)
The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:
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