Shabbos Parashas Ha'azinu - 5780

Shabbos Parashas Ha'azinu - 5780

Rabbi Hal Miller

Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and may the earth hear what my mouth

says. [Devarim 32:1]

Ha'azinu, the first word in our pasuk, refers to ears and hearing, but then so does

v'tishma ("and will hear") later in the same verse. If the Torah chose two different

words for similar concepts, there must be differences for us to discover.

Onkelos says that the two words are poetically parallel as are "I will speak" and

"my mouth says", in other words there is no lesson for us here. But this is not the

opinion of most other commentators.

Nearly all note that this is the fulfillment of Moshe's admonition in Devarim [30:19]

a couple weeks ago and last week [31:28], where he said he would call for the

heavens and earth to be witnesses against Israel. In our verse, he does exactly

that. Since he treats these two witnesses with different words, perhaps looking at

the essence of those two witnesses will explain why each word was applied.

Rav Hirsch explains that ha'azinu implies active listening, where shema can be

passive. One must concentrate and want to understand with ha'azinu, but one can

merely overhear with shema. So why would Moshe need to address heaven and

earth in this fashion?

Some point out that Yeshayahu contains a very similar verse, where the application

of these words is reversed, ha'azinu for earth, and shema for heaven. They note

that Moshe was closer to heaven than he was to earth, both in his level of holiness

and for the fact that he was about to die, where Yeshayahu was closer to earth and

needed to address the celestial body more relevant to him.

Rav Soloveitchik understands that the earth behaves according to nature, being

physical. The heavens, being spiritual, have more freedom, if you will, to act on their

own. Thus merely mentioning nature to earth will keep it in line, but the heavens

need emphasis on what one wants done.

Kol Dodi continues this thought by looking at "I will speak", v'adabeira. The word

'dibeir' is a command form, a strong way of saying that I am going to tell you

something important. He writes that the heavens "do exactly as they are

commanded even if they do not understand why. And since they are being called

upon to do something they do not understand and which is not self-evident, they

must listen carefully in order to remember well. The earth, being physical, needs

to understand what it is doing. Physical beings must be put in a receptive frame

of mind to understand what they are told to do." Thus the word is imrei, to say.

I learned as a military officer, sometimes it is necessary to direct what one wants

done, but other times it is better to provide general direction and let subordinates

come up with the necessary actions on their own.