Shabbat Parashat Haazinu - 5786

Shabbat Parashat Haazinu - 5786

Rabbi Hal Miller

  And He will say, "I shall hide My face from them and see what is their end,

  for they are a generation of reversals, children without upbringing in them.

  [Devarim 32:20]

This song is the final address by Moshe to the people. Ramban writes "Until this point in the song, Moshe is the one saying it and speaking in his own name. But from this verse, all are the words of God." If so, what is God telling us here? Who is He speaking to?

According to Ibn Ezra the who question is answered that "God will say to Himself or to the angels, 'I shall hide My face from them' as in the manner of human speech." Ramban disagrees, saying it " is nothing but His intent and desire to do so in the manner of 'God said' in the account of Creation." Most commentators seem to accept Ramban's version, often without discussing the issue.

One might read our verse as meaning God was going to step back and wait to see what is going to happen, which would be counter to our understanding that He knows in advance since He lives outside of time. Onkelos changes the "I will see" to "is revealed before Me", which both resolves the uncertainty of the future and also, as Onkelos does, the anthropomorphism of God having to use eyes. Targum Yonatan changes it slightly to "it will be seen", which seems to mean Israel will see. Saadiah Gaon follows that by interpreting it, "I will show them", thus it is Israel who will see.

Sforno remains with the idea that it is God who is seeing, "I can foresee that there is no chance that the descendants will become penitents" from which Talelei Oros learns that before God takes action against a sinner He looks into whether that sinner will ever do teshuvah or have righteous offspring. This is further shown by the end of our verse about whether there might be righteous descendants to come.

What does "generation of reversals" mean? According to Rashi, "they transform My good will to anger". Talelei Oros and Or HaChayim say that the people were fickle, both indicating that the people turned their good traits to bad ones rather than remain steadfast with God. Gemara Yoma [83b] refers to it as perversity, and Kiddushin [36a] calls it untrustworthy. Rashi connects it to the last phrase about wayward children and puts it, "I have taught them a good way and they turned away from it."

But there is another way to understand our verse. Rather than merely God walking away from Israel, as it were, there may be some indication of good here. Rav Hirsch states something that initially seems to attribute spite to God, "They think they can do without Me and My support, so let them experience where they will get without Me." But what he means is that God knows Israel will return to Him once they learn this lesson. Talelei Oros also sees consolation here, that God will reward, measure for measure, all the efforts people will put into converting negative traits to positive ones. He writes, "Something that often destroys him is put to use to refine, improve and build him."