Haazinu
What is the paradox we must always hold?
Reflection by Ariel Yisraelah Hendelman, the Or HaLev Team:
"We find ourselves almost at the end of the Torah, or at least the end of the five books of Moshe, ready to begin the cycle anew soon. This week’s parsha, Haazinu – הַאֲזִ֥ינוּ, means `to harken` or `heed.` The word shares a root with the Hebrew word for ear, ozen. Moshe recites a poem to whoever will listen – the Infinite One, Am Yisrael, his own heart, Yehoshua his successor, the land itself. The poem is a kind of distillation of the entirety of the book of Devarim. It recounts, with ample metaphoric imagery that is at once beautiful, violent, tragic and triumphant, all of the trials and tribulations that the people have gone through over their journey, which is our journey.
At the end of the parsha, the Infinite One tells Moshe that he is going to die without entering the land of promise. The Torah ends before we reach our destination, a destination that Moshe will actually never reach. He will die overlooking the land that he led us into, as the last line of the parsha indicates:
כִּ֥י מִנֶּ֖גֶד תִּרְאֶ֣ה אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ וְשָׁ֙מָּה֙ לֹ֣א תָב֔וֹא אֶל־הָאָ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־אֲנִ֥י נֹתֵ֖ן לִבְנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
You may view the land from a distance, but you shall not enter it—the land that I am giving to the Israelite people (32:52).
If we look at this story with a mythic lens, Moshe exists inside each of us. And, each of us is a member of B’nai Yisrael, the children of Israel. Thus, a part of us must always stay in the longing – for that which has been promised by the one who made us, for that home which we are continually journeying towards, for that wholeness we know is our birthright, for what we are destined to become. Another part of us is gifted entry; the deep longing is fulfilled and satiated, the homecoming realized. It seems that we must always hold the paradox, these two experiences at once, in order to be in true and loving relationship with the One, with each other, and with all of creation. Part of us, the humble leader, stays on top of that mountain, yearning with an unbearable force. The other part enters in fully and receives the blessing, without ever forgetting what it took to arrive."