Parasha: Haazinu · Aliyah: Second (Gevurah)

זכר ימות עולם, "Remember the days of yore, etc." Moses again makes four divisions corresponding to the four divisions he made in the previous verse. Where he had spoken of "your father" in the previous verse, i.e. an allusion to G'd the Creator, he now says "remember the days of yore," i.e. the six days of creation. Those were the days in which G'd manifested Himself as extremely active. Corresponding to the words קנך, "the One Who owns you" in the previous verse, words which were meant to allude to the Exodus from Egypt and other acts of kindness by G'd for Israel, Moses now says בינו שנות דור ודור, that the Israelites should examine the happenings during the two generations in question, i.e the generation of the Exodus and the generation of Israelites who did enter the Holy Land. By reviewing these two periods in our history we can understand by what right G'd considers Himself as "owning" us. Concerning the word עשך, "who has made you," which Moses referred to in the previous verse, something we described as the supreme improvement G'd made in the condition of man (Israel) [since the sin in Gan Eden. Ed.] when He granted the Jewish people His presence on a regular basis, Moses now says שאל אביך ויגדך, "ask your father and he will tell you;" the "father" in this case is a simile for the prophets whom G'd provided for us to consult with. Finally, concerning the fourth section of the previous verse, ויכננך, the automatic entrance card to our hereafter, Moses now says זקניך ויאמרו לך, "your elders and they will tell you." Moses refers to the scholars of the Jewish people who are familiar with the preparatory steps necessary to safeguard our entitlement to life in the hereafter.

בהנחל עליון גוים, "When the Supreme One gave nations their inheritance, etc." This is a reference to the time when G'd assigned "guardian angels" for the various Gentile nations to represent them at the celestial court. This is an allusion to the fact that G'd considered these nations as inferior so that He did not want to relate to them directly but only by means of an intermediary.

בהפרידו בני אדם, "when He separated the children of man." The meaning is that G'd did not deliver all the nations into the hands of a single "deputy," i.e. a minister appointed by G'd to deal with them. Rather He appointed different "ministers" to be in charge of the fates of the various nations. The manner in which G'd went about doing this when He established the borders of the various nations was that He took into consideration the needs of the people of Israel. We must remember that when G'd created the souls He planted them originally in one of two trees. One of these trees is a "good" tree, the other is an "evil" tree. The good tree is the one from which the soul of Adam emanated, whereas the other "tree" is a simile for Samael, the symbol of wicked man. Once Adam sinned and the previous division between good and evil became eroded so that good and evil began to appear intertwined, even the offspring of Adam began to produce wicked souls until eventually one totally pure soul, that of Jacob, emerged. From that time onwards the good tree became clearly identifiable once again. This is why the Talmud in Baba Metzia 84 tells us that the beauty of Jacob's soul was comparable to that of Adam before the sin. The "good" tree we are speaking of has 70 branches corresponding to the number of people who descended to Egypt with Jacob. Accordingly, when G'd separated the various nations from one another, He divided them into 70 to correspond to the seventy branches of sanctity.

The idea underlying this division was to enable each branch of sanctity in the world to be able to rule over its spiritually negative counterpart. This is the mystical dimension of Proverbs 5,5: "her feet descend to death." The idea is that the feet of sanctity stomp on the heads of the קליפה, the spiritually negative forces. In other words, Jacob's branches rule over the nations of the world. Moses continues with, כי חלק ה׳ עמו "for G'd's portion is His people," meaning that inasmuch as G'd has chosen the Jewish people to be governed by Himself directly and has thus elevated Israel over the other nations, He thereby rules over mankind as a whole. The reference of חלק ה׳ עמו refers to Israel after they had received the Torah when they became fit to be called the people of G'd. Moses adds יעקב חבל נחלתו, "Jacob is the measure of His inheritance." The word חבל refers to the most important part of that inheritance. This is an allusion to the quotation from Baba Metzia 84 about the beauty of Jacob matching that of original man, Adam.

Moses also had in mind the fact that there are two categories of souls. One kind of soul has descended directly from a very high region in heaven, and that is the type of soul referred to here as חלק ה׳, "part of G'd," so to speak. Other souls originate in a pool called נחלת שדי, the inheritance of the G'd known as שדי. These souls Moses refers to as חבל נחלתו, "tied by a rope to His inheritance." The word חבל was chosen by Moses deliberately to allude to something very important revealed by the Kabbalists. Every vital soul of man has a "string" connected with its root. This "string" begins at his nostrils and it is by means of this "string" that the soul derives its sustenance enabling it to live. Concerning the soul of the wicked, the Torah said in Numbers 15,31 (in connection with deliberate sinners) הכרת תכרת הנפש ההיא, עונה בה, "that person (soul) will surely be cut off, his sin is upon him." This means that the lifeline connecting that person's soul to its origin will be severed. Once the soul cannot derive sustenance from its source it dies. Of the righteous, on the other hand, the Torah stated in Deut. 4,11 "As to you who have cleaved to the Lord your G'd, you are all alive today."

ימצאהו בארץ מדבר ובתהו ילל ישימון. "He discovered it in a desert land, in desolation, a howling wilderness." It appears that Moses referred to a thought expressed in Pessachim 119 that the Israelites did not leave Egypt until G'd had made them to be like a fishpond devoid of fish. [the Talmud deals with the meaning of the word וינצלו in Exodus 12,36. Ed.] Finding Israel in the desert was as unlikely as finding fish in the pond referred to. In Rabbi Chayim Vital's Likutey Torah on Parshat Vayera we read that if the Israelites had remained in Egypt at the time of the Exodus they would have remained mired in that impurity forever as they would have descended to the 50th and absolute level of impurity. This is why Moses stresses "where", i.e. in what spiritually low state G'd found the Jewish people. He does not describe the area as מדבר, "a desert," but as ארץ מדבר, "desert land," as the former has absolutely no spiritual content, is completely barren of spiritual values.

Moses also said that not only did this land not have much to offer spiritually, but it was תהו ילל ישמון, it was full of spiritually negative influences. Zohar volume one page 16 describes תהו as one of the levels of the קליפה. ילל ישימן are descriptions of similar phenomena. The reason that such phenomena flourish in those environments is the absence of spiritually positive forces. This is a reason why the Torah describes the fact that G'd "discovered" Israel in the desert land in the future tense, to emphasise that unless the Jewish people in that region enjoy the ongoing protection and supervision of G'd, i.e. יסבבנהו יבוננהו, they would be spiritually lost. Moses means that the Exodus was due to the fact that the Jews could not absorb any additional negative influences in Egypt. He protected them at the time He brought the plagues upon the Egyptians. A simple example of this is Exodus 9,6 which tells us that not even the cattle of the Israelites suffered from the plague of pestilence, not to mention the immunity of the Jewish firstborn during the last plague.

יבוננהו, "He granted it discernment." Moses refers to the people receiving the Torah which is the source of their insight, the instrument by which G'd preserved the people "like the pupil of His eye" (Compare Proverbs 2,11 תבונה תנצרכה, "understanding will preserve you.") When Moses added the reference to the "pupil of His eye," we are reminded of Zachariah 2,12: "for anyone who harms you (the Jewish people) is as if he harmed the pupil of his own eye." The prophet meant that an eye cannot tolerate being touched by the finger of man. The reason is that whereas the eyeball is scrupulously clean, man's fingers are not. The eye symbolises spirituality, the finger, physicality. The former does not like to be touched by the latter. This is the mystical dimension of Rabbi Shimon's saying in the Zohar volume two page 211: "woe to the soul that has to suffer from alien fire." He viewed the fire which enters the soul to punish it as alien fire relative to the fire represented by the soul itself. This is why you find in that passage of the Zohar that the soul of the righteous has to immerse itself in the fiery river Dinur, etc.

Moses compared the type of protection G'd afforded the Jewish people as comparable to the way in which we protect the pupils of our eyes. G'd protects the spirituality whereas He considers everything outside the "eye" as physical and potentially lethal even by mere touch. Israel had not attained such a level of spirituality until after it had received the Torah. When Moses first spoke of יבוננהו, and only afterwards of יצרנהו, he referred to the negative commandments.

Another thought that may have prompted Moses to choose these expressions may be related to what we learned in Berachot 54: "three categories of people are in need of protection, one of them being the Torah scholar." The reason is that the destructive forces in the universe are jealous of the Torah scholar's achievements and status and try to harass him. Moses therefore says יבוננהו, that by giving the Torah scholar insight, i.e. the Torah, G'd has armed the scholar against such harassment. Once he possesses such insight he himself understands that he has to protect the Torah like the pupil of his eye.

כנשר יעיר קנו, "He was like an eagle rousing its nest, etc." Our sages in the Sifri pursued their own path in interpreting this verse; we ourselves also pursue our own path based on Vayikra Rabbah 17,4 discussing the affliction of Tzoraat. As long as the Israelites serve the merciful judge (in a general way), G'd does not immediately afflict the persons but rather the קן, property, such as the houses of the Israelites. If this proves ineffectual, G'd affflicts the clothing, and only as a last resort does He afflict the body of the sinner. Moses uses the simile of the eagle to show that just as the eagle rouses its young first, so G'd rouses the children of man to warn that man has to put his spiritual house in order. Any afflictions are in keeping with the victim's ability to endure them. Compare Bereshit Rabbah 55,2 that G'd never subjects man to a trial which is beyond his capacity to survive intact spiritually.

יפרש כנפיו יקחהו, "spreading its wings and taking it." We may understand this as being analogous to Sifri Devarim 3,29 that G'd's right hand is stretched out to welcome the repentant sinners. The previous arousal described in our verse leads to G'd stretching out His hand to those who have responded to the arousal. Moses uses the future tense when saying יפרש, "He will spread out," to indicate that the "whole reason G'd spreads out His wings" in the first place is in order to be able to "catch" the penitents. Were it not for the fact that He hopes for the Israelites to return to Him in penitence, He would not indulge in the gestures described here by Moses.

ישאהו על אברתו, "He will carry it on His pinions." This may be understood by reference to the Zohar volume one page 92 explaining Kohelet 10,20: "some winged creature may betray the matter." According to the Zohar there is a class of angels known as בעלי כנפים, "winged creatures." It is their task to relate to the heavenly regions every worthwhile thing a Jew has uttered and to use its wings for that purpose. Moses referred to G'd, i.e. His messengers, carrying such words which please the Lord to the celestial regions.

ה׳ בדד ינחנו, "The Lord alone guided it, etc." This may be understood on the basis of Bereshit Rabbah 38,6 commenting on Hoseah 4,17: חבור עצבים אפרים הנח לו, "Ephrayim is addicted to images; let him be." According to the view of the Midrash as long as the Israelites will live peacefully with one another and they maintain unity, even the sin of idolatry may be allowed to fester, i.e. הנח לו. The meaning of the word is similar to the way it is used in Esther 2,18 "the king made a הנחה," an amnesty of outstanding taxes to certain of his provinces. The reason Moses chose the expression בדד, is to relate it to the word בד, alone, no longer part of a foreign culture, G'd will lead it.

ואין עמו אל נכר. "No other deity is with Him." This means that though they are idol worshipers, G'd does not account this sin for them. The words אין עמו must be understood similarly to the way our sages in Rosh Hashanah 30 interpreted Jeremiah 30,1 דרש אין לו, "whom no one seeks out." The Talmud translates instead: "it is not investigated" i.e. brought to one's attention (at that time). This proves that it merits investigation nonetheless. [The subject matter is the use of the Lulav even after the destruction of the Temple on all seven days, as a reminder of former times. Ed.] Here too, the sin of idolatry certainly deserves investigation and judgment but not at this time. [I confess that I find this interpretation of אין עמו אל נכר very hard to understand. Why is there a need to depart from the plain meaning? Ed.]

We may also understand the verse as follows: "When does G'd alone guide the fortunes of the Jewish people? When they have rid themselves of all alien deities."