Parshas Ha'azinu 5760 Under the Influence
By Rabbi Joshua (influentially known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

    The major part of this week's Torah reading consists of a section referred to at the end of last week's parsha as 'shira' -a term which can be translated as either song or poem.After concluding the shira and again adjuring the Jews to observe the Torah, Moshe is told by God to view the Holy Land before he dies, for he will not be able to enter it due to the sin he committed when he was commanded to speak to the rock so that it would provide water for the people. It is interesting to note that Moshe did not carry out this divine command immediately. He first blessed the people, specifying an individual blessing for each tribe and then blessed all of them together, as a collective unit, and only then did he ascend the mountain, view the land and die. One may therefore ask, why didn't God wait until after Moshe blessed the people, before commanding him to ascend the mountain? What connection is there between the shira and God's command to Moshe? There seems to have been a need to command him immediately after his delivery of the shira to the people.What connection, then, is there between the shira and God's command to Moshe to die without having entered the land because of the sin he had committed? I believe that a close look at Moshe's opening to the shira can lead us to an answer.

    At the beginning of this shira, Moshe calls on the heavens and the earth to serve as witnesses against the nation if they transgress the Torah- "Give ear (Ha'azinu) heavens and I will speak, and the earth hear (tishma) the words of my mouth" (Devorim, 32,1). The midrash contrasts the wording of these words of Moshe with the wording of Yeshayahu at the beginning of his book: "Hear (shimu) heavens and give ear (v'ha'azini) earth"(Yeshayah, 1, 2). The expressions for give ear- ha'azinu as used by Moshe and ha'azini as used by Yeshayah- are used differently by each. Moshe used that expression in addressing the heavens, while Yeshayah used it in addressing the earth. The rabbis explain that since Moshe was closer to heaven than was Yeshayah, he used an expression of giving ear- which implies a greater closeness than does an expression of shemiah, or listening- in connection with the heavens. Yeshayah, who was closer to the earth, used an expression of shemiah in regard to the heavens, preserving the expression for giving ear for the earth. The meaning of this midrash will become clearer if we examine Moshe's sin in connection with the rock.

     Rabbi Naphtali Tzevi Yehudah Berlin, the Netziv, In his commentary Ha'amek Davar to parshas Chukas, explains Moshe's sin within the context of the spiritual state of the nation at the time. Having shown themselves, after several instances of complaint against God, of operating under continued Divine Providence on a supernatural level, the Jewish people was, during its final stage in the wilderness, to be educated toward a more natural level of existence, receiving God's blessings in a more hidden way. This would be the kind of existence they would lead in the Holy Land, and it was Moshe's task, in that final stage, to train them to live under this level of divine help. Therefore, when they complained and asked for water, what he was supposed to do was gather them around the rock and lead them in prayer, just as the Talmud tells us that in time of drought in the Holy Land, a spiritual leader of the people is to lead them in prayer in an effort to receive rain as a divine response. This rainfall, if it came, would constitute Divine Providence within the framework of natural law. Moshe, as the spiritual leader of the nation in the wilderness, was commanded by God to use this method, and this is what was meant by the command for him to speak to the rock. However, Moshe lived, personally, on a higher spiritual plane, and was not able to deal with the people on a more natural level. Therefore, he struck the rock, bringing about a miracle on a supernatural level, in keeping with the level that he was on. He thereby demonstrated that he was not the person to continue leading the Jews and bring them into the Holy Land, where they were to live on a more natural level. Therefore, God told him that he would die without entering the land.

  The Midrash Rabbah, Devorim 11,10, relates that Moshe continually prayed to God to rescind His decree and allow him to enter the land. Finally, the midrash says, the matter 'appeared light in his eyes.' After all, he said, the Jews sinned so many times in the wilderness, and I prayed for them and they were forgiven, while I did not sin previously, and my prayer isn't accepted. The midrash then says that once the matter appeared light in Moshe's eyes and he stopped praying, the gates were closed for him, and God took an oath that he would definitely not enter the land. The wording of the midrash, that the matter was light in Moshe's eyes, is reminiscent of the words of the Rambam in his Laws of Repentance, 3, 4, in which he says that there are five sins- including, for example, the sin of gaining honor through a friend's disgrace- concerning which a person is presumed not to be going to repent for, because they are things which are light in people's eyes and they think they have not committed any sin. The first step in the process of repentance is that of 'hakaras ha-chet'- recognizing that one has, indeed, sinned. If a person's misdeed appears light in his own eyes, he is not very likely to recognize that it was a sin, and, therefore, in all likelihood will not repent. Apparently, this is what happened in regard to Moshe. Because of his high spiritual level, he was not able to appreciate the lower level that the rest of the nation was on, and could not comprehend the extent of his sin.Therefore, he was not able to bring himself to repent in the way he needed to, and was not allowed to enter the land. Thus, the first sentence of the shira, which indicates that Moshe was closer to the heavens, meaning that he was on a very high spiritual level, provides us with a key to understanding the reason for God denying Him entrance into the land. Therefore, after Moshe completed delivering that shira to the people, God immediately told him that he would not be able to enter the land because of the sin that he had committed as a result of his heightened spiritual state.

  The midrash we have examined carries a very powerful message for us. Our actions often have a much more far reaching effect than we realize. The actions of an individual have repercussions in terms of others in particular and in terms of the community in general. Moshe perhaps understood that he should have spoken to the rock rather than hit it, but he was unable to appreciate that this failure on his part had far-reaching consequences for the entire nation, and, as a result, was unable to repent in a complete way for the sin that he had committed.   As we approach Yom Kippur and seek to repent for the sins we committed over the course of the year, we need to consider the influence our sins had on others. How many people saw us sin and went on to sin in our heels? More importantly, perhaps, in what way did our sin constitute a failure on our part to make the contribution that only we can make to the community, and in what way did that effect the fate of the community? These are questions we need to ask ourselves as we review our actions of the past year and attempt to repent for any sins we may have committed. May we all achieve complete repentance, out of love, and merit a g'mar chasimah tovah, a divine sealing of our judgment for the good.