Netvort Parshas Ha'azinu 5771:                   A Vast Eternal Plan
By Rabbi Joshua (terminologically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

In the beginning of parshas Ha'azinu, God is referred to as "The Rock:" as we read, " The Rock, perfect (tamim) is His work, for all His ways are justice, God, faithful, without iniquity" (Devarim 32:4). What is the meaning of this name of God, and why is it used in the context of this Parsha?  Many explanations have been given, but I would like to focus on the Rambam's definition of this term in his Moreh Hanevochim (Guide for the Perplexed, I, 16), and expand on it based on the approach of the Ramban to our Parsha.

The Rambam writes that the term "the Rock," used as a name of God, likens Him to a quarry from which rocks are hewn. Thus, God is the principle and efficient cause of all things other than Himself.  We may add that the Torah, after referring to God as The Rock, then says that His works are 'tamim,' a word which is usually translated as 'perfect.'  Onkeles, however, renders it as shalim, or complete. This is, as we saw on parshas Shoftim (Devarim, 18:13), also the way that Onkeles renders this term in the verse which tells us to be tamim with God. As we explained, in the name of Rav Avraham Aharon Yudelevitch, this means that one must follow God's Torah in all aspects of his life. In reference to God as the source of all existence, we may explain tamim, in the sense of completeness, to mean that God is the source of all existence on an ongoing basis, overseeing all that occurs in regard to all of existence.

In this context, we can better appreciate the rest of our verse, which says that all of God's ways are justice. God has a plan for the world, and when He renders justice, He does so with a consideration for that plan, and the consequences that the verdict He renders will have for that plan. It is in this way that we can understand God's reply to the angels when they expressed dismay over the torture that Rabbi Akiva underwent before his execution by the Roman authorities.  They asked," Is this the reward for Torah?"  God told the angels to be silent, or else He would return the world to the state of emptiness and Void that it was in before the six days of creation. The idea is that Rabbi Akiva's torture was part of the vast eternal plan that God had for the universe, and to cancel it would require that the world be re-created. In essence, this is what God told Iyov (Job) in rely to all of his questions regarding the suffering he had undergone. Were you, He asked, there when I created the universe?  Do you understand My plan for creation? You cannot understand the role of your suffering without seeing it in this wider context, but know that there is a purpose for it. Knowing that God did have a purpose in dealing with Iyov the way He did eased his mind and ended his musings.

The Ramban, in his comments to the end of parshas Ha'azinu, writes that this Parsha encompasses all of history. There is, in fact, an apocryphal story, reported by Rav Yechiel Halperin, in his Seder HaDoros, that the Ramban said that there is an allusion to every person who ever lived in parshas Ha'azinu, and that a former student who had become an apostate, by the name of Avner of Burgos, challenged his teacher to show him where his name could be found in the Parsha.  As the story goes, the Ramban did show his student an allusion to his name, and he was never heard from again. In any case, for the Ramban, parshas Ha'azinu encompasses all of history.  In this context, we can understand why God, in this Parsha, is referred to as The Rock, in the sense of being the source of all existence, and of all that occurs in existence throughout history. His management of the universe, the verdicts He renders throughout history, are all justice, although it is sometimes hard for us to understand them. This will become clearer to us at the time of our ultimate redemption, may it come speedily, when we will see the fulfillment of God's plan for the world, and be able to see that, indeed, He is complete in His work complete and all of His ways are justice.

Best wishes for a gmar chasimah tovah - a final inscription for good- to everyone out there in Netvortland.