This Shabbat, we will read Shirat Ha’azinu, a “song” written by Moses for the generations to come. It deals with the Jewish nation leaving its covenant with God, the exile that followed and the return to both the covenant and the land. This song accompanied the Jewish people throughout its wanderings, as evidence of the wandering and suffering it was to endure as well as to the fact that God would not abandon His nation. The incredibly profound song is full of imagery and layers, as one would expect of a song for eternity.
At one point, the song turns to the Jewish people and asks it to examine the dawn of history, since the time of nations’ wanderings:
Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask thy father, and he will declare unto thee, thine elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the children of men, He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the Children of Israel. For the portion of the Lord is His people, Jacob the lot of His inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:7-9)
19th century German Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch was an incredible rabbi and commentator. He explained these verses: Remember the days of old; reflect upon the years of [other] generations. Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders, and they will inform you. He said that Moses was turning to the Jewish nation in days to come, asking them to examine the beginnings of history by turning to previous generations. When the Most High gave nations their lot, when He separated the sons of man – in this ancient time, God determined which lands would be for which nations in different places in the world, including the unique characterizations of each of these lands which had a physical, emotional, and cultural impact on each nation so that they each changed and developed their own unique characteristics.
At that time, a small family popped up on the map of history, a tiny but very special group of people – the family of Abraham. That family even got a land of its own; a land that at that time was still being held by other nations. He set up the boundaries of peoples according to the number of the Children of Israel.
But there was a huge difference in the relationships the other nations had with their land as compared with the one between the Jewish nation and its land. This is how Hirsch describes it:
“It was not God’s will that the Children of Israel will become a nation in the land intended for them, and will develop into a nation based on the conditions and influences of that same land. But that they become a nation before inheriting the land... Because the Lord’s portion is His people – because this nation is the nation of God.
“What other nations get from their lands, the nation of Israel gets from its connection with God. The creation of other nations and their existence are rooted in the earth of their lands. They take control of the land and conquer it, and by working and developing it they turn it into the basis of their society’s development... The land’s climate conditions determine the physical, spiritual, moral and social development of their culture. Therefore, they idolize what they consider the forces that shape their culture... Not so Israel. The Jewish nation will bring to its land the physical, spiritual, moral and social culture that is already shaped by God. The Jews are not to enslave themselves and their national lives to the land; rather they should make the land enslaved to them and to the life of the nation as shaped by God.
“When this nation was born, in terrible suffering, God first declared, ‘And I will take you to Me as a people’ and only afterward said, ‘I will bring you to the land’ (Exodus 6:7-8). Other nations are fundamentally part of their lands, but Yisrael, due to its origin and future, is ‘the Lord’s portion.’”
According to Hirsch, the verses of this song express the essential difference between other nations and the Jewish nation. While other nations develop and change under the influence of their land, the Jewish nation got its character outside the borders of its land, under the direct influence of God, and this divine character was what it brought with it to its land.
After 2,000 years of exile, we returned to our land, we can see how Shirat Ha’azinu has come true in its entirety. We can again be inspired by the verse “Because the Lord’s portion is His people” and reshape ourselves in our land through our intimate connection with God.
The writer is rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites.