Parashat Haazinu
03rd October 2025
Week of 28 September – 04 October 2025
Torah portion : Deut. 32:1-32:52; Haftarah: II Samuel 22:1-51
This week’s Parasha focuses on the times that the Jewish people celebrate and experience in the present moment of a time that has passed and prepares for the time that is set to come.
The text, curiously, is a profound teaching that Moses conveys to the people, and it is in the form of poetry.
Moses begins his speech by invoking the heavens and the earth. Rashi comments that the heavens and the earth are witnesses to the covenant and the people’s obligations, even after Moses is no longer among them. This means that the commitment to God is eternal and extends beyond the presence of the leader; and that if Israel acts correctly, according to God’s Word, “the witnesses will come and give their reward,” that is, the heavens and the earth will manifest their reward in the form of “rain, productivity of the land, growth of the vine—” as tangible signs of divine approval. However, if Israel fails, these witnesses can withhold blessings, for example, by withholding rain or the land not yielding its harvest, as a form of warning or punishment.
We learn that Moses, to ground the people’s faith, reminds them of God’s great interventions in the past. He reminds them of God’s fatherly care for his people, but warns that despite all the blessings, the people can stray from the right path and follow false gods, resulting in punishment. But there is hope in the end. God does not abandon his people, and they will return to God. However, it is clear that faithfulness to God’s Word is paramount, and simply hearing it is not enough; it is necessary to keep it and teach it to your children.
“The Word is your life, and by this Word you will prolong your days on the land you are about to possess…” Because the synagogal liturgy in this period contemplates all humanity, we are invited to reflect together with Israel, especially in these days when the world orchestrates a rhetoric against Israel as a people and its Land. The people of Israel, as a whole, place themselves before God, enlightened by His Word, to reflect and turn to God—to do Teshuva. This Teshuva reestablishes the relationship with Him and not with the unreconciled world. This moment, therefore, is a propitious time for God’s blessings upon Israel, which overflow to all humanity.
The Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:2, speaks of “Kol habáyé ha-olam,” all who come into the world. The Sages state: “On Rosh Hashanah, all of humanity pass before Him like sheep, as we read (Tehillim 33:15), ‘He who fashions the hearts of them all, Who discerns all their doings'” (RH 16a). They also state, “Just as a person’s earnings are determined on Rosh Hashanah, so are his losses” (Baba Batra 10a).
May Israel be graced by this time of Teshuva with blessings from Heaven, and may it extend to all humanity in need of God and His Word.
This week’s Parasha Commentary was prepared by
Elio Passeto, NDS, Jerusalem–Israel, Director
[Copyright © 2025]
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