"Listen, oh Heavens, and I will speak; and may the Earth hear the words of my mouth."
So says Moshe in his final address to the Jewish People. He invokes Heaven and Earth as witnesses to the eternal truths in this seminal song of Ha'azinu, a parsha that was customarily required to be memorized by cheder children.
What exactly are those truths?
1) G-d loves His People; He created us and He sustains us;
2) We often take G-d for granted - especially when we enjoy wealth and security - and then we loosen our bonds with Him;
3) In response, He "hides His face" from us, and we become prey to the nations of the world;
4) We eventually return to Him, and He welcomes us back and punishes our oppressors.
As long as there has been a Heaven and an Earth, has this not been the pattern of our history? From Adam in the Garden to the Golden Calf to the two Temples to the Shoah to today, do we not continually waver between righteousness and rebellion, devotion and desertion?
But Heaven and Earth carry another message: we can run, but we cannot hide. There will always be a Heaven above us and an Earth beneath our feet. And G-d is in both. Those who try to escape their Divine connection and their destiny will ultimately be found out, and they will discover that flight is not an option.
Is that not the lesson of Yonah, who seeks to fly away from his calling as a Jew and as a prophet, but learns that he cannot escape from G-d's grasp? And does he not come to understand how fortunate he is that HaShem is everywhere and hears everything?
In pre-World War II Egypt, there lived a very rich Jew in Alexandria. He was approached by Moshe Sharett (then Shertok) and asked to help support the fledgling yishuv. He refused.
"What do I have to do with Palestine?" he asked brusquely.
But the fortunes of life are unpredictable. Rommel's Afrika corps menacingly approached Egypt, and the Jews there fled with just the shirts on their backs. Though Rommel was stopped at El Alemain, all the Jews' property was subsequently nationalized by the Egyptians. This man from Alexandria also had to flee, and ended up in Israel, where he came to see now-Prime Minister Sharett.
In tattered clothes, broken and bent, he said Vidui: "When I had the chance to help Israel, I deserted my post. Now, alas, it is Israel who must help me."
In the air, on land and at sea, Heaven and Earth bear witness: You can run, but you cannot hide.
So says Moshe in his final address to the Jewish People. He invokes Heaven and Earth as witnesses to the eternal truths in this seminal song of Ha'azinu, a parsha that was customarily required to be memorized by cheder children.
What exactly are those truths?
1) G-d loves His People; He created us and He sustains us;
2) We often take G-d for granted - especially when we enjoy wealth and security - and then we loosen our bonds with Him;
3) In response, He "hides His face" from us, and we become prey to the nations of the world;
4) We eventually return to Him, and He welcomes us back and punishes our oppressors.
As long as there has been a Heaven and an Earth, has this not been the pattern of our history? From Adam in the Garden to the Golden Calf to the two Temples to the Shoah to today, do we not continually waver between righteousness and rebellion, devotion and desertion?
But Heaven and Earth carry another message: we can run, but we cannot hide. There will always be a Heaven above us and an Earth beneath our feet. And G-d is in both. Those who try to escape their Divine connection and their destiny will ultimately be found out, and they will discover that flight is not an option.
Is that not the lesson of Yonah, who seeks to fly away from his calling as a Jew and as a prophet, but learns that he cannot escape from G-d's grasp? And does he not come to understand how fortunate he is that HaShem is everywhere and hears everything?
In pre-World War II Egypt, there lived a very rich Jew in Alexandria. He was approached by Moshe Sharett (then Shertok) and asked to help support the fledgling yishuv. He refused.
"What do I have to do with Palestine?" he asked brusquely.
But the fortunes of life are unpredictable. Rommel's Afrika corps menacingly approached Egypt, and the Jews there fled with just the shirts on their backs. Though Rommel was stopped at El Alemain, all the Jews' property was subsequently nationalized by the Egyptians. This man from Alexandria also had to flee, and ended up in Israel, where he came to see now-Prime Minister Sharett.
In tattered clothes, broken and bent, he said Vidui: "When I had the chance to help Israel, I deserted my post. Now, alas, it is Israel who must help me."
In the air, on land and at sea, Heaven and Earth bear witness: You can run, but you cannot hide.