This week’s Parshah, Parshat Ha’azinu, contains the commandment, "Remember world history, study the generational epochs. Ask your father and he will relate to you, your elders and they will tell you (Devarim, 32:7)."
Rashi explains, that in this context, asking "your father" is actually a reference to a prophet; this is based on the possuk in Navi, which describes Elisha’s reaction to the ascendance of his beloved teacher, Eliyahu Hanavi, to Heaven; the Navi writes, "Elisha saw it, and he cried out, 'Oh, father, father! Israel’s chariot and rider!' When he could no longer see him, he grasped his garments and tore them in two (Melachim II, 2:12).
Thus, the possuk explains that the prophets of Am Yisrael should be viewed as our spiritual fathers.
Interestingly, the Gemara in Shabbat 23A questions how we can recite blessings that state, "Blessed are you Hashem who commanded us etc." for commandments that are rabbinical in nature. Where did Hashem command us to, for example, light Chanukah candles? Read the megillah? Recite Hallel?
The Gemara responds that the source can be gleaned from two possible pesukim in the Torah: Either from the possuk of "lo tasur" ("do not stray"), which translates as a negative commandment not to veer from the words of the Sages, or, as a second possibility, from the possuk quoted above from this week’s parshah: "...Ask your father and he will relate to you, your elders and they will tell you…"
The Chatam Sofer explains that all agree that there is definitely a negative prohibition not to veer from the words of our great sages; the second opinion of the Gemara, however, felt that this cannot be the source for our reciting blessings. A brachah (blessing) is never made on a negative mitzvah (commandment). For example, while eating a kosher dinner, no one makes a blessing, "Blessed are you Hashem who commanded us not to eat meat and milk together." Thus, the Gemara wanted to provide a positive source for the obligation to recite blessings, and therefore uses the possuk in our parshah as an additional primary source for this mitzvah.
Dedicated in memory of all those who have perished and sacrificed for Am Yisrael.