Having recently engaged our students in Machaneh Ayekah and then in Machaneh Krembo, our Israeli Madrichim are now meeting with our students in Year level mifgashim. The following Devar Torah was written by Noa Tsairi, one of our five Madrichim. We hope you enjoy her reflections and insights.

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Noa Tsairi

Parashat Ha’azinu

Parashat Ha’azinu is the tenth parashah of Sefer Devarim. Each year we read it in the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur or between Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

The parashah talks about Am Yisrael’s preparation for entering Eretz Yisrael and the preparation for Moshes’ death that is yet to come. Most of the parashah is a poem – Ha’azinu. The poem is written in twoequal columns and in each column there are three words.

The poetry is an eternal alliance between Am Yisrael and God, and between the individual and his/her Creator. Moshe calls shamayim (the heavens) and aretz (earth) to be witnesses to all the challenges, vision and redemption.

We read this poetry on our way to the Shanah Chadashah, the New Year, after a month of tefillot and teshuvah-returning – the time of the year that each and every one of us hopes to return to themselves and to God while we try to fix things and be better people than the year before.

The poetry begins with the words:

האזינו השמים ואדברה ותשמע הארץ אמרי פי

Ha’azinu ha-shamayim va-adabera, va-tishma ha-aretz imrei phi.

Ha’azinu poetry might hint to us about our challenge to find balance in different aspects of our lives, between what we will say and what will be heard, between our thoughts and our actions, between our spirit and our material body, between heaven and earth. It’s all about the balance between the different parts of ourselves. As we begin our Shanah Chadashah, I hope that each and every one of us will find his/her balance and make this year a better year for himself /herself and for all those around us.