Haazinu, Ha'azinu, or Ha'Azinu (—Hebrew for "listen" when directed to more than one person, the first word in the parashah) is the 53rd weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the 10th in the Book of Deuteronomy. It constitutes Deuteronomy 32:1–52. The parashah sets out the Song of Moses—an indictment of the Israelites' sins, a prophecy of their punishment, and a promise of God's ultimate redemption of them.
The parashah is made up of 2,326 Hebrew letters, 614 Hebrew words, 52 verses, and 92 lines in a Torah Scroll (, Sefer Torah). Jews read it on a Shabbat between the holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot, generally in September or October. The bulk of the parashah, the song of Deuteronomy 32:1–43, appears in the Torah scroll in a distinctive two-column format, reflecting the poetic structure of the text, where in each line, an opening colon is matched by a second, parallel thought unit.
Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot. In the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Parashat Haazinu has two "open portion" (, petuchah) divisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (peh)). The first open portion spans nearly the entire parashah, except for the concluding maftir () reading. The second open portion is coincident with the maftir () reading. Parashat Haazinu has no "closed portion" (, setumah) subdivisions (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (samekh)).See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2009), pages 204–18.
First reading—Deuteronomy 32:1–6 In the first reading, Moses called on heaven and earth to hear his words, and asked that his speech be like rain and dew for the grass.. Moses proclaimed that God was perfect in deed, just, faithful, true, and upright.. God's children were unworthy, a crooked generation that played God false, ill requiting the Creator.. The first reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 206.
Second reading—Deuteronomy 32:7–12 In the second reading, Moses exhorted the Israelites to remember that in ages past, God assigned the nations their homes and their due, but chose the Israelites as God's own people.. God found the Israelites in the desert, watched over them, guarded them, like an eagle who rouses his nestlings, gliding down to his young, God spread God's wings and took Israel, bearing Israel along on God's pinions, God alone guided Israel.. The second reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, pages 207–08.
Third reading—Deuteronomy 32:13–18 In the third reading, God set the Israelites atop the highlands to feast on the yield of the earth and fed them honey, oil, curds, milk, lamb, wheat, and wine.. So Israel grew fat and kicked and forsook God, incensed God with alien things, and sacrificed to demons and no-gods.. The third reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 209.
Fourth reading—Deuteronomy 32:19–28 In the fourth reading, God saw, was vexed, and hid God's countenance from them, to see how they would fare.. For they were a treacherous breed, children with no loyalty, who incensed God with no-gods, vexed God with their idols; thus God would incense them with a no-folk and vex them with a nation of fools.. A fire flared in God's wrath and burned down to the base of the hills.. God would sweep misfortunes on them, use God's arrows on them—famine, plague, pestilence, and fanged beasts—and with the sword would deal death and terror to young and old alike.. God might have reduced them to nothing, made their memory cease among men, except for fear of the taunts of their enemies, who might misjudge and conclude that their own hand had prevailed and not God's.. For Israel's enemies were a folk void of sense, lacking in discernment.. The fourth reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 212.
Fifth reading—Deuteronomy 32:29–39 In the fifth reading, God wished that they were wise, then they would think about this, and gain insight into their future, for they would recognize that one could not have routed a thousand unless God had given them over. They were like Sodom and Gomorrah and their wine was the venom of asps. God stored it away to be the basis for God's vengeance and recompense when they should trip, for their day of disaster was near.. God would vindicate God's people and take revenge for God's servants, when their might was gone.. God would ask where the enemies' gods were—they who ate the fat of their offerings and drank their libation wine—let them rise up to help!. There was no god beside God, who dealt death and gave life, wounded and healed.. The fifth reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 215.
Sixth reading—Deuteronomy 32:40–43 In the sixth reading, God swore that when God would whet God's flashing blade, and lay hand on judgment, God would wreak vengeance on God's foes.. God would make God's arrows drunk with blood, as God's sword devoured flesh, blood of the slain and the captive from the long-haired enemy chiefs.. God would avenge the blood of God's servants, wreak vengeance on God's foes, and cleanse the land of God's people.. The sixth reading ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, pages 215–16.
Seventh reading—Deuteronomy 32:44–52 In the seventh reading, Moses came, together with Joshua, and recited all this poem to the people.. And when Moses finished reciting, he told them to take his warnings to heart and enjoin them upon their children, for it was not a trifling thing but their very life at stake.. The first open portion ends here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 217.
In the maftir () reading of Deuteronomy 32:48–52 that concludes the parashah,See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, pages 217–18. God told Moses to ascend Mount Nebo and view the land of Canaan, for he was to die on the mountain, as his brother Aaron had died on Mount Hor, for they both broke faith with God when they struck the rock to produce water in the wilderness of Zin, failing to uphold God's sanctity among the Israelite people.. The seventh reading, the second open portion, and the parashah end here.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Devarim / Deuteronomy, page 218.
Readings according to the triennial cycle Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading nonetheless read the entire parashah of Haazinu every year according to the schedule of readings above.See, e.g., Richard Eisenberg, "A Complete Triennial Cycle for Reading the Torah," in Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement: 1986–1990 (New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2001), pages 383–418.
In inner-Biblical interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:For more on inner-Biblical interpretation, see, e.g., Benjamin D. Sommer, "Inner-biblical Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, The Jewish Study Bible: 2nd Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pages 1835–41.
Moses calls heaven and earth to serve as witnesses against Israel in Deuteronomy 4:26, 30:19, 31:28, and 32:1. Similarly, Psalm 50:4–5 reports that God "summoned the heavens above, and the earth, for the trial of His people," saying "Bring in My devotees, who made a covenant with Me over sacrifice!" Psalm 50:6 continues: "Then the heavens proclaimed His righteousness, for He is a God who judges." And in Isaiah 1:2, the prophet similarly begins his vision, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken."
In Deuteronomy 32:4, 15, 18, 30, and 31, Moses called God a "Rock." Isaiah did so, as well, in Isaiah 17:10, 26:4, and 30:29; Habakkuk in Habakkuk 1:12; and the Psalmist in Psalms 19:15, 23:3, 28:1, and 95:1. Psalm 18:3 analogizes God's role as a Rock to a "fortress" and a "high tower."
Deuteronomy compares God's relationship with Israel to that of a parent and child in Deuteronomy 1:31, 8:5, and 32:5. For similar comparisons, see Exodus 4:22–23, Isaiah 1:2, and Hosea 11:1.
In Deuteronomy 32:10, God finds Israel in the wilderness, much as in Hosea 9:10, God says, "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig tree at her first season."
Like Deuteronomy 32:11, God compares God’s self to an eagle in Exodus 19:4, saying "I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself." Psalm 91 interprets the role of God as an eagle in Deuteronomy 32:11. Psalm 91:4 explains, "He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you take refuge," and Psalm 91:5 explains, "You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day."
Deuteronomy 32:13 told how God "set him atop the highlands (, al-bamatei)." And in Amos 4:13, the 8th century BCE prophet Amos speaks of God "Who . . . treads upon the high places (, al-bamatei) of the earth."
In classical rabbinic interpretation The parashah is discussed in these rabbinic sources from the era of the Mishnah and the Talmud:For more on classical rabbinic interpretation, see, e.g., Yaakov Elman, "Classical Rabbinic Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, Jewish Study Bible: 2nd Edition, pages 1859–78.
The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael counted 10 songs in the Hebrew Bible: (1) the song that the Israelites recited at the first Passover in Egypt, as Isaiah 30:29 says, "You shall have a song as in the night when a feast is hallowed"; (2) the Song of the Sea in Exodus 15 (3) the song that the Israelites sang at the well in the wilderness, as Numbers 21:17 reports, "Then sang Israel this song: 'Spring up, O well'"; (4) the song that Moses spoke in his last days, as Deuteronomy 31:30 reports, "Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song"; (5) the song that Joshua recited, as Joshua 10:12 reports, "Then spoke Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites"; (6) the song that Deborah and Barak sang, as Judges 5:1 reports, "Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam"; (7) the song that David spoke, as 2 Samuel 22:1 reports, "David spoke to the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul"; (8) the song that Solomon recited, as Psalm 30:1 reports, "a song at the Dedication of the House of David"; (9) the song that Jehoshaphat recited, as 2 Chronicles 20:21 reports: "when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed them that should sing to the Lord, and praise in the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and say, 'Give thanks to the Lord, for His mercy endures forever'"; and (10) the song that will be sung in the time to come, as Isaiah 42:10 says, "Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth," and Psalm 149:1 says, "Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise in the assembly of the saints."Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael Shirata 1:5.
The Gemara instructs that when writing a Torah scroll, a scribe needs to write the song of Deuteronomy 32:1–43 in a special two-column form, with extra spaces. (See the image at the top of this article.) If a scribe writes the song as plain text, then the scroll is invalid.Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 103b.