Haazinu, הַאֲזִינוּ "Listen!" Deuteronomy 32:1-32:52

Ha'azinu / Jeshurun's Atonement 5783

Poetic notes on the parashat Ha'azinu*

Let your hands be still, oh heavens

And let your feet, oh earth, leave off their labour

For Forty days the heavens held their breath,

and the earth endured in fearful torment

The whole Creation fasted

Then the Chariot of Mercy arrived,

the chariot of Yom Kippur,

moving forward through the gate of eternal life,

on wheels within wheels,

wheels of Shemini Atzeret

within the wheels of the days of Succot

HaShem said to Moses,

“I have forgiven according to your word!”

The reverent ear knows what to hear,

and the soul filled with intelligent fear

of the One whose love gives life

knows what to listen to

To what does the soul of all souls listen?

My ear was not deep

You, oh God,

dug my ear much deeper than the core of the world,

You dug my ear to hear Your love,

to hear even to that depth of the root of my soul

Listen to Moses!

Listen to the Torah he teaches,

which speaks of the righteous love that reaches

to the depths of the soul of heaven

Attune yourself to Moses and Mashiach

Dig for instruction as deep as the soul of the earth

Listen to Moses and live…

Listen to Mashiach beyond mind and stars

Listen beyond past or future,

far beyond any expanded, ascending human consciousness,

Hear the Word of Authority,

the beginning of the light of righteousness,

the days of knowing and understanding what is good,

the years of generation and regeneration,

not as measured by the human eye,

but as they appear to God

Far deeper than the roots of time and space and stars,

or the ballet of the delicate dance of moons and planets,

is the graceful soul of Israel,

moving through the word of God,

mapping out the letters of creation and redemption

Listen to Moses with the soul of Israel as your ear

Listen to Mashiach for whom Israel waits,

in whose heart Israel' soul is in the highest heavens

Israel's soul is cradled in the deepest earth

Everyone awakening in Jerusalem's soul,

you are sitting on the rock of Moses

You are sitting in his classroom

Listen to the water speaking from his rock

Foolishly, we thought we had to walk on the edge of death

just to feel certain that we existed

We were baptized in violent waters,

but You sweetened them with Your tears of mercy

Moses speaks to us all with a tempered anger,

tempered by his unshakable heart of faith and joy

Elijah is your personal tutor

He is tutoring you in how to hear with light

Moses serves God as a language teacher,

teaching the deaf to hear the word of God,

in order that God may to speak to every soul,

speaking with one song in five living prayers,

to redeem Adam’s abused children and set them free

to become truly responsible once again

You sacrificed one frolicking kid goat to HaShem

And you left one frolicking kid goat behind,

back there in the wilderness,

to bring to an end the kicking demon of chaos

For HaShem creates new heavens and a new earth,

wherein dwells righteousness

But these goats, are an acknowledgement of the cost,

the cost of the eternal love there has always been for you

For you, Jeshurun,

frolicking and kicking like a kid

We forgot our modesty

Afflict yourself..., moderate your selfish freedom

on the long day of atonement,

that to God is like a thousand years

Step out of the unkosher mikveh of this world

and into the kosher mikveh of the new heavens and the new earth

Though your sins are like crimson stains,

they shall be as white as snow,

as white as the soft light of righteousness…

on the day that everything is just beginning

Though your sins are red as crimson dye,

they shall be like the wool of a lamb dedicated to Hashem

on the long day of atonement

Your time of judgement is put on hold forever,

for you have overcome the captivity of your tongue

You have cried out all day in prayer

Indeed, you had played out your hand,

Indeed, you could neither stay nor leave…

Now, suddenly, a white robe is given to you

You must be going to a wedding!

Time is not measured by the human eye,

but by the eye of God

Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

when you forgive your soulmate,

you will know that you too are forgiven

Adam, Adam, where are you?

When you forgive your soulmate,

you will know that you too are forgiven,

for you will have taken the first step in your correction

When you turn,

etrog, lulav, hadas and aravah will appear in your hand,

and Hashem will overturn your death,

and the world will turn inside out

Dry bones will ignite with living light,

and the soil of the earth will be turned upside down,

and creation's seed will sprout with eternal life

Blood for blood has sealed the wound

Israel cannot be prosecuted

No longer can she be persecuted

It is her robes that are wedding white,

like the very light of God

Her prayers are made the language of the world

She was raised on eagle's wings

Her inheritance was to be the heavens of all worlds

But when she thought she was alone,

she forgot herself

Then her soulmate was not to be found

He found us in the wilderness of sin,

with demon gods like our demon kin

Our corrupted love slew families

and drove God's creatures from home and field

Our falsely righteous works killed loved ones

Our demon-tipped tongues killed friend and foe

We stole from God

We stole from every child of his

We consumed the earth with all its living souls

We bit the hand that fed us from the skies

We sat in proud judgment everywhere

and always we took bribes

Then we remembered Abraham

and the openness of his tent

Then we heard the quiet voice of Elijah's pain

Then our heart was caught and rent

Then the desert sky began to rain

Our Anchor Stone has anchored us anew,

when our nothingness made us thin

Let the warmth of holiness destroy our loneliness

and let our prayers destroy our willingness to sin

Let all the nations step away,

or else step forward with a song to sing

Let all the families of the earth leave the door of Israel,

or else joyfully come within

Hear, oh Israel,

Hashem, Hashem your God is one,

the only one who saves

A Poetic Expression of How I Read Ha'azinu