האזינו השמים ואדברה, ותשמע הארץ, “Give ear o heaven so that the earth will listen when I speak.” [You, the reader, will no doubt observe that the author inverted the headline, to already incorporate his interpretation of what is written here. Ed.] Some commentators feel that when Moses addressed “heaven,” he was in fact addressing the angels who reside in heaven. Similarly, when he called out to the “earth” to listen to his words, he meant the inhabitants of the earth. Other commentators feel that Moses addressed as witnesses the “rain” which comes from the sky, and the yield of the fields and vineyards that is provided by the earth’s input. He called upon both to be generous with their contributions when the people deserved it. I believe that the correct interpretation is that Moses addressed heaven and earth’s essence, as it is customary for verses in the Bible that describe someone as being called as witness to appoint enduring phenomena such as heaven and earth as witnesses, as one can be sure that when needed these witnesses will always be at hand. This is why we have שמעו הרים את ריב ה', the prophet Micah 6,2 calling as witness the mountains; when he relays G’d’s message to the people. Moses used the term האזנה when addressing the heavens, whereas he used the term שמע when addressing the earth. The prophet Isaiah, (Isaiah 1,2) in a similar appeal reversed what Moses did, using the term שמע when addressing the heavens, and the term האזנה when addressing the earth. The reason is that when the recipient of the sound of one’s voice is nearby, the term האזנה is appropriate, whereas for recipients further away the term שמע is appropriate. Moses was feeling closer to heaven than to earth at that time, hence he used the term appropriate for addressing someone nearby when speaking to heaven. Isaiah, not being on the same spiritual level as Moses reversed the procedure, as he was closer to earth than to heaven.

יערף כמטר לקחי, “May my teaching descend like the rain, etc.” Ibn Ezra explains the term לקחי as meaning “teaching,” comparing it to Proverbs 4,2כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם תורתי אל תעזובו, “for I have given you good instruction, do not abandon My Torah.”

תזל כטל אמרתי, “may my words flow like dew.” Moses repeats what he says, though in poetic form, in order to reinforce his words. When the prophets prayed they usually employed this mode of speech, repeating the same or almost the same thought in different words. [This may be the reason why, when offering a תפלה של רשות, a prayer that is not part of the prescribed prayers, one is allowed to do so only if one can add words of one’s own, a slight variation of the prescribed prayer. Ed.] Moses feels that words thus reinforced will not be sent back by the addressee without at least a partial response, acceptance by the listeners. The choice of simile suggests that Moses hopes that his words will act in the hearts of his listeners as the rain does when it hits the earth.

הצור תמים פעו, “The Rock, perfect is His work;” Ibn Ezra writes that the reason Moses commences with this praise of Hashem, is to make plain to the Israelites to begin with, that if they will experience disasters of whatever kind in the future, the cause must not be attributed to the Creator but they must search for it in their own shortcomings, seeing that there are no shortcomings in anything G’d has created.

פעלו, “His work;” Ibn Ezra writes that whatever work or masterpiece is performed on earth by any of G’d’s creatures, is by definition deficient, as it was dependent on input by the Creator, whether direct or indirect, and it requires at least the passive tolerance of the Creator in order to function and not to collapse. This is the basic difference between His work and our work, even the most perfect.

כי כל דרכיו משפט, “for all His ways are justice.” They are not subject to change, i.e. never need to “improve,” as they have always been correct and perfect. Seeing that His creatures experience different needs at different times, as opposed to their Creator, their works must change from time to time in order to meet changing requirements. G’d’s actions always correspond to His wisdom and glory, both of which are constants.

א-ל אמונה, “a G’d of Faith,” He alone possesses the virtue of Truth in an absolute degree, able to keep faith, as opposed to His creatures, however well intentioned, as their power was on “loan” from a higher source, and they can be deprived of it at a moment’s notice.

ואין עול, “without iniquity;” seeing that He is a G’d of perfect loyalty, keeping faith, how could there be any iniquity associated with Him?

שחת לו לא בניו מומם, ”Corruption is not His, the blemish is His children’s.” Nachmanides explains that the verse can best be understood if we read it as if it had been written in the sequence: מומם שחת אותם לו, ”His children’s blemishes have made them corrupt for Him, so much so that He no longer refers to them as His children.”

דור עקש ופתלתול, “a perverse and twisted generation.” Moses explains the reason why none of this has a negative effect on the Creator as being that since He is perfect, He can –metaphorically speaking- be compared to a Rock that was constructed to be perfect forever. It will not develop weaknesses, faults, etc. However, the Israelites’ blemishes will expose themselves to their enemies with dire consequences.

עם נבל ולא חכם, “a vile people, one devoid of wisdom.” Rashi explains this to refer to their having forgotten all the Good Hashem had done for them. Nachmanides, refers to Onkelos’ translation “a nation that had received the Torah and had not become wise by observing it but had treated it as if it tired them out, had exhausted them instead of uplifting them.” They failed to benefit from what was designed to ensure their enduring success. Ibn Ezra says that the word נבל refers to their deed, whereas the words ולא חכם refers to their heart. Personally, (Nachmanides continuing) I believe that when someone does good without expecting or wanting compensation by the recipient, he is described as נדיב, generous. If someone repays favours done to him with ingratitude, or worse, instead, he is described as נבל. This is the meaning of Isaiah 32,5 לא יקרא עוד לנבל נדיב , “no more shall the villain be called noble;” This is why it was said about נבל of Mount Carmel, [first husband of Avigail, a notoriously bombastic and tightfisted individual, compare Samuel I chapter 25. Ed.] ונבלה עמו, (Samuel I 25,25) that his name aptly expressed his vile character. David had protected his property at a time when he was hunted and had to survive as best he could. Instead of being grateful, Naval repaid him with animosity and disdain. Not only were the Israelites ingrates, they were also foolish by putting their trust instead of in Hashem in all kinds of impotent idols, the ones worshipped by the neighbouring peoples. Did they not even realise that by sinning they could not harm the G’d against Whom they sinned?

בהפרידו בני אדם, “when He separated the various children of man from one another.” Some commentators feel that Moses was speaking about the generation that built the Tower, and that dispersed after their languages had been confused.

יצב גבולות עמים, “He established the boundaries of the seven Canaanite nations;” these corresponded in number roughly to the number of the Israelites.

וישמן ישורון ויבעט, “Yeshurun grew fat and kicked.” The name “Yeshurun” is a complimentary name for Israel who are considered (when at their best) to be a nation of ישרים, loyal upright self-confident and G’d-fearing people.

וינבל צור ישועתו, “acting villainously against the Rock of its salvation.” Nachmanides refers to Ibn Ezra’s interpretation that the villainy of Israel consisted in that it accused Hashem as not continuing to be able to act as its Saviour, views the whole “kicking” as an act of blasphemy both in word and in deed. He disagrees with Ibn Ezra, The reason that he does so, is that Moses is still reciting the people’s sins and has not yet begun to speak about the punishment they would have to suffer on account of their sins. This part only commences with verse 20 when G’d is quoted as withdrawing His Presence from the people, אסתירה פני מהם. The correct interpretation, according to Nachmanides, is that Moses continues with the theme discussed by me earlier, that the most serious aspect of Israel’s sins is that they repay good with evil. They abandoned a G’d who not only had created them as a nation, but had redeemed them from slavery. He had saved them from the pursuit of Pharaoh and for forty years kept them alive in the desert in spite of being provoked by them. He kept His promise to Avraham to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. They had repaid all this by failing to serve this G’d, although He did not demand anything difficult from them. They blasphemed by mouth and deed, transferring their allegiance to useless idols.

מכעס בניו ובנותיו, “by the anger aroused in Him by His sons and daughters.” Nachmanides writes that the reason why we suddenly find the Jewish women mentioned separately, is that in the last generation, the one during which the destruction of the Temple would occur, the Jewish women would be exceptionally wicked in their deeds. Their deeds (misdeeds) would greatly inflame G’d’s anger. As a result of their devotion to cults, they would seduce their husbands, something documented in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 44.

ויאמר אסתירה פני מהם, “so that He said: ‘I will hide My face from them.” Ibn Ezra refers to commentators who understand this line as being addressed by one attribute of Hashem to another attribute of His. Alternately, Hashem said this to the angels, adding: “let us see how they will fare in the end?” G’d meant that what He was going to do was in order that what He had foreseen as their eventual future could materialize. Ibn Ezra himself feels that the correct interpretation is to understand it at face value, i.e. “let us find out how they will react when they find themselves in serious trouble.”

מזי רעב, “bloating of famine;” Ibn Ezra understands the expression as “burned by the pangs of hunger,” as in Daniel 3,19 למזא לאתונה, “to heat up the kiln.”

ולחומי רשף, “battling flaming demons.” A reference to a species of birds. We find them mentioned in Job 5,7 The correct interpretation (quoting Ibn Ezra) is that the Israelites will be subjected to four different kinds of judgments, penalties, In this verse famine and its impact is described by Moses. The others will follow.רשף, קטף מרירי, חיה רעה and חרב. רשף appears to be sickness caused by microbes in the air.קטב מרירי is a kind of pestilence brought on by polluted air.

אמרתי אפאיהם, “I had said: ‘I will disperse them;’” Nachmaides first quotes the grammarians who derive the word אפאיהם as a derivative of פאה , i.e. I will disperse them to the four corners of the globe.” He adds, that he personally, thinks that the word is a combination of two words, as suggested in the Sifri, i.e. אף אי הם, “I said in My anger that I would treat them as if they did not exist.” (אי הם?) “Where are they?” They would become so assimilated in such small groups that they would cease to exist as an identifiable remnant of the once great Jewish nation. This is an allusion to the exile of the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom during the conquest of most of the land of Israel by the Assyrians [722 B.C.E.] when these tribes were relocated among other nations far to the north, most of them remaining lost to us except for remnants who joined Zerubavel when he returned under the protectorate of the Persian King Cyrus. In the legends transmitted by the sages these tribes were exiled to a mysterious region beyond the river Sambatyon, an unbridgeable and inaccessible region about which many tales have been spun. The essence of the verse is that G’d speaks (through Moses’ vision) of having wanted to destroy the exiles utterly so that history would forget their existence. [second half of our verse. Ed.] He would have done so if not:

לולי כעס אויב אגור, “If I had not had to fear that this would be misinterpreted by the Antisemites as their victory over My people, instead of My punishment of My people, etc.” Nachmanides writes that from this verse there is proof that in our present exile the merit of our illustrious forefathers has ceased to be a factor ameliorating our political/social position in the host countries. In this verse Moses describes a scenario in which our continued survival is not credited to G’d remembering the merits of our patriarchs, but is credited only to His concern about His own reputation among the nations of the world. It is not that G’d has a desire to display His power among the nations. There is no point to this, seeing that all these nations combined are completely impotent when compared to Him, so that there would be no contest in which one party would emerge as a victor. G’d’s concern is that seeing that He has created man to inhabit the “lower” regions of the universe, i.e. the earth, it is of importance to Him that these creatures called “man” recognise His existence, and the fact that they are His creatures and that His domain extends to the region of the earth and that man has to be obedient to Him, and that He deals with man on the basis of reward for good behaviour and retribution for rebellious behaviour. Seeing that all the other nations had denied His existence, or His right to interfere with their lifestyle and to make rules by which they have to abide, only the Jewish nation remained and had been wiling to accept His sovereignty on earth. In response G’d had demonstrated by supernatural miracles that He is the supreme authority in this universe, that His power far outranks that attributed to astrological constellations. If G’d were to allow the Jewish nation, the only one that had recognised Him, to perish, He would nullify all that He had meant to accomplish by putting a living human being on earth in the first place.

לו חכמו, “Had they only displayed some elementary wisdom, etc.” If the nation who hosted the Israelites and who did believe that the misfortunes of the Jewish people had been due to G’d, [either to His weakness or to His anger Ed.] had only possessed a minimum of common sense, they would have realized that what happened to G’d’s people had nothing to do with their power, but was due solely to the retribution G’d exacted from this people for their disloyalty to Him. They would have realized that at the time when one of them was able to put to flight a thousand times their number, this too had been possible only by the strength given to His people by their Creator and Protector. Now that they had abandoned His Torah, their G’d had reacted by abandoning them.

אשר חלב זבחימו יאכלו, “the fat of whose offerings they would eat, etc.” Nachmanides writes that the reason that Moses employs the plural mode is that the nations of the world are numerous, so that when the Jews ate of the offerings presented to the various deities of the nations, they ate of a whole variety of such offerings. This made their sins even worse

ראו, “See!” Moses addresses the nations collectively, hence the plural mode.

כי אני אני הוא, “that I, I am He;” I am unique, have no duplicate.

ואין אלוהים עמדי, “and no deity is with Me.” I do not have nor need any helper. There is no one who can effectively oppose Me, and prevent Me from carrying out anything I have set My mind to do. Ibn Ezra says that the meaning of the repetition in the phrase אני אני הוא, is that G’d announces that He is constant and will not undergo any change. I am the G’d, Who, when the need arises brings death to Israel, and I am the same G’d, Who, when the situation warrants it, brings this people back to life. They will be saved, but from no other source than Myself. Many commentators say that the concept of a future world, one beyond death, is derived plainly from this verse. They prove this from G’d saying first: “I will kill,” and then “I will revive,” and not the reverse order according to which physical death is the end of the human existence. The same thought is expressed in the same sequence as מוריד שאול ויעל, ”He brings death and gives life.“ (Samuel I 2,6 Channah’s prayer of thanksgiving.)

וכפר אדמתו עמו, “He will grant atonement to His land and for His people.” According to some commentators mentioned by Ibn Ezra, the word עמו should really have the letter ו in front of it, so that the meaning of the phrase would be: “He will provide atonement for its land and for its people.” An allegorical approach taken by the Midrash is that the land is seen as atoning of behalf of its people. [The idea is that the land, for many years neglected, serves as the scapegoat for the Jewish people who had neglected to observe the laws of sh’mittah. Ed.] Ibn Ezra personally, understands the phrase as a promise that in due course, the gentiles who had shed so much innocent Jewish blood on that land, will at that time atone for all this when the Jews will take their vengeance on them. The retribution for innocent blood spilled must be undertaken by the victimized party or their offspring, (their blood avengers), whose blood had been shed, so that in the war preceding the redemption, Jews will kill their adversaries, the ones who had contaminated the soil of the Holy Land in former years. Ibn Ezra quotes Job 14,19 and Ezekiel 43,20 as verses in which such concepts also appear. Yet another interpretation of our phrase understands the word as meaning the same as וטהר, “it will purify, cleanse.” Israel, when the time comes, will cleanse its soil from all kinds of contaminations it had been exposed to in the interval since its people went into exile.

הוא והושע בן נון, “he and Hoshea son of Nun.” Ibn Ezra explains the reason why Moses at this point calls Joshua by his original name Hoshea, to make sure that the Israelites would all know who he was speaking about, since some of the people may not have been aware that his name had been changed. Only the top echelon of the people had been aware of the name change. The allegorical explanation of our verse is familiar to all my readers. [For the readers of Ibn Ezra not familiar with the meaning of the name change from הושע to יהושע that we learned about in Numbers 13,16 the Midrash says that Moses added the letter י symbolizing G’d’s name so as to provide him with a spiritual assist when the time would come to take a stand against the other ten spies. Ed.]