Ha'azinu: change

 Ha'azinu: change

 

This week's parsha, Haazinu is read from the week before Rosh Hashana until Shabath Tshuva.

 

Rosh Hashana is the time of change.  The word shana is related to shona: change.  Rosh Hashana is the transition from the old year to the new, an opportunity for  personal change, a time when change will come to the world regardless of our desires.

 

Moshe introduces the song of Haazinu as the basis for a future: " I told you so!"  Moshe says that, "I know their nature": they will be successful;  they will rebel against  Gd; consequently they will be punished, they will suffer terribly and ultimately, they will be redeemed.  Is this the range of change?  Is there a predicted cycle that cannot vary? Is it only the pace that  can be altered? 

 

 Is this part of the nature of unity, which is challenged by the idea of shana ( sheni)?  The concept of change is inherent in the idea of a year. Change implies limit, the existence of some thing other from which the change arose and something else to which the change goes. Change is the antithesis of unity, and thus the word shana is related to sheni: second  ( hence third, fourth, etc.) The  recognition of an alternative leads to the pursuit  of the better alternative.  The recognition of unity ( Gd) points to making the best choice. There is a force that can break the cycle ... and always does.

 

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