Ha'azinu: Reality

הַאֲזִ֥ינוּ הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וַאֲדַבֵּ֑רָה         וְתִשְׁמַ֥ע הָאָ֖רֶץ אִמְרֵי־פִֽי׃ 

Give ear, O heavens, let me speak;

Let the earth hear the words I utter!

Presumably, this is the song that Israel will keep as its legacy. 

Moses addresses Heaven and Earth, the fist creations, the universe in which, and from which, all that we understand was formed.  Echoing back to the first words of the Torah reminds that this limited physical universe is the creation of a greater force.

The song goes on to tell of the   advantages that accrue to the keepers of the covenant and the destruction that results from its violation. A great power  can terraform  or remove the forces that make the land habitable; a force can  favor a nation or its enemy. Recognition  of Gd's intervention, belief in  the outside nature of this entity, is required for Divine favor.  This lack of recognition brings about the downfall of the victorious enemy and the redemption of downtrodden Israel. Gd's power will be manifest: ultimately on the side of those who recognize their own limitation and the true source of  victory. 

The puny human creature is tossed by the invisible wind, survives from meal to meal, makes some scratches on paper and decays. Our greatest power is to destroy: the earth and each other.  Recognizing a far greater, extra-human  source, beyond our conception of nature, can be  a step toward limiting the carnage. It can also be the basis of war.

Gd and the universe have a common property: mystery. Neither can be understood. Making Gd the word for the powerful secrets of nature is an underestimation. The song attributes intention to the Master of the Universe.  This is the hard part. The meager extent of our perceptions, the unwillingness to accept a construct that violates our goals  -and may exist outside the rules as we see them - are formidable barriers. 

The world we experience is a fantasy. We need to simplify the momentum from  a myriad of impulses from within  and without occurring every femtosecond into a coherence that allows us to breathe and feed and, occasionally laugh. Recognizing ( or imagining) Gd is convenient, but fraught.  Accepting the Gd of the Torah, the Gd of the song, recreates a universe.