This Shabbas is Parshas Haazinu. It is also Shabbas Shuva. It is the closest Shabbas can be to Yom Kippur, which could cause some people a bit of stress but shouldn’t. After all, how wonderful is it that between the Day of Rest when we, ideally (cough cough), focus on our spirituality and the Day of Atonement - we are not challenged by mundane days of work, when we might be distracted from what is most important right now.
This Shabbas Shuva, we read the parsha of Haazinu, which is a very unique parsha in that it is understood to be one long song. That song is both of the past, relaying the dynamic history of Bnei Yisrael, and for the future, full of prediction and foretelling. That duality of past and future is particularly significant for the days of teshuva. When we don’t own our past, we lose hold of our unique identity, we lose hold of the treasures that we have – our Torah, our land, our nationhood. We must never forget our past – because when we even start to ignore our past, our future starts to slip away.
The fact that we read this parsha here in the midst of the days of Awe (although sometimes just after) is significant because of what stands between the dual nature of the song of Haazinu. Between the past and the future, there is the present, the here and now…the today.
One doesn’t necessarily think about Yom Kippur as being about “today.” After all, it’s the day on which we stand before Hashem and ask Him to grant us atonement for that which we have done in the past. And, although we should be doing so just so we have done right in the ways of Hashem, most of us are hoping that our atonement will “pad” our future year to come, that we will be granted bracha and hatzlacha. However, the most important element of Yom Kippur is the Yom, the day, the specific annual time when we have the necessary spiritual alignment.
So what does that have to do with Haazinu. The word is most often translated as “Listen.” This, however, isn't the usual listen, which generally comes from Shema (to hear). Haazinu is better translated with the archaic sounding “Give Ear.” It has a far greater immediacy to it than lishmoa, to listen. Lishmoa is an internal process, a slower process, a sinking in. Haazinu is a moment to be seized, to be acted upon, to burst forth… like song. At the same time, it is almost deliberate - “Give ear” implies turning one’s focus and paying particular attention.
Over the next three days we must “Give Ear” to where we are. We must focus in on our actions here, on our teshuva now - and in so doing, we tie together the past and the future. This is the essence of the singularity of the day of Yom Kippur. Yesterday you were, perhaps, besmirched by your actions. Tomorrow you may be bowled over by forces beyond your control. On Yom Kippur, you will be between past and future, and this is something we can remind ourselves through the unique attribute of Haazinu, a song of the past predicting the future.
May it be Hashem’s will that the very near future redeems us and brings about complete revelation. May your tefilos on Yom Kippur bring you a kapara you can truly feel, and may this Shabbas be a Shabbas of blessing for all of the Shabbasim to come.
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