Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L
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Don't Forget
Moshe continues with his song to the nation, telling them that they must remember what G-d did to past generations who incited His anger. For example, in Enosh's generation which G-d bombarded with ocean waters or the generation of the flood which G-d washed away.
Moshe tells them to look to the prophets and sages who will tell them of these former times.
They are also to reflect upon how G-d has the power to give them good things in the form of the Messiah and the world to come.
Moshe reminisces upon how G-d generally apportions lots to people in accordance with their deeds. With the generation of the flood he drowned them. With the generation of the power of Bavel he could have destroyed them as well, however for the sake of the nation of Israel (who would descend from Shem's children), he only scattered them and separated mankind into seventy different nations with seventy different languages.
The nation of Israel is referred to as "Yaakov", the third of the patriarchs, as he was blessed with three merits: that of his grandfather (Avraham), his father (Yitzchok) and his own. These three merits twisted together like a strong rope which is why it was specifically him who merited to have the nation referred to in his name.
The Midrash describes how G-d first offered the Torah to Esav's children (Seir) but they rejected it and then to Ishmael's children (Paran) but they did as well.
Moshe describes how Yaakov's sons alone accepted G-d's Torah in the desert, a place of drought and desolation, filled with howling jackals and ostriches.
And it was in this desert that G-d surrounded them from all sides with protective clouds as well as with the underside of the mountain when he lifted it up over them. It was there in the desert that G-d gave them the Torah and ability to understand and protected them from snakes, serpents, scorpions and enemy nations.
G-d provided the Israelites with all of their needs in the desert and had them camp around His Divine Presence which rested in the middle of the camp
G-d directed Israel with mercy and compassion like an eagle who hovers over its fledglings, flapping its wings to awaken its young so as not to startle upon entering the nest.
Also, the eagle only barely touches its young so as not to be over imposing, just as G-d appeared to them from all four directions so as not to be overbearing in coming from only one.
And finally, the eagle carries its young on its wings, unlike other birds which carry their young with their feet. This is because other birds are scared of the eagle which flies above them, however the eagle is only scared of arrows hitting them from below. Similarly Moshe describes how G-d carried them like eagles' wings when the Egyptians chased them at the Red sea and threw arrows and rocks at them, at which point G-d set up his protective cloud behind them to protect them from the Egyptians.
Moshe goes on to describe how G-d led them safely on his own through the desert such that none of the enemy nations were able to fight them with the power of their foreign deities.
Moshe says that this section is a rebuke to Israel who are eventually to go against G-d and forget what G-d had done to past generation as well as what He had promised to do to them in the future. Moshe is rebuking them for when they will be forgetful of this.
Ha'azinu, 2nd Aliya