Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L
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Beware Too Much Abundance
Moshe continues with his song to the Israelites.
He relates how G-d brought the Israelites to the land of Israel and let them eat produce of the field, suckle honey and (olive) oil from a rock.
He also alludes to Israel being the highest of all of the countries in the world and having fruit which are quicker to bud and ripen than anywhere else.
He likens the land of Israel to being like "sucking honey from a rock" which Rashi explains by way of a story that happened in a place in Israel named Sichni, where a man asked his son to bring him pressed figs from a certain barrel. The son went over to the barrel and instead of figs he saw that the barrel was overflowing with honey. His father told him to dig his hands deeper into it and he will bring up pressed figs which are as hard as a rock. This story is Rashi's way of illustrating that the land of Israel which is as hard as a rock similarly brings forth an abundance of honey.
It is also a land that produces olive oil from olives grown in Giscala, an area of the Galilee.
Moshe now alludes to different eras when the Israelites were blessed with abundance:
During the time of King Shlomo when he was blessed with:
"The cream of the cattle and the milk of sheep" - i.e King Shlomo when his daily supply of cattle and sheep was 10 fat cattle and 20 cattle from the pasture and 100 sheep.
"The fat kidneys of wheat" - when King Shlomo's daily supply consisted of 30 kor of fine flour per day. These kernels of wheat were as fat as kidneys.
The period of the Northern Kingdom of Israel which was blessed with the "fat of lambs and rams (from Bashan - the rams in Bashan were fat)" and the finest wines.
Moshe goes on to say that all of this abundance led the Israelites (here referred to as Yeshurun) to grow fat and rebel against G-d.
They rebelled by committing abominable deeds such as homosexuality and sorcery which caused G-d to become angry.
They sacrificed to false gods which had no power and were so recent that even non Jewish nations were unfamiliar with them (to the extent that if a non jew saw such an idol he would refer to it as a "jewish idol"). These false gods were entities which their ancestors didn't fear.
They sacrificed to demons, which have no power, deities they did not know, new things that only recently came, which your forefathers did not fear as they did not create these demons.
Moshe bemoans that in so forgetting G-d, who redeemed them. This incites G-d's anger and weakens His power to do good to them.
Ha'azinu, 3rd Aliya