Poetry is powerful. Any English teacher will tell you that! They also might tell you that poems are everywhere—they are the substance of songs, of Shakespeare, and of soccer chants. Poems are also ubiquitous in Judaism. In our sidurim, we have poems in English and in Hebrew that help us to internalize the meaning of the liturgy, and many of our prayers are poems that celebrate and thank God! We even have poetry that goes as far back as the Torah—including this week’s parsha!
The content of Parshat HaAzinu (literally “Give Ear”) is almost entirely made up of the poem that God tells Moses to recite at the end of last week’s parsha. It is a prophecy for the future of the Israelites—the good, the bad that will follow, and then a return of even better good and an assurance of the power and presence of God. Talk about a powerful poem!
After his recitation, Moses instructs the Israelite people to tell it over and over again, along with the whole Torah. Not because it is some literary masterpiece, but because, as Moses says, “it is your very life.” In this statement, Moses unlocks for us one of the most important truths about Jews and Judaism. The Torah, in its poetry and its prose, is our power. It is what has sustained us for thousands of years, and what will keep us going for thousands and thousands more. As we now begin this new year in earnest, let us give ear to it. Who knows what we might discover!