Jewish Teachings: Parsha Ha'azinu/Shabbat Shuva/Yom Kippur – What Is Your Relationship With Heaven & Earth?

0:00 A man comes to his rabbi completely distraught. Rabbi, I can't control my Yat Sahara. What happened? asked the rabbi. I was supposed to be dieting. Last night I ate an entire cheesecake. An entire cheesecake, said the rabbi. Yes, replied the man. Did you at least try to resist? asked the rabbi. For forty five minutes. What did you do? he asked. I argued with my Yate Sahara. And what did it say? said the rabbi. It said eat the cheesecake. And you said No. Then it said just one slice. And I said Absolutely not.

0:39 That's excellent, said the rabbi. Then the Yet Sahara said, Okay, don't eat it. The rabbi looked confused. So how did you end up eating the whole cheesecake? The man said, I'm not letting the Yat Sahara tell me what to do. We've been through El and Rosh Hana, and as we approach Yom Kippur, we ought to be able to keep our Yet Sahara in check. This week's Pasha Hazinu is perhaps the most mysterious pasha in Torah. So what can we take from it to propel us into Yom Kippur? Hazinu opens Hazinu Hashamain Vadabera, Vatismaha Arets Imre Fi.

1:22 Listen attentively the heavens and I will speak, and may the earth hear the utterances of my mouth. Moshe tells the heavens to Hazinu, listen attentively, and I will Adabera speak. Whereas he tells the earth to Tishma here, the Imre, the utterances of my mouth. Why should the heavens listen attentively and the earth only here? Why use Dava to speak to the heavens? And Imre this idea of utterances to earth? Exploring this will give us some real insight in Kizak as we come into Yom Kippur. So why does Moshe tell the heavens Hazinu listen attentively, but say to Shma here to earth?

2:07 Both the Midrash in Sifre Devarim and the Targum Yanatan explain that since Moshe was closer to Shemaim, he told it to listen attentively, whereas being further away from the earth he told it to hear. This in itself is an unbelievable idea. Imagine the Midrash is describing a man Moshe, who was on such a spiritual level that he stood closer to heaven than to earth. To heaven he was so close he could speak directly, and yet he was so far away from the earth it could only hear. The Zohar elaborates on this more and explains that Moshe, the greatest of all the prophets, was so close to Hashem that he was able to address the spiritual the heavens directly without fear.

2:56 What does it mean for us to become closer to heaven? Surely that's what the Aseratya made to Shuva, Rosh Hashona, Shabatshuva, Yom Kippur are all about. Tashuva means return. But return where? Surely a return to closeness, the closeness that is apparent at the beginning of our pasha. Isn't that Yom Kippur? For one day Judaism does something extraordinary. Judaism doesn't tell us to abstain from Hashem's world. We're supposed to eat and enjoy our food. We make kiddish over wine. We're supposed to marry and have families.

3:35 We work, build and create. Yet on Yom Kippur we abstain. We don't eat or drink. We don't wash for pleasure. We don't anoint applying oils, lotions or creams, we don't wear leather shoes. There's no marital intimacy. We don't partake in the pleasures of the physical world. But is the goal of Teshuva to become less earthly? If holiness means escaping physical existence, why does Judaism not practice abstinence? Do any of us have a chance of ever being as close to Shemaim as Moshe was? The Torah in Pasha Amor says You shall afflict yourselves on the ninth of the month in the evening, and then it says from evening to evening.

4:23 And the Gomorra in Yoma in eighty one Ahmad Bet we fast on the tenth of Tishrei, not the ninth. So why then does the Torah mention the ninth? The Gomorrah answers that anyone who eats and drinks on the ninth of Tishra and fasts on the tenth of Tishri gets credit as though they fasted on both the ninth and the tenth. So eating on the day before Yom Kippur is a mitzvah. How do we understand this? Surely common sense dictates that we should eat before we fast. So why would it be a mitzvah? If I'm going to go without food and drink all of the tenth of Tishrei, of course I'm going to eat on the ninth.

5:08 The Torah gives us two forms of Kadusha, two ways to manifest our spirituality. The simple way is abstention and affliction. That's Yom Kippur. This is serving Hashem by stepping outside of physicality. There is also the Kadusha of enjoying Hashem's world. Yom Kippur teaches that we can become holy by rising above the physical. Erev Yom Kippur reminds us that the greater challenge of Jewish life is to make the physical itself holy. Therefore the Torah equates eating on the ninth of Tishre with fasting on the tenth of Tishre.

5:51 Yom Kippur teaches us how to reach Shemaim. The fact that eating on Erev Yom Kippur is also a mitzvah, comes to teach us that we're not meant to live there. We see this with Moshe. He doesn't just address Shemaim saying Ha Zinu Hashamaim, listen attentively the heavens. He also says for Tishmaha Aretz, the earth has to hear too. We're told in Pirakey Avot in chapter five that the world was created with ten utterances, the Asara Ma'amarot. It is with these ten utterances that Hashem brought the physical universe into existence.

6:34 At Hassinai we were given the Asarat Hadibrat, the ten statements. This is how Torah entered history. At Hassinai. It is Torah that reveals what creation means, what it's for and how it's supposed to function. So creation is the body, and Torah is its soul. As it says in Barashit Rabba, Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world. The Ma Marot, the utterances creates the world. The Dibor gives that world its meaning. Just imagine, Hasfashalam, a world without Hashem, a world without Torah.

7:12 You'd be born, you'd strive, you'd work, and what for? You die, nothing happens. That's not our world. We have Hashem, we have Torah. We have meaning and purpose. And of course there's Alomhaba. There's a reason for living. So we can start to see exactly what Moshe is saying. Moshe is saying, Hazinu Hashamaim Vadabera, listen attentively, heavens and I shall speak, Dibor. It is Shemim that is associated with Dibor, the spiritual dimension, Torah, the soul. And then Vitishmaha Aretz Imrefi, let the earth hear the utterances of my mouth.

7:52 The earth is associated with the Maamarot, the created physical, external world. Shemaim must listen attentively to the Dibor, whereas the earth hears the Maamarot passively, because it's the Dibrot, the statements of Shamaim that assign life to earth. The Asaratha Dibrot are all decrees of the king. That's why they said Dibor with forceful speech, keeping Shabbas, Kashrash, the Hagim are laws which we must obey. It's interesting, it says in chapter 5 of Pirkyavot, as it goes on, that the reason why the world was created with the Asara Ma'amarot, the ten utterances, is so the Sadiqim can be rewarded and the Rasha'im, the wicked, can be punished.

8:41 What does that mean? It means that with these ten statements, Hashem is still revealed enough in the world that the Sadiqim can see Hashem, sense Hashem, and therefore do the Avodah serve Hashem. Whereas he's hidden enough that the wicked, the Rasha'im, can deny that Hashem exists at all. And of course, that's the world we live in today. There are people that serve Hashem and people that deny Hashem completely. And the Rebbe, Ravanachimendul Shneerson, the last Rebbe of Chabad, he explains the reason the world wasn't created with one statement.

9:20 Hashem could have created the world with one statement. He doesn't need ten. But the reason why is because Hashem would still be too revealed for any of us to have Bakhira, to have free will. With each statement, Hashem is more hidden. And so after these ten statements, Hashem is hidden enough that we can have Bakhirah, that we can make choices, we can have free will. Of course, the Rebbe goes on to explain, it's no coincidence that there are ten statements, the Asara Ma'amarot, and there are ten statements at Hassini, the Asserat Hadi.

9:58 They correlate. It's the foundation of Torah that brings godliness into the world. In other words, the Asara Ma'amarot create a world capable of experience itself as separate from Hashem. The Asserat Hadi give Klali Shrael the means to take that very world and refine it until its reliance on Hashem is revealed. Now we can really understand what Mashe is saying.

10:38 Vitishmaha aret Imrefi, may the earth hear the utterances of my mouth. With the Debur from Shemaim the earth should hear, and godliness can be revealed in the world. And who's supposed to reveal that godliness in the world? It's us. Khalisrael, we are the link between them. We were given Torah. Our task is to take the Debor of Shemaim and make it heard within the Maamarot the utterances of earth. Hashem creates food, we make a bracha. Hashem gives us money and we give Sadaka. Hashem blesses us with a house, and we put up a Mazzah.

11:24 Hashem gave us the gift of time, and we make shabas every week. Hashem creates the human body and we use it for avoda by doing mitzvot. With the Asara Maamarot, the ten utterances there is a world. With the Asarat Hadibrot, the Ten Commandments, the Ten Stements, the world can fulfil its purpose. We tend to think Teshuva means I do some things that are wrong and I need to be better, and so I need to try and be a better person and not do those things next year. That's the return. And of course Teshuva includes that.

12:05 In its essence though, Teshuva is restoring the relationship between my Shemaim and my Eritz, because all of us have a heaven and earth. There is what I know, that's my Shemaim, and there's what I do, my Eritz. There's what I believe that's my Shemaim, and how I live, that's my Eritz. There's who I am in Shu, my Shemaim, and who I am at work, my Eretz. The values I teach my children and what they see me do. The person who says Vidui on Yom Kippur and the person on the eleventh of Tishre. Achet, a sin, creates distance between my Shemim and Eretz, my heaven and earth.

12:56 Tishuva brings them back together. That's why we abstain from physicality on Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur we're pulled towards Shemaim. This is not because Hashem wants us to remain there. It is to give us one day when the noise of the Eretz, the earth becomes quiet enough that we can hear the Debur again. And then the Ela ends. We go home, we eat, we go back to family, relationships, food, money, school and work. That's not the end of Yom Kippur. That's the test of Yom Kippur. Did anything from the Dibur make its way into the Maamarot?

13:41 Did anything from heaven reach earth? There's an extraordinary Gomorrah in Avodazarat III Ahmad Alaf, which takes us straight back to the opening Pasak of Hazina. The nations of the world challenge whether Klali Shrael really fulfilled the Torah. Hashem says let heaven and earth become and testify. Heaven and earth, the very witnesses Moshe calls at the beginning of Hazina. But the nations object. Heaven and earth are not impartial, because their own existence depends upon Klalishrael accepting and keeping Torah.

14:20 There's an idea that if Hasfashal and Klalishel don't accept and keep Torah, the world will end, and therefore heavens and earth's existence depends upon Klalishrael. So Hashem says to the nations of the world, let witnesses come from among you. And suddenly the Gomorrah doesn't bring nations or communities, it brings individuals. Nimrod testifies about Avraham. Lavan testifies about Yakov. Potiphar's wife testifies about Yosef, and then it goes on. Why individuals? How can the righteousness of one person matter so much?

14:59 The Siakzak, who's the older brother of the Taz, says the answer lies is in another extraordinary statement of Hazal. The Gomorrah in thirty-eight Ahmed Bet in Yamah says that world exists even for the sake of one righteous person. The point is not that any of us are the biggest Sadik in our generation. The point is that every individual matters. That every one of us can tip the scales not just for ourselves individually, but for Khalishuel itself. Your whole life doesn't have to change tomorrow.

15:40 You don't have to emerge from Yom Kippura's Moshe Rabinu. The world was deliberately created with concealment, struggle, and genuine choice. Hashem did not ask us to live permanently in Shemayan, where everything is obvious and there's no struggle. But he gave us the Asarat Hadibra, the Torah. So maybe on this Shabbat Shuva, as we head towards Yom Kippur, we should ask one question. Where is the place in my life that my heirs needs a little more Shemaya? One relationship, one part of business, one area of speech, one part of Shabbat, one part of tefila, one piece of Torah learning, one use of money, one use of time, one place where what I know needs to become how I live.

16:38 That's achievable. That's Teshuva. Moshe stands at the end of his life, between heaven and earth. He says Hazinu has Shemaim Vadabera. Shemaiim attentively listened to the Dibor, the Tishmaha Aretz Imre Fi, and somehow Earth has to hear it too. On Yom Kippur, for an extraordinary day, we move towards Shemaim, heaven. We stop eating, we stop working, we strip away the distractions of the physical world, and perhaps for a few hours we hear something that during the year is harder to hear. But Yom Kippur is not asking us to stay in heaven.

17:24 The fast ends. We put our leather shoes back on, we eat, we return to the world, and then the real Avodah begins. To take something we heard in the Shemaim of Yom Kippur and make sure it can still be heard in the Eretz of the year ahead. That is Hazinu. That is Teshuva. Not to leave earth for heaven, but to bring a little more heaven back to Earth.