A Poem About A Story

They pay special attention to how they will be read out loud. In general, when you write pros, you should write with a sense of how it's being read because people read it in their minds. It may not be read out loud, but it being read in their minds. So, effectively, a person is reading it to themselves. And I think very carefully even when I pose about cadences and rhythm. And I'll have long senses followed by short sentences or two or three short senses in a row. How can I end with a flourish? How can I create text that sticks, that adheres to imagination, that adheres to memory? Well, poetry has a whole different cadence. And generally, the cadence of poetry is repetition. Something you don't want in pros, more or less, more or less. The more that every sentence in pros feels and sounds with the same rhythm, the less impactful it is. Whereas poetry, it's the inverse. the more that the rhythms are more or less the same, it just continues and it becomes one because poetry tends to be shorter and therefore it's easier to encompass it and to read it as one unit whereas pros tends to be more expansive. So you have to break up the cadences and the rhythm. So every poem has a rhythm and the rhythm tends to be consistent throughout the poem. Very irregular for a poem to break rhythm. Think for example of all the poets we've read for the last couple weeks. They're called slickos. They're called pdim. They're all, you know, so that's a fourpart stanza each having its own music and its own flow. And so these pukim are more or less like that. Most of the pukim are four. Pow pow pow pow four different units the beginning is not the beginning is much shorter va one em but that's generally true beginnings and endings should be different because otherwise they just slip into the poem in general and it loses its heading it loses its unique and distinct title but most of it is four so for example the second short, long P short four and then it basically becomes more or less four except for a couple intersperse quick for emphasis a shorter Pik especially when it's juxtaposed to a longer stanza lends emphasis. So for example Shakespeare wrote his poetry in amic contaminate anyone studies Shakespeare the poetry moves along a particular cadence. So here there's a a b c d ab a b c d ab b c d ab a and that lends emphasis oh hashem is hashem chose us which we'll talk about later so the first part of hazenu which makes it poetic and of course I'll talk about this later the purpose of a poem is it's easier to remember it's easier to absorb and poems are meant to be absorbed poems are meant to shape us differently than pros and one way that a poem gets absorbed differently and potentially more enduringly is that rhythm. So even when we don't remember all the words, we feel and hear the rhythm because we feel music and we hear music and we feel beat in our lives in rhythm and all of a sudden oh those words that were said in the following rhythm come flowing back because memory is of course associative. You remember one thing you tend to remember something you associate with that much of memory retention is associative. The second part of hazino that makes it a poem, poem like is of course different words, colorful words, words that stand out, pow words, words that every poet wants to use a powerful word, not weak words. So instead of saying a very bad generation who's stubborn and doesn't want to listen to a corrupt and twisted generation comes from the word pil because you twist the string to create a pill with several strings but sal is pretty close to what I would call anamanopia. Anamaranapia is when the word sounds like the phenomena it's describing. So when you describe the rustling of the leaves. Well, when you hear leaves outside in the winter, it sounds as the wind blows with howling of the wind. You hear the wind howling through. And of course, you remember the word rustling and howling because when you walk in the street and you're not particularly thinking about words and you hear the sound, we think in words and the rustling and the howling emerges. So I can imagine taking something and twisting it really tight and hearing the squeaking that you you'd hear almost like sounds coming out from something you're twisting extremely tight or word play he's your nest nest means nest like kazal introduce other dashas but at its root it means hashem is our nest so hashem is our and he's our and he founded us some word play. When I say the word immediately I think of who doesn't know the d that's like a that everyone remembers because sal is so vivid and so different and so oneoff and who won't remember that phrase. So the second part of hazino that makes it I'm just checking my my mic because it didn't work before. The second part of Hazenu that makes it poetic and chantable and thereby memorizable or retainable is not just the repeating rhythms but the powerful and vivid and graphic words. The third part of Pares Hazeno and this is the more uh dominant aspect of it being a poem is he doesn't speak Mosher Rabeno in Pares Hazeno in words or concepts but everything is an image. Of course, imagery is metaphor because we remember images more than we remember concepts and you also should try to write in images and think in images because that makes it more memorable. So everything is an image. Let's start from the beginning. Moshe is standing in a field full of grass talking to the blue heavens and the brown earth. There's there's there's a lot of rain. And who doesn't like a summer rainstorm in a beautiful green grass field? You can see it, you can feel it. And boy, can you smell it? The smell of a field of a meadow in the summer after the rainfall. And Moshe is describing protecting us. Hashem protects us. Moshe says Hashem protects us like our eyes. Okay, that's a pretty powerful image. Everyone feels like their eyes are probably the most vulnerable part of their body or their parts of their body. I remember when I did the laser about 10 years ago. It was really frightening. All of a sudden, what's going to cut my eyes? I just said Ganono and took a leave cuz I wanted to do the laser. But the thought of putting something in your eye and sticking something in your eye, protects us like he protected the eyes with the sockets and the eyelashes and and the membranes. Hashem protects your eye. And then Hashem becomes a mother eagle. goes to love which interestingly enough not for now is one of the only times in Tanakh that Hashem is associated with motherly treatment not fatherly treatment. I asked that question at the table on rash surrounding the of I ask the women at the table when you think of because doesn't say I'm a father just says you're my son. So do men imagine Hashem as a father and women imagine Hashem in as a of course dominating in Tanak but there are a couple references why Hashem treats us in the way we associate Hashem is not a father mother we associate his treatment of us with maternal instincts and treatment and paternal instincts and treatment so becomes an eagle and he feeds us it's rash I don't have to explain to you the imagery of honey flowing from a sticky, gooey, sweet honey on your man, on your kala. And then we enter Israel and the realm's board begins. We eat buttery meat. Kamas bakar doesn't mean meat with butter. It means meat that is as soft as butter. We don't have too much of that in Israel or we do. It's very expensive. Only in the hotels. So you ever come to the United States or overseas and I see you in a restaurant, maybe you can recommend the buttery buttery meat dish, soft meat that you don't even have to cut. own the milk of goats, the fat, delicious animals, racks of lamb. Obviously, a limb um with these uh kernels of wheat that almost have fat to them, wine, damn, of course, Moshe is speaking in food. You can literally place yourself at that table with wine, with milk, with meat, with grains. You can see it. You can smell it. If you're hungry, you can taste it. And then of course, Hashem describes our punishment for forgetting him. We become fat. Who wouldn't become fat with that board? But fat of course doesn't mean physically obese. It means we forget Hashem. We become self-content, self-complacent. And then Hashem starts to punish us. And he's not Moshe doesn't describe the punishment that our enemies will inflict upon us. And our enemies will drive us out of the land. Our enemies will subjugate us. He describes it in very graphic terms. I will shoot my arrows or I'll empty my arrows against you. So you feel Hashem's arrows coming down from heaven. Listen to this threepart description. Miser, pangs of hunger, rash, fiery fever, ket some sort of pandemic or virus that's devouring you and then the animals start to attack. And again doesn't say the animals will attack you. We know those I'll send the teeth of animals. Those you know a very prominent can imagine you're thinking imagine having a nightmare where you're being chased by a tooth or not by a tooth but big tooththed animals. Those are the ones that are most frightening. The hippos the sharks ones with really big teeth. The maturing tigers and ones that we we get scared of walrus even though they can't really hit us with those teeth but we just see those big teeth and they look sharp and they feel sharp. with the anger of slithering snakes slither on the ground. We can feel it. We can see it. And then Hashem tells us that our wine is becoming bitter stom. Our wine is like the wine in stone. Mishados amora comes from the grape areas of an inshos. We're drinking the wine of tanim. The wine of serpents. Remember they had to protect their wine from snakes who drip their poison into the wine. Kazal decreed you should not drink wine that was left uncovered. We don't have that today because we have wine that gets covered by a cap in the fridge. But you're going to drink the wine that of serpents that they've drunk and it goes on and on and very graphic. So it's graphic how protects us. It's graphic with the treatment Hashem gives us in it's graphic with the suffering and then in the end it's also graphic with where Hashem takes revenge on those who have afflicted us. I will make my arrows now directed at those who abused you. I will make them drunk with blood and my sword will devour their meat or their flesh captives and and fallen and then redeems us. So these are the three components of paras that make it a poem. Number one, rhythm, repetitive rhythm. Number two, words that you'll never forget. Three images, not concepts, not ideas, not details, not objects. Imagery, wine, honey, eagles, grass, water, rain, sky, earth, teeth, and a smorges board of colorful delicious foods. A poem is easier to remember. Before we had ubiquitous music, i.e. Apple playlists, people chanted and recited poems to one another. Think of the song that you love that you've heard 200 times, 400 times. Those words you remember, those words you recall, those words sink into your being. Those words shape you. And all these tools make a poem easier to remember. We can just recite them. We just get into the rhythm. And the rhythm helps us remember the words. The imagery, we remember pictures more than we remember words. And I'm trying to remember a picture of yourself 10 years ago. Trying to remember the words you said 10 years ago. Good luck with part B, part A. You can remember I was here and I was there. And so imagery helps memory. So these are things we're going to remember longer. So this is a poem because Mosha Bainu wants us to remember this and to chant it to recite it, let's say, daily basis as we're walking in the field. And secondly, and even more important, it's written for children as well, not just for adults. That's why the real intro to literally it means something non literal. I'll try to talk about in a little bit but literally it means ask your father and he'll teach you this poem and um that's why people memorize para people memorize because in third or fourth grade or whatever second grade you get to so it's a great incentive for the kids to if you memorize you'll get a prize. I remember I I memorized beer Kasakov in third grade. I got a bottle of curse soda. Curse was a Jewish company that made soda. Wasn't too tasty but I brought it home and so proud of myself and I put it into I think memorizing my I forgot what I memorized but some contest and I put it in my fridge and I woke up the next day and everyone drank the soda so I realized I shouldn't have put it in the fridge. But in any event, people also memorize hazino. But again, in many schools, people don't get tazino till an advanced age. And then of course, these contests are less compelling and less exciting and less incentivizing. I think my kids are precious as I think they they with all sorts of image and shapes and to to to help them memorize and gestures and pantoimes. And this is directed for kids to remember also. There are no mitzvos here. We'll talk about that a little bit later, but it's not written in detailed abstract complicated information. This is a story that parents will teach their children literally at a young age and the boys and girls will inculcate and live this story by singing it to themselves. It's a Shira like you and I would sing our favorite songs. So that's the style in which hazino was written. Now we have to understand what message this style is necessary for or this style enables. So the answer is hazu tells the story of human history and it starts from the beginning and it ends with events that have yet to occur but that are more or less built in to the story of history. Moshe has forecasted that you may betem or you're likely to be betray and when and if you do you'll suffer and this is what will happen. Mosha doesn't describe it as a foregone conclusion because that would be eliminating. Everyone has the free will to follow the eloh or not to forget or not. Just checking my recorder. Moshe is not talking to you and me and our free will. Mosha is saying this is the story of history and it's a story that unfolds in seven acts. There are seven parts to the story. Part one is the beginning of human history. Now when I say the beginning of human history it's notious but it's the beginning when people started to form nations nations started to form. Before then people lived as nomads in isolated caves scavenging the mountaintops for food and vegetation running away from wild creatures. Now people start to form nations. Khazal tag it to mdal. It could be that. It could be related. It's not important right now to get the exact timing. Poems are meant to be loose and refer to phenomena that span decades and centuries not a particular 1892 or 1641. Then the second stage is now that Hashem has then nations are starting to coales then hashem chooses us. Hem chooses us. That's selection. So one is nationhood people forming nations living in groups. Two is selection. Hashem selects us. Three is Hashem selects us and he protects, preserves and benefits us. And that's primarily in the midbar. He protects us. He builds us like the eye, like the eagle. He feeds us honey from rock. And then we enter Isel. And there it's not just but it's the ideal that Hashem wants us to live in his land. And that ideal is material experiences coupled with spiritual experiences. But this mentions all the material experiences. Remember very few mystra mention at least overtly. Everything's a metaphor triple quadruple metaphor. But the simple reading is you'll just have a big buffet of delicious meats, foods, goat milk, grains. So number one is nationhood. Number two is selection. Number three is in the midbar in particular. And four is the idealization of initial note is protecting us with huts and food coming from rocks as he did in the midbar but a natural enduring durable reproducible formula not just Hashem's intervention and then we start to become fat and betray and worship other gods. So number four is betrayal. Number five is suffering. Not gullless. Gullis is a mention as it is throughout that here. There's no gullus but just our enemies will attack us. The animals, the teeth, the snakes, the pythons, the slithers, slitherers. And then number seven, the end is bar will avenge all those who took it too far, who persecuted the Jewish people. And history will end with everyone celebrating Hashem taking vengeance upon the evil people on behalf of Amisel and Amis's return to center stage. Harino Gamo Kamadavik. So Paresino is structured as a poem and it's a poem that tells a story, a universal story. And of course, every universal story has us in the middle because our story is their story and we're the engine that drives the universal story. And it's a story that hasn't happened yet, but Mosha is not describing it contingent. Mo saying this is going to happen. This story is happening. It's a bigger story and a larger story than you and it's going to happen. So now that we've described the structure of Hazenu and the story that it tells, here's the big question, the M question. What's the message? What's the takeaway? Okay, we have a poem that is being chanted by kids throughout their lives as they become adults. It tells a universal story that's more or less inevitable and that lies beyond any one person's decision. Remember, this is the story whether we go into gullus or not. We're going to live in Israel. It's unlikely we're going to be picture perfect. We're going to suffer on shim when we become fat, which is going to be natural. If it gets too far, then we're going to gullis. But they're two sides of the same coin because even if we don't go to gullis, Hashem, as we read in will punish us for our sins with our enemies. It doesn't have to be this major rupture of going into gull major shift in narrative. I think the answer is as follows. Mosherenu through this poem about the big story that little children will read at early ages by asking their parents. Mosher Rabenu is trying to build historical sensitivity. Okay, there's a story happening. It has nothing to do with you and to a degree has nothing to do with your decisions. This is the arc of history. This is the trajectory of history. Where are you in that? What time do you live in? What generation do you occupy? What stage of history are you? What are the expectations of history for your behavior? You're part of something larger than yourself. Way larger than yourself. It's happening whether you like it or not. And you can be an area or you could be a a kid in a grassy field with rain falling. It we're all part of that story. And it's just a different part of religious and Jewish identity. The other brieos of safer div are all either tit for tat reciprocity mitzvah aos on. And if they're not that binocular, this causes this. There's something a little broader. There's a brisk. But do you uphold the brisk? Do you not uphold the brisk? It's not a question of one mitzvah. It's and one of but a general continuum and a general interface with but there's a different way to relate to Hashem and that is he chose us and there's a story and it's an important story for humanity and it began with humanity will end with humanity gathering and he's been with us through that story and I have responsibilities and I better make sure that my life is attentive to that story. It's called historical consciousness and historical sensitivity. What is our role in the story? What are the expectations? What did Hashem give us? How did Hashem choose us? That's why there are no mitzvah mentioned here. There hardly any aos. There is a mention that we worship. But all these words can mean general things. Not the word. But everything else could be we make him angry, make him jealous. It's more about are you consistent with the story? Are you aligned with the story? You're misaligned with the story. What side of the fence of the story are you on? The right side of the fence or the wrong side of the fence. And it's just a different part of and a different pathway to religious identity. Not, not but study history. Know that you're part of this long chain. Know that you live with historicity and your actions ripple down the chain. And stories happen anyway. We all know that what little me, Mosha Taran, decides to do is not going to rroot the historical inevitability. But I'd rather be an agent rather than a neutral figure in this historical process. And when I say history, I don't mean living in Israel. I just mean imbuing actions with historical resonance. That where do you come from? What has what have our customs been? How have we fared as a people? What is our heritage? What is our destiny? To broaden the frame beyond September what's today 29 2025 and who won the game yesterday and which politicians said what to whom? And that raises an interesting question. Do we do a good enough job teaching para sazino? And when I say teaching para sazino, I don't mean para sazino proper. I mean the story, the story of history. So now it's Israel, we don't have to teach it. We wake up in the morning with it and we go to bed at night with it. Why am I living here? Why are my kids in the army now? Why the struggle? Why the difficulty? Why? Why? Why? Cuz we have a story and it's a story of prophecy and it's a story of selection. It's a story of land and story of Hashem's will and story of destiny. and to be part of that story of history. You can live anywhere obviously, but you're more part of that story when you live in the land of history and you help craft history. That's first of all in hutzar though I wonder how good a job we're doing. So part of the answer is well we don't teach it as a curriculum. Someone asked me a couple weeks ago if I could introduce one aspect into the curriculum of high school limo decodes, I would probably teach Jewish history, but I would teach it not as an add-on in secular studies. I would try to teach it because labeling and framing and packaging makes all the difference. And if you teach it at 4:30 p.m., it's harder for the students. Say, well, I'm trying to become more religious now. Like the whole day should be seen religious. So told that same person, I'm opposed to secular studies. Why in the world would you study secular studies? Everything you should study should have some tiein to your religious identity. What I think people should start to say is not religious versus secular studies but Torah studies which means gamarish whatever and non-torra studies which hopefully at some level either instrumentally to earn a living or existentially to become a deeper more sensitive more knowledgeable person. Why in the world would you want to do anything which doesn't somehow someway you know okay you can take a break here and there but why would you want to spend five hours a day and dedicate significant time and resources to something that in no way contributes to the lo's identity so one question is just are we teaching it but that's a simple default answer well is it in school curriculum question is is it in our blood and what's happening I think at least in the United States of America where I assume a lot of people are listening think is two things. Number one, it's so easy to identify all the ingredients of a life of a vote. You know, as many bate medish as you'd like, as many shaws as you'd like, as much kosher food as you'd like, get all the resources. So there's no longing for some other place in which the story is felt more accurate or not. There's no but it's harder to feel that longing and on top of that it's so easy and and there's so many resources of Torah mitzvos and slowly but surely not in an assimilationist matter. It's not like people are assimilating to the culture, but the culture is creeping in cuz I don't mean mass culture and low culture and TV shows and movies and because it's easyish if you decide to bar those. But like which story are you living? And I ironically the more deeply you are comfortable in your religious setting outside of the land of the Jewish people, the more you start to be grateful and identify with and live within that culture. Again, I don't mean movies and music. I mean just that story. So I'll say something which it probably may sound controversial but it's just it's a thought a thought experiment. A couple months ago I threw a comment out. I saw that and I I was talking to Jews that don't live in America and I said, "Do you know that in every major Jewish city in America in the stadiums, the sports stadiums, they'll sell kosher food and many of them they'll have a minion announced at a certain gate um at a certain time? Go to gate D5 and there's a minion for Mina." And on the surface it seems great. Who doesn't want to d with a minion? who doesn't want to say hab doesn't want to kosh and I said well maybe it would be preferable not to have a minion for mka but just to create a little distance between these mass cultural events and say this not us it's not who we are we're outsiders we may watch the game but watch as outsiders people in London in their wildest dreams would not imagine having a minion in Wembley stadium not just because of the anti seminism the last couple years just even 5 years ago 10 years in England you're living on the margins you don't control English culture it is it own you're just living you're being hosted you carve out religious spaces freedom of worship freedom of religion you thrive but you know and you go to a sporting event you put a hat on and you're on the side and in America because there's so much religion that's so successful and so traction and because the culture and its story is so compelling in some ways. So it's easy to have your mitzvah search and your sense of paras. That's the story of humanity within which we are driving humanity and we have a particular set of chapters that Hashem expects from us and that should also motivate me and it just creates a deeper more profound of what does Hashem look there are people who don't have sensitivity to avo people who aren't keeping a classically lifestyle who deeply deeply live the story resonates very deeply and they're committed to land They committed to Jewish history and committed to human history. They realize we have a larger stake in history. I'm presuming that most people listening to this U video are people that are sensitive to avo. But if it's just that and you don't have hazu at some point, maybe the mitzvah and the Torah become brittle or dry because they don't attach to something larger and deeper and it's harder to keep their meaning. And when it comes dry, it gets very brittle and very fragile. So it's a great question to ponder. How are we in teaching hazino? And I don't mean in the classroom at 4 p.m. How are we at absorbing? I think certain personalities such as Rabbi Wine I had a relationship with, Rabbi Saxs who I had a relationship with annunciated this for people and it struck a cord because I think aside from the eloquence and their arudition, it just touched a part of their religious personas that were not only touched or sufficiently touched by Torah mitzvos. And it doesn't mean that ideally it should only be Torah Mitsus because there are parts of our personality that should be responding to and it comes across even in the world through Minhag and through Masara and through not just info and not just actions but everything surrounding it the framing the continuity the background the history. So, Hazen was a poem and it's a poem with a rhythm and the rhythm and the imagery and the metaphors help us chant it and remember it and it's a story that we tell ourselves and that story is larger than ourselves but we want to be agents of that story and that's what Mosha adds through that he couldn't get to in all the other paras