Parshat Ha'azinu: The Weekly Parsha Story Illustrated by AI

Hello children. Parsha haenu is one of the most special portions in the Torah. This entire portion is a song that Moshe teaches the Jewish people before his death. This song is written in the Torah in a unique way. Instead of long lines, it has short and beautiful lines like a real poem. Before beginning the song, Moshe calls upon the heavens and the earth to be witnesses. Listen, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. What does this mean? Moshe asks the heavens to listen to his words and the earth to hear them. Why does Moshe call specifically upon the heavens and the earth? Rashi explains that Moshe says, "I am only flesh and blood, and I am about to die, but the heavens and the earth are eternal. They will be here forever and will remind the Jewish people of what I have told them. They will be everlasting witnesses. My words will be like rain that gives life to the plants and like dew that refreshes the grass. Like showers on the grass and raindrops on the herbs. My words will do good and give you life for I call in the name of God. Give honor to our God. The deeds of God are perfect. Moshe begins to speak about God. God is like a rock, strong and true, and everything he does is perfect. All his ways are just, and everything he does is right and fair. There is no injustice and no wrongdoing. He is righteous and upright. In God, there is perfect faithfulness. No wrong is found in him. He is holy, righteous, and true. But what about the people? They are the ones who have become corrupt. A stubborn and corrupt generation, a corrupt generation that walks in deceit. Moshe reminds the people of all the good that God has done for them. He opens with very harsh words toward the people and says, "Is this how you repay God? Why are you behaving this way towards God? You're not a wise people. God is your father. He chose you from among all the nations. He created you to be a special people. He established you and prepared you. Remember the days of old. Understand what happened in previous generations. Ask your fathers and the elders. They will tell you how God cared for you. Up to this point, these are the things that illustrate God's love for the Jewish people. Now, Moshe moves on to speak about another matter, and that is the choosing of the Jewish nation from among all the nations. When God divided the people of the world into different nations, he set the boundaries of all the nations in the world according to the number of the children of Israel. For God's portion is his people, Yakov. The Jewish people are his special inheritance. How did God take care of you in the desert? Here it is important to mention all the miracles and wonders that God performed for us. After all, the desert is a place where it is impossible to survive for long. Yet God led us through the desert for 40 years and provided us with bread and water, gave us quail and mun. Even our clothes grew with us and remained as new and many other miracles. God surrounded you on all sides, understood you and knew what you needed, and protected you like a person guards what is most precious to him. In this way, God protected the Jewish nation like an eagle hovering over its chicks. God spread his wings and sheltered you and even carried you on his wings like the eagle that carries its chicks. God alone led you and gave you the best of the land. Now Moshe describes how God gave the people all that is good. And that's not the end. God is good and he wants to do good. God set the people upon the hills of the land and fed them the finest crops of the fields. Honey from the rocks, natural honey that the bees make in the crevices of the rocks. Olive oil from the places that are the hardest for olives to grow. Butter from the finest cattle, sheep's milk, and lamb that is rich and healthy. He also gave you rams, strong rams from the fertile region of Bashan with the best wheat there is and red wine good for drinking. The people became spoiled and rebelled. And what happened after all this goodness? You became spoiled and rebelled against God. You abandoned God who created you. You disrespected the Almighty who saved you. You worshiped foreign gods and angered him with indecent acts. God became angry and considered hiding his face, saying, "I will hide my face from them and see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children who cannot be trusted, and their punishment is that enemies will overpower them." Now Moshe describes the terrible troubles that will come. The arrows of God will destroy you. You will suffer from emaciation due to extreme hunger. You will endure inflammation and fever, a bitter and terrible plague. I will send against you the teeth of wild beasts with the venom of snakes that crawl in the dust. Outside the sword of your enemies will kill. Inside there will be fear and terror. Both young men and maidens, infants and the elderly, all will suffer. God considered wiping you out, but as it were, he will relent so that the enemies will not think they won by their own strength and will not understand that it was God who punished the people. God says that these enemies are evil and wicked like Sodom and Gomorrah. God says, "I remember everything both what the Jewish people did to me and what the enemies are doing." Retribution will come, but suddenly there is a change. God says, "I will bring justice. I put to death and I bring to life. I have wounded and I heal and no one can rescue from my hand." This is the important lesson. Only God is the true God. He is the one who rules over life and death. He is the one who wounds and he is the one who heals. God swears to take vengeance on the enemies. The end of the song is surprising and joyful. Rejoice, rejoice, nations. This refers to the Jewish people because the word means nation. For he will avenge the blood of his servants and he will bring vengeance upon his adversaries. God promises to take revenge on anyone who has done evil to the Jewish people. It's a beautiful ending full of hope. In the end, God will avenge the people of Israel against their enemies, atone for their sins, and the whole world will rejoice together with the Jewish nation. Moshe spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people. Moshe finishes his words and says, "Pay attention to all the things I am testifying to all of you today. Instruct your children to keep and do all the words of this Torah, for the Torah is your life. And if you do so, you will prolong your days in the land of Israel. At the end of the portion comes a very sad part. God says to Moshe, "Go up to this Mount Havarim, Mount Neo, which is in the land of Moav opposite Jericho, and you will see the land of Israel that I am giving to the Jewish people as an inheritance, and there you will die." In the next portion, which will conclude the entire Torah for us, we will learn about the final blessings that Moshe gives to the tribes before his death and about the passing of Moshe, our teacher, the great leader who accompanied the Jewish nation from Egypt until now. What blessings did each tribe receive and how did Moshe depart? We will tell you about this in the next episode.