Parashat Ha'azinu
Remember the Days of Old
The Torah describes an earlier time, when lands were distributed fairly by
God.
By Adam Rosenthal
This
commentary is provided by special arrangement with American Jewish World
Service. To learn more, visit www.ajws.org.
Among the major contributors to suffering
around the world is the inequitable distribution of land and resources. The
richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household
wealth. On a more concrete level, in El Salvador, where I volunteered for ten
days on the AJWS Rabbinical Students'
Delegation, though the land was nominally redistributed in 1992, it was done
far from equitably: The poorest people got the lowlands, which are prone to
flooding, while the wealthiest held the fertile country, perpetuating the
country's economic
inequalities.
In
Parashat Ha'azinu, the Torah poetically describes an
earlier time, when lands were apportioned by God to each nation:
"Remember the
days of old,
Consider
the years of ages past;
Ask
your father, he will inform you,
Your
elders, they will tell you:
When
the Most High gave nations their homes
And
set the divisions of humanity,
Fixing
the boundaries of peoples
In
relation to Israel's number."
(Deuteronomy 32:7-8)
Here
the Torah seems to suggest that at one point in time, God divided populations
in a way that was somehow equitable. All people had access to the land they
needed. This is in keeping with the biblical Jubilee, which twice in a century
required ancient Israelites to withdraw from lands that were not apportioned by
the Torah to their ancestral family.
But
what does it mean that God "fixed the
boundaries of peoples in relation to Israel's
number" (l'mispar b'nei Yisrael)? One midrash explains that before the days
of Abraham, God dealt harshly with the world: The sins of Noah's generation resulted in the flood; the
generation that built the tower of Babel was dispersed throughout the globe,
prompting the proliferation of languages; Sodom and Gemmora's sins were answered with fire and brimstone.
According to this midrash, when Abraham came into the world, God ceased the
cataclysmic punishments and set the punishments of other peoples in
relationship to Israel's presence in
the world.
This
midrash conveys that the Israelites' presence
somehow lessened God's anger,
bringing greater stability to the world. As Jews, then, the midrash teaches, we
have a unique ability and responsibility to bring peace and stability to the
world.
The Number of God's Children
But this midrash is not the only
interpretation. In the Dead Sea Scrolls and in some medieval translations of
the Bible, the same verses refer not to Israel's
number but to "the number of
divine beings" or "the number of God's children"
(l'mispar b'nei El). According to this interpretation, in
the original reckoning, God apportioned the earth equally, based on the number
of human beings. This interpretation invites us to imagine a time when God
distributed the land with each person
receiving an equal share. When we embrace our responsibility to walk in
all of God's ways, we,
too, should strive to apportion resources equitably.
This
short verse of Ha'azinu, then, offers
us two opportunities for reflection and action in the new Year. First, as Jews,
we have a unique capacity to improve the world and must translate that capacity
into action on behalf of those who are suffering. And second, as we see
ourselves created in God's image, we
must take action to bring about a more equitable distribution of resources to
our world, if not literally in land then through tzedakah.
Adam
Rosenthal received rabbinic ordination
from the Jewish Theological Seminary in May of 2007 and is now serving as rabbi
of Peninsula Sinai Congregation in Foster City, California. He is an alumnus of
the 2007 AJWS Rabbinical Students Delegation to El Salvador.
