Parashat Ha'azinu

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Ha’azinu, is one of the last in the whole Torah. Next week, we will read the final commandments given to the Israelites in the desert, we will read of Moses’s death, and then a week from Sunday we will reroll the scroll and begin again with the reading of Genesis. This week is Moses’s ethical will, the final poetic address he will give to the people of Israel, the wrapping up of his Deuteronomy-long list of final instructions. The moment has come finally for Joshua to step into his leadership role, for the Israelites to enter the Promised Land, for this people who have gone through a spiritual adolescence these last 40 years to step into adulthood and prepare to take responsibility for their own tribes, their own relationships with God, and their own stake in the Holy Land. God and Joshua will continue to help them, of course, but never again will there be a prophet like Moses who speaks to God face-to-face and so carefully takes the People of Israel by the hand to lead them through difficult times.

Tomorrow we will celebrate a Bar Mitzvah at Ner Shalom. With this public act of leading his congregation in worship and teaching them some Torah, he will demonstrate that he is ready to follow in the footsteps of the Israelites as we see them in this parasha, a parasha which the Bar Mitzvah will likely feel connected to as he continues on his Jewish journey. Of course, we now understand developmental psychology a little better now than our ancient rabbis who instituted the Bar Mitzvah ceremony did, and we don’t expect 13-year-olds to fully be responsible adults. Parents, teachers, and other real adults will still need to continue to support and guide our B’nai Mitzvah adolescents as they continue to develop their own sense of self-responsibility, community building, spirituality, and find their own way in the world. But the Bar Mitzvah ceremony is the moment that Jewish youth step into religious adulthood and prepare to start their own exploration of what kind of person and Jew they want to be.

For the rest of us, it’s never too late to reset and work on these things for ourselves. We can always reflect and take accountability for our actions in new ways, we can always heighten our leadership skills, we can always deepen our own relationship with our history, culture, community, and faith. May we embrace these challenges as they arise and strengthen our resilience, and work together to create a Holy Land wherever we live. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.