Summary of parashat Haazinu
A large part of the Torah portion Haazinu (Listen) consists of a 70-line "song" spoken by Moshe to the people of Israel on the last day of his life.
Calling heaven and earth as witnesses, Moses exhorts the people, "Remember the days of old / Consider the years of many generations / Ask your father, and he will tell you / Your elders, and they will explain" how God "found them in a desert land," made them a people, chose them for Himself, and bequeathed them a beautiful land. The song also warns of the hardships of abundance: "Jesus grew fat and stout / You grew fat, plump, and swollen / He forgot the God who made him / He spurned the Rock of his salvation"—and the terrible calamities that would occur, which Moses saw as God "hiding His face." However, toward the end, he promises, God will be avenged for the blood of His servants and will be reconciled to His people and their land.
The parashah concludes with God's instruction to Moses to ascend Mount Nebo, from where he will observe the Promised Land before dying there. "You will see the land before you, but you will not enter it, the land I am giving to the Israelites.""
