Parashat Ha'azinu: Can the Heavens and the Earth Hear?

האזינו השמים HEAR YE HEAVENS that I warn Israel, and be ye witnesses to this matter; for so I have told them that ye will be witnesses (cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 31:28). Similar is the meaning of ותשמע הארץ (i.e. the verb has the force of an imperative: AND LET THE EARTH HEAR). And why did He call heaven and earth as witnesses against them? Moses thought: “I am a being of flesh and blood (mortal); tomorrow I shall be dead. If the Israelites will once say, ‘We have never accepted the covenant’, who can come and refute them?” Therefore he called heaven and earth as witnesses against them — witnesses that endure forever (Sifrei Devarim 306:15). And a further reason was that if they should act worthily, the witnesses might come and give them their reward: the vine might yield its fruit, the ground give its increase, the heaven bestow its dew; while if they should act sinfully, the hand of the witnesses might first be against them (Rashi uses a phrase similar to that used of human witnesses; cf. e.g. Deuteronomy 13:10): “and He will restrain the heaven, that there be no rain, and the earth will not give its increase; and you shall perish quickly” (Deuteronomy 11:17) — through the attacks of other nations (Tanchuma 5:10:1).

heavens Sa‘adya Gaon, as I have previously indicated [comment on 4: 26], understands this word metonymically, to refer to the angels. Similarly, earth, he says, denotes the people of the earth. Alternately, the reference is to the testimony of the rain, which falls from the heavens, and to the crops, which grow from the earth. In my opinion, however, the point being made here is that these things are permanent. Compare, “Hear, O mountains” [Micah 6: 2]. Compare as well to Joshua’s stone, where the verse says, “for it has heard” [Joshua 24: 27] [cf. comment on 4: 26]. Previously I have suggested that the human soul is a bridge between the spiritual and the corporeal. It understands everything — even the human soul itself — anthropomorphically: Things corporeal it elevates, and things spiritual it brings down to its own level of understanding.

Give ear O heavens. By way of the plain meaning of Scripture, the words of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra are correct that the Scriptures designate as witnesses all things which exist and endure. Similarly, Hear O ye mountains, the Eternal's controversy (Micah 6:2). So also with reference to the stone that Joshua set up [after he made the covenant with the people], for there it is written, for it hath heard [all the words of the Eternal which He spoke unto us] (Joshua 24:27). And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], the reference here is to the first [higher heavens] and earth mentioned in Genesis, for it is they that shall enter the covenant with Israel. Therefore, he states that the heavens should give ear, and listen tot he conditions, and how he will apply them.

~ Translation by Rabbi C. Chavel

האזינו השמים, “hearken o heaven, etc.;” the word האזינו is derived from אזן, “ear.” Moses asks the heavens and the earth to lend their ears to what he is about to say. This is a direct continuation of the last verse in the previous portion, Vayelech, in which he had announced this poem/song to the people. He now calls on the eternal heaven and earth to act as witnesses to what he had to say, seeing that he, as a mortal, cannot do so anymore.

האזינו השמים, “hearken o heaven, etc.;” the word האזינו is derived from אזן, “ear.” Moses asks the heavens and the earth to lend their ears to what he is about to say. This is a direct continuation of the last verse in the previous portion, Vayelech, in which he had announced this poem/song to the people. He now calls on the eternal heaven and earth to act as witnesses to what he had to say, seeing that he, as a mortal, cannot do so anymore.

האזינו השמים, “you have been witnesses when I gave the Torah to this people,” as Moses quoted G-d as saying in Exodus 20,20: כי מן השמים דברתי עמכם, “for I have spoken with you from the heaven;”