(1) Give ear, O heavens, let me speak;
Let the earth hear the words I utter! (2) May my discourse come down as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
Like showers on young growth,
Like droplets on the grass.
(3) For the name of יהוה I proclaim;
Give glory to our God!
(4) The Rock!—whose deeds are perfect,
Yea, all God’s ways are just;
A faithful God, never false,
True and upright indeed.
THE ROCK, WHOSE WORK IS PERFECT — Although God is strong yet when God brings punishment upon those who transgress the Divine will, it is not in a flood of anger, but in judgment, because God's WORK IS PERFECT.
The meaning of The Rock is that God, like a rock, is everlasting. Do not be amazed at this, for Scripture similarly states, The Eternal…shall roar like a lion (Hos. 11:10). Scripture does this because one who speaks cannot compare God’s work to anything but God's works, for everything is God's work. Rock, in But God is the rock of my heart (Ps. 73:26), similarly means a support, might, and permanence. Others say that tzur (rock) is related to the word tzurah (image). Compare, tzuram (their form) in And their form shall be for the nether-world (Ps. 49:15). Its basic meaning is that God does not consist of matter, which can be molded into a form. On the contrary, God is Primary form. The first interpretation appears correct to me.
ועוד אפשר לומר כי הצדיק עליו את הדין בלשון הצור לפי שחטא בו והמרהו, כענין שכתוב (שמות י״ז:ו׳) הנני עומד לפניך שם על הצור, ואין דרכו של משה להזכיר בכל התורה כולה שמות התוקף והאדנות אלא שם הרחמים לבדו זולת בשני מקומות בתורה שהזכיר בהם יה, (שם טו) עזי וזמרת יה, (שם יז) כי יד על כס יה, אבל הזכיר עתה לשון הצור כי רצה לקלסו במה שחטא, וכענין שדרשו רז"ל אמר משה באז חטאתי (שם ה) ומאז באתי אל פרעה, באז אני מקלסו שנאמר (שם טו) אז ישיר משה.
Another reason why Moses may have chosen to refer to God as צור on that occasion may have been his own sin when he accused the Jewish people of almost stoning him to death, and when God commanded him (Exodus 17,6) “here I will stand before you by the rock in Chorev; you shall strike the צור and water will emerge, etc.” It had not been Moses’ practice, throughout the Torah, to make reference to this name of God which conveys an image of aggressiveness and overlordship; Moses had always preferred to invoke the names of God which reflect on the Divine attribute of Mercy. There were only two exceptions to this; the first time in the שירה, when he described the attribute י-ה as עזי (Exodus 15,2) when he spoke of this manifestation of God against the Egyptians, and the second time when he spoke about the ongoing battle God wages against Amalek where Moses said כי יד על כס י-ה מלחמה לה' בעמלק (Exodus 17,16).
When Moses now mentioned the attribute צור, he did so as he wanted to praise God with the same word as he had once sinned against Him. This would correspond to what the sages said in Shemot Rabbah 5,23 that the reason why Moses commenced the song of thanksgiving after the crossing of the Sea of Reeds with the word אז, was to atone for a previous occasion when he had used the word אז, criticizing God for having worsened the fate of the Jewish people from the time he, Moses, had been appointed as their leader (Exodus 5,23)...
(13) [God] set them atop the highlands,
To feast on the yield of the earth;
Nursing them with honey from the crag,
And oil from the flinty rock,
(14) Curd of kine and milk of flocks;
With the best of lambs,
And rams of Bashan, and he-goats;
With the very finest wheat—
And foaming grape-blood was your drink.
(15) So Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—
You grew fat and gross and coarse —
They forsook the God who made them
And spurned the Rock of their support.
(16) They incensed [God] with alien things,
Vexed [God] with abominations.
(17) They sacrificed to demons, no-gods,
Gods they had never known,
New ones, who came but lately,
Who stirred not your forebears’ fears.
(18) You neglected the Rock who begot you,
Forgot the God who labored to bring you forth.
(28) For they are a folk void of sense,
Lacking in all discernment. (29) Were they wise, they would think upon this,
Gain insight into their future:
(30) “How could one have routed a thousand,
Or two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
יהוה had given them up?”
(31) For their rock is not like our Rock,
In our enemies’ own estimation.
The Multiple Metaphors for God in Shirat Haazinu by Prof. Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss
In Parashat Haazinu, what do God and a large rock formation have in common? In v. 4, “the Rock” appears in conjunction with descriptions of God as “steadfast…true and upright.” These words highlight the solid, seemingly immovable aspect of a rock, which the poet compares to God’s unwavering loyalty and righteousness. Yet, rocks have many other features, and the poet picks up on different associated commonplaces as the metaphor appears later in the poem.
For instance, v. 15 returns to the metaphor of God as rock, recounting how Israel spurned “the Rock of his rescue.” This verse makes reference to the way a large rock can provide protection, a characteristic frequently invoked by the many manifestations of this metaphor in the Psalms, as in the depictions of God as “my rock and my redeemer (צוּרִ֥י וְגֹאֲלִֽי)” (Psalm 19:15) or “my strength…my fortress, my rescuer, my God, my rock in whom I seek refuge” (Psalm 18:2-3).[2] This military meaning of the metaphor of God as rock in v. 15 contrasts with its meaning in v. 4, where the analogy implies divine loyalty and righteousness in a broad, non-military context.
(ט) צוּר יִשְׂרָאֵל קֽוּמָה בְּעֶזְרַת יִשְׂרָאֵל וּפְדֵה כִנְאֻמֶֽךָ יְהוּדָה וְיִשְׂרָאֵל, גֹּאֲלֵֽנוּ יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת שְׁמוֹ קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה גָּאַל יִשְׂרָאֵל:
(9) Rock of Israel, arise to the aid of Israel, and liberate Judah and Israel as You promised. Our Redeemer— ‘God of hosts’ is God's Name, the Holy One of Israel Blessed are You, Eternal, Who redeemed Israel.
(3) The God of Israel has spoken,
The Rock of Israel said concerning me:
“The one who rules people justly,
One who rules in awe of God..."
Selected Text from the Declaration of Independence
1. Eretz-Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books....
2. The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions…
3. PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE “ROCK OF ISRAEL,” WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5 TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY, 1948).
After two millennia the Jewish people re-established sovereignty in the Land of Israel but it was not without unreconciled tensions of Jewish belief within the document itself, particularly the role of the religious tradition and belief for the Jewish state.
The dream of a Jewish state existed for two millennia, first among the Jewish refugees of Roman persecution and later among Jews who carried the hope of return to the Land of Israel throughout the lands of the Jewish diaspora. By the early 20th century, Zionist thinkers such as Theodor Herzl, Ahad Ha’am, Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Rav Abraham Isaac Kook, and many others, developed substantially different worldviews about the purpose and Jewish character of the modern state.
The official translation of the Declaration concludes: “Placing our trust in the Rock of Israel (Tzur Yisrael), we affix our signatures to this proclamation”. In the Book of Samuel, King David, delivering his deathbed oration, calls God Tzur Yisrael: “The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel said concerning me: ‘He who rules men justly, He who rules in awe of God is like the light of morning at sunrise.”
The final draft was overseen by a small committee including David Ben-Gurion (then the executive head of the World Zionist Organisation), Rabbi Judah Leib Maimon (leader of the religious Zionist party, Mizrachi), Aharon Zisling (leader of the socialist Zionist party, Ahdut Ha’avodah) and Moshe Shertok (later Sharett, head of the Jewish Agency’s political department).
Religious Zionists insisted God’s name was a necessary component of the document establishing the state of Israel. Zisling, leading the secularist Zionists, was committed to a separation of religion and state and would not sign a political document which rested on allusions to the supernatural. He maintained that the inclusion of God’s name imposed an expression of belief on non-believers. Although Rabbi Maimon’s position did not prevail, he did include God’s name next to his signature on the Declaration. Forging a compromise, Ben-Gurion used the phrase “the Rock of Israel” to satisfy both parties but left out the theological component, “and its Redeemer”, contained within the Bible.
Following the establishment of Israel, the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Chief Rabbis reintroduced God as Redeemer in the Prayer for the State of Israel. The prayer begins, Tzur Yisrael v’Goelo, “ the Rock of Israel and its Redeemer”, it goes on to ask for blessings for the state and its leaders and affirms the establishment of Israel as the “first flowering of our redemption”.
People with knowledge of the Torah hear the phrase Tzur Yisrael in its biblical and sacred context. For atheists, the phrase Tzur Yisrael connotes a more literal reference to the Jewish people’s connection to the military, the Land of Israel or Jewish cultural and historical traditions.
Excerpt from: Rabbi Daniella Kolodny, "Why Israel's independence led to an argument over the name of God"
Rav Shimi bar Ukva, and some say Mar Ukva, would regularly study before Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi, who was well versed in aggada and would arrange the aggada before Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi.
Once, Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi said to him: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Bless the Eternal, my soul, and all that is within me bless God's Holy name”?
Rav Shimi bar Ukva said to Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi: Come and see that the attribute of the Holy Blessed One is not like the attribute of flesh and blood, as this verse praises the formation of man in his mother’s womb. The attribute of flesh and blood is such that he shapes a form on the wall for all to see, yet he cannot instill it with a spirit and soul, bowels and intestines. While the Holy Blessed One is not so, as God shapes one form within another form, a child in its mother’s womb, and instills it with spirit and soul, bowels and intestines. And this is the explanation of what Hannah said with regard to the birth of Samuel: “There is none holy like the Eternal, for there is none like You, and there is no Rock like our God” (I Samuel 2:2). What is the meaning of there is no rock [tzur] like our God? There is no artist [tzayyar] like our God.