Ha'azinu 5784 Turned around, in the wilderness again

Could it be that we are in the wilderness today? Again, or still, in the wilderness?

This season, this the turning of the year, as we approach Rosh Hashanah and move into 5785, this is surely one of the most momentous times for Jews, for the USA (my native country), for Israel, for the world, in many decades.

For many, it feels as if we are in a sort of wilderness now, an empty howling place, וּבְתֹ֖הוּ יְלֵ֣ל יְשִׁמֹ֑ן (Verse 32:10), where rather than feeling safe or guarded, it feels as if God's countenance is hidden from us (Verse 32:20):

ד֤וֹר תַּהְפֻּכֹת֙

בָּנִ֖ים לֹא־אֵמֻ֥ן בָּֽם

a treacherous breed, children with no loyalty in them

I suggest an alternative translation/ interpretation:

"I will hide my countenance from them because they are a generation that is turned around / perverse / turned away .... because they are children who have no אֵמֻ֥ן in them, people without the capacity to have confidence or trust."

God's countenance is hidden because... we are... turned around? Because there is no אֵמֻ֥ן (eymun) in us?

Let's explore these two problematic qualities. First, תַּהְפֻּכֹת֙, which JPS translates as "treacherous" ["a treacherous generation"], but which I translate in a manner that more evocatively suggests that the generation is turned around [a meaning of "perverse"].

This word itself - תַּהְפֻּכֹת֙ - is rare in Tanakh; there are only ten occurrences, of which this is the only one in the Torah; the other nine occurrences are in Proverbs (nearly all of which refer to the speech of the righteous compared to "perverse utterances" - תַּהְפֻּכֹת֙).

The shoresh - the verbal root - for תַּהְפֻּכֽוֹת is √הָפַךְ

Strong's definition:

הָפַךְ hâphak, haw-fak'; a primitive root; to turn about or over; by implication, to change, overturn, return, pervert:—× become, change, come, be converted, give, make (a bed), overthrow (-turn), perverse, retire, tumble, turn (again, aside, back, to the contrary, every way).

The "semantic cloud" of this verbal root √הָפַךְ:

1. to turn, overthrow, overturn

   1. (Qal)

      1. to overturn, overthrow

      2. to turn, turn about, turn over, turn around

      3. to change, transform

   2. (Niphal)

      1. to turn oneself, turn, turn back

      2. to change oneself

      3. to be perverse

      4. to be turned, be turned over, be changed, be turned against

      5. to be reversed

      6. to be overturned, be overthrown

      7. to be upturned

   3. (Hithpael)

      1. to transform oneself

      2. to turn this way and that, turn every way

   4. (Hophal) to turn on someone

So we can consider that part of the reason that God's countenance is hidden from us is that we are somehow turned around, perverse, turned away.

If we are turned away or turned around, then - particularly at this season - we think of engaging in the process of teshuva, of returning.

Now let's consider the other problematic quality mentioned in Verse 32:20 to explain why God's countenance will be hidden: it is that "they" / we are

בָּנִ֖ים לֹא־אֵמֻ֥ן בָּֽם

children with no loyalty in them (JPS translation)

or as I suggest:

"they are children who have no אֵמֻ֥ן in them, people without the capacity to have confidence or trust."

Here let us turn briefly into an exploration of אֵמֻ֥ן. We may be more familiar with the form of this word, emunah, which appears earlier in this parsha, in Verse 32:4:

Emunah - אֱמוּנָה֙ : firmness, faithfulness, fidelity.

The shoresh - verbal root - of both אֱמוּנָה֙ and is √אָמַן; its "semantic cloud":

1. to support, confirm, be faithful

   1. (Qal)

      1. to support, confirm, be faithful, uphold, nourish

         1. foster-father (subst.)

         2. foster-mother, nurse

         3. pillars, supporters of the door

   2. (Niphal)

      1. to be established, be faithful, be carried, make firm

         1. to be carried by a nurse

         2. made firm, sure, lasting

         3. confirmed, established, sure

         4. verified, confirmed

         5. reliable, faithful, trusty

   3. (Hiphil)

      1. to stand firm, to trust, to be certain, to believe in

         1. stand firm

         2. trust, believe

Emunah is a quality of God's, and of humans as well; this phenomenon pervades the Tanakh. When we read in Verse 32:20 that the "turned around generation" has none of this quality in them, we understand that its absence has dire consequences: God's countenance is hidden from us. (I will return to the presence / absence of enumah, of "amen", below.)

In her Studies in Devarim, Nehama Leibowtiz points out a connection between Verse 32:10 and Hosea 9:10:

"Our Sages' association of our verse with this statement of Hosea introduces a new idea. In Hosea the choice of Israel is not described merely as the work of God in the sense of being initiated from above only. The simile of the grapes in the wilderness suggests also a movement from below in which the Israelites are compared to fresh grapes that restore the soul of the wanderer who finds them in a place where he did not expect to find them, in the desert, and rejoices at his find. In other words, God had found them 'as the wanderer finds some precious thing in a place where he did not expect to find it at all' (Buber)."

Leibowtiz, Studies in Devarim (page 341)

There are hopefully a number of paths out of this wilderness, actions to take so that God's countenance will not be hidden with us.

Verse 32:20 suggests that we need to change our state of being turned around and not having the capacity for emunah.

It's difficult - if not impossible - to follow instructions, or a map, or your own inner compass, when you are turned around, inverted, in a perverted state.

The connection with Hosea 9:10 reminds us that we can dig down, deeply, into ourselves, into our texts and traditions, to find refreshing and sustaining sources of respite, even in the wilderness.

It's difficult - if not impossible - to see clearly, to see that we are interconnected, when we can't say "Amen", when we cannot connect with emunah.

The broad popularity of Rabbi Sharon Brous' recent book The Amen Effect, Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World indicates how hungry people are for finding ways to be more connected, to be able to say "Amen":

"Sharon Brous—a leading American rabbi—makes the case that the spiritual work of our time, as instinctual as it is counter-cultural, is to find our way to one other in celebration, in sorrow, and in solidarity. To show up for each other in moments of joy and pain, vulnerability and possibility, to invest in relationships of shared purpose and build communities of care.

Brous contends that it is through honoring our most basic human instinct– the yearning for real connection– that we reawaken our shared humanity and begin to heal. This kind of sacred presence is captured by the word amen, a powerful ancient idea that we affirm the fullness of one another’s experience by demonstrating, in body and word: “I see you. You are not alone.”

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720048/the-amen-effect-by-sharon-brous/

I offer one final aspect to our turning ourselves around so that we can move out of our current wilderness. The following may be painful or difficult for some readers. I suggest that we need to consider that for 21st Century Judaism to emerge from its current wilderness, we must have the courage to engage with potentially harmful forces within ourselves (as well as outside of ourselves). I suggest that it could be healing to remind ourselves that when we dispossess others, we also may be dispossessing or impoverishing parts of ourselves.

We read repeatedly - particularly notably in the Book of Deuteronomy - that when we enter the land, we must dispossess those who are there. Dispossession - √יָרַשׁ ; this verbal root occurs 232 times in the Tanakh, proportionally most notably in the Book of Deuteronomy (71 times - ie nearly 31% of its occurrences). This verbal root not only means to dispossess others of something, it can also mean (even in binyan pa'al) to become poor, to be poor.

I've explored the relationship between dispossession of others and what we lose in the process elsewhere - for example, please see my recent recent Sefaria sheet about Parshat Devarim,

Devarim 5784 Virtual Inheritance / Nonfungibility

https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/580838?lang=en

A difficult question: could part of our current wilderness experience, our current turned-around-ness, our experience that God's countenance is hidden from us, result from the impoverishment we have caused to ourselves, in some ways, by dispossessing others?

As painful as it may be, I suggest that to emerge from our current wilderness state, a searching exploration of our Torah's elevation of dispossessing others could be healing.

As we approach Rosh Hashanah this week, as we hear the shofar rousing us and calling us to awaken, to engage with our deepest values, let us each connect to values of justice and the valuing of life, so that we may enter the year 5785 with renewed commitment and kavanah to pursue justice and live out our deepest Torah values, today, 5785, 2024. Let us search for the face of God in each person we encounter. Let us no longer be upside down. Let us find our way together out of our current wilderness.

As an addendum, I share the following Midrash (which includes our Verse 32:10) , which some readers may find of interest:

Right at the start of Isaiah, we see that one aspect of the tragic fate of the people is that they have turned their backs on God - in other words, they /we are not headed in the right direction.