Ha'azinu
In the Torah reading of Ha’azinu, we learn about the song Moshe gives to the people of Israel, and we learn how the opening to this song is reminiscent of Messiah.
Ha’azinu contains a 70-line “song” from Moshe to Israel on his last day on earth. Moshe calls heaven and earth as witnesses, and exhorts the people to “Remember the days of old; reflect upon the years of [other] generations. Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders, and they will inform you...” how Hashem “found them in a desert land,” made them a people, chose them as His own, and promised them a bountiful land. The song also warns against the pitfalls of riches and prosperity - “Yeshurun became fat and rebelled; you grew fat, thick and rotund; [Israel] forsook the God Who made them, and spurned the Rock of their salvation.”—and the terrible calamities that would result, which Moshe describes as Hashem “hiding His face.” Yet in the end, he promises, Hashem will avenge the blood of His servants, and be reconciled with His people and land.
The Parshah concludes with G‑d’s instruction to Moshe to ascend the summit of Mount Nebo, from which he will behold the Promised Land before dying on the mountain. “For you shall see the land opposite you; but you shall not go there, into the land which I give to the children of Israel.”
Deuteronomy 32:1 says, “Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.” Rav Yehuda in the Talmud, Ta’anit 7a, says,
“The day when rain falls is as great as the day when the Torah was given, as it is said, ‘Let my teaching drop as the rain.’ When Moshe said said ‘teaching,’ he meant Torah, as it is said of the Torah [in Proverbs 4:2] ‘For I give you sound teaching; do not abandon my Torah.’”
The Torah, like water, descends from the height of the heavens down to earth. The Talmud continues,
Rabbi Chanina ben Ida said, “Why are the words of the Torah likened unto water, ‘Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters?’ This is to teach you that just as water flows from a higher place to a lower place, so too the words of the Torah descend from a high place to a low place.”
Mashiach is also like the Torah in this sense. The Talmud states, that “the soul of Mashiach preceded the world.” And Mashiach came down from heaven, and ascended back again just like the rain’s cycle. Yeshua said:
“No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. (John 3:13-15)”
In this Torah portion, the idea of ascension and descension keeps on recurring, which points us towards the Messiah.
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