Haazinu – God is one
In the arc of the story, Moshe is giving his parting words to Bnei Israel. Haazinu is one of the last poems in the Torah. It is as if Moshe realizes he has to appeal to our emotions, too, not just our brains.
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In Parshat Ha’azinu, Moses opens with words that shake heaven and earth: “Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; hear, O earth, the words I utter!” (Deuteronomy 32:1)
Why does Moses call upon heaven and earth as witnesses? The simple reading suggests they’re eternal, enduring longer than any human generation. But the Lubavitcher Rebbe has a teaching that points to something far more personal, far more urgent.
Heaven and earth, the Rebbe teaches, are not parts of the reality summoned up because they will outlast us. They represent mitzvot in themselves – the commandments that structure our lives and relationships.
“Heaven”, in his reading, is a symbol for the mitzvot bein adam laMakom, between person and God: prayer, Shabbat, kashrut, tefillin, studying Torah – all those intimate moments when mitzvot are there to reinforce our relationship to the Transcendent, when we are reaching upward, doing certain things because they connect us to God.
“Earth” in this reading, represents the mitzvot bein adam lachavero, between person and person: tzedakah, honest business dealings, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, loving your neighbor. This is when mitzvot are there to connect us laterally, to other people.
These are our witnesses. Not abstract principles, but the actual choices we make, the actual relationships we build, the actual holiness we create in this world.
There’s a beautiful story which I wanted to remind you of today, because I am sure you have heard it before:
In a certain kingdom, it was known: every time a person was summoned to the castle, to see the king, she or he would never come out of the castle ever again. No one really knew what happened to them. Not a single citizen ever came back to tell the tale.
A man received a summons from the king. He must appear before the throne. Naturally anxious, he turns to his three closest friends for support.
The first friend, one who the man considers his BFF – best friend for life! – the one he’s spent the most time with, invested in the most, perhaps even obsessed over – hears the request and refuses. “I’ll accompany you to the door of your house,” this friend says. “But no further.” Oh, the man is so disappointed. This is not the BFF he thought!!
The second friend, whom he also loves dearly, agrees to do a little more: “I’ll walk with you through the streets, even to the gate of the castle,” this friend promises. “But I cannot enter the king’s palace with you.” The man, again, feels disappointment and fear. He turns to the third friend, already expecting disappointment.
The third friend was the one that the man didn’t really pay attention to. He neglected that friendship most in life, the one he didn’t always prioritize. So the man is obviously thinking: the two others didn’t come, of course this one will not. How surrised he is when the thirds friend says: “I will go with you all the way. I will stand with you before the king. I will even speak on your behalf.”
The first friend represents our material wealth, our possessions, all the things we accumulate. They come to the threshold of death and stop there. They cannot follow us. The second friend represents our family, our loved ones. They accompany us through life, they mourn us, they bury us—but they cannot stand beside us in the World to Come. The third and last friend is our mitzvot. Our good deeds. The Torah we studied. The kindness we showed. The prayers we whispered. The justice we pursued. The love we gave freely.
Heaven and earth—our mitzvot bein adam laMakom and bein adam lachavero—these are the witnesses Moses calls. They don’t just observe our lives; they defend us. They speak for us when we stand before the ultimate King.
When you embrace this teaching, you can hear that Moses isn’t threatening us. He’s empowering us. Every time you choose caring over indifference, you’re creating a witness who will testify on your behalf. Every time you make a moment holy with blessing, every brick you put in your own castle in time, you’re building a relationship that transcends death itself. Every act of integrity, every word of Torah, every gesture of genuine care—these become eternal companions.
The question isn’t whether we’ll be called before the King. We will. The question is: Who will walk with us? Who will we have befriended along the way?
Moses calls heaven and earth to remind us: You’re not building a life for yourself. You’re cultivating relationships that endure forever. The mitzvot you might think are burdens? They’re actually the truest friends you’ll ever have.
So invest in that third friend. Strengthen those relationships with heaven and earth. Because when push comes to shove – and for all of us, there is a day when we must go into the castle, you want witnesses who won’t just watch from a distance, but who will walk with you all the way home. So maybe tonight – choose a mitzvah you haven’t paid attention to. Choose a mitzvah between you and God, and one between you and people, and invest in that relationship.
May this be a week in which our true friendships are strenghtened. Shabbat Shalom.