Deuteronómio 32:1 Comentario: Rashi, Chizkuni, Da'at Zekenim & Ramban

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).

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 ואדברה, “hearken o heavens and I will speak;” Moses, when addressing heaven and earth mentioned the word האזינו, addressing the ears of heavens first, whereas Isaiah when doing so in Isaiah 1,2 mentioned the word שמיעה, hearing first. The reason is that Moses’ primary field of activity was with heaven, he was close to it and did not need to worry about the ability of the heavens to hear him, but needed their attention to his words. Isaiah being closer to earth than to heaven had to proceed in the reverse order, first making sure that witnesses’ ears were open, before worrying about gaining their undivided attention. When someone is close to the one who addresses him, all he needs to do to get the message is turn his ears in the source of the sound’s direction. A person who is far from the speaker needs to insure first that he is heard, before worrying that what he says will be heard and understood. According to Rashi, (in his commentary on Isaiah) the reason for the opposite approaches taken between Moses and Isaiah is that both heaven and earth are witnesses, (compare Deut. 30,19) seeing they will be around as long as any Israelites exist, they had to be addressed as such in similar terms, i.e. both as hearing and hearkening, (paying attention to what they hear) otherwise each could claim that they were only witnesses to part of what had been demanded of them. Rav Hunna, quoting Rav Acha, claims that from the wording it is clear that there are more witnesses in heaven than on earth, seeing that Moses addresses heaven in the plural mode, האזינו, whereas he addresses earth in the singular mode, ותשמע. Isaiah followed the same pattern he had read about in the Torah, i.e. plural mode for heaven, and singular mode for earth.