Comentario sobre Deuteronómio 32:1

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).

GIVE EAR, YE HEAVENS. By way of the plain meaning of Scripture, the words of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra are correct that the Scriptures designate as witnesses all things which exist and endure. Similarly, Hear O ye mountains, the Eternal’s controversy.¹Micah 6:2. Because the mountains endure, the prophet designates them as witnesses in his statement of the Eternal’s controversy with Israel. So also with reference to the stone that Joshua set up [after he made the covenant with the people], for there it is written, for it hath heard [all the words of the Eternal which He spoke unto us].²Joshua 24:27. See Vol. I, p. 390. And by way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], the reference here is to the first [higher] heavens and earth mentioned in Genesis, for it is they that shall enter the covenant with Israel. Therefore, he states that the heavens should give ear and listen to the conditions, and how he will apply them.

האזינו השמים ואדברה, "Give ear, O, heavens, and I will speak, etc." First of all we must understand why Moses added the word: "and I will speak." Why did he not simply say האזינו השמים דברי, "give ear to my words, O heavens?" Secondly, why did Moses not lump heavens and earth together and write: האזינו השמים והארץ, or שמעו השמים והארץ? Thirdly, why did Moses use the word להאזין when he referred to the listening done by the heavens whereas he used the expression שמיעה when describing the kind of listening he wanted the earth to do? Fourthly, why did Moses use an imperative when ordering the heavens to listen, i.e. האזינו, whereas when speaking to the earth he simply said תשמע instead of שמעי? Fifthly, why did he say that what he had to say to the heavens was tough talk, ואדברה, whereas when speaking to the earth he used the term אמירה indicating soft talk? Sixthly, why did he speak about אמרי פי, "the words of my mouth," instead of simply "my words?"