This Shabbat we read Parashat Ha’azinu: Listen. It is Moses’ final song to his people, calling them to remember who they are and whom they serve. It is also Shabbat Shuvah, the Shabbat of Return. As Shabbat ends, we stand at the threshold of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
At our Rosh Hashanah dinner, Rabbi Abrams shared a Hasidic teaching that each year, after reviewing what has passed, God enters into a new contract with us and renews His covenant, individually and collectively, for another year. (Apparently, He has a good Jewish contract lawyer.) We likewise have a choice: to walk His path, or to wander down the roads to nowhere.
We do not return only because we have erred or wandered. We do not return out of fear or intimidation. We return because we choose Him again.
As I wrote in 1998:
“Face thy King of loving kindness
claim Him as thy own!”
— Yakira Shimoni Fulks, “Day of Judgment”
שובה ישראל עד ה׳ אלהיך
Return, Israel, to the Lord your God.
Hosea 14:2
Listen. Return. Choose wisely.
גמר חתימה טובה
