Parshat Haazinu: Boundaries and Repentance

In this week’s Torah portion, Haazinu, we read the song that Moses taught to the Israelites right before his death. This song provides a poetic history of the world and the Israelite nation until the time of Moses. The song then goes on to say that the Israelites in the future will rebel against God after the death of Moses. Towards the beginning of the song, Moses introduces an idea that suggests the number of the Israelites corresponds to the number of the nations. Moses states, “When the Most High divided the nations, when He separated mankind, He appointed the boundaries of the peoples, by the number of the Israelites” (Deuteronomy 32:8). According to this verse, the boundaries of the various nations and the separation of mankind correspond to the number of the Israelites. This raises three questions. Why would the number of the Israelites have anything to do with the boundaries of the other nations of the world? What is the number of the nations? What is the number of the Israelites? 

Rashi seeks to clarify this verse. Rashi writes, “in accordance with the number of the 70 souls of the children of Israel who went down to Egypt.” At the end of Genesis we read that our father Jacob and his children descended down to Egypt. By together adding Jacob, the descendants of Jacob who are listed in the Torah and who joined him in his descent down to Egypt, and those Israelites who were already in Egypt, namely Joseph, Ephraim, and Menasheh, we get a total of 70 Israelites at that time. We also know there are 70 nations in the world. We learn that there are 70 nations from the fact that the Torah in Genesis chapter 10, right before the story of the Tower of Babel, lists 70 descendants of Noah. These 70 individuals are understood by the rabbis to be the ancestors of the 70 nations in the world. There are 70 nations in the world, and 70 Israelites descended down to Egypt in the time of Jacob. We can now begin to understand our verse in Deuteronomy. The verse means that when God decided to divide mankind in the time of the Tower of Babel, He divided them into 70 nations in order to correspond with the 70 Israelites who would later descend down to Egypt. All the boundaries of the 70 nations which divide mankind are therefore derived from the number of the Israelite nation.

What is the larger meaning we can learn from this verse? To find out, we need to look at what happened after the Israelites descended down to Egypt. When the Israelites descended down to Egypt, they in many ways abandoned their boundaries as a nation. Throughout this time they entered into the boundaries of the Egyptian nation which is one of the 70 nations mentioned in Genesis chapter 10. When God wished to raise the Israelites out of Egypt, He had them perform one very particular commandment. This commandment was the Passover Sacrifice in which they marked their doors in order to create a boundary between themselves and the nation of Egypt. This deed marked a physical boundary between the houses of the Israelite nation and those of the Egyptian nation. The angel of death passed over the houses of the Israelites, leaving their firstborns alive. Through fulfilling the commandment of the Passover Sacrifice, the Israelites were able to establish a boundary between themselves and the Egyptians. This ensured their future as a nation through the survival of their firstborn. Through following the commandments which God commanded them, the Israelites were able to establish a boundary which marked them for life. This allowed them to later establish their physical boundaries in the Promised Land. Moses speaks on this theme later in the parshah where he says, referring to the Torah, “For it is not a vain thing for you. Because it is your life: and through this thing you shall lengthen your days in the land, into which you go over the Jordan, to possess it” (Deuteronomy 32:47). Adherence to the Torah is the way for the Israelites to be long established in the Land of Israel into which they were about to cross and to ensure a long life for themselves as a nation with their own boundaries.

This week’s Shabbat is called Shabbat Shuva, or in English, the Shabbat of Returning. On this Shabbat we return to God and to His commandments and to His holy Torah which is our very life. If we want to live long and maintain our national boundaries both physically and spiritually, we must return and return again to our God, His commandments, and His Torah. Let us all return to our God within our boundaries and to His holy Torah which preserves our boundaries as a nation and also the boundaries of the whole world. Let us pray for the coming of the time when all of the 70 nations of the world, numbered after the Israelites, will return to God within the boundaries that He has set, and universal peace and justice will reign between all nations and all of mankind. May it be soon and in our days.