Ha’Azinu (Deuteronomy 32)
LA JOLLA, California –This week’s reading is mostly a poem (vv. 1-43) recited by Moses, followed (vv. 44-52) by his entreaty to the Israelites to follow the Teachings, and finally God’s order to Moses to view the promised land from afar, and lastly his death.
As is the nature of poems, it is filled with literary images and devices. I have chosen three images for comparison, from the Internet, with ancient Israel’s neighbors. Rock symbolism, veneration of elders, and military victories are the subjects.
I. Deuteronomy 32: 3-4 “…Give glory to our God! The Rock!–His deeds are perfect…”
With regard to ‘Rock’ references, I found only indirect connections to pagan gods among the Greeks. They are regarded as aniconisms, i.e. the veneration of gods via stones and steles, pillars, and poles. Adoration of such representations was practiced alongside with the cult of anthropomorphic gods. Earliest versions were uncut stones, and later carved ones, to facilitate better a connection with the divine.
Stone representations, even with a god’s name inscribed, realistically were only dedications to the gods, “markers of divine presence.” They don’t satisfy the above Hebrew image of God as Rock. [1].
I should add that there are terms in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and the Theogony, by Hesiod (8-7th C. BCE), which refer to “tree and/or rock” and “oak and/or rock.” The intended meaning of these phrases is yet to be solved. [2]
II. Deuteronomy 32: 7-8 “Remember the days of old…Ask your father; he will inform you, Your Elders, they will tell you.”
Among Egyptians (from~3000 BCE), beliefs about the elderly focused on care for them and their tombs. Beliefs centered on cleansing the body with ritual sweating, vomiting, and bowel cleansing. The customary greeting to an elder: “How do you sweat?”
A papyrus from 2800-2700 BCE contains the earliest known attention to aging. Included: recipes for a special ointment, a “remover of wrinkles from the head, blemishes, disfigurements, of all signs of age, of all weaknesses which are in the flesh.”
Another Egyptian document (c.1550 BCE) contains the earliest known attempt to list signs of aging. It describes urinary difficulties, cardiac pain, palpitations, deafness, eye diseases and malignancy. To the Egyptians, “debility through senile decay” was caused by “purulence of the heart.”
Ancient India writings on the subject (c. 400 CE) dealt with surgery, rejuvenation, prolongation of life, and the goal of preparing the spirit for death. Four types of disease were recognized: trauma, bodily internal imbalance, mental, and natural aging with physical deprivation.
In China, older people were generally respected and treated with reverence. From c. 2900 BCE, health was based on balance of nature’s duality as represented by the yin and yang. Prevention of illness involved “balance of earth, air, fire, water, and metal by means of specific exercises, diets, and living in accord with the seasons.” [3]
The Greeks abhorred aging, as it represented a decline from highly prized youthful vigor. However older warriors, elder philosophers and statesmen were well treated.
Ironically the Spartans, who valued the physical ideal most, were those who most valued the wisdom of elderly citizens. In the 7th Century BCE, they set up a counsel of 28 men and two kings, all over 60, to control the city-state and manage community affairs.
Hippocrates (460-377 BCE) developed a theory of aging positing that each individual has a finite quantity of innate heat/vital force. Each person uses this force at his unique rate, and the heat can be replenished, but not fully to the previous level. Thus, reserve diminishes until death, the normal course of life. Aristotle (384-322 BCE) later built on this theory.
Cicero (106-43 BCE) of Rome acknowledged that old age can mean exclusion from circles of the young: “What I find most lamentable about old age is that one feels that now one is repulsive to the young.” He saw older people as a source of great wisdom: “States have always been ruined by young men and saved by the old.” Seems to apply today!
Galen, a Roman physician, (c. 200 CE), maintained that the body is the instrument of the soul. The soul is maintained by heat, which in turn is derived from the four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Through life we gradually dehydrate and the humors evaporate. In youth through midlife, this dehydration causes our vessels to increase in width and thus all parts become strong. However as time progresses, the organs become dry with loss of function and vitality. When at last the dryness is complete, the body’s heat is extinguished. [4]
In these references from multiple geographical regions, I found little focus on elders’ wisdom or memory.
III. Deuteronomy 32: 30 “How could one have routed a thousand, Or put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them…”
This passage refers to an easy rout of the wayward Israelites, an example of braggadocio in reverse.
Perhaps the most famous historical example of bluster is Caesar’s: “Veni, Vidi, Vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered.) He loved to win, and was not shy to proclaim it. He was ambitious to conquer and eventually to seek emperor status. He became both dictator and consul of Rome, intending to convert a six-month term to lifelong. Though he was an effective administrator, his ambition generated pushback by Senators, and after five years of dictatorship, a cadre of senators stabbed him 27 times, to death, on the floor of the chamber. [5]
Another boastful example is The Victory Stele of Merneptah (Egyptian Pharaoh: 1213-1203 BCE).This is an account of his victories (1208 BCE) over the Libyans and their Sea Peoples allies to the West, plus multiple Canaanite cities/groups to the East, including an early “Israel” contingent. [6]
Rome also made a habit of such braggadocio. They created of themselves an image of a hydra, a many-headed serpent in Greek mythology, which even after a defeat would regenerate and achieve victory. The idea was that Roman armies, even under the worst of conditions and losses, responded with vigor, might, and increased numbers. Caesar’s victory over Gaul is such an example. [7]
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NOTES
[1] https://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/fernande-holscher-on-aniconism-in-greek-antiquity-by-millette-gaifman
[2] Speech from Tree and Rock: Recovery of a Bronze age Metaphor” A.S.W. Forte, Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University
[3] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-art-and-science-aging-well/201703/growing-old-in-ancient-cultures
[4] https://www.psychologytoday.com.us/blog/the-art-and-science-aging-well/201704/growing-old-in-ancient-greece-and-rome
[5] https://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/veni-vidi-vici.htm
[6] Merneptah Stele, from Wikipedia, the Triumphal Song of Merneptah
[7] Military Defeats, Casualties of War and the Success of Rome, a dissertation by Brian David Turner, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2010
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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.