Transcript [00:00] On Thursday, [00:01] my family and I, we celebrated my [00:03] youngest son's Bar Mitzvah. [00:05] And as he was reading his Torah portion, [00:07] the words he was saying suddenly grabbed [00:09] me with amazing relevance. [00:12] I always try to share events from the [00:13] Hebrew scriptures and how they apply to [00:15] us and our how they're all relevant to [00:17] our lives. [00:18] And I wasn't going to do it this week, [00:20] but then this week's Torah portion is [00:23] Parshat Ha'azinu and it brings us to a [00:26] deeply emotional, pivotal threshold in [00:29] the entire biblical story. [00:32] Ha'azinu is written primarily as a [00:34] powerful poetic song serving as Moses' [00:37] final message to the Jewish people on [00:40] the very last day of his life. [00:43] Knowing his end is near, he doesn't [00:44] leave them with a mere pleasantries. [00:47] Instead, he gives them an urgent charge, [00:49] an urgent order. [00:51] Look back to move forward. [00:54] Moses instructs the people to ask their [00:56] fathers, to turn to the elders, to study [00:59] history, to remember the generations [01:02] before them. [01:03] Moses is issuing a relentless call for [01:05] human responsibility. [01:08] He tells the people flat out, "When [01:10] things go wrong in your future, don't [01:13] play the victim. [01:14] Don't blame your circumstances and don't [01:16] blame others. [01:18] The responsibility is for us to build, [01:21] to harvest, to heal [01:24] and to act [01:25] and that rests squarely on our [01:27] shoulders. [01:29] That generation as it is for us. [01:31] The other theme of that passage is that [01:35] the way I put it, all good things must [01:37] come to an end. [01:38] The era of Moses, a remarkable 40-year [01:41] leadership that took a shattered group [01:43] of slaves out of Egypt, forged them [01:46] through the desert and shaped them into [01:49] a nation [01:50] and it officially now closes upon the [01:52] death of Moshe. [01:54] For four decades, Moses was the [01:57] protector, the teacher, the guide of the [01:59] Jewish people. [02:01] But as his era comes to an end, the [02:03] story does not end there. It doesn't end [02:06] with any of us. [02:07] Life goes on to the next chapter. [02:10] Entering the promised land without Moses [02:13] meant that the people had to finally [02:14] grow up, come into their own. [02:17] God and Moses were their guides. But as [02:20] parents know, you cannot live your [02:22] children's lives for them. [02:24] That's why we have the Bar Mitzvah. [02:25] That's the point where we say, and I [02:27] said as a father, thank you [02:30] that we're now rid of this [02:33] um strain on our lives. [02:35] It was hard for me to say that cuz we [02:36] all hold our children very dearly. [02:39] But it's an important phase in their [02:40] lives because now they become [02:42] self-reliant. Well, at least they're [02:44] supposed to. We know how different that [02:46] is in reality. [02:48] But from the biblical story telling us [02:50] that leaders pass, eras change, and [02:53] giants leave the stage, but the mission [02:55] remains. [02:57] That is the core takeaway for us today. [02:59] Freedom isn't just doing whatever we [03:01] want. True freedom requires us to step [03:03] up, take ownership, and carry the torch [03:06] forward. We are not defined by the [03:08] events that happened to us, but by how [03:11] we choose to respond to these events. [03:14] Those of us continuing the journey have [03:16] an individual responsibility to stop [03:18] waiting for someone else to fix the [03:20] world, but to step into the arena and [03:23] understand our own role in this ongoing [03:25] story. [03:27] We must each ask ourselves, what is our [03:30] mission in this next chapter? And how [03:32] will you take responsibility for it? [03:36] That is the core of the Judeo-Christian [03:38] foundation of Western society. It is at [03:40] the core of the battle that we are [03:41] facing today. [03:43] Their attempt to rid us of our past, of [03:46] our understanding, of our community [03:48] bonds, of our religious bonds. Those [03:51] people fighting against the exact thing [03:54] that Moses back 3,000 years ago told the [03:57] Jewish people, "Remember who you are." [04:00] As we end this week and we reach the [04:03] point of Yom Kippur, the day of [04:06] atonement, as we soul search, we should [04:08] all look at this battle that we're [04:10] facing. Remember who we are and step up [04:13] forward for the Jewish people, take [04:15] responsibility for our lives, never play [04:18] the victim, and always stand for who we [04:21] are. [04:22] I'm Daniel Seaman. Thank you for joining [04:24] me here at the JNS TV studios in [04:26] Jerusalem. Shabbat Shalom and Hatima [04:28] Tova.
A 3,000-year-old warning from Moses may hold the answer to one of the biggest battles facing the Jewish people today. After celebrating his youngest son’s bar mitzvah, Daniel Seaman reflects on Parashat HaAzinu and Moses’ final message to the Jewish people: remember your history, reject victimhood and take responsibility for what comes next. As Yom Kippur approaches, Daniel explains why the end of Moses’ leadership offers a powerful lesson for this generation, and why preserving Jewish identity, faith and historical memory has become more important than ever.
