“For God’s portion is His people; Jacob the demesne of His inheritance.”[1] (Deut. 32:9)
According to the Izbicy Rebbe, this verse shapes the text of Sidra Haazinu, and Sidra Haazinu shapes the text of the entire Torah.[2]In other words, if you were to boil the entire Five Books of Moses down to its essential matter, you would be left with Haazinu, and if you were to distil Haazinu down to its most basic component you would be left with this verse. Haazinu is a song, and that simple fact changes everything, because there is a fundamental distinction between a book of narrative or laws, and a book of song.
First of all, a page of writing conveys meaning only when the reader comprehends the language of all the words. Second, the meaning is wholly contained within the words and never in the space between the words or around the margins of the page. Songs are not like that. The silences between notes have equal weight and meaning. Spaces between notes create rhythms and waves of sound that are crucial to the music. Silences in the music are not merely there to provide the mind with spaces between sounds; silences are also music. This fundamental approach to the Torah as song is reflected in the Halacha – Ritual Law governing the definition of a kosher Torah scroll. If in the entire scroll there exists even one single letter which is not completely surrounded by clean white parchment, then that Torah is not kosher and may not be used. If the writing in the Torah scroll touches the edge of the parchment, or if one letter touches another letter, it is not a kosher Torah. Because the silences in the song have equal weight with its notes, they are just as musical.
This means that the Torah is a song[3]and not a book of writing, and it is not merely the knowledge of Torah which has meaning, ignorance of Torah has meaning too. Within this Torah song is a Song of Songs, the verse: “For God’s portion is His people; Jacob the demesne of His inheritance.”
Previously we examined this verse through a different lens (Radical Eikev). There we discussed the concept of Jews as God’s portion under the assumption that Jews are a part of God, literally a component, as it were, of the Godness of God. Here we will examine the background to that idea, and where it originated.
The Midrash[4]quotes R. Shimon:
While men toiled to construct the edifice later known as the Tower of Babel, the Holy, Blessed One called to all seventy angels [avatars of the seventy nations] who surround His Throne of Sovereignty. “Come,” said God. “Let us all descend and turn the seventy languages of these seventy nations to babble.”
They cast lots among them, as it written, “When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam...” (Deut. 32:8) It so happened that Abraham and his seed fell to God in that lottery, as it is written, “For God’s portion is His people; Jacob the demesne of His inheritance.” (Ibid. 9) When God saw the portion that had fallen to Him in the lottery, He said, “My soul is very content with the lot of inheritance I have just drawn, as it is written, ‘The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.’” (Ps. 16:6)
It has always seemed to me that this Midrash conceals a profound mystery. I see two ways this lottery might have been organized.
1.) The names of Israel and 70 nations were inscribed onto some material, let us call it Ǽther. All the 71 slabs of Ǽther were then thrown into a bag or box from which each angel picked out one name. Whatever name he or she picked became the nation over which he or she has dominion in this world. God was left holding the slab inscribed with the name Israel, and so we officially became His people. If this is what the lottery looked like, it was a set-up because God did not leave us to Chance. Israel is the idea that arose in the thought before Creation; we were not some unconsidered trifle that God accidentally acquired in a cosmic raffle during Abraham’s lifetime. If it looks as though God actually gambled that Israel might fall to the lot of some gentile angel, then it’s an illusion. There was never any chance that we would not fall into His hands.
2.) It was not a pull-a-number-out-of-the-hat kind of raffle. It was a sudden-death, heads or tails, throw-you-for-it kind of gamble. God played dice against the 70 angels, one at a time. Highest number wins. Rahab came and threw dice against God. Oops! God lost the throw, Rahab got to choose. He said, “I’ll take the Egyptians – I reckon they’re going to be around a long time.” Shiva came and threw against God. Oops! God lost the throw, Shiva got to choose. “I’ll take the Hindu – I think my cult of Death Worship is a very catchy and pervasive culture.” Albion came and threw dice against God. Oops! God lost the throw, Albion got to choose. He said, “I’ll take the English – those playing-fields of Eton, don’t you know.” And so on, and so on. And when it was all over, God was left holding the bag in which there remained only one insignificant and undesirable people: Israel. God was stuck with us, because everyone else thought we were born hopeless losers; even the angel of the Eskimos thought she’d got a better deal than God. But for God to have lost a throw of the dice 70 times in a row there must have been cheating of a high order going on, it’s a statistical improbability of such staggering proportions one would be foolish not to suspect some serious skullduggery…
The purpose of a lottery is to provide the appearance of impartiality. Nobody gets to choose the winner; it is decided by chance alone. The 70 angels walked away from the allocation in good spirits, by all accounts, no one complained, everyone was satisfied. The results of the first sort of lottery mentioned above are completely random, while the second has randomness in the win or lose, but choice built into the winner’s selection. Either way, God is depicted as the brand-new owner of a potential nation consisting of Abraham and the promise of his descendants.
It’s a pretty story, but there has to be a purpose to it, beyond the simple Midrashic play on words.
Izbicy tells us that the verse “For God’s portion is His people; Jacob the demesne of His inheritance” is the kernel of truth at the heart of the Torah. It is the shape of the world, because the Torah is the blueprint God uses to design the world with. And therefore, it is also the shape of God Himself, because God and the Torah are one. The fact that Israel is God’s inheritance shapes both the Torah and God – just as the Torah and God shape Israel, for Israel is also one with God and the Torah.[5]
Now let us look at God’s gamble with the 70 nations. What are the 70 angels who surround the Throne of Sovereignty? Note: The Midrash usually talks about the Throne of Glory, but not in this instance. Here we’re strictly talking about sovereignty. Who is going to sit on that throne; who will reign?
Well, obviously, God. God is King, who else?
This is the secret at which the Midrash hints. What would have happened if God had picked Egypt out of the hat? It would have resulted in God being ALLAH of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, that’s what. The gamble God takes around the time of the birth of Abraham is this: God challenges the 70 avatars – who will get to sit on this throne at the end of time? Who is going to define what sort of god I, GOD, am?
Well, let every nation decide for itself, and let the best nation win! God gambles His throne and His sovereignty – who is going to rule as God of the universe?
God puts His reputation, His posterity and face on the line, because the nation/avatar that wins history also wins the Godness of God. “I will be who I will be,” says God to Moses when Moses asks for God’s name. (Ex. 3:14)
“My name,” God hints to Moses, “has not been decided. It all depends on whether the Jews will succeed in their mission to crown Me as King of the World.”
If they fail, and some other faith prevails, then God is forced - by the rules of the wager He made with the 70 avatars – to wear the face and personality of whatever abomination has crushed the Light and obliterated the Jews. For as long as Jews exist, God of Israel has a chance at winning.
ALLAH chose the Arabs to carry him to triumphal dominion, because he has faith in their willingness to kill and die for him. ALLAH has faith that the Arabs will make him king through the sheer power of their commitment, by word, sword or martyrdom to crown ALLAH in glory and triumph.
The hungry, dark and ancient gods of Europe have not died, nor have they abandoned faith in their people’s abilities to redeem their names and make them triumphant. Mithra still lives in Persia, as does the Baal in Turkey. Each avatar schemes and manipulates events with all its cunning might to enable his (or her) folk to achieve an advantage.
Every avatar found something else to put its faith in. Mithra believes with every fiber of his being that Persians are the best plotters, schemers and strategists in the history of the world. He can’t lose.
Apollo is convinced that his people, those great thinkers, philosophers and statesmen who elevated him atop Mount Olympus - who raised him skyward from among the stinking morass of chthonic underworld brutes – that they with their technological superiority will overwhelm the competition and see him triumph.
I have no idea what Quetzalcoatl thought when he chose the Maya, though I have no doubt human sacrifice was somewhere on the list of qualities that would make him the meanest, hungriest and baddest god in the pantheon. Perhaps he believes in the sheer unquenchable bloodthirstiness of his precious Mayans?
So what does God believe in, what essential quality in the descendants of Abraham did God bet His kingdom on? What unbeatable quality do Jews have that will make God triumphant?
Faith.
It’s simple, really. God has faith in us that we have faith in Him. That’s all. Jews have faith in God, such a powerful, cosmic and archetypal faith, it can only be compared to one other faith of its kind, and that is the powerful, cosmic and archetypal faith God has in us to make Him triumphant.
It was not the sword nor the brains, neither the commitment to live or die, nor the long strategy which caught God’s eye. We caught His eye because He dreamed us before the beginning, we arose in the thought.[6]
When we said earlier that it is not merely the knowledge of Torah which has meaning, but that ignorance of Torah has meaning too, this is what we were referring to. The Torah is not a Book of Law, it is a song. Music does not have meaning in the sense that words have meaning. A book of music tells no tales, has no narrative and serves no purpose. A song is sung; beyond that there is nothing we can say about it.
If the Torah song has meaning, it is as a melody of faith. It drums this truth inside us, and trumpets it to the world. It harmonizes these tropes among us and resonates in our bones.  It does not require knowledge, for it is a song. Its sole reason for being is to be sung. That’s why ignorance of the Torah is as significant as knowledge of it, for as has been demonstrated down the millennia, faith is not a function of knowledge. As a matter of fact it is often the opposite. The ignorant are often at an advantage when it comes to matters of Simple Faith, sometimes the less you know, the better it is.
Some people sing so well, even their silences sing. We believe God believes in us, and God believes we believe in Him.
God believes and has faith in me that my faith in Him will ultimately triumph. He tells me that I am so powerful that I can, with my faith, outlive and outlast the ancient gods of the underworld, the Titans and Elillim of Ur and Varanasi.
I tell Him that He is the Jewish God, King of the whole world, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He nods His head at me, asks for blessings, and smiles upon the face of the abyss.
Now, if you were to ask any one of the gods why it considers itself the only representative face of the Divine, entitled to reign supreme, each god will have another excellent reason. This one ought to reign supreme because it is God of Truth, and that one because it is God of Justice. This one because it is God of Creation, and that one because it is God of Light. This one because it is God of Beauty, and that one because it is God of Healing. This one because it is God of Knowledge, and that one because it is God of Time and Space. This one because it is God of War and Peace, and that one because it is God of Abundance. This one because it is God of Life and Death, and that one because it is God the Father. This one is God the Mother and that one is God the Newborn Child. This one is God of Love and that one is God of Music, and so on, seventy gods with perfect reasons for becoming Supreme God. Ask Allah why he should be God and he will tell you, “Because I am Greatest - Allahu Akbar!”
And if you ask God why He deserves to be God and reign supreme, He will look amazedly at you. “Me? I should reign Supreme? Why? This is not about Me and My Supremacy. It was never about Me. I love Jews, and that’s what this is about, what this has been about since before Creation. It was the Jews who arose in the Thought before Me, and that’s why I created the world, so that I could love them and care for them and nurture them and make them great and keep them with me as my lovers and children forever and eternity. Do I care that these gods, godlings and godlets caper around fighting for the crown? Do I need a crown? Am I focused on winning or on a triumph of any sort? Of course not! All I think about is My Jews, they are all I have ever wanted. My Jews, I love My Jews, Gevalt!”
Our God is humble.[7]
[1] Also translated as, “His people are a part of God, Jacob the demesne of His inheritance.”
[2] Mei HaShiloach Vol. II - Haazinu
[3] Talmud - Sanhedrin 21b, Nedarim 38a, Maimonides, Laws of Sefer Torah 1.1
[4] Pirkei D’Reb Eliezer 24
[5] Zohar Vol. III 273b
[6] Talmud - Menachoth 29b
[7] Talmud - Megilla 31a