Give ear, O heavens, let me speak (32:1). Midrash Sifrei D’varim 306 imagines that in the future, Israel—personified as a woman—will implore God to listen to her confession of sins. She will say, “Master of the universe, I now see the places that I corrupted, and I am ashamed”; but God will reply, “I shall cause them to pass away.” She will continue, “Master of the universe, my name is linked with the baalim [foreign gods]”; but God will reply, “I shall cause it to pass away.” Israel will then point out that if a man divorces a woman and she marries another man, he may never remarry her (24:1–4). However, the Almighty will respond, “Have you been divorced from Me, O house of Israel?” Thus, the Rabbis interpret the moment of divine judgment as a time of repentance (t’shuvah) and reconciliation, in which the unfaithful Israel confesses her misdeeds and a loving God forgives her offenses and reaffirms their intimate relationship.
Like an eagle who rouses its nestlings (32:11). In Sifrei D’varim 314, the Rabbis expand on this biblical simile, comparing God to an eagle: “Just as the mother eagle does not enter her nest without first shaking her chicks with her wings, as she flies between one tree and another, between one bush and another, in order to rouse them so that they will be strong enough to receive her,” so also when the Holy One revealed the divine Presence in order to give the Torah to Israel, God did so “not from only one direction but from all four directions,” from Sinai, from Seir, from Mount Paran, and from Teman, to alert the people to the seriousness of the moment. Here the Sages evoke the Shechinah, the nurturing female aspect of the Divine, which is often described as drawing both converts and the faithful of Israel under her wings.
In this same midrashic passage, the Rabbis declare that 32:11 also alludes to other divine redemptions of Israel. In the second half of this verse, “So did [God] spread wings and take them” refers to Israel’s emancipation from slavery, recalling “how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Me” (Exodus 19:4). Similarly, the end of our verse, “Bear them along on pinions,” speaks of the future redemption when the nations “shall cradle your sons in their arms, / and carry your daughters on their shoulders” (Isaiah 49:22).
You neglected the Rock who begot you / Forgot the God who labored to bring you forth (32:18). Rabbinic interpreters were struck by the image of God—whose actions are generally described in male terms—as a woman in labor. They interpreted this verse as follows, “The Holy One…said to them, ‘You caused Me to feel like a male trying to give birth.’ If a woman about to give birth is sitting on the birth-stool, is she not anxious…? If she is in labor and giving birth for the first time, would she not be concerned…? If there are twins in her womb, would she not be uneasy…?” How much more so, “if it is a male, who does not ordinarily give birth but is trying to give birth, would not the pain be doubled and redoubled…?” Yet this is the extent to which God was prepared to labor and suffer out of love for Israel (Sifrei D’varim 319).
The grapes for them are poison, / A bitter growth their clusters (32:32). In P’sikta D’Rav Kahana 20.6, this verse figures in a long debate over the correct identification of the forbidden fruit that Eve and Adam ate in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). According to one of the Rabbis, this verse proves that the fruit was grapes, since “those clusters that Adam ate brought bitterness into the world.”
through it you shall long endure (32:47). In its interpretation of this verse, Sifrei D’varim 336 observes that the study of Torah yields a double reward: one enjoys the fruit in this world and prolongs one’s days in the world-to-come. The midrash goes on to teach that this concept of a twofold recompense also applies to those who honor their fathers and mothers, as well as to people who devote themselves to establishing peace. The midrashic passage concludes with a consolatory prophecy for the days to come: “All your children shall be taught by יהוה, and great shall be the happiness of your children” (Isaiah 54:13).
—Judith R. Baskin