A "Slave" Mentality

In an almost perverse way, what most engenders God's wrath in the Torah portion of Ha'azinu, "The Torah's song," is the remembrance that we are his sons.

In each instance where God's anger flares, it is the fact that he expected more of us.

On the flip-side, in the portion's lyrical verses, whenever God's mercy is piqued, it is because He remembers that we are His servants.

This duality leaves us with a sense of puzzlement; one by one, the verses share a narrative rather different than the one that would intuitively come to mind.

For example, "Hashem saw and was vexed, And spurned these sons and daughters."

And, the flip-side: "O nations, acclaim God’s people! For He’ll avenge the blood of His servants, Wreak vengeance on His foes, And cleanse His people’s land."

Our servitude, the meanest level, represents the simple primacy of God's "bond" with mankind. He created the world because of a larger humanity; in essence, people are the object of His goal in this world, to craft it, form it, shape it – and effect change. God is vested in people, humankind – but because, He is angry at the Jewish people, who have the more particularistic role of fulfilling a larger goal, he has no choice but to remember not His bond with the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the servitude and destiny mankind has as a whole, man as opposed to animals; it so happens that the Jewish people are elevated over the non-Jews of the world, but in a state of anger, that affinity subsides, as it can in any relationship, and what is remembered is little more than the fact that Hashem's cards have been placed in people, as opposed to the animal kingdom, but the Jews, have indeed fallen far from the mark, at which point God truly feels the rebellion of His sons and daughters.