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271  fifty-three Dor l’Dor Parashat Ha’azinu (Deuteronomy 32:1–52) Jhos Singer Ha’azinu, the Torah’s penultimate parasha, brings us to the end of the Israelites’ fortyyear journey in the wilderness. Those who tasted the bitterness of slavery in Egypt have all but died out (Num. 14:26–35). A nomadic generation born in freedom is on the verge of leaving the desert to settle down in the land they have been promised. The degradation of slavery and their parents’ bones will be left in the sands behind them. This new breed will cross the river Jordan to enter the Promised Land with only two living remnants of their past: the spy Caleb and their new leader, Joshua. Moses, his death imminent, is making his final speech. The Israelites’ break from Egypt and their four-decade-long desert adventure bears striking resemblance to the first forty years of lesbian, gay, bi, trans, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) liberation. Like Moses, queers’ drag-queen/butch-dyke forebears stood up in anger and passion to defy the pharaohs of New York City’s Christopher Street.1 Queers traversed and battled their way across the badlands of homophobia, leaving in our wake La Cage aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy, Angels in America, The L-word, Brokeback Mountain, and Queer Eye on the Straight Guy in Netflix queues all across mainstream America and beyond. Forty years after a ragtag bunch of gender -variant and homosexual folks threw off the yoke of homophobia, rose up against queer oppression, performed miracles, marched in parades, and said, “Let my people go!” their children stand on the brink of a new era. Like the Israelites, we lost many of our forebears on the way. Homophobia infected us with depression, alcoholism, and drug abuse; poverty claimed many; AIDS devastated an entire generation of our men; and there continues to be a large mixed multitude imprisoned in closets all over the world. Nevertheless, forty years after the Stonewall rebellion, GenQ is poised to go forth into a land flowing with the courage, wisdom, and influence of Harvey Milk and Honey Labrador. The question is, will they go alone, or will they bring the memory of the first-wave leadership with them? Parashat Ha’azinu is a pivot point. The old guard, Moses, is stepping down. He will not accompany the Israelites into the next book (Deut. 32:52). Ha’azinu is Moses’s valedictory address. Visually and stylistically this parasha is distinctive. The calligraphy is uniquely laid out: the text is written in two distinct, parallel columns in the space that would normally house a single column. One can look at this section of a Torah scroll from across the room and see that it is Ha’azinu.2 The text is also surprising 272 Jhos Singer on a literal level. Moses, who four decades prior described himself as “a man with uncircumcised lips” (Ex. 6:12), is now a poet, a bard, a troubadour, a preacher. Like the text, Moses is presented in a different form. No longer a reluctant orator needing either a spokesman (Ex. 4:10–16) or a chorus (Ex. 15:1) to back him up, solo he speaksings his swan song “into the ears of the people” (Deut. 31:30, 32:44). His poem is passionate, blunt, and eloquent. He is not the least bit held back—gone is the foreskin of his lips. As an orator, Moses has finally found the perfect synthesis of his gifts of poetry and prophecy. His unfettered opening lines are astonishing and poignant: Give ear, O heavens, that I may speak. And let the earth hear my mouth’s utterances. Let my teaching drop like rain, My saying flow like dew, Like showers on the green And like cloudbursts on the grass. (Deut. 32:1–2) And although the poetry, lyricism, and singing may be new to the Children of Israel, the fundamental message is not: they have been selected for a special role in God’s plan for humanity (Deut. 32:8, Ex. 19:4), and they should be grateful; if they do not behave themselves and prove themselves worthy, they will be assailed by their enemies without God’s protection, but if they are good they will be rewarded (Deut. 32:19–25, Ex. 20:5–6); they must remember their deliverance from Egypt and remain vigilant in their identity as God’s children (Deut. 32:6, 10–12, Ex. 20:2–3). And...

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