Haftarat Shofetim
INTRODUCTION: Although one of the seven haftarot of comfort, this week’s selection also presents a challenge, in that it makes clear that the comfort being offered is of an inferior kind to the comfort we might get were we to act better. Yeshayahu is promising us what we see as a good future, but letting us know that we should be reaching higher, hoping for better.
A Doubly Certain Vision of Comfort
Yeshayahu doubles the first words of our haftarah, “anochi, anochi, I, I,” am the One who comforts you, says Hashem, which he does elsewhere as well, such as in “nahamu, nahamu” or “hitoreri, hitoreri, awake, awake” later in this haftarah. Vayikra Rabbah sees this as an _expression of his greatness in prophecy, a reward he got for seeing the positive side of the Jewish people and arguing for them.
The Midrash does not explain how the doubling of a word shows a higher level of prophecy, but I would guess that it is because the doubling emphasizes his greater than ordinary certainty that his visions would come to fruition. That would explain the connection between his reward and his having argued on behalf of the Jewish people—Yeshayahu plumbed reality to see the good in the Jewish people (sometimes a difficult task), in contrast to most others, so Hashem allowed him to see the future more clearly than most.
A Cold Comfort Nonetheless
When we move from that first set of words to the actual promises, we find little to celebrate. The navi upbraids us for fearing others, since Hashem’s promise that the Exile will not destroy us, that the Jewish nation will survive long after those other nation’s passing, should have removed our fear.
The prophetic (and Midrashic) insistence that such a promise should calm our fears assumes that national survival is all we should care about, a thought at odds with current sensibilities. Were a persecutor about to kill me, I might be afraid regardless of my beliefs about national survival. Apparently, Yeshayahu means to argue that we should experience fear differently if it is just personal; the knowledge that the whole will persevere should shape the reaction of the individual.
I suspect that Yeshayahu is trying to remind us that we are supposed to subsume at least some of our sense of self-worth in our membership in the broader community. Once a person sees him or herself as part of a larger and more important whole, the death of the individual is not as crushing as otherwise, since that whole will go on.
Verse 16: Bearers of Torah
Hazal see our having been given Torah as advantageous independent of our special relationship with Hashem. Different sources express the idea, one saying that Torah gives us God’s protection even at times when God seems most distant, another that it makes us partners in the building of Heaven and Earth, and a third that it enables us to hasten the day of the redemption. Whichever, or all three, they agree that Torah itself empowers us, if we use it properly.
Verses 17-23: The Unavoidable Flip Side
The rest of the chapter calls us to awaken from our troubles, describing some of those. I do not want to expand too much upon these verses, since they really run counter to the mood of comfort and solace that these weeks are supposed to be instilling in us. I will note that these troubles will weigh so heavily on the Jewish people, that we will be described as “drunk, but not from wine.”
That term led R. Elazar b. Azaryah in Eruvin 65a to assert that we are all currently exempt from punishment for our lack of attentiveness to prayer, since those who are drunk cannot be expected to pray properly. While R. Elazar b. Azaryah obviously did not mean the statement literally—we have to try to pray properly—he does suggest that we think carefully about whether our reactions to the world are accurate, or reflect the “drunkenness” of our sufferings in exile. Sometimes what seems true to us is a function of our warped perspective, and it behooves us to question ourselves about that.
Chapter 52, Verses 1-10— Redemption Despite Us, Not Because of Us
These verses tell of a great redemption, worth longing for and anticipating. Hashem reacts almost emotionally to exile, questioning why He’s “here,” where all day His Name is reviled. At that point, the whole world will know Hashem’s power, the prophets will celebrate, the ruins of Jerusalem will celebrate, and Hashem’s strong hand will be shown to all.
Yet this redemption comes for reasons other than that we deserve it. Hashem will redeem us because He will “tire” of being there, of having the Name mistreated and unknown; Radak notes that it is only on that day that Jews will know the Name; only the prophets will celebrate at first, because only they knew the truth all along.
Sanhedrin 97b records a debate between R. Eliezer and R. Yehoshua about whether redemption depends on our repenting. In one version, R. Yehoshua argued that if the Jews fail to repent, Hashem will send a persecution so terrible that it will necessarily elicit repentance (Note: the Holocaust did not elicit such).
Verses 11-12—A God-Centered Leaving
In verse 11, Hashem says to leave exile and not to touch anything impure. At least Radak thinks the verse means we will not be able to take anything with us from the Exile, will need to see it as completely impure. This again contrasts with current experience; perhaps those who activate their own redemption can differentiate pure from impure aspects of Exile, while those who stay mired in it until God takes them out must see all of it as impure and prohibited.
Summary: Comfort or Warning?
As we have read it, there are several verses that imply that we will not deserve our great future, and several others that emphasize Hashem’s guiding events, rendering us powerless objects of the Redemption. Some see being rendered passive tools of the Divine plan a high value, but I do not. I read this haftarah as offering a vision of how redemption will go if we fail to find our way to a different and even more positive version. In that sense, it is a warning, a call that we do not have forever to take advantage of the opportunity to shape our own redemption, our own future, and bring about blessings even more remarkable than mentioned here. Shabbat Shalom.
YESHAYAHU 51
[12] I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
[13] And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
[14] The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
[15] But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
[16] And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
[17] Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
[18] There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.
[19] These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?
[20] Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.
[21] Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
[22] Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
[23] But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
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Isa.52
[1] Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
[2] Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
[3] For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
[4] For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
[5] Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
[6] Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.
[7] How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
[8] Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
[9] Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
[10] The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
[11] Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
[12] For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your reward.