Haftorah Parashat Behaalotecha
Zechariah 2;14-4;7
Interestingly, the haftarah for Parashat Behaalotecha is the same as Shabbat Hanukkah. There, we were relating the reading to the holiday menorahs we light, it comes up in parallel to Aharon being told how to care for the Menorah in the Kodesh.
That cannot be the whole story, at the very least because the haftarah starts fourteen verses before the menorah is ever mentioned, and stops before the vision is fully explained (the olive branches are explained just after we stop our reading).
Chapter 2, Verses 14-17: Particularism and Universalism in Zechariah
The first section of the haftarah has Zechariah telling Jerusalem to rejoice in her future redemption, when Hashem will come and reside in her midst. The section closes with a call for “all flesh” to be silent before God, having said before that that “many nations” will come to see Hashem as their deity as well.
Note the two sides—the other nations will be part of the future Zechariah sees, and will accept our version of the One True God. At the same time, the Jewish relationship with God will continue to be different and special, as God is portrayed as residing in our midst. That mix of universalism, being concerned with all nations’ sharing in the future for which we long, and particularism, being aware that we are and always will be special and different, characterizes Judaism and our view of the future.
Joy in the Return Only Occurs When God Returns
The Midrash notes that verse 13 connects Yerushalayim’s rejoicing to Hashem’s residing in her midst, suggesting that the redemption will not be complete when people return to Jerusalem, the return of a Davidic kingship to Jerusalem, or even when the nations of the world come to accept our version of God and how God relates to the world. Jerusalem’s full rejuvenation only happens when God’s Presence is once again ensconsed in the city.
Another Midrash, incidentally, understands the reference to Hashem “awakening” from His Holy Place to say that God’s Presence has in fact never left the Temple Mount, but that it is now dormant, awaiting events tht will allow it to reveal itself. I find such a picture very stimulating, reminding me of those who see prophecy as a tapping into a Voice and a Call that is always present in the world, but only certain special people manage to hear.
Two Connected Stories: Yehoshua’s Rejuvenation and the Menorah
Moving on to the rest of the haftarah, chapters 3 and 4 seem to tell of two different prophecies, one in which Zechariah sees Yehoshua, the High Priest, with Satan standing on his right and dressed in soiled clothing. The second, the menorah vision, chapter 4, tells of the Menorah that Zechariah saw. The traditional writing of navi splits the visions differently, grouping Yehoshua with the vision of the Menorah and the symbolism of the menorah itself together. After a full break, we are given the interpretation of other aspects of the menorah vision.
In the first story, Yehoshua has two problems that need to be solved, Satan and the clothing. While Hashem takes care of the first, the clothing remain, a reminder that even after we overcome our evil inclinations, the distractions that lure us from serving God, we still need to cleanse ourselves of the dirt of those past sins.
The Imperfect Priest: Does It Affect His Service?
There are two central explanations for why his clothing is soiled. Rashi took it as a reference to his having descendants who married non-Jews, a view that assumes that Yehoshua’s having failed to inculcate proper values in his children would affect his prophecy as well as that the actions of one’s children and grandchildren reflect back on that person. It is not enough to have children; raising them, setting them on a path where they will raise their own children properly, is all a part of what it means to have fulfilled the mitzvah of procreation.
An alternate view thinks Yehoshua’s clothing were dirtied by having been thrown in the a fire by Nevuchadnezzar along with the false prophets Ahav and Zidkiyah. Here, too, Yehoshua is seen as a person of great personal piety caught up in surrounding events that leave him damaged, with dirty clothing as the metaphor.
Human Input into the Future
In the vision, the angels replace Yehoshua’s dirtied clothing with clean ones, and Zechariah adds that they should put a tsanif tahor, a pure hat, on him. Worth emphasizing is that Zechariah says to do it, and then it is done; Zechariah is not just a witness, he is expected to be an active member of the team remaking Yehoshua.
So, too, Yehoshua is told that he has control over the future, that if he and his descendants do what God wants, they can guarantee their future.
Zechariah’s readiness to make a suggestion of his own perhaps explains why he is expected to understand the vision of the Menorah on his own. The angel only tells Zechariah that it shows that the guarantee of success is only God’s spirit, not military strength and physical might. The haftarah then closes with a verse that no mountain can stand before Zerubavel, and that the foundation stone will be turned into a building of remarkable beauty.
Since Zechariah’s prophecy occurs during the rebuilding of the second Beit haMikdash, his words could be seen as a reaction to the building of a House not nearly as magnificent as Shlomo haMelech’s. The Menorah is a sign of the Spirit of God, the key ingredient to any kind of future success, whether it be Yehoshua’s, as in our haftarah, or Zerubavel’s, the political leader of Zechariah’s time.
Conclusion: The Menorah As a Central Sign of the Priests’ Service
Although there is much more to be said, particularly in trying to understand how the Menorah conveys the message of needing God’s spirit, what we have seen already explains why this Menorah vision connects so well to the parasha. As Rashi tells us, Aharon found the “nesi’im’s” gifts disheartening, since he could not give one. The insights about the Menorah in our haftarah tell us what Hashem meant by reminding him that he was given the service of the Menorah. The people in the outside world have much to accomplish, and donate some of that in impressive ways to the service of God, but Aharon and his sons, forbidden by God from being ordinary, hold the key not just to the Mikdash but to the success of the entire people. Certainly as great a legacy as the nesi’im’s gifts. Shabbat Shalom.
[13] Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.
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Zech.3
[1] And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
[2] And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
[3] Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
[4] And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
[5] And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.
[6] And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,
[7] Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
[8] Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.
[9] For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
[10] In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.
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Zech.4
[1] And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,
[2] And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
[3] And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
[4] So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
[5] Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
[6] Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
[7] Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.