Haftorah Parashat Shemot
Yeshaya 27;6-28:13, 29;22-3
What Does Redemption Look Like? The Vision
In obvious parallel to this week’s parsha, the haftarah discusses a few aspects of redemption worth reviewing. First, perhaps to engage readers’ interest so that they will forge on with the steps that are not as pleasant as the final goal, the navi describes redemption, speaking of it as a rooting in the Land.
For Jews still stuck in Exile, that promise alone might be attractive enough, but the gemara and Midrash expand it. Shabbat 145b quotes R. Yosef as reading the verse as referring to Torah scholars, who make fringes and decorations for Torah. Shir haShirim Rabbah 7;3 takes the verse as evidence that the Jewish people connect to their land in a way that other nations do not. Putting the two together, tradition seems to be suggesting that our greatest redemption involves our attachment to the Land, in which we find ways to enhance and further beautify it, as Torah scholars do with Torah. Without belaboring the point, that does nod in the direction of Bnei Akiva-type views of what it means to be Jewish in Israel, combining Torah study and performance of mitsvot with active concern with building up the Land of Israel.
What Does Redemption Look Like? How to Get There
Several verses in the haftarah refer to the role of punishment in readying the Jews for redemption. Exactly how that works is a matter of debate, as we’ll record briefly in the “Famous Verses” section of this essay, below. Here, I mean only to point out how insistent Yeshayahu is that full and proper repentance is crucial to getting to the redemption, and how likely it is that some element of punishment is (unfortunately) necessary before we will get to that repentance.
What Does Redemption Look Like? The Redeemer
Shmot Rabbah 1;26 reads verses 10-11 of our haftarah as relating to Moshe and Mashiah, both of whom grew up in non-Jewish environments (Moshe in Paroh’s palace, Mashiah in Rome). At least according to this Midrash, it sounds like the redeemer might be someone who was raised in a non-specifically Jewish environment, who learned significant lessons from non-Jewish society, and only then come to take the Jews to their land. Possibly, the Midrash is implying that our withdrawal into our own land is not meant to exclude an awareness of other nations, so that a leader trained in their milieu will be more able to lead us in continuing to engage with them even after moving to our own land.
What Does Redemption Look Like? The Different Places of Exile
Verse 12 says that Hashem will take us out of the middle of the rushing stream, bring us back from the river of Egypt, and one by one take the Jews back. Rashi reads it as a reference to three types of exiles—Ashur, Egypt, and wherever. Radak identifies the river as Sambatyon, which spews stones from the strength of its flow, except for Shabbat, when it rests.
Either version points out that there are Jews in various types of exiles, differentiated not just by geography. Some are in the middle of a rushing stream, part of an exciting, vibrant society that is not, perhaps, particularly antithetical to observance. Others are in large groups, but in a place like Egypt, traditionally a symbol of a culture hostile to Torah observance. Finally, some Jews live in small groups, or in situations where so many of the Jews will be so assimilated that only individual ones will reach the stage of redemption. That Hashem will take us all back from our various locations and types of exiles is part of the point here, but realizing that we will be coming back from such different places also indicates a challenge we will face, in forging a unified society out of people from such different experiences.
What Will Redemption Look Like? The Central Barrier
Chapter 28, verses 7 and 8 point out that Yehuda’s Kingdom’s lesser sin, being overly involved with wine, still suffices to deserve punishment. Verse 8 is one of the Famous Verses of this week’s haftarah, and we will discuss it below. But the verse points us towards noting the navi’s rejection of any competing commitments to our God; if we are too focused on drinking wine, we are loosening our connection to God, and it is that which leads to exile and prevents redemption.
What Will Redemption Look Like? The Challenge of Change
Starting from verse 9, Yeshayahu discusses who will be able to accept Hashem’s wisdom. Rashi thinks only babies will be able to, while Radak thinks that even adults might be, but only extremely slowly, in bits and pieces over long periods of time. Either version reminds us of the difficulty of retaining the kind of openmindedness, of flexibility and readiness to admit that we were wrong, that is necessary for true service of God and to merit the Redemption that we long for.
Famous Verses
As mentioned above, 27;8 speaks of God measuring out our punishment, “be-sa-seah, be-shalhah terivenah,” which Sotah 8b-9a took two ways. First, the verse is understood to mean that God’s punishments are directly responsive to the sins committed, and the Midrash adds that the same is true in reverse, that Hashem rewards in a way directly related to the good we did).
Second, the verse is taken as meaning that God does the Jewish people the favor of punishing at each step along the way, in contrast to other nations who are left untouched until the weight of their sins demands their downfall and exit from the world stage. Punishment is thus a favor, first in perhaps making us aware of our sin before we get too caught up in it, but also by allowing us to expiate it in small pieces instead of having to face it all at once.
Verse 13 of Chapter 27, maybe most famous because it became a song, tells of those who are lost in various exiles being brought back to Yerushalayim. Makkot 24a sees it as Yeshayahu reversing Moshe Rabbenu’s warning that we will be lost in the nations where we are exiled (an idea worth exploring at another time).
Verse 8 of Chapter 28 is cited by Avot 3;3 to require saying a Dvar Torah at a meal where 3 people eat together. One of the ramifications of this reading is that it assumes that involvement in eating for its own sake is similar to idol worship in some way, a scary thought that suggests that the wrong of idol worship is not that a person designates some other item as God, it is that the person allows any commitment to compete with his or her commitment to God. Shabbat Shalom.
[6] He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
[7] Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
[8] In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
[9] By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.
[10] Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
[11] When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
[12] And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
[13] And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
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Isa.28
[1] Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
[2] Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
[3] The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
[4] And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
[5] In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
[6] And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
[7] But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
[8] For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
[9] Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
[10] For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
[11] For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
[12] To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
[13] But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Chapter 29
[22] Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
[23] But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.