Haftorah Parashat Vayetse
Hoshea, 12:13-14:10
The Metaphor of Faithfulness
The challenge of speaking meaningfully, articulately, and intelligibly about God, the Ineffable and completely Other, looms large before each Prophet. One central tool in that task, metaphor, seeks to shed useful light on our relationship—the word is itself a metaphor— with God by aligning it with other ones we have.
We can see how clearly this is true if we watch how we and others experience the entirely new, geographically, physically, or culturally. People will often find themselves saying, “This is just like…” or “This is so different from…” We most easily comprehend the new by comparing and contrasting it —those mainstays of examination questions—to what we already know well. None of us begin with a blank slate, and we absorb new material by fitting it with what has come before.
Coming to our haftarah, the metaphor of the week is marriage, especially the faithfulness of partners in a good one, the betrayal of spouses who cheat, and the readiness of some spouses to take a wayward partner back, even after great damage was done to the relationship.
The opening, which connects us to the parasha, is Hoshea’s invoking Yaakov’s service to earn Rahel, which Hoshea ties in to Hashem’s having brought the Jews out of Egypt with a prophet, and watching over them with one. Linking those two seems odd at first, but it may be signaling Hashem’s permanent engagement with us in the framework of Yaakov’s—just as the human resolutely worked towards his goal, Hashem metaphorically works on the relationship with us as resolutely.
Continuous striving towards a goal is one way to be faithful to it, but the haftarah implies and suggests others as well. Yaakov ran away from Esav to get to Haran, a retreat that is seen as strategic and appropriate for the circumstances. Leaving the scene for at least some time is not always an abandoning, it is sometimes the only way to be able to move forward.
In addition, when Efraim betrays the relationship, bringing on Hashem’s punishment, continuing involvement is still there. Instead of abandoning the Jews to fate, Hashem speaks of being like various animals—a lion, a bear—in attacking and punishing them. The punishment hurts, but there is the solace of God’s deep involvement in administering it.
The haftarah is trying to get us to return to that state of deep involvement. Ephraim, probably the Northern Kingdom, was at one point highly faithful. At least according to Hazal, Yerovam merited having founded the Northern Kingdom for having criticized Shlomo haMelech, who slept late on the day of the dedication of the Beit haMikdash. The Midrash portrays Hashem as then either rewarding or challenging him, giving him a kingdom of his own, which he promptly messed up, and actively promoted their worshiping elsewhere than in Jerusalem.
Love Story (the book, not the movie) has one of its characters assert that Love means never having to say you’re sorry. While I generally think that it’s precisely those we love the most to whom we ought to be apologizing most fully and carefully, the statement properly emphasizes that love cannot be broken by the failure to apologize. Since love means a commitment to permanence and steadfastness, apologies cannot be the difference between success and failure. On the other hand, apologies can be vital to improving a relationship, taking it to whatever the next level is supposed to be.
With God, the equivalent of saying sorry is repentance, so the navi’s call for the Jews to repent and return now fits perfectly. In a relationship blessed with permanence but plagued by one partner’s inability or refusal to shoulder responsibilities, the only barrier to improvement is that partner’s willingness to acknowledge error and rededicate to fulfilling the promise inherent in each relationship. As Yaakov contributed permanence and effort to improve and perfect his relationship with Rahel, we are being called to do so with Hashem (Who already reciprocates).
Rambam’s Read of Famous Verses
Our haftarah, 13;8, refers to Hashem punishing us by acting towards us as a “dov shakul,” a bear bereaved of her whelps. Commenting on the fifth chapter of Avot’s definition of the seven qualities of a person with poorly formed character, Rambam notes that it is infrequent for a person to completely lack intellectual and character qualities, but that one who does so will be similar to a damaging animal, and may therefore be referred to that way. I include the comment here because it raises the possibility that Rambam would have interpreted our verse as meaning that Hashem will punish us by forcing us to grapple with such people, a terrible task and burden.
The most famous verse in the haftarah, 14;2, “Shuva Yisrael,” is taken by the gemara as emphasizing the power of teshuvah to fully rejuvenate (and even improve) our relationship with God. Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 7;6, echoes some of these messages when he speaks of how close repentance brings the penitent to God.
14;4 tells us that in the future we will no longer say “Elokenu le-maaseh yadenu,” which Rambam in Teshuvah 2;2 reads as meaning that we will no longer need to falsely invoke God to support our actions, since Hashem will know the depths of our hearts, including our truthful resolve never to return to our sins.
The final verse of the haftarah, which Rambam does not cite (to the best of my knowledge and ability to search the Bar-Ilan database), speaks of the ways of God being productive for the righteous and destructive for sinners. The gemara in Baba Batra 89b tells of R. Yohanan b. Zakai struggling with whether to publicize a certain halachic fact, for fear that it might teach evildoers how to get away with their evil. He finally announces the information anyway, citing our verse.
Horiyot 10b assumes the verse is referring to an act that two people perform, with different motives, and the act is positive for the righteous one and hurts the evil one. What both sources share is the conviction that some actions’ value or lack of it resides in the underlying motive, which will in return affect that act’s impact on the person. As a close to the book and haftarah, it reminds us, soberingly, that our internal righteousness or lack of it necessarily affects our external experience of religion and the impact it has on us. Shabbat Shalom.
[12] And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
[13] And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.
[14] Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.
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Hos.13
[1] When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
[2] And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.
[3] Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
[4] Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.
[5] I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
[6] According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
[7] Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:
[8] I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
[9] O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.
[10] I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?
[11] I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.
[12] The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.
[13] The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.
[14] I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
[15] Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
[16] Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
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Hos.14
[1] O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
[2] Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
[3] Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
[4] I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
[5] I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
[6] His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
[7] They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
[8] Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.
[9] Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.