Haftorah Parashat Vayishlah
The Book of Ovadyah
The Tragedy of Esav, As It Plays Out in Our Day
When reality hurts too much to be faced, people have two main choices, being overwhelmed by the accumulation of sadness reality forces on them or learning to distance themselves from the events playing out before their eyes. It is preferable for them to find a middle road, where they experience the tragedy, but can bring to it enough serenity to allow them to continue functioning. Doctors who deal with frequent death, such as oncologists, know this challenge well, as they cannot take every lost patient to heart, but must also avoid become cold or inured to the sufferings with which their noble occupation confronts them.
This week’s haftarah leads me to wonder whether the Jewish people have lost sight of that middle road in our attitude towards non-Jews. Granted that we believe that we have been chosen to carry the message of God’s rule, our abject failure to convince the world of our status— those who accept monotheism tend to insist that they are the Chosen Ones, while others ignore us—carries ramifications we tend to ignore or celebrate; our haftarah suggests neither reaction is appropriate.
Casual readers of the haftarah might classify it in the triumphalist camp of prophecy, where the prophet celebrates our future revenge, presumably thus lifting the spirits of a tired and bloodthirsty audience. That ignores two important facts, first that the prophecy is addressed to Edom/Esav, and second, that tradition saw Ovadyah as a convert from Edom to the Jewish people.
The whole question of prophecies spoken to other nations is one we ought to think about. Noting that many if not most of the prophets recorded words spoken to non-Jewish nations should make us realize that they apparently valued those nations, hoping that they, like the Jews, would heed their prophecies and improve their ways. Otherwise, why not just speak to the Jews about them?
This is all the more the case when we see Hazal assuming that Ovadyah, this week’s prophet, was a convert from Edom. Granting that prophecy might not be at all self-directed, so that Ovadyah may not have been able to choose to whom he was sent, the choice of a convert from that nation as the prophet to speak to Edom/ Esav again leads me to believe that they were the intended recipients of this call.
Once we know that, we begin to see the layers of sadness that underlie the haftarah. Ovadyah lays out for them how much they will suffer, including a loss of power, of language, and continuity of kingship. Edom will, in many ways, lose its membership in the family of nations.
We do not yet know why Esav is doomed to that fate, but his reaction already gives us a hint. Instead of confronting the nation’s problems and seeking a solution, the navi envisions Esav as trying to portray himself as stronger than he really is, an attempt that will fail as God will lower them with a complete destruction.
The cause, we then find out, is that Esav chose to support those nations who came to destroy the Jewish people and their sovereignty. Instead of feeling the brotherly love we might hope for, Esav reveled in our destruction, an act that rebounds on him. First, it is precisely those nations whom he supported who will turn on him. Second, Ovadyah informs Esav that he will no longer even have leaders with the wisdom to show him the way out of all his troubles.
Speaking of Esav and the Jews can make this all seem distant, but Ovadyah’s message applies in many ways to the non-Jewish nations of our times. It is a simple truth of history that the Jews have a particular role to play in the world—announcing God’s rule—and were given a particular Land from where to send that message forth. Those who refuse to accept the Jewish people’s difference from other nations share this aspect of Esav’s flaws being delineated here. That might mean that we are on the brink of seeing Ovadyah’s words to Esav begin to apply to other nations, putting us on the brink of having to watch them suffer, with their having closed off the one path that could in fact lead them away from their troubles.
For those who still believe in a God Who waits for the world to truthfully and fully recognize His Kingship, Ovadyah’s words ring equally true. While we feel a sense of shared humanity for those around us, and wish them well both for its own sake and because of all the shared experiences we have, we worry about how the future will play itself out for those who consistently refuse to admit a basic truth about the world.
It is that dilemma, I believe, that leads Ovadyah to include the closing verse, the most famous one in the haftarah and one that was included numerous times in the traditional liturgy. “Ve-alu moshi`im be-har Tsiyyon lishpot et har Esav, ve-haytah La-Shem ha-meluchah, and redeemer will ascend Mount Zion to judge Mount Esav, and God will have true Kingship.” When people or nations align themselves against the Jewish people and their special place in the world, they become a barrier to achieving what we should all hope for, God’s rule being recognized by all. In doing so, they make their judgment and punishment a necessary part of achieving that final goal.
All of which, let me stress, was and is avoidable, with just a slight change of attitude. Accepting only the Jews’ special role and place, and our right to rule over the Land of Israel because of it, Esav and all those who currently follow his path could avoid Ovadyah’s predictions, instead contributing towards bringing about God’s desired future.
We can do it the easy way or the hard way; many read the prophets as if the Jews prefer the hard way, at least regarding other nations, but I am confident that they are wrong. Ovadyah is not happy about his prediction; he is hoping against hope that his words will spur Esav to make them never come true. He knows, however, that the likelihood is, as has been true for most prophets, that his words will go unheeded, that the dire predictions will come to pass, and that he and we will have to bear a future where instead of including them as partners, we will have to see them as adversaries who need to be removed from the picture. Shabbat Shalom.
Obad.1
[1] The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.
[2] Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.
[3] The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
[4] Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD.
[5] If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?
[6] How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!
[7] All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.
[8] Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
[9] And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.
[10] For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
[11] In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.
[12] But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.
[13] Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;
[14] Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.
[15] For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.
[16] For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.
[17] But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
[18] And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it.
[19] And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
[20] And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.
[21] And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.