Haftorah Parashat Yitro
Isaiah 6;1-7;6, 9;5-6
The first half of this haftarah connects to our parsha in a clear fashion, since it is Yeshayahu’s vision of God. The second half does not fit so well, either with the first half of the haftarah or with the parsha, since it takes up another incident at a different stage of Yeshayahu’s career.
While the second half forces us to ponder its connection to the first half and to the parsha, a little thought shows us that the first half is not so easily connected either. The Torah reading speaks of God’s appearance at Har Sinai, a revelation on a different scale and of a different sort than Yeshayahu’ s- God appearing to an entire people and giving them the laws that form the core of their religion bears little relation to an individual attaining a personal vision of God in which he volunteers for a prophetic mission. Especially since that mission consists of informing the Jews of their inadequacies, the relation to Har Sinai becomes tenuous.
What Does Hashem Look Like to Yeshayahu?
The content of the vision offers a relationship to Har Sinai as well as a key to figuring out the role of the second half of the parsha. Yeshayahu sees God sitting on an exalted throne, with His “bottom parts” (whatever that means when applied to Hashem) filling the Temple. That already suggests a God who is exalted and removed, but whose impact is strongly felt in the world.
Yeshayahu locates his vision in the Temple, an interesting choice since so much of his book bemoans how the Jews’ emphasis on ritual and sacrifice has fed a neglect of social justice. The placement of this central experience reminds us that his emphasis on social issues did not mean to denigrate the Temple, just to point out to the Jews their failure to focus their actions properly.
Placing the vision in the Mikdash also gives it a more national than personal tinge, since that is the place God promised to relate to the people as a whole, not just individuals. Yeshayahu’s seeing “seraphim,” fiery angels, rather than ordinary ones, fits the content of the vision, since he then finds out that the mission he volunteered for consisted of telling the Jews that they are in trouble. The commentators disagree as to whether he is telling them that their hearts, ears, and eyes are too hardened to heed the messages that will help them avoid the coming destruction or whether he is informing them that Hashem is going to harden their hearts, with the same result. Both readings stress the implausibility of change in the nation, again moving the experience from the personal to the national.
Were the haftarah to have stopped here, this clearly complements Sinai; in the first case, God appeared to the entire people with a message of love, command, and continuing connection, while in the later vision He called on Yeshayahu to serve as messenger to inform the people of how far they have strayed and their inability to any longer hear from God directly.
Chapter 7, Verses 1-6: A Message of Hope
Taken on its own, that vision is an almost complete downer, leaving little hope. The divergent perspective adopted by Chapter 7 balances that picture, opening the door to a more positive outcome than just death or destruction. Here, Ahaz, an evil king, is told not to fear the kings who are coming to attack him, because God will protect him from them. In an exquisite irony, then, Yeshayahu begins his career predicting doom in the time of a good king, Uziyahu, but is later also commissioned to tell an evil king that God will save him.
In the context of Har Sinai, the juxtaposition suggests that Yeshayahu’s job here was to clarify aspects of Har Sinai that might have been misunderstood by the Jews. At the beginning of his prophecy, faced with people who are in many ways good and dedicated to God, his job is to remind them that they are nonetheless neglecting vital aspects of God’s service. Should that continue, they will bear significant consequences.
Later on, when the people’s spiritual status has declined, perhaps to the point that they can no longer imagine God’s love, Yeshayahu is there to remind them of the other half of the Sinai experience. Sinai embodies command, which implies reward and punishment, but also love, connection, and closeness. God can show both in one meaning-packed event, but people need to separate the various pieces, to experience each on its own, before they can put them back together into a unified whole. Yeshayahu, in the haftarah, shows us one example of such a process.
Famous Verses
1) Yevamot 49b identifies Yeshayahu’s referring to the Jews as an “am temei sefatayim, a nation of unclean lips” as the sin that made him vulnerable to being killed. The Gemara says that Menashe, the son of Hizkiyahu, accused Yeshayahu of contradicting Moshe Rabbenu, since he claimed to have seen God, when the Torah says a person cannot do that and live. Realizing the pointlessness of arguing, Yeshayahu instead hid in a tree; Menashe ordered the tree chopped in pieces, and when the ax hit Yeshayahu’s lips—the locus of his sinful denigration of the Jews—he was killed.
Note that his lips remained vulnerable despite our haftarah recording that an angel removed his sin by placing a hot coal on his mouth. The gemara also explains that only Moshe Rabbenu had to worry about seeing God and living, because only he saw through an “aspaklariah ha-meirah,” meaning with enough accuracy that any fuller a vision might be beyond his powers to bear. For all other prophets, the issue never arose.
2) Verse 10 promises or predicts that the Jewish people’s hearts will be fattened, preventing them from repenting. As it does so, though, the verse notes that were the Jews to repent, they would be healed, teaching R. Yohanan (Rosh haShanah 17b) that, at least for a community, teshuvah is available even after the promulgation of a Divine decree of punishment.
3) Chapter 7 verse 3 refers to the place where Yeshayahu and his son should meet Ahaz as “sedei koves,” which the gemara interprets as meaning that Ahaz was ashamed before Yeshayahu. That shame saved him a share in the World to Come, so that he is not included in the list at the beginning of the tenth chapter of Sanhedrin of those who permanently lost that share. Shabbat Shalom.
Isa.6
[1] In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
[2] Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
[3] And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
[4] And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
[5] Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
[6] Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
[7] And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
[8] Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
[9] And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
[10] Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
[11] Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
[12] And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
[13] But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.
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Isa.7
[1] And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
[2] And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.
[3] Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field;
[4] And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
[5] Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,
[6] Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal:
CHAPTER 9
[6] For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
[7] Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.