Haftorah Shabbat Hagadol
Malachi 3;4-24
It’s Shabbat haGadol, Man!
I was always taught that this haftarah provides one of the reasons for calling this Shabbat “haGadol” because the second to last verse refers to God sending Eliyahu haNavi before the advent of the Day of God haGadol ve-haNora, the great and wondrous. A more careful read shows that it stresses the Jewish people’s responsibility to make the Hand of God more obvious in the world; here, we will just offer a few examples of how it plays out in this text, and how that should affect our experience of this Shabbat.
Punishment as Part of Showing God in the World
In the first part of the haftarah, Hashem promises that our sacrifices will one day again be as pleasing as “of old.” Vayikra Rabbah points out that Noah’s sacrifices were referred to as a “reah nihoah,” just like ours, leading us to wonder why ours were the standard to which we’d like to return—why wouldn’t we try to get back to Noah’s level of sacrifice?
To see why I think that it is because Noah’s sacrifices were for himself, whereas ours are to show God’s glory in the world, we need only turn to verse 6, where Hashem complains that He has not changed, and the Jews have not ceased (been destroyed). Rashi stresses that Hashem’s giving evildoers time and a chance to repent can give the (false) impression that He has foregone that punishment. In the same vein, he thinks the Jews not having ceased reminds them that, as an eternal people, there is always time for Hashem to punish them.
Sotah 9a reads the first half of the verse differently but with a similar thrust. The gemara reads “lo shaniti,” as “I have not repeated,” meaning that God’s general pattern is to punish a nation just once. Each nation, in this view, gets one shot on the world stage, where it lasts until its sins become intolerable, and is then punished and removed from the scene. In that reading, the Jews’ being punished in smaller but more frequent increments, enhances their role as witnesses to God’s rule. Punishing a nation once does not educate; our punishment, painful as it is, allows God’s Hand to peek through the veil of His Hiddenness.
Much Ado About Ma`aser
That mission explains why Hashem next complains about the Jews’ having cheated through their tithes (calling it stealing from God), which would not seem significant enough to merit specific mention. Since God does not have or care about property, use of the verb stealing in reference to God is also strange. Heightening the mystery, the verse promises all sorts of blessings to those who tithe properly and Taanit 9a reads the verse as literally allowing a person to tithe as a way of testing whether God will actually enrich that person.
The answer lies in our theme, seeing the hand of God in the world. Kohanim and Leviim are meant to be human representatives of God (so that a gift to them is a gift to God; a failure to give is a theft from God). In not tithing properly, they, and observers around the world, have that much less reason to believe in God’s direct connection.
If You Won’t See God, Won’t See Value in Serving God, Either
In verse 13, Hashem complains about their saying that they see no value in serving God, a conclusion they reached because they don’t see themselves being rewarded for doing what God wants. Indeed, the evildoers and those who test God have more visible success. This claim assumes we can perceive the sum total of God’s effect on the world and reaction to human actions, an error that ignores Malachi’s point, that the Jews’ job was to bear witness to the active Presence of God even though he is not perceptibly manifest. Hashem’s promise, in the rest of the section, is that that lesson will one day become absolutely clear to all, that people will understand the difference between those who serve God and those who do not, the righteous and the evil, which only confirms the reading we have been offering for this section.
The Coming of Eliyahu
The last three verses of the haftarah are each famous, but much is missed by not knowing them in context. The navi calls for us to remember Torat Mosheh commanded at Sinai, then announces that Hashem will send Eliyahu before the coming of God’s great and awesome Day, and says that Eliyahu will return the hearts of father to sons and sons to their fathers, lest God come and smite the land to the point of eradication. Remembering Torah is “apple-pie” for a navi, but here it plays a more significant role. The Laws of Moshe help us represent God, as members of a nation that asserts His continuing Presence in the world.
The role of Eliyahu as a precursor of Mashiah also emphasizes the issue of making God manifest in the world. There is nothing intuitively obvious about the need for a harbinger of the Messiah—what would be lacking if Mashiah came without Eliyahu? The answer seems to be (and, incidentally, Ramban says this in regard to prophets’ predictions generally) that lay the groundwork for an Arrival that will bring with it a broad recognition of God and Providence in the world.
Which now, of course, connects it to Pesah. It is not just that on Pesah we were redeemed and in a future Nissan will be again; it is that the original redemption consisted of God proving to the Egyptians that He can act physically or metaphysically, naturally or supernaturally, to achieve a desired result. At the future redemption, we hope, the Jewish people will have made that point clear to the world. If they haven’t, Eliyahu will fill in, so that Mashiah’s success will be eased and the import of his activities will be that much clearer.
How Much Work Will Eliyahu Have to Do?
As I’ve noted with other haftarot, I understand Malachi as telling us this because we have a contribution to make, in minimizing Eliyahu’s job when he arrives. The more we achieve, the less of a revelation his coming will be. While he will necessarily have some work to do, each piece we could have taken care of without him becomes a failure of ours, a failure to produce a world that recognizes Hashem, and so on. Shabbat Shalom and Best Wishes for a Hag Kasher ve-Sameah, a re-experiencing of Herut in its fullest form, ein lecha ben horin ela mi she-oseq be-Talmud Torah.
Mal.3
[4] Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
[5] And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
[6] For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
[7] Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
[8] Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
[9] Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
[10] Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
[11] And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.
[12] And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
[13] Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
[14] Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
[15] And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
[16] Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
[17] And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
[18] Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
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Note: Tanach has these pesukim as the end of Chapter 3, but the online site I found has it as a separate chapter—please ignore these numbers, and read these verses as verses 19-24 of chapter 3.
[1] For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
[2] But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
[3] And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
[4] Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
[5] Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
[6] And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.