Haftarah of Parshat Eikev - 5760

"But Zion said, 'The L-rd has Abandoned Me' " (Yeshayahu 49:14) 

This week, Ashkenazim and Sefardim both read, for the Second Haftarah of Consolation, from the Book of Yeshayahu, beginning with Chapter 49, Verse 14, through (and including) Chapter 51, Verse 3.

Introduction

Complaint of Jewish People

The Haftarah begins, surprisingly because this is a Haftarah of Consolation, with an accusation by Zion, the City of Yerushalayim, against HaShem:  

14.  "But Zion said, 'The L-rd has abandoned me,
And the L-rd has forgotten me.' "

Response of HaShem  

15.  "Could a woman forget the child she had nursed,
Or not have mercy on the child of her womb?
Even if both these could happen,
I would not forget you!"

The nature of a mother is to be a fountain of never-failing love for her child, no matter what.  But even if that aspect built into Creation should somehow fail, HaShem's love for the Jewish people would not.

The extent of HaShem's loyalty to the Jewish People is described by a slightly unfamiliar metaphor (engraving on the palms); perhaps similar to the Midrashic reference to HaShem's wearing of Tefillin, with verses inscribed upon them in praise of Israel), but its meaning is clear:  

16.  "Behold I have engraved you upon the Palms of My Hands,
Your walls are continually before Me."

With the "walls" in the above verse referring to the broken walls of Yerushalayim; perhaps this is similar to the declaration by David that "My sin is continually before me," referring to the broken walls of his spiritual loyalty to HaShem.  

Description of Ingathering of the Exiles

17.  "Your children made haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Will go forth from your midst."

RADAK: The expression "made haste" is written in the past tense even though it refers to an event in the future (as does "will go forth"), because that is a familiar style of  Prophecy; namely, to write about something in the future as if it had already occurred - because  it is as clear to the Prophet, as if it had already occurred."

RADAK and Metzudat David: They focus on the fact that the verse portrays the  destroyers of Israel as going forth from the midst of Israel; this is because our greatest  enemies have always been the internal ones; the self-hating and self-destructive Jews  who deny any special qualities of the Jewish People, or any special relationship with G-d.  

18.  "Lift up your eyes round-about, and behold:
All these gather together, and come to you.
As I live, says HaShem,
You shall surely clothe yourself with them all,
As with an ornament;
And gird yourself with them,
Like a bride."

RADAK: "round-about" - because they will be coming from all directions;

"As I live" - this is a form of Divine Promise, like "I swear by Myself," that will never be rescinded;

"As with an ornament" - the population of a city is like an ornament for her.  

19.  "For your waste and desolate places
And the land that has been destroyed - 
Surely now shall be too narrow for the inhabitants,
And those who swallowed you up will be far away."

RASHI, RADAK and Metzudat David:  "shall be too narrow" - all the lands that were destroyed will be built up again, and so full of people that it will literally be crowded; and your former enemies will be far away, never again to tread upon your land as enemies.

As of Year 5760, we are beginning to see the crowding of the neighborhoods of Yerushalayim; the process of the withdrawal of our enemies is harder to see, but perhaps has begun as well.  

20.  "Those of your children who were missing 
Will say to you,
'It is too crowded;
Make room for me, so that I may sit too.' "

RASHI, RADAK and Metzudat David pursue the same idea in the above verse (49:20) as in the preceding verse (49:19).  

21.  "Then you will say in your heart,
Who has begotten me these?
Since I have been bereaved of my children, and was alone,
An exile, and wandering to and fro,
And who brought them up, while I remained alone,
Indeed, where were they?"  

Participation of Nations of the World in Ingathering
Some Will Be Inspired to Do So Willingly  

22.  "This says the L-rd G-d,
'Behold, I will lift up My Hand to the nations,
And set up My Sign to the peoples,
And they shall carry your sons with great honor,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.' "
Metzudat David:  "I will lift up My Hand" - I will inspire their hearts to do this.  

23.  "And Kings will be as your foster-fathers,
And Queens as your nursing mothers,
They shall bow down to you
With their face to the earth,
And lick the dust of your feet;
And you will know that I am the L-rd,
For they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me."

RADAK:  "And you will know" - "Then you will know that I am the L-d, and everything is in My Hands to lower and to raise up, and though you were low for such a long time, you will yet be exalted over the nations, and I am the One Who does not disappoint  those who place their hope in Me.  For if you placed your hope in Me for a long time while you were in Exile, your hope was not disappointed (same as "lo avdah tikvatam," "Their hope was not disappointed," in the Israeli national anthem)  and there will no longer be cause for you to feel shame with respect to the nations, who  used to say that your hope is lost."

HaShem Deals With Those Nations who Persist in Opposing the Jewish People

24.  "Shall prey be taken from the Mighty?
Or the righteous captives of the powerful be delivered?"

RASHI and Metzudat David:  "Do you think, Esav the Mighty, that what you have taken from your righteous brother, Yaakov, cannot be retrieved from you?"

Do you think, enemies of Israel, that the lives you have stolen from the Jewish People, will not be returned?  

25.  "Thus says HaShem,
'Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
And the prey of the powerful shall be delivered;
And I will fight against him who fights against you,
And I will save your children."

RADAK in the name of his father:  HaShem says to these nations:

"I will retrieve that which you stole from My People, because:

1.  I am stronger than you are.

2.      Your claim to legitimacy is false, because your laws are immoral."

The Nazis, may their names be erased, claimed to be a very lawful and civilized people; they claimed that all the bestial crimes they committed against the Jews were "justified" by law.  This is what happens when the human being arrogates to himself the role of lawgiver, and abandons G-d, the true source of morality.  

26.  "And I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
And they shall be drunk with their own blood, 
As with sweet wine;
And all flesh shall know that I am your Savior,
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

Chapter 50
HaShem Responds Again to Charge of Abandonment

1.  "Thus says HaShem,
Where is the bill of your mother's divorce,
With which I sent her away?
Or which of My creditors is it
To whom I have sold you?
Behold, it was because of your sins that you were sold,
And because of your iniquities
That your mother was sent away!"

Metzudat David:  " 'Let's look,' says HaShem, at the 'Get,' the Bill of Divorcement mentioned in the Book of Yirmiyahu 3:8 for the cause of the divorce.  It is clearly stated there that the reason is your sins.  Therefore, if you repent, the divorce will be null and void."

2.  "Why was it that when I came, nobody was here,
When I called, there was none to answer?
Has My Hand been shortened, that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Behold, at My rebuke, I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish become foul, because there is no water,
And die from thirst."

3.  "I clothe the heavens with blackness,
And I make sackcloth their covering."

Metzudat David:  The second part of Verse 3 repeats the first idea in the verse, a common stylistic literary device in the Prophets.

In verses 4-11, Yeshayahu defends his own legitimacy, identifying the One Who has charged him with his mission as "A-do-nay E-lo-him," "L-rd G-d" four times in the series of eight p'sukim.  There are three other references to HaShem as the One Who has sent Yeshayahu, and has given him the tools he needs for success, in linguistic terms and in terms of moral authority.  He has also given him the strength to declare that "I have set my face like a flint" (Yeshayahu 50:7) against any and all opposition from the People, and the confidence to say in the same verse, "And I know that I shall not be ashamed."

Chapter 51

1.      "Listen to me, who pursue Justice,
Who seek the L-rd;
Look unto the rock from which you were hewn,
And to the opening of the cistern from which you were drawn."

The Prophet tells the Jewish People that they should contemplate their great founders, Avraham and Sarah, two spiritual giants, whose merit lasts from the beginning of Jewish History till the coming of the Mashiach.

RADAK cites two opinions as to who is the "rock" and who is the "opening."  One is that Avraham is the "rock;" this accords with his identification as one of the "eitanei olam," the "strong ones of the world."  And our Mother Sarah is the "opening," because the womb of a woman is like a cistern.  He quotes the "Chacham," the Wise Man Rabbi Moshe ben Ezra, who says the reverse, that the "rock" is Sarah, for she was the passive one, the recipient of blessing, and Avraham was the "opener," who acted upon and opened the "cistern."

2.  "Look unto Avraham your father,
And unto Sarah who bore you;
For when he was but one I called him,
And I blessed him, and made him many."

RADAK:  The connection of this matter to "Consolation" of the Jewish People is that just as Avraham and Sarah had, when they became aged, given up on the hope of having children, and You miraculously gave them a child, so will the People of Israel,  languishing in a seemingly endless Exile, have given up, more-or-less, on Redemption; just at that time, will HaShem miraculously redeem them.

3.  "For the L-rd has comforted Zion,
He has comforted all her ruins,
And made her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the Garden of the L-rd;
Joy and gladness shall be found there,
Thanksgiving, and the voice of melody."

Metzudat David: Yeshayahu speaks of the Redemption as if it had already happened, though it would be far in the future, because such is the manner of the Prophets of Israel, who see the future as clearly as they see the past.  The thanksgiving referred to is the expression of gratitude by the Jewish People for all the Miracles and Wonders that HaShem will have performed for them throughout their history.

Conclusion

Again we see that a Haftarah of Consolation is not a monolithic piece, sounding only notes of Redemption.  It is an interwoven composition of Criticism for Israel's misdeeds and of Reward for its great loyalties.  But the bottom lines of all these Haftarot are, uniformly, exalted portraits of a magnificent future for the People of Israel, which in the End will choose holiness and will return to HaShem, and which will lead the nations of the World to His service.

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel