Haftarah of Parshat Vaera - 5761

"…My River is Mine and I have Created it"
(Yechezkel 29:3)

Introduction

The Haftarah that is read on Shabbat Parshat Vaera is taken, according to the traditions of both the Ashkenazic and Sephardic Communities, from the Book of Yechezkel, "Perek"/Chapter 28, "Passuk"/Verse 25  - "Perek" 29, "Passuk" 21.

Background of the Haftarah

One of the key "P'sukim" in the Book of Shemot is the first verse of the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Commandments, "I am the L-rd your G-d, Who took you out of the Land of 'Mitzrayim,' from the House of Bondage (Shemot 20:2)."  Here HaShem sets down as one of the  foundations of faith the belief that the Almighty intervened in human history in order to redeem His people from the persecution and the Exile of Egypt, in order to  demonstrate His infinite Might and His involvement with the world that He had created,  and His hallmark of identifying with the "underdog," as it says in Megilat Kohelet, "And the L-rd is on the side of the persecuted" (Kohelet 3:15).

At the climactic confrontation between the People of Israel and the armed might of Egypt at the Sea of Reeds, Moshe pointed out to the Jewish people that they need not fear because the G-d of Israel would be fighting for them.  Because of His intervention, the Nation of Egypt, then the World Super-Power, would be reduced forever, and would never again attain the degree of dominance that it had at that time.  "And Moshe said to the People, 'do not fear, just stand and watch the Redemption of HaShem, that He will accomplish for you today, for as you see Mitzrayim today, you will never again see them on that level forever!' " (Shemot 14:13).

But although we are told "And Israel saw the great Hand with which HaShem had  punished Egypt, and the People feared HaShem, and they believed in HaShem and in Moshe, His servant (Shemot 14:31)," nevertheless we find them at least three times relying on the  strength of Egypt, and not relying on HaShem, when they are threatened by another nation.

We find the thrice-told tale in the Book of "Melachim"/Kings II, in connection with both the Kingdom of Israel, that had, so-to-speak, "seceded from the Union," and with the Kingdom of Yehudah.

We find the phenomenon first in connection with Hoshea ben Elah, the last King of Israel (not to be confused with the great Prophet Hoshea ben Be'eri, of the "Trei Asar," the Group of Twelve Prophets who prophesied roughly at this time in history).  Hoshea, the King of Israel, had been paying tribute to the "world-power" at that time, the Nation of "Ashur," Assyria, but, relying on Egyptian support, rebelled and stopped paying.  Shalmaneser, King of Ashur, attacked Israel and took Hoshea captive ("Melachim" II, 17:4).  After a three-year siege, the King of Ashur destroyed Shomron, the region that was the stronghold of the Kingdom (and ominously is in today's headlines, again), and exiled the Ten Tribes to Ashur ("Melachim" II, 17:6).

We find it again in connection with the righteous King Chizkiyahu, who was threatened by Sancheriv, King of Ashur at that time.  The messengers of Sancheriv used the  expression, "Now behold, you have placed your trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it, so is Pharaoh King of Egypt unto all that trust in him" ("Melachim" II, 18:21).

And we find the phenomenon a third time in connection with the less-than-righteous King Yehoyakim, who served Nevuchadnezzar, King of Bavel, for three years and then, relying upon aid from Mitzrayim, rebelled against him ("Melachim" II, 24:1).  But we find there the description of the "great power" of the Pharaoh, King of Egypt, "And the King of Egypt  came not again out of his land; for the King of Babylon had taken, from the Brook of Egypt, unto the River Euphrates, all that had belonged to the King of Egypt ("Melachim" II, 24:7)."

And we find yet again, after the assassination of Gedalyah ben Achikam, that all the remaining Jews who had been involved in the final, failed rebellion fled, not having yet learned the lesson, to Egypt (Melachim II, 25:26).

Thus, the umbilical cord tying the Jewish People to its place of origin as a nation, could not easily be broken.

Selected Commentary on the Haftarah

Yechezkel 28:25-26

"…when I gather the House of Israel…and they will dwell on their Land …and they will dwell on it in security…"

RASHI explains that these verses refer back to the preceding verses not included in the Haftarah, where Yechezkel had prophesied concerning the punishment of the nations that had been "thorns and obstacles" to the People of Israel:  Amon, Moav, P'lishtim,  Edom, Tzor and Tzidon.  Now that the People of Israel would not be hemmed in on all sides, they would be able to feel the tranquility of spirit of an "inheritance without  bounds," and would be able to fulfill the promise given to our Father Yaakov, "And you will burst forth to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south" (Bereshit 28:14).

Yechezkel 29:3-5

"…'Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, King of Egypt, the great sea monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, who said, "My river is my own, and I have created it for myself."

"And I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of your rivers to cling to your scales, and I will pull you up from the rivers…"

"And I will cast you into the desert, You and all the fish of your rivers,… to the beasts of the field and to the birds of the heavens have I given you for food."

RASHI explains that since Egypt has the relatively unique characteristic that since all its needs for water are provided for by the Nile River, this naturally leads to a sense of  arrogance, especially in the King, who will say, "I have no need for rain, nor for the  Source of the rain, Who resides in Heaven."  This arrogance will expand to all areas of  the Kingdom, and the King will eventually claim to be a god, whose own greatness has provided all his blessings, and the blessings of the Kingdom.

But HaShem says that He will separate the King and his people from their river, casting them onto dry land, where their life experiences have not prepared them for existence.  Their arrogance will evaporate in an instant like drops of water in a desert.

Yechezkel 29:6-7

"…because they have been a staff of reeds to the House of Israel….and when they lean on you, you break…"

RADAK notes that preceding the "Churban," the Destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians, Egypt actually did make a feint with its army in the direction of the battle, as if to help the Jewish People.  But when the Babylonians turned temporarily from Jerusalem to deal with the Egyptians, the Egyptian army hastily withdrew, and the Babylonians returned to the siege of Yerushalayim with a vengeance.  Hence, the support provided by Egypt was not only weak but, in the end, harmful to the Jews.

RADAK also notes that Ravshake, a Babylonian military officer, also criticized Egypt in nearly the identical language, when he referred to them loudly, in an attempt to  demoralize the Jews standing guard on the walls of Jerusalem, "Now behold, you place your trust in this staff of bruised reed, even upon Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go  into his hand, and pierce it; so is Pharaoh, King of Egypt, unto all that trust on him" ("Melachim" II, 18:21).

It is not clear whether the Babylonian borrowed the language of the prophets, or whether the prophets merely used the prevailing military assessment of the usefulness of Egypt as an ally.

Yechezkel 29:8-12

"And they will know that I am the L-rd, because he (the Pharaoh) said, 'The River is mine and I have made it.' "

"No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years."

Metzudat David rephrases the supreme arrogance contained in these words as ” I became great and elevated myself by my own power and wisdom and the work of my hand."

This is reminiscent of the sinful words that the Torah predicts and warns the Jewish People against, "It is my strength and the might of my hands that have gotten me this wealth" (Devarim 8:17).  

It is also reminiscent of the poem, "Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley, about the false arrogance of human kings, "two vast and trunkless legs of stone;" nearby, on the sand, a shattered visage, and "on the pedestal these words appear, 'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'  Nothing beside remains.  Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away."

RASHI cites a Midrash that attempts to explain the length of the Egyptian Exile, forty years.  Based on the Scriptural account of Pharaoh's dreams, there should have been forty-two years of famine in Egypt.  Why?  Because the words "the dream" appear three times in that section of Parshat Miketz, and there were a total of fourteen symbols of famine (seven emaciated cows and seven blasted ears of corn) in Pharaoh's combined dream.  Because of the Brachah of Yaakov, there were only two years of famine in Pre-Exodus Egypt.  Here, in Yechezkel we find the payment of the missing forty years.

Other connections linking Mitzrayim to "forty years" may lie in the influence of the "Erev Rav," the "mixed multitude" of Egyptians who left Egypt with the Jewish People only because they wanted to be with a winner.  Their influence is clear in the great sin of the Golden Calf and it is probably true that they were behind every unfaithful expression of the Jewish People, "Let us return to Mitzrayim," for which the Jewish People were punished with having to wander for forty years in the desert.

Yechezkel 29:13-16

"And I will bring back the Exile of Egypt, and I will return them to the land of Pathros, into the land of their origin; and they shall remain there a lowly nation."

"It shall be the lowliest of the kingdoms…; and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations."

"And it shall no more be the guarantor of security for the House of Israel, that would be a reminder of their sin of turning towards them; and they will know that I am the L-rd  G-d."

Egypt will also experience a "redemption" of a kind, as a "reward" for being the "incubator" of the People of Israel, albeit a brutal "incubator" in the end, though in the beginning Egypt served as a place of tremendous growth for the House of Israel.

But they will remain a lowly nation always, and Israel will be cured of its bad habit, as the RADAK explains, of looking to Egypt for support instead of to its Father in Heaven.

Israel will forget the fact that the Egyptians were their first "masters" and fully integrate the fact that they are to serve only their true Master, the "Ribbono shel Olam," the Master of the Universe.

Yechezkel 29:17-20

"Son of Man, Nevuchadrezzar (one and the same with Nevuchadnezzar), the King of Bavel, caused his army to serve a great service against Tzor; every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled; yet he had no wages, nor his army, from Tzor,…"

"Therefore, thus says the L-rd G-d, 'Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nevuchadrezzar King of Babylon, and he shall carry off her abundance,… and it shall be the wages for his army."

"I have given him the land of Egypt as payment for the service that he performed for Me,…"

Here we see HaShem acting as the Prime Mover of History, and the Righteous Employer.  At the same time that he "uses" Nevuchadnezzar as his "messenger" for administering deserved punishment, he rewards the latter for his act, even though it was done, from Nevuchadrezzar's point of view, purely for selfish reasons.

RADAK explains the "baldness" and the "peeling" referred to as being the result of strenuous and lengthy labor lifting and moving stones and wood and other items for military use.  The reason that their wages were withheld at the time of the War against Tzor was that after the defeat of Tzor, a great tidal wave fell upon the Babylonian soldiers, and washed away all their booty.

Yechezkel 29:21

"On that day I will cause a horn of triumph to sprout forth for the House of Israel…"

Metzudat David relates "that day" to the forty year Exile of Mitzrayim whose end  will coincide with the coming to power of the Persian King Coresh, and the defeat of the Babylonians.

Connections

• In the Parshah, we see the arrogance of the Pharaoh, who refuses to release his Jewish slaves, even after being told time after time that this is the command of the Creator of the Universe, and despite receiving blow after blow as punishment for his stubbornness.

In the Haftarah, we also see and hear the arrogance of the Pharaoh, when he attempts to make himself a god and a creator in his words, "My River is mine, and I have created it" (Yechezkel 29:3)

• In Parshiyot Vaera and Bo, in four of the seven plagues described in Vaera and in two of the three plagues described in Bo, we find explicit reference to the purpose of the plagues; namely, "education:" "…in order that you know that there is none like HaShem our G-d" (Shemot 8:6), "…in order that you should know that I am HaShem in the midst of the land" (Shemot 8:18), " "…in order that you should know that there is none like Me in all of the world" (Shemot 9:14), etc.

In three of the seven in Vaera and one of the three described in Bo, the same point is made implicitly.

In the Haftarah, the purpose of the punishment of Egypt is also clearly stated, "In order that all the residents of Egypt should know that I am G-d" (Yechezkel 29:6).

• In the Parshah, we find the beginning of the story of the punishment of the Egyptians by plagues that issued from the Nile River (Blood and Frogs), from the ground (Lice and Wild Animals) and from the sky (Pestilence, Boils and Hail).

In the Haftarah, references are made to  the three sources from which the Egyptians were punished, by reference to the "fish of your rivers," "you will collapse on the field, there to be prey to the beasts of the land, and to the birds of the skies" (Yechezkel 29:5).

• In the Parshah, the "reed" is a prominent feature of the Egyptian landscape, as by the Nile and at the Sea of Reeds.

In the Haftarah, and elsewhere in TANAKH, Mitzrayim is pictured as a broken reed.

• In the Parshah, the account is begun of the punishment of the Egyptian nation, and their coming perilously close to national extinction by "virtue" of their merciless treatment of the Jews.

In the Haftarah, the Egyptians are punished for another reason - for being an unfaithful ally of the Jewish People, that in fact was part of the complex of events that led to the Destruction of the First Temple.

In the Haftarah, Yechezkel speaks of an Exile and a Redemption as part of the destiny of the Egyptian Nation.

In Yeshayahu 19:19-25, there is a series of enigmatic verses, that are interpreted in two radically different ways.  They speak, on the surface, in positive terms, of the Egyptian and the Assyrian Peoples, at the End-of-Days.  These positive images include the Repentance of both of those Peoples.  And the final verses there are:

"In that Day  shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; for that the L-rd of Hosts has blessed him, saying, 'Blessed be Egypt My People, and Assyria the work of My Hands, and Israel Mine Inheritance."

RASHI explains the above blessings as all being upon the head of Israel, because of events that took place in connection with the other two nations.  But RADAK explains the verses more, it would seem, in line with the plain meaning of the text, as explained above.

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel