Download PDF Ezekiel 36:37-37:14 Exiled to Babylon with King Jechoniah of Judah in 597 BCE, Ezekiel prophesied destruction upon his own people and other nations for seven years. These prophecies comprise the majority of his book. Ezekiel’s prophecies after the destruction of the Temple blend rebuke, comfort and startling visions of redemption; they form the […]

Download PDF Shabbat Chol Hamoed Sukkot: Ezekiel 38:18-39:16 This dramatic Haftarah describes the final, apocalyptic stages of God’s redemption of His people at the End of Days. This is similar to the Haftarah for the First Day of Sukkot, Zechariah’s apocalyptic prophecy of the End of Days. In the verses before the Haftarah’s opening, Ezekiel […]

Download PDF The Haftarot recited between the 17th of Tammuz and Sukkot relate not to the weekly Torah reading, but instead to the workings of the covenant between God, His people, His Land, and humanity. After the Temple’s destruction described in the Haftarot of the “Three of Affliction” (תלת דפורענותא) and Tisha B’Av, the “Seven […]

Download PDF This Haftarah, Isaiah’s final prophecy, presents visions of Israel in the Land, in exile, and in an apocalyptic redemption with the rest of humanity. In the Land, many Jews, falsely convinced of their own righteousness, reject and mock those who truly fear God. These mockers sacrifice to God but otherwise act evilly and reject […]

Download PDF In memory of Ira Beer, Yitzchak Dov ben Tzvi Mendel, on the occasion of his second Yahrtzeit. After Israel’s first king, Saul, failed to obliterate the nation of Amalek as God commanded, the prophet Samuel told him that God rejected him and would replace him with a better king. Samuel then privately anointed a […]

Download PDF In Tisha B’Av’s Torah reading, Moses prophesies that God will eventually annihilate and exile His people for defecting to idolatry after their conquest of the Land. In the Haftarah, Jeremiah describes the coming brutal fulfillment of that prophecy. In God’s voice and with his own blistering words, Jeremiah lambasts Judah for its idolatry, […]

Download PDF From this Shabbat until Shabbat Shuva, the weekly Haftarot relate to the Jewish calendar instead of the weekly Parashah. The first three of these Haftarot are the Three of Affliction (Aramaic: תלת דפורענותא), describing the destruction of Judah, Jerusalem, and the First Temple in 587 BCE. They are recited on consecutive Shabbatot of […]

Download PDF God’s revelations in the Haftarot of Shavuot and the Torah reading for its first day (Exodus 19-20) terrified those who experienced them. They share elements such as God’s voice and light, yet also differ markedly. In the Torah reading, God descends a remote desert mountain to strike a covenant with His entire people […]

Download PDF The Haftarot of the first two days of Passover recount how two celebrations of the holiday, each at a moment of national transformation, renewed its commitment to its covenant with God. As recited on Day 1, Joshua’s celebration of Passover forty years after the Exodus renewed their covenantal connection to God and His […]

Download PDF Shabbat Chanukah: Zechariah 2:14-4:9 After defeating the Seleucid Greeks and returning to the Temple, the Maccabees faced a dire situation: a completely defiled Temple, devoid of God’s presence. Hundreds of years earlier, the prophet Zechariah faced a similarly hopeless situation.  After Persia’s conquest of Babylon, Cyrus the Great decreed that Jewish exiles there could […]