All growth comes through discomfort. Sometimes we find ourselves troubled by a nagging, nameless concern that feels like a pebble in our shoe. It doesn\u2019t cause great harm but irritates with each step until finally we must stop to remove it. Discomfort alerts us to the fact that something is wrong. When we face situations of moral ambiguity or emotional turbulence, we have to pay close attention to our discomfort: we often extract solutions and grow as human beings in understanding pain.<\/p>\n
The haftarah of Parashat Masei ( Jeremiah 2:4\u201328, 3:4), read in this season, is filled with God\u2019s charges against the children of Israel: accusations of betrayal, neglect and idol worship. One of the main themes undergirding God\u2019s anger is that the people have abandoned the One who can help them, and turned to idols that are useless and can provide no sustenance. This theme appears in several guises throughout these chapters, offering a \u201cpebble-in-the-shoe\u201d way to signal growth through discomfort.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah 2 is filled with rhetorical questions of rebuke directed to the children of Israel, opening with God\u2019s pained \u201cWhat wrong did your fathers find in Me that they abandoned Me and went after delusion and were deluded?\u201d( Jeremiah 2:5). This question may represent an honest introspective search on God\u2019s part to figure out what has gone wrong in His relationship with the Israelites. More likely, it is a question posed to sound reflective, but is really an accusation, laying on guilt. This reading is underscored by the later questions scattered throughout the chapter:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey never ask themselves, \u2018Where is the Lord, who brought us out of the land of Egypt?\u2019 \u201d (verse 6)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe priests never asked themselves, \u2018Where is the Lord?\u2019\u201d (verse 8)<\/p>\n
\u201cHas any nation changed its gods even though they are nongods?\u201d ( verse 11)<\/p>\n
\u201cIs Israel a bondman? Is he a homeborn slave? Then why is he given over to plunder?\u201d (verse 14)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat then is the good of your going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile?\u201d (verse 18)<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can you say, \u2018I am not defiled\u2026\u2019?\u201d ( verse 23)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are those gods you made for yourself?\u201d ( verse 28)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This onslaught of questions presents an exhaustive flow. Alone, each could stimulate discussion. Grouped together \u2013 some appearing one right after the other \u2013 they are a barrage of criticism, serving as a metaphorical kick in the stomach. Winded, the children of Israel make no reply; there is rarely a good answer to a rhetorical question, let alone multiple ones. The interrogation forces the Israelites into a mental corner from which they have no choice but to examine themselves. An answer to one question alone does not satisfy the Questioner.<\/p>\n
The poet, William Wordsworth, portrays the confused state of one who is constantly questioned:<\/p>\n
But for those obstinate questionings
\nOf sense and outward things,
\nFallings from us, vanishings;
\nBlank misgivings of a Creature
\nMoving about in worlds not realized,
\nHigh instincts before which our mortal Nature
\nDid tremble like a guilty Thing surprised.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nQuestions trap us. In our mortal, limited state, we are surprised and stunned to be caught. Continual questioning forces us to look inside.<\/p>\n
Our text reminds us that this is a time of inner misgivings about commitments and our role in relationships. It is a time to review Jewish history and our enduring spiritual bonds to God. It is a time to question ourselves.<\/p>\n
Kavana for the Day<\/b>
\nWhat is the most important question you have right now? Write it down. Stare at the words. How are you going to answer that question? What is getting in the way of an answer?<\/p>\nFrom In The Narrow Places<\/i>, for 7 Av<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All growth comes through discomfort. Sometimes we find ourselves troubled by a nagging, nameless concern that feels like a pebble in our shoe. It doesn\u2019t cause great harm but irritates with each step until finally we must stop to remove it. Discomfort alerts us to the fact that something is wrong. When we face situations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":428,"featured_media":41518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-three-weeks"],"yoast_head":"\n
To Question, That Is the Question: Haftarah for Parshat Masei<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"All growth comes through discomfort. It highlights the fact that something is wrong. Jeremiah's rhetorical questions are veiled accusations against the Jews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Question, That Is the Question: Haftarah for Parshat Masei\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All growth comes through discomfort. It highlights the fact that something is wrong. Jeremiah's rhetorical questions are veiled accusations against the Jews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Holidays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OrthodoxUnion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-08T11:49:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Question-3-e1473802902154.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Erica Brown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. Erica Brown\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/\",\"name\":\"To Question, That Is the Question: Haftarah for Parshat Masei\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Question-3-e1473802902154.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-08T11:49:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/e971c07f800b22a9231aaee22857ff8a\"},\"description\":\"All growth comes through discomfort. It highlights the fact that something is wrong. Jeremiah's rhetorical questions are veiled accusations against the Jews\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Question-3-e1473802902154.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Question-3-e1473802902154.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667,\"caption\":\"Question\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"To Question, That Is the Question: Haftarah for Parshat Masei\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/\",\"name\":\"Jewish Holidays\",\"description\":\"Learn about Jewish holidays\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/e971c07f800b22a9231aaee22857ff8a\",\"name\":\"Dr. Erica Brown\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/551b86499c0ccb022cf0c8c1d5e5c2977271b46f4319994ac50faa778313fdb5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/551b86499c0ccb022cf0c8c1d5e5c2977271b46f4319994ac50faa778313fdb5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dr. Erica Brown\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/author\/dr-_erica_brownou-org\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"To Question, That Is the Question: Haftarah for Parshat Masei","description":"All growth comes through discomfort. It highlights the fact that something is wrong. Jeremiah's rhetorical questions are veiled accusations against the Jews","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"To Question, That Is the Question: Haftarah for Parshat Masei","og_description":"All growth comes through discomfort. It highlights the fact that something is wrong. Jeremiah's rhetorical questions are veiled accusations against the Jews","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/","og_site_name":"Jewish Holidays","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OrthodoxUnion","article_published_time":"1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-08T11:49:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Question-3-e1473802902154.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dr. Erica Brown","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dr. Erica Brown","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/","name":"To Question, That Is the Question: Haftarah for Parshat Masei","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Question-3-e1473802902154.jpg","datePublished":"1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-08T11:49:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/e971c07f800b22a9231aaee22857ff8a"},"description":"All growth comes through discomfort. It highlights the fact that something is wrong. Jeremiah's rhetorical questions are veiled accusations against the Jews","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Question-3-e1473802902154.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/files\/Question-3-e1473802902154.jpg","width":1000,"height":667,"caption":"Question"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/to_question_that_is_the_question\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"To Question, That Is the Question: Haftarah for Parshat Masei"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/","name":"Jewish Holidays","description":"Learn about Jewish holidays","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/e971c07f800b22a9231aaee22857ff8a","name":"Dr. Erica Brown","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/551b86499c0ccb022cf0c8c1d5e5c2977271b46f4319994ac50faa778313fdb5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/551b86499c0ccb022cf0c8c1d5e5c2977271b46f4319994ac50faa778313fdb5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dr. Erica Brown"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/author\/dr-_erica_brownou-org\/"}]}},"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3569"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49033,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569\/revisions\/49033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}