Notes on Haftorah Reading for May 1, 2021

 

Torah portion is Emor Leviticus 21-24;  Haftorah is Ezekiel 44:15-31

By Irv Jacobs, M.D

Irv Jacobs

LA JOLLA, California — This short prose increment from the ‘strangest’ prophet canonized in the Tanakh is a dull example, in contrast to the drama of much other of his writings.

Ezekiel was taken, along with King Jehoiachin, into exile in Babylon in 597 BCE, where his entire activity as a prophet and writer (c. 592-572 BCE) took place.

Because of some later rabbis’ notion that all true prophecies had to have some initiation in the Holy Land, there have been contrived ‘retro-placements’ of some of his writings to the time before his exile.

By way of background, it should be noted that ‘controversial’ Ezekiel was sex-obsessed in much of his writings, with a troubled relation to the female body. For example, in Chapter 16 he describes the birth of our nation in Canaan via the image of an infant girl naked and wallowing in the blood of afterbirth. Later, as an adult, he depicts Judea as insatiably lascivious, who uses her charms to entice strangers to her bed, with a special fondness for large phalluses! He seethes throughout with fervid misogyny, in the words of Professor Robert Alter of the University Of California Berkeley. I have used Alter’s prodigious three-volume magnum opus “The Hebrew Bible,” as a major source for this essay. [1]

I remind also that Ezekiel’s writings were so shocking and hallucinatory that there was dispute among the rabbis as to accepting them into the canon at all!

Alter is quick to point out also that Ezekiel, for most all his generally ecstatic visions, was tenacious to cite the date he wrote each passage. [2]

The Haftorah Emor, as an increment from Ezekiel’s largely dramatic hyperbolic writings, is remarkably benign, even literarily dull. Its connection to the Torah parasha of Emor is that both deal with sacred practices of the High Priest, his garb and grooming, his general duties and prohibitions, and his compensation in first fruits of every kind. [3]

It is noted, by way of contrast with Ezekiel’s remarkably colorful hallucinatory visions and tirades elsewhere in his writings, in this short selection, he is devoid of anything colorful. In fact, there is nothing ‘literary’ in this haftorah, only a dull recitation.

I repeat here that, according to most scholars, much of Ezekiel’s  prophesying is ‘conducted in a condition that looks like God-intoxicated derangement. The most notable are his first verses of Ch. 1 which describe the Merkebah, a grand theatrical chariot hovering in the sky, with fire-flashing radiance, the face of a different living creature on each of the four-sided structure, with peculiar wheels. [4]

I believe the rabbis who chose this dull prose piece did not follow their usual criteria for ‘necessary contents’ of a Haftorah.  It starts out with a complementary reference that favors the Zadokite priests, Ezekiel himself included. There is no chastisement of fellow exiles, nor any upbeat turn at the end of this chosen text. It merely ends with the usual compensation of food offerings to the landless priests.

This text is merely a non-artful recitation-description of the future restoration of the Holy of Holies, first with a description of the restored Zadokite High Priest’s uniform and grooming, followed by some mandates to his behavior and who he is limited to marry. There is no description of the ark, only simply ‘My table.’ [5] In fact, as prose, there are no artful literary devices such as metaphors, nor dramatic scenery or actions.

By way of clarification, the Zadokite High Priest line comes from the older son of Phineas, (of shish-kabob fame in Numbers Ch. 25:7-8. The line of Phineas’ other son, Ithamar, apparently was in the running, but the Zadokite line prevailed. Ezekiel in this prophesy from Babylon, clearly favored return of the High Priesthood to his own Zadokite side of the family.

I feel that the rabbis who chose these passages to complement the Torah portion of Emor did a poor job of selection. Surely there are better examples from any number of the Prophets to complement the parasha Emor!

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[1] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Prophets Vol. 2, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2019, pp. 1049-52

[2] Ibid, Alter, p. 1049

[3] Etz Hayim, The Jewish Publication Society, 2001, New York, p. 735

[4] op. cit. Alter, pp. 1049-50

[5] Ibid. Alter, p. 1184

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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis.  He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.