This week’s Torah reading is Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8); Haftorah is Isaiah 60:1-22
By Irv Jacobs, M.D.
LA JOLLA, California — These strong poetic lines extracted from the Book of Isaiah are attributed to Isaiah III, again a composite figure. They were written in Judea, to coincide in setting to the era of post-return and the rebuilding of an early incomplete version of the second Temple, c. 480-450 BCE. The writer(s) expresses these verses under a repeated imagery of light. We don’t know actually when they were written/edited, which might have been years later.
This is the sixth weekly Haftorah of Consolation, read during the period after Tisha B’Av to the week before the High Holy Days. Again, it has no connection to the Torah parasha. [1]
Here are excerpts from the translation/interpretations of Robert Alter, Emeritus Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, from his opus work on the Prophets.
Rise, O shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has dawned over you.
For, look, darkness covers the earth,
and thick mist, the peoples,
but nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your dawning radiance…[3]
for the seas bounty shall be yours,
the wealth of nations shall come to you.
A tide of camels shall cover you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah,
they all shall come from Sheba.
Gold and frankincense they shall bear,
and the LORD’s praise they shall proclaim…
and the house of my splendor I will make splendid…[4]
For in My fury I did strike you
and in My favor I have compassion for you.
And they shall open your gates perpetually,
night and day they shall not close,
to buy you the wealth of nations…[5]
and you shall suckle the milk of nations,
royal breasts you shall suckle, [6]
and you shall know I am the Lord your Rescuer…
Instead of bronze I will bring gold,
and instead of iron I will bring silver
and instead of wood, bronze,
and instead of stone, iron.
And I will set as your governance Peace
and your overseers, Righteousness…
And you shall call your walls Deliverance
and your gates Praise.[7]
No more shall the sun be your light by day,
nor the moon’s radiance shine for you,
but the LORD shall be your everlasting light…
Now comes the haftorah’s mandatory upbeat ending—
And your people, all of them righteous,
shall forever possess the land…
The least shall become a thousand,
the smallest, a mighty nation.
I, the LORD, in its due time I will hasten it.[8]
Isaiah III delivers this message cautiously, due to the uncertainties of the time. Accordingly the theme of light projects what optimism he can conjure up. With chin up, he humbly faces reality.
The rabbis made a wise choice in these passages for a haftorah of Consolation. It fits well as a model for later centuries of prolonged diaspora.
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NOTES
[1] Etz Hayim,The Jewish Publication Society, 2001, New York, p. 1160
[2] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Prophets Vol. 2, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2019, pp. 822-826
[3] Ibid. Alter, p.822. Transcendent light is the core ingredient of Isaiah III, asserted to be provided by Judea, and perceived as an antidote for an earth engulfed in darkness.
[4] Following a mass return, the prophet looks to the day when the temple is finally ‘completely rebuilt’ and grandly refurbished.
[5] With fortune re-built, Jerusalem is hyperbolically envisaged here as a perfectly peaceful city that will never be attacked.
[6] a metaphor
[7] anticipates a land governed righteously, therefore prosperous and respected.
[8] The time frame of this message, a ‘Wild West’ mid 5th century BCE, saw the land in disarray, the rebuilding of Jerusalem proceeding fitfully, with fear of armed attacks. Thus the prophet hedges his bet, and only cautiously predicts the grand future, ‘in its due time.’
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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.