This week’s Torah reading is Nitzavim (Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20); Haftorah is Isaiah 61:10-63:9
By Irv Jacobs, M.D.
LA JOLLA, California — These strong poetic verses extracted from the Book of Isaiah are again from Isaiah III. They constitute the seventh and last Haftorah of Consolation, preceding Rosh Hashonah. Again, it has no connection to the Torah reading.
The setting is in Judea c. 480-450 BCE, the addressees being returnees and, more likely, their offspring. The dramatized theme of these chosen verses is a contrived jubilant exultation and anticipated thanksgiving, actually against a hardship situation of efforts to re-build Judea. [1]
An overall metaphor of the Haftorah is that of a happily restored marriage between God and the people. [2]
Here are selected excerpts from the translation/interpretations of Emeritus Professor Robert Alter, of the University of California, Berkeley, taken from his opus work on the prophets. [3]
I shall greatly rejoice in the LORD,
my very being exult in my God.
For He has clothed me with garments of triumph,
has wrapped me with victory’s cloak,
as a bridegroom dons, priestlike a turban
and as a bride is adorned in fine clothes. [4]…
And you shall be called a new name
that the mouth of the LORD shall fix.
And you shall become a crown of splendor in the hand of the LORD
and a regal diadem in the palm of your God.
No more shall be said of you “Forsaken”
and of your land no more be said “Desolation.”
For you shall be called “My delight is in Her”
and your land, “The One Bedded.” [5]…
On your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have stationed watchmen. [6]
Through the day and through the night,
they are never still.
You invokers of the LORD,
do not fall silent
till He sets Jerusalem firm, praise in the earth.
The LORD has vowed by His right hand
and by His powerful arm:
I will no more give your grain
to your enemies as food,
and foreigners shall not drink your new wine
over which you have toiled. [7]…
Pass through, pass through the gates,
clear the people’s way.
Build up, build up the highway,
clear away the stones,
raise a banner over peoples…
Say to Zion’s daughter,
look, your rescue comes…
And they shall call them “Holy People,”…
“The City Unforsaken.” [8]…
Who is this coming from Edom,…
“Why is there red on your garments
and your clothes like one treading a winepress?”…
and I trampled them in My wrath,
stomped on them in My fury,
and their lifeblood splattered My garments,… [9]
Now comes the mandatory upbeat ending:
The LORD’s acts of kindness I recall,
the praises of the LORD…
whom He requited with His mercy
and with His many acts of kindness…
and He became their rescuer…
In His love and in His compassion He redeemed them,
plucked them up and bore them all the days of yore…
I add verse 11, for emphasis:
drawing his people out from the water: [10]
[1] Etz Hayim,The Jewish Publication Society, 2001, New York, p. 1180
[2] Ibid, Etz Hayim, p. 1180
[3] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Prophets Vol. 2, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2019, pp. 828-833
[4] Metaphor and simile = a wedding
[5] Metaphoric phrases = beloved bride, with sexuality emphasized
[6] A common role of protectors of a walled city
[7] A strong promise
[8] Pagan nations, noting Judea’s righteous re-birth
[9] Metaphor for rescuer, blood-stained Warrior God; These verses are the source for the novel, “The Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck
[10] reference to both the infant Moses and the Biblical rescue at the Sea of Reeds.
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This is the old “college try” by Isaiah III to “put on a happy face” in a trying situation. The images are positive, glorifying the returned Judeans in their efforts to re-build in an inhospitable land. The land swarmed with resistant pagan occupants.
Also to be emphasized is the poet’s attribution of God’s favorable turn of attitude toward the returned Judeans. That plus actual hard work is what remade the Judean nation.
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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.