Haftorah for February 12, 2022

LA JOLLA, California — In these all prose passages, we are bamboozled by a flood of word salad and redundancy.

We have previously established that all the prophets were psychotic, i.e. the definition of psychosis specifies that it includes one who claims to converse with God. A distinction in the case of Ezekiel is that he is a 4+ example. His vivid hallucinations are exceptional. Also it is readily noted that his literary skills are in the novice range. [1]

These passages are believed to have been first announced in Babylon ~566 BCE, in roughly the 31st year of Ezekiel’s exile in Babylon along with Judea’s King Jehoiachin. They were finally edited and written down centuries later — I’d say mistakenly preserved by naive rabbis.

The connection to the Torah Reading is that the Torah describes dedication of the wilderness altar, whereas this haftorah attempts (woefully) to describe events in a future new temple.

I use the translation and interpretations by Robert Alter, Emeritus Professor at the University of California Berkeley. [2]

Here are excerpts from Ezekiel:

You, man, tell the house of Israel about the house, and let them be ashamed of their crimes, and let them measure its design. [3] And if they are ashamed of all they have done, inform them of the plan of the ‘house’ (the temple) and its design and its exits and its entrances…and inform them…and write them before their eyes…that they may observe all its designs and all its rules…regulations and do them.

This is the regulation for the house (temple) on the mountaintop, all its boundaries all around are holy of holies. Look, this is the regulation for the house (ad nauseam in unintelligible bewildering detail). [4]…

Man, thus said the Master (God): These are the statutes of the altar…,to offer up on it a burnt offering and to cast blood upon it. And you shall give these to the levitical priests who are the seed of Zadok [5]…to minister unto Me, a bull…take…its blood…on the four horns of the altar and at the four corners on the level section and on the boundary all around…and…take the bull of the offense offering and burn it in the set place of the ‘house’ outside the sanctuary. And on the second day you shall sacrifice an unblemished he-goat as an offense offering…purify the altar as…with the bull…(then) sacrifice an unblemished bull from the herd and an unblemished ram from the flock. Unblemished shall they be. Seven days they shall purge the altar and make it clean and consecrate it, and the days shall be completed. And (he drones on) it shall happen from the eighth day onward that the priests…shall do their burnt offerings and…well-being sacrifices…

And he brought me back through…the gate of the sanctuary…but it was closed. And the LORD said…”This gate shall be closed…no man shall enter it, for the LORD God of Israel has entered it, and it has become closed. The prince, he, the prince—it is he who shall sit in it to eat bread… by the sway of the gate hall he shall come in and by its way he shall go out. [6]

And the LORD said to me, “Man, pay mind and see with your eyes and with your ears hear all that I speak…about the statutes of the house of the LORD and…all its regulations, and you shall pay mind to the entrance of the house and to all the  exits of the sanctuary.

…say to the rebels, to the house of Israel,…LORD: Enough for you of all your abominations…when you bring  foreigners, uncircumcised…to be in My sanctuary to profane My house…and they violate My covenant…[7]

Thus said the…LORD…only the Levites…when Israel strayed, as they strayed from Me after their foul things…shall bear punishment…In as much as they…became a stumbling block of crime for the house of Israel…they shall bear their punishment…shall not approach Me (God)…to serve as priests to Me…to the Holy of Holies. [8]

…but the levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the watch of My house…they shall draw near to minister to Me…and stand before Me to offer up suet and blood…[9] They shall draw near to My table…and they shall keep My watch…when they enter the gate of the inner court, they shall wear linen garments (etc.)…they shall not gird what causes sweat. [10]

And when they go out to the outer court, to the outer court…they shall remove their garments…and lay them in the sacred chamber and don other garments, lest they consecrate people through their garments…they shall not shave, nor shall they let their hair grow long. And no priest shall drink wine…(coming) into the inner court.

Nor shall they take for themselves a widow or a divorced woman as wife but only a virgin from the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow who is a widow of a priest they may take. [11]

Now comes the mandatory supposed “upbeat” ending for the haftorah:

And My teachings and My statutes…they shall keep. And My Sabbaths they shall hallow. And no human corpse shall they approach…but for a father or a mother or a son or a daughter or a brother or a sister who is unmarried they may become unclean. And after he has become clean, they shall count seven days for him. And on the day he comes into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his offense offering, said the Master, the LORD.

Ezekiel rambles, often in flights of incomprehensible redundant gibberish. This pattern not only frustrates a reader, but turns him/her off, to discount what few fragments that are somewhat credible.

In discussing Ezekiel, I apologize that I can’t avoid rambling also— my reaction to convey the rambling character of these passages. I’ve taken the liberty to eliminate a number of redundancies. Accordingly, I suppose I have made him more comprehensible than he actually is.

[2] Ibid. Alter, pp. 1181-85
[3] Ibid, Alter, p. 1181 To Ezekiel, there is a seamless connection between grand visions of a restored temple and a restored monarchy. This includes  cubit-by-cubit measurements of the Temple to be rebuilt. He contemplates a rebuilt temple (in ruins by then some 20 years) with details of measurement.
[4] Ibid, Alter, p. 1181
[5] His preferred levitical family
[6] Redundant gibberish
[7] i.e. use of uncircumcised foreigners doing Temple duties, I.e. unfit, a violation of covenant.
[8] The Levites, because of straying, stated passionately, will be demoted in function, abolished from duties at the Holy of Holies.
[9] Burning these items was high up on the hierarchy of tributes to God! This family of priests are given a pass, their sins ignored.
[10] Perhaps here is a moment of near sanity! Perhaps linen was thought to be a purer fabric than wool because it did not come from an animal. In any case, linen fabric is cooler, less likely to cause sweating. On the other hand, discussion of sweating seems tangential to the main focus; hardly appropriate to bring up.

[11] A widow, apparently one who has not previously conceived