Haftorah for April 16, 2022

Haftorah reading for the first day of Pesach is Joshua 3:5-7, 5:2-6:1, 6:27.

By Irv Jacobs, M.D.

Irv Jacobs

LA JOLLA, California — The readings for this Shabbat, the first day of Passover, are from the Book of Joshua. The text is entirely in prose. I use the translation of Robert Alter of the University of California Berkeley. [1]

There is no clear connection to the Torah Reading, which deals with the tenth plague, i.e. the death of all first borns in Egypt, persons and livestock, followed by Pharaoh’s demand to the Israelites to “pick up and leave.”

In contrast, these selected passages from the Book of Joshua are three separate unconnected messages:

Orders to carry the Ark of the Covenant across the Jordan into “the land.” (Josh. 3:5-7); The LORD’s mandate to Joshua (Josh, 5:2-8) to make flint knives to circumcise the yet uncircumcised younger generation of males born along the way (at what the text calls the Hill of Foreskins). They ate produce from the land, no longer dependent on manna!

Now comes the mandatory upbeat ending to this fragmented haftorah.

The text deviates to describe that Joshua, when at Jericho, encountered a messenger of God in the form of a man. (Josh. 5:13-15) This messenger described himself as “the commander of the LORD’s army. Joshua bowed, face to the ground, in obeisance. He took off his sandals, ‘for the place was stated to be holy.” The text implies then that Joshua and his warriors conquered the “tight” city of Jericho. Archaeologically, Jericho was then (c. 1200 BCE) at best a small mainly destroyed village at the time, unlike our received text which declares a significant conquest by Joshua. This was “achieved” by encircling the city at times for six days, seven priests blowing ram’s horns — and the wall of the city fell down. Much magical thinking here. [2]
The edited/abbreviated rabbi’s text skips two pages of Joshua here to end the haftorah with a summary upbeat overly-simplified hyperbolic statement regarding Joshua. “And the LORD was with Joshua and his fame was throughout the land.” [3]
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I submit here that this entire Haftorah is a disjointed fusion of widely separated Joshua passages, artificially stitched together by its editors. To this reader, it was an amateurish project. Anyway the passages can be considered historically as fiction!

There is much that is non-credible to an intelligent reader/listener, I submit, even in Joshua’s time c. 1200 BCE.

Even apart from these haftorah passages selected by the rabbis, who edited them, the entire Book of Joshua is a fantasy.

Alter, my translator, in his editorial comments makes clear that this “history” never happened. The consensus of modern scholars agrees, notwithstanding the fundamentalists. There was no conquest of Canaan, even the village of Jericho, either in toto or piecemeal. What realistically happened is that the Israelites gradually assimilated with the local population, who became Israelites.

The writers/editors of the Book of Joshua felt impelled to invent a narrative of conquest, unfortunately infused with genocide, not a welcome tradition to modern readers. [4]
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[1] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Prophets Vol. 2, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2019, pp. 15-25
[2] Ibid. Alter, p. 22
[3] Ibid. Alter, p. 24
[4] Ibid. Alter, p. 4-5 – This text of annihilation of indigenous peoples of Canaan belongs not to historical memory but rather to cultural memory. It was intended to fix in memories of future generations an image of Israel as “a strong militaristic people who dwells apart.” Realistically ancient Israel was entangled not only with the peoples of Canaan, but also with Egypt and Mesopotamia. Our received text, without subtlety, says so. Furthermore the “conquest” is described as an overwhelming military triumph, mainly attributed to God! — against the strong prevailing nearby pagan powers.
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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.