Torah Reading is Breishis, Genesis 1:1-6:8; Haftorah is Isaiah 42:5-43:10
By Irv Jacobs, M.D.
LA JOLLA, California — This entirely poetic Haftorah by Isaiah II, referenced c. 540 BCE, is set in Judea’s Babylonian exile. It anticipates release by the coming conqueror of Babylon, Cyrus of Persia. I remind that Isaiah II, like all of the Book of Isaiah, represents a composite of writers, who collectively are a Master ancient Hebrew ‘poet’.
Exiled Israel is depicted by the Prophet as blind, in the dark, and deaf, who God will deliver into the light, and who then will become a ‘light unto the nations’.
The background is represented as God’s intervention in Israel’s legendary ‘history’. Now, out of the mouth of this prophet, He is about to rescue Israel again.
The connection to the week’s Torah parasha, the Hebrew story of world creation, is that the Prophet considers his message, from God, to be a repeat theme of creation. [1]
I have chosen to use excerpts from the translation and commentaries of Emeritus Professor Robert Alter of the University of California at Berkeley, from his opus work Prophets’ [2] I regret that the English translation, though ‘accurate,’ cannot fully capture the flavor of the Hebrew.
Thus said God, the LORD,
Creator of the heavens, He stretches them out,
lays down the earth and its offspring,
gives breath to the people upon it
and life-breadth to those who walk on it.
I the LORD have called you in righteousness
and held your hand,
and preserved you and made you
a covenant for peoples and a light of the nations,
to open blind eyes,
to bring out the captive from prison,
those sitting in darkness from dungeons. [3]…
Sing to the LORD a new song, [4]
His acclaim from the end of the earth…
Let the desert and its towns raise their voice,
the hamlets where Kedar (east of the Jordan) dwells.
Let the dwellers of Sela (Edom) sing gladly,
from the mountaintops let them shout
The LORD sallies forth as a warrior…
over His enemies He prevails. [5]…
And now, thus saith the LORD,
your Creator, Jacob, and your Fashioner, Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name, you are Mine.
Should you pass through water, I am with you,
and through rivers—they shall not overwhelm you.
Should you walk through fire, you shall not be singed…
I have made Egypt your ransom,
Nubia and Saba in your stead. [6]
As you are precious in My eyes…
And I put people in your stead
and nations instead of your life…
From the east I will bring your seed,
and from the west I will gather you.
I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
and to the south, “Do not withhold.
Bring My sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth…[7]
Now comes the mandatory ‘upbeat ending’ to the haftorah:
Bring out a blind people that yet has eyes
and the deaf that yet have ears. [8]…
You are My witnesses, said the LORD,
and My servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and trust in Me
and understand that I am the One, [9]
before Me no god was fashioned,
and after Me none shall be.
This writer is upset with the chauvinistic attitude of the ‘Prophet.’ Allegedly speaking for God, He shows not only undeserved preference for His Hebrew audience, but specifies replacement peoples to be punished instead of them. Not only that! In the process, He demeans the Hebrew exiles for blindness and deafness, even as He brags of rescuing them.
We are reminded that his supposition was that the Hebrews were in exile, because of sinfulness. In these passages, the Prophet reluctantly forgives them, but transfers their punishment onto other peoples. Not good style, either in ancient times or now!
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NOTES
[1] Etz Hayim, The Jewish Publication Society, 2001, New York, p. 36
[2] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Prophets Vol. 2, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2019, pp. 758-64
[3] metaphors for the ‘regain of vision’ of faith in God for those symbolically in prison-like darkness
[4] words incorporated into Psalms 33:3 and 149:1, and from there into the prayer book.
[5] The Hebrew God, like gods of pagans, is a warrior.
[6] Nubia and Saba = upper Nile kingdoms. Saba was the realm of the Queen of Sheba. Per Isaiah II, Cyrus will conquer and take these kingdoms and their people in the stead of the released Israelites. This is not exactly an example of a pristine liberator, i.e. punish someone else in your place!
[7] A sweep of poetic hyperbole, to claim return not just from Mesopotamia (east)
[8] The Prophet needs to get in one last dig at the Israelites.
[9] Does God need to be such an egotist?
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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.