Torah reading is Toledot, Genesis (25:19-28:9); Haftorah is Malachai 1:1-2:7
By Irv Jacobs, M.D.
LA JOLLA, California — These combination poetry-prose passages from Malachai are from the ‘minor prophet’ Malachai. Malachai is not really a person’s name, but actually means ‘My messenger.’ The writer(s) of these words were post-exilic, 514 BCE, i.e. soon after the second Temple was built. They constitute nearly the last passages of the Tanakh’s Book of Prophets.
We sense that immediately at the reinstitution of the Temple sacrificial cult, corruption by the priests ensued.
The link to Toledot of the Torah portion is that both this haftorah and Toledot open respectively with the notion that of Rebekah’s twins Jacob was the favorite over Esau, and that of the offspring nations from them, God favored Israel over Edom. [1]
I have chosen the Haftorah translation/commentaries from the opus work of ‘Prophets’ by Emeritus Professor Dr. Robert Alter of the University of California Berkeley. [2]
A portent: the word of the LORD through Malachai.
The first words are poetry.
‘I have loved you’, said the LORD,
and you said, “How have you loved us?”
Is not Esau Jacob’s brother? said the LORD.
And I loved Jacob,
but Esau I hated, [3]
and I made his mountains a desolation
and his estate—for the desert jackals.
Should Edom say, “We are beggared,
but once more we will build the ruins.”
thus said the LORD of Armies:
They shall build but I will destroy,
and they shall be called the region of wickedness
and the people the LORD cursed for all time…
“May the LORD be great beyond the region of Israel.” [4]…
(Now) Malachi turns His anger against the Jewish people.)
where is the fear of Me? (In Judea)
said the LORD…to you,
priests who despise My name…
Bringing on My altar
defiled food,…
and when you bring a blind beast to sacrifice—
And when you bring a lame and sickly beast—…
Offer it, pray, to your prefect.
Will he be pleased with you or favor you? [5]…
said the LORD of Armies (God),…
and with grain offering from your land I will not be pleased…
in every place incense if offered in My name
and ‘pure’ grain offering, [6]
for great is My name among the nations,…
But you profane it
when you say, ‘The Master’s table is defiled,
and the food on it despised’.
And you say (think), ‘How tiresome,’…[7]
Here the prophecy enters into prose:
….now for you is this command, O priests. If you do don’t heed…I will let loose the curse among you and make your blessings curses…for you do not pay mind. I am about to rebuke your seed and scatter dung on your faces, the dung of your festival offerings…[8]
Now comes the mandatory upbeat Haftorah ending:
…My covenant to be with Levi…with him, life and peace, and I have given them to him—…he did fear Me, and before My name he was awestruck…no wrong was found on his lips. In peace and in uprightness he walked with Me, and many did he bring back from crime. [9]
*
For a prophetic rant, these words are ‘over the top.’ These sound like an amateur prophet. Malachi depicts himself is a hothead firebrand.
Furthermore, these words imply that the universal God of the Hebrews has no empathy for another nation.
*
NOTES
[1] Etz Hayim, The Jewish Publication Society, 2001, New York, p. 162
[2] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Prophets Vol. 2, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2019, pp. 1385-1388
[3] Ibid.‘Esau is Edom, and a bitter lingering memory of the Edomites’ collaboration with the Babylonians in the destruction of Jerusalem informs these lines.’ Here the prophet loses all civility of expression, so dripping with hate are his remarks. I’d say ‘about to blow his top.’ Speaking for God, these polemical words are inappropriate for the God of all nations!
[4] For violence only? Where is God’s universality here?
[5] He accuses the priests of using imperfect sacrificial animals on the altar, while keeping the good stuff for their own tables. The term ‘prefect’ (a high official) is from the Persian, which confirms that this prophecy is indeed from the Persian period.
[6] Unlike you, pagan nations serve gods willingly creating the best in sacrificial aromas from both animals and grains. What a rub!
[7] The priests won’t openly admit what they are doing/thinking, so they change the conversation, pretending boredom.
[8] This is unbecoming, a clear and visible insult to the corrupted Hebrew priests.
[9] A recollection, a wish for the priestly family to be restored with intended purity.
*
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.