Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster reflects on the comfort that comes after affliction.
The contrast between last Shabbat’s Haftorah of affliction and this Shabbat’s Haftorah of comfort couldn’t be greater.
From the beginning of chapter 40 G-d tells Isaiah to comfort His people. So G-d has now turn into reconciled to the Jewish people.
Meanwhile the sombre Fast day of Tisha B’Av has taken place, to be followed immediately by a lifting of spirits. The despondency attributable to the destruction of the 2 Temples has been replaced by return from exile and the re-building of the community.
Already within the accompanying Torah reading of Va-etchanan (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11), Moses describes the mission of the Jewish people.
Here he sets out Israel’s philosophical and non secular underpinnings, explaining why she must be situated in her own land, on the crossroads of the world, placed between Europe, Africa and Asia.
No distant desert island for the tiny Jewish people; in an effort to do G-d’s work and offer service to the world, Israel must always be visible, set in the attention of the storm.
For how can a small people, charged with carrying out G-d’s mission to the world, remain self-contained and secure in a hermetically-sealed environment?
Israel must be visible to the remainder of the world as living proof of the existence of the One G-d.
To this end the ten Commandments are reiterated, plus a reminder of the unique Sinai experience.
G-d continues by warning against the hazards of idolatry and calls the whole heavens and earth to act as witnesses. And from Chapter 6, verse 4, Moses recites a very powerful prayer within the Jewish liturgy, ‘Hear oh Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the One and Only’.
The Jewish people should love the One G-d with all their being, and, most significantly, teach this Torah to their children and grandchildren. Every hour of the day and night, the Jewish people ought to be preoccupied with Torah.
In addition, the youngsters of Israel should always remember that they were once slaves in Egypt. The children of Israel are ‘am segulah’, a treasured people. They is perhaps tiny in number, but they’re great in quality, if only they remember their mission on the planet.
This shouldn’t be to do with natural qualities; the Jews are literally stiff-necked and stubborn. It is barely through constant self-work through studying and practising Torah that the Jews will have the opportunity to ascertain the unique community of Israel. Only then will the Jewish people truly turn into a ‘light unto the nations’.
Only G-d’s love redeems the Jewish people day by day. G-d is ‘Ne’eman’ (Deuteronomy 7:9) steadfast and all the time there for you.
This theme is reprised by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 40, our first of the seven Haftorot of Comfort, leading as much as Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year).
In words well-known world wide, Isaiah guarantees the development of roads through deserts; the raising of low valleys and the lowering of mountains and hills.
Everyone will recognize these activities as miracles of G-d. On the opposite hand, G-d can be in comparison with a shepherd tenderly taking care of his flock (Isaiah 40:11).
And yet G-d can be the only Creator of all. Even the best cultures, whether Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, or those of contemporary times, are but a ‘drop from a bucket’ (verse 15) in comparison with the mighty Creator Who also cares for each single person. In this G-d is exclusive.
The One G-d simply can’t be in comparison with another entity; to accomplish that is idolatry.
G-d shouldn’t be simply the ruler over the whole universe, but can be the G-d of eternity (‘olam’, verse 28).
Those who hope in G-d will ‘go forward’ and never tire (verse 31).
This last idea has been interpreted by many as referring to the draining lassitude of life in diaspora, in comparison with the rejuvenating, energizing effect of life within the Promised Land.
Thus begins the ascent of the seven-week period, ranging from the despond of Tisha B’Av, and culminating within the crowning glory of Rosh Hashana, the primary day of the Jewish New Year.
