Category Archives: Sefer Shemot

Ki Tisa

The Haftarah of Ki Tisa is on the long side, but one of the best stories in all of Tanach, Eliyahu on Har HaCarmel:
Linear annotated translation of the Haftarah of Ki Tisa

Why is this the Haftarah of Ki Tisa? Something to do with the sin of the Golden Calf, but not the way one might have thought. See Who’s to blame?

Speaking of which: the 1972 Israeli song “Izevel”, about Jezebel, the queen.

Har HaCarmel, what it might have looked like after several years of drought

Har HaCarmel, what it might have looked like after several years of drought

Achav was worried about his horses dying in the drought. Here is Tel Megiddo, where some of them were stabled

Achav was worried about his horses dying in the drought. Here is Tel Megiddo, where some of them were stabled

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Ki Tisa – Who’s to blame?

The Haftarah of Ki Tisa is the story of Eliyahu at Har HaCarmel, where he proves to the Jewish People that Hashem is G-d and the idol Ba’al is imaginary.  At first glance, this Haftarah appears to be the natural choice for the Parsha of Ki Tisa, which recounts the Sin of the Golden Calf:  Moshe had to deal with idolatry, and Eliyahu had to deal with idolatry. However, the situations are not parallel, they are inverse. The Parsha starts with the Jewish People serving G-d whole-heartedly and follows with them devolving into worshipping a golden statue. Conversely, the Haftarah starts with the Jewish People serving a pagan god, and follows with them saying “Hashem is G-d,” and serving G-d whole-heartedly.

If one wanted to match the Sin of the Golden Calf with a chapter of Prophets on the topic of idolatry, there is a plethora of chapters to choose from[1];  all of the prophets dealt with idolatry in one way or another. So why was this chapter chosen?

What the Parsha and the Haftarah have in common is not the idolatry, and not Moshe’s or Eliyahu’s ways of dealing with it, but rather how each of them defended their people before G-d. According to the Midrash (Talmud Bavli Berachot 32-33), both Moshe and Eliyahu put the blame for what happened on G-d Himself.

Eliyahu said,

לז) עֲנֵנִי ה’ עֲנֵנִי וְיֵדְעוּ הָעָם הַזֶּה כִּי אַתָּה ה’ הָאֱ-לֹהִים וְאַתָּה הֲסִבֹּתָ אֶת לִבָּם אֲחֹרַנִּית:

“Answer me, Hashem, answer me!   So that these people shall know that You, Hashem, are G-d, for You have turned their hearts backwards.” (Melachim I 18:37)

Eliyahu accuses G-d of having turned the hearts of the Jewish People away from Him. They cannot bear the entire blame for their actions if G-d set up a situation that they were not able to handle. The Jewish People had never had an aristocracy; Achav is only the second generation in his dynasty, and the concept of a royal family was relatively new. When Jezebel, the royal princess of the House of Tzidon, became the queen, she saw it as her mission to show the Jews how things ought to be done; to introduce the rituals of the wealthiest, most cosmopolitan, most admired culture in the region into their society, by force if necessary. How could they be expected to match wills with someone like her,  to withstand that level of pressure?

We all know that G-d is the ultimate matchmaker. If He had caused this match to fail, or caused Achav to marry someone more suitable, none of this would have happened. Eliyahu holds G-d responsible.

Similarly, according to the same Midrash, when Moshe said,

יא) … וַיֹּאמֶר לָמָה ה’ יֶחֱרֶה אַפְּךָ בְּעַמֶּךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בְּכֹחַ גָּדוֹל וּבְיָד חֲזָקָה:

“Why, Hashem, should You be angry at Your people, whom You have taken out of the land of Egypt, with great might and a strong hand?” (Shemot 32:11)

… what he really meant was, “You have no right to be angry after leaving them for generations in the most pagan culture in the world!”

Here is a Midrash that puts it all into a metaphor that only Chazal could permit themselves to use:

א”ר הונא בשם ר’ יוחנן משל לחכם שפתח לבנו חנות של בשמים בשוק של זונות. המבוי עשה שלו והאומנות עשתה שלה והנער כבחור עשה שלו יצא לתרבות רעה. בא אביו ותפסו עם הזונות התחיל האב צועק ואומר הורגך אני. היה שם אוהבו אמר לו אתה איבדת את הנער ואתה צועק כנגדו. הנחת כל האומניות ולא למדתו אלא בשם והנחת כל המובאות ולא פתחת לו חנות אלא בשוק של זונות.כך אמר משה רבון העולם הנחת כל העולם ולא שעבדת בניך אלא במצרים שהיו עובדין טלאים ולמדו מהם בניך. ואף הם עשו העגל לפיכך אמר אשר הוצאת מארץ מצרים דע מהיכן הוצאת אותם.

R’ Huna said from R’ Yohanan:  It’s analogous to a scholar who opened for his son a perfume shop in a red-light district full of prostitutes. The location did what it does, the profession did what it does, and the guy did what a guy does.

His father came and caught him with the prostitutes, and started screaming, “I’m going to kill you!” The father’s friend was there, and said to him, “You destroyed the boy, and now you’re screaming at him? Of all possible professions you taught him perfumery; of all possible locations, you opened him a shop in a red-light district?!”

So, too, Moshe said, “Master of the Universe! Of all the nations in the world in which to enslave Your children, You picked Egypt, who worship calves? Your children learned from them and also made a calf!”  This is why Moshe said, “whom You have taken out of Egypt”. You should realize where You took them out of!  (Midrash Shemot Rabba 43)

Like Eliyahu, Moshe blames G-d for the failure of the Jewish People. It is G-d who is responsible for their pagan mindset. If He didn’t want them to have that influence, He should not have put them in that situation in the first place[2].

This attitude is more than a little bit chutzpadik. If it weren’t Chazal that said it, we certainly would not have dared to interpret Moshe’s or Eliyahu’s words in this manner. But was it wrong of them to blame G-d? Were they punished for it? We know that neither prophet was perfect; Moshe was punished for hitting the rock in his anger rather than speaking to it, and Eliyahu, as we will read in the Haftarah of Pinchas, was censured for some of the things he said. Here, however, there is no hint of censure; not in the text and not in the Midrash. On the contrary, G-d listens to both Moshe and Eliyahu, implying is that the argument is valid and He accepts His share of the blame.

Or maybe He is just really happy that the Jewish People have leaders who are willing to go to such lengths to defend them.

Copyright © Kira Sirote  
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל



[1] For instance, Melachim I 12, where King Yeravam makes golden calves and says: “These are your gods, Israel that took you out of Egypt”.

[2] This Midrash directly contradicts the popular saying, “G-d does not put people in situations they cannot handle.”

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Tetzaveh

In the Haftarah of Tetzaveh, the prophet Yehezekel tells the Jewish People in exile the precise dimensions of the altar of the final Temple.

Linear annotated translation of the Haftarah of Tetzaveh

The obvious connection between directions of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) and directions for the Third Temple turns out to have a deeper dimension when one actually compares the two texts: Tetzaveh – Atoning for the Atoner?

Here’s a bonus extra Midrash, which questions the timing of this prophecy:

כשהקב”ה מראה ליחזקאל את צורת הבית מה הוא אומר הגד את בית ישראל את הבית ויכלמו מעונותיהם ומדדו את תכנית (יחזקאל מג) אמר יחזקאל לפני הקב”ה רבש”ע עד עכשיו אנו נתונים בגולה בארץ שונאינו ואתה אומר לי לילך ולהודיע לישראל צורת הבית וכתוב אותו לעיניהם וישמרו את כל צורותיו ואת כל חוקותיו וכי יכולין הן לעשות הניח להם עד שיעלו מן הגולה ואח”כ אני הולך ואומר להם א”ל הקב”ה ליחזקאל ובשביל שבני נתונים בגולה יהא בנין ביתי בטל א”ל הקב”ה גדול קרייתה בתורה כבנינה לך אמור להם ויתעסקו לקרות צורת הבית בתורה ובשכר קרייתה שיתעסקו לקרות בה אני מעלה עליהם כאלו הם עוסקין בבנין הבית

When G-d showed the form of the House to Yehezkel, what did He say? “Tell the House of Israel about the House, and they will be ashamed of their sins, and measure the blueprint”.  Yehezkel said before G-d, “Master of the Universe! We are in the throes of exile in the land of our enemies, and you are telling me to go and inform Israel about the shape of the house and write it before their eyes so they will keep its forms and laws.  Is it possible for them to do this?! Let them be until they come out of exile, and then I’ll go and tell them.” G-d said to Yehezkel, “Just because My children are stuck in exile, the building of My house should be abandoned?” G-d said to him, “Reading it in the Torah is as great as building it. Go and tell them, and they will be involved in reading about the form of the House in the Torah, and in the merit of reading it, that they are involved in reading about it, I will count it for them as if they are involved in building the House.”  (Midrash Tanchuma Tzav 14)

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Tetzaveh – Atoning for the atoner?

While the bulk of Parshat Tetzaveh lists the commandments of the consecration of the Cohanim and their complicated attire, the Haftarah is connected textually to a handful of verses that describe the consecration of the Altar itself.
The Parsha:

וְעָשִׂיתָ לְאַהֲרֹן וּלְבָנָיו כָּכָה כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי אֹתָכָה שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תְּמַלֵּא יָדָם. וּפַר חַטָּאת תַּעֲשֶׂה לַיּוֹם עַל הַכִּפֻּרִים וְחִטֵּאתָ עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ בְּכַפֶּרְךָ עָלָיו וּמָשַׁחְתָּ אֹתוֹ לְקַדְּשׁוֹ. שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תְּכַפֵּר עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וְקִדַּשְׁתָּ אֹתוֹ וְהָיָה הַמִּזְבֵּחַ קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים כָּל הַנֹּגֵעַ בַּמִּזְבֵּחַ יִקְדָּשׁ.

You shall do for Aharon and his sons thus, according to all that I have commanded you; seven days you shall consecrate them. A bullock of purification offer each day as atonement, and purify the Altar in atoning for it, and anoint it to make it holy. Seven days atone for the Altar, and make it holy, so that the Altar will become holy of holies; all that touches the Altar becomes holy. (Shemot 29:35-37)

The Haftorah, whose topic is the rebuilding and rededication of the Altar in the final Beit HaMikdash, contains the following:

וְנָתַתָּה אֶל הַכֹּהֲנִים הַלְוִיִּם אֲשֶׁר הֵם מִזֶּרַע צָדוֹק הַקְּרֹבִים אֵלַי נְאֻם אֲ-דֹנָי ה’ לְשָׁרְתֵנִי פַּר בֶּן בָּקָר לְחַטָּאת. וְלָקַחְתָּ מִדָּמוֹ וְנָתַתָּה עַל אַרְבַּע קַרְנֹתָיו וְאֶל אַרְבַּע פִּנּוֹת הָעֲזָרָה וְאֶל הַגְּבוּל סָבִיב וְחִטֵּאתָ אוֹתוֹ וְכִפַּרְתָּהוּ….
שִׁבְעַת יָמִים יְכַפְּרוּ אֶת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וְטִהֲרוּ אֹתוֹ וּמִלְאוּ יָדָיו.

You shall give to the Cohanim of Levi, who are the descendants of Tzadok, who are close to Me, says Hashem Elokim, to serve Me, a bullock as a purification offering. You shall take of its blood, and place it on the four horns, and on four corners of the ledge, and on the ledge around it, and you will purify it and atone for it….
Seven days atone for the Altar, and cleanse it, and consecrate it.
(Yechezkel 43:19-20, 26)

What can we learn about the Altar, if we focus on the terms that are repeated in both texts?
In both the Parsha and the Haftorah, we are told to bring a “bullock of purification” for the Altar. This implies that there was a sin that needed to be cleansed. What sin would that have been? Additionally, while the stated function of the Altar is to effect atonement to those who bring sacrifices, here it says “seven days atone for the Altar”, implying that the Altar itself needs atonement. For what?

Rashi suggests that the “bullock of purification” comes to atone for a sin related to another member of the cow family, the Golden Calf. Even though the Parshiot that describe the Mishkan, Terumah and Tetzaveh, are written in the Torah before the story of the Golden Calf, there is a lot of symbolism in the Mishkan that appears to be directly related to it. According to Rashi, this bullock is an example of this symbolism. The purification of the Altar through the bullock atones for the sin of idolatry on the part of the Jewish People — in particular, for the Sin of the Golden Calf.

The Haftorah supports this theory when it says, in its first verses, that the Jewish People will only be given the instructions for the new Beit HaMikdash when they are ashamed of the actions that caused the previous Beit HaMikdash to be destroyed, namely, idol-worship. The “bullock of purification” brought on the new Altar would remove any association it might have had with pagan rites and practices, atoning for the misuse of altars in idolatry.

The Midrash, however, traces the connection between the Altar and its potential for Atonement to Creation itself. Explaining why Adam was created specifically from “Adamah”, earth, the Midrash says:

מן האדמה, רבי ברכיה ורבי חלבו בשם רבי שמואל בר נחמן אמרו ממקום כפרתו נברא, היך מה דאת אמר (שמות כ) מזבח אדמה תעשה לי, אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא הרי אני בורא אותו ממקום כפרתו והלואי יעמוד.
“From the earth”: R’ Berechiah and R’ Chelbo in the name of R’ Shmuel bar Nachman said: He was created from the place of his atonement, as it says, “Make Me an Altar of earth” (Shemot 20). God said, Let Me make him from the place of his atonement, and hopefully, it will work out. (Midrash Bereishit Rabba 14)

The Midrash tells us that Adam was made of Adamah because the Altar would one day be made of Adamah, which would allow it to atone for him.
The concept that mankind would need atonement was built into the fabric of Creation. Adam was given freedom of choice. Yet, he was created from Adamah as a part of the finite, material world. Because of his limitations as a mortal, it would be inevitable that some of the choices he made would be wrong ones, and in creating the world, God prepared a way for him to cleanse himself of at least some of their consequences.

The Recanati, a 13th century kabbalistic commentator, quotes the Zohar and Midrashic sources that equate the seven days of Creation with the seven days of consecrating the Altar. After describing the kabbalistic model of the world where ideal “forms” are expressed in the physical world, he explains the purpose of the seven days of consecration:

יש לך לדעת כי מחטא אדם הראשון שהטיל הנחש פגם בצורה עליונה לא נשלמה הצורה עד ז’ ימי המילואים מלואים ממש.
You should know this: from the sin of Adam, when the snake caused a flaw in the “ideal form”, that “form” was not completed until the seven days of consecration, literally, “days of completion.” (Recanati on Shemot 29:1)

According to the Recanati, the seven days of consecration are atoning for Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. That is why the purpose for the atonement of the Altar is not spelled out specifically, neither in the Torah nor in the Haftorah. The sin which the Altar cleanses is not something specific to their generation, but rather one that is common to all of humanity. Adam’s sin was arrogance, of wanting to be something other than what God created, something other than a being made of “Adamah.”

Idolatry has its roots in the same attitude as Adam’s sin: wanting to “know good and bad”, the desire to decide what is good and what is bad based on your own judgment, the urge to make your own gods in your own image. The alternative that Adam was given was to subjugate his judgment to that of God, and he proved himself unwilling to do so.
The purpose of the Torah is to bring the world back to the state that Adam was in before he sinned, and to undo the mistake that he made. Chazal tell us that when the Jewish People agreed to accept the Torah at Sinai, they reached a level where Adam’s sin no longer had a hold on them. Unfortunately, the Jewish People were unable to sustain this level, and the Sin of the Golden Calf caused them to crash back down.

According to the Recanati, the building of the Altar and the seven days of its consecration allowed the Jewish People to reach toward that level again. The word “consecration”, or literally, “completion”, refers to the wholeness that the world achieved when the Altar of the Mishkan, built to atone for Adam’s mistakes, became functional.
The Beit HaMikdash also had an Altar which was also consecrated for seven days, and it also had the potential to reverse Adam’s sin.. When it was destroyed, that possibility was lost with it — but only temporarily. The Haftorah tells us that there will be another opportunity, another Altar, another set of seven days of consecration, and the world will be purified and made complete once again.


Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

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Terumah

The Parsha of Terumah describes the building of the Mishkan, and the Haftarah, the building of the Beit Hamikdash:

Linear annotated translation of the Haftarah of Terumah

It’s obvious what the Mishkan and the Beit HaMikdash have in common. Or is it?

A House for G-d

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Mishpatim

The Haftarah of Mishpatim is not read every year. Most years, Purim is already around the corner, and we read the first of the 4 Parshiyot, Shekalim. This year, Shekalim is read during Parshat Pekudei, and we read Mishpatim’s Haftarah from Yirmeyahu.

I once heard the Tanach called, “The book of G-d’s disappointments with humanity”. This Haftarah – Linear annotated translation of the Haftarah of Mishpatim – is a prime example.

And this connection between Parshat Mishpatim and the Haftarah will hopefully explain just how much patience He has for us.

Rembrandt's portrayal of Jeremiah. After you read this Haftarah, you'll look like this, too.

Rembrandt’s portrayal of Jeremiah. After you read this Haftarah, you’ll look like this, too.

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Mishpatim – Commitment and Betrayal

The Haftarah of Mishpatim tells the story of how, just a few years before the destruction of Jerusalem, wealthy slave-owners released their Jewish slaves, only to recapture them when the situation quieted down.

G-d’s response is the following:

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ אֱ-לֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אָנֹכִי כָּרַתִּי בְרִית אֶת אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם בְּיוֹם הוֹצִאִי אוֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים לֵאמֹר:
מִקֵּץ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים תְּשַׁלְּחוּ אִישׁ אֶת אָחִיו הָעִבְרִי אֲשֶׁר יִמָּכֵר לְךָ וַעֲבָדְךָ שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים וְשִׁלַּחְתּוֹ חָפְשִׁי מֵעִמָּךְ וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם אֵלַי וְלֹא הִטּוּ אֶת אָזְנָם:
So says Hashem, the G-d of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers,
on the day that I took them out of Egypt, out of slavery, as follows:
At the beginning of the seventh year, you shall send away your brother, the Hebrew, who has been sold to you; he will have worked for you for six years, then you will send him free from you. Your fathers did not listen to me, and did not pay attention (Yirmeyahu 34:13-14)

Which covenant is G-d talking about, “on the day that [He] took us out of Egypt”?

First of all, “on the day that I took them out of Egypt”, does not refer to just that one day. The phrase Yetziat Mitzraim, the Exodus, refers to the entire experience from the beginning of the Plagues until the Jewish People entered the Land of Israel. Therefore, when looking for this covenant, we are not limited to the actual day of the 15th of Nissan.
Instead, the phrase refers to the Exodus as a whole, which was, as stated from the very beginning of Shemot, that Hashem would take Israel to be His people, and be their G-d. This was done by means of a covenant between G-d and the Jewish People, and took place at Sinai. The description of this covenant is found in Parshat Mishpatim:

וַיִּקַּח סֵפֶר הַבְּרִית וַיִּקְרָא בְּאָזְנֵי הָעָם וַיֹּאמְרוּ כֹּל אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר ה’ נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע:
וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת הַדָּם וַיִּזְרֹק עַל הָעָם וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה דַם הַבְּרִית אֲשֶׁר כָּרַת ה’ עִמָּכֶם עַל כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה:
[Moshe] took the Book of the Covenant; he read it into the ears of the people.
They said, “All that Hashem said, we will do and we will listen.”
Moshe took the blood, threw it on the people; he said, “This is the blood of the Covenant, that Hashem has made with you, based on all these things.” (Shemot 24:7-8)

What was in this “Book of the Covenant,” and what were “all these things” upon which they based their agreement to enter into the covenant with G-d?

Many of us are familiar with Rashi’s opinion, that these events, even though they are recorded in Parshat Mishpatim, actually took place before the Ten Commandments were given, that they committed to “we will do and we will listen” on pure faith, and that “all these things” that Moshe read to them was a record of the miracles of Exodus.

However, Ramban and Ibn Ezra insist on interpreting these chapters in chronological order. According to this view, which is the simpler reading of the text, the covenant follows the Ten Commandments, as well as the laws listed in Parshat Mishpatim. When the Jewish People said, “we will do and we will listen,” they knew very well what they were committing to do. Parshat Mishpatim contains a representative sample of the commandments such as laws of fair conduct in business and interpersonal relationships, laws of justice and morality, and laws of Kashrut and holidays. G-d wanted them to understand what they were signing up for, and had Moshe read it all out to them – “into their ears”, making sure that they heard clearly – before they entered the covenant.

What was the very first of the laws that Moshe read to them?

וְאֵלֶּה הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר תָּשִׂים לִפְנֵיהֶם:
כִּי תִקְנֶה עֶבֶד עִבְרִי שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים יַעֲבֹד וּבַשְּׁבִעִת יֵצֵא לַחָפְשִׁי חִנָּם:
And these are the laws that you should put before them:
If a person buys a Hebrew slave, six years he will work, and on the seventh will go free. (Shemot 21:1-2)

The commandment to limit slavery was the first among the commandments that formed the basis of the covenant. Additional laws in this chapter in Mishpatim limit the owner’s ability to exploit and oppress his slaves, especially female slaves .
One might have expected the Jewish People, as former slaves in Egypt, to be particularly careful to observe this commandment, to show extra empathy to their slaves and be only too glad to limit or even abolish slavery altogether. However, the Haftarah tells us that it was not kept by the Jewish People, at least not by generations prior to Yirmeyahu’s time: “your fathers did not listen to Me; they did not pay attention, says G-d.”

So when King Tzidkiyahu forced them to make a covenant to release their slaves, and they listened to him and did so, we might have thought that this would actually make G-d somewhat upset. He might have sent a prophet accusing them of caring more for an earthly king than for the King of Kings. He might have been disappointed that the original covenant at Sinai was not sufficient for them and they needed a new one to make them keep this commandment. Instead, we are told that G-d was unreservedly pleased by their actions:

וַתָּשֻׁבוּ אַתֶּם הַיּוֹם וַתַּעֲשׂוּ אֶת הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינַי לִקְרֹא דְרוֹר אִישׁ לְרֵעֵהוּ וַתִּכְרְתוּ בְרִית לְפָנַי בַּבַּיִת אֲשֶׁר נִקְרָא שְׁמִי עָלָיו:
Today you returned, and you did the right thing in My eyes, by proclaiming liberty, each man to his fellow, and you made a covenant before Me, in the house upon which My name is called. (Yirmeyahu 34:15)

They did “the right thing in His eyes”, they freed the slaves, and G-d was proud of them.

Alas, as great as the pride, such was the magnitude of the disappointment.

When they recaptured the slaves that they had freed, not only did they do an evil and repugnant deed, not only did they break the covenant that they had just made with King Tzidkiyahu, they spit in the face of the Covenant of Sinai itself. They did not fail to observe a random commandment, they took the very first commandment that they signed up for, and violated it in the worst way possible.

Instead of showing the empathy to slaves expected of the Jewish People, they acted as if they had no recollection of the Exodus or of their mission to be the nation that does “the right thing in G-d’s eyes.” They rendered the entire covenant between G-d and the Jewish People, null and void.

Mercifully, the Haftarah does not end with this fiasco, but rather with the following verses:

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ … גַּם זֶרַע יַעֲקוֹב וְדָוִד עַבְדִּי אֶמְאַס … כִּי אָשִׁיב אֶת שְׁבוּתָם וְרִחַמְתִּים.
So says Hashem… would I reject the offspring of Yaakov and My servant, David…? For I will return his captives and have mercy upon them.
(Yirmeyahu 33:25-26)

It is a very good thing that G-d has infinite patience. It is a very good thing that He knows that we are capable of more, that our commitment to Torah can be renewed. The Haftarah’s ending tells us that G-d’s commitment to us is eternal. We can mess up, our actions can be disastrous and detestable, but He will find a way to get us back. The destiny of the Jewish People will continue. G-d Himself will make sure of that.


[2] People often ask why G-d did not skip this intermediate step and just outlaw slavery in the first place. This is not a question that we can answer without a deep understanding of the economics of the time. It is not fair to anachronistically judge those generations through a world view which is based on opportunities that were not available to them. Anyway, we see that even this commandment was beyond their abilities.

Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

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Yitro

The Haftarah of Yitro is the vision of the angels saying “Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh”, in Yeshayahu. The Sefardim end there, but we continue to the next chapter (thematically linked by the concept of shaking in fear).

This time, I wrote about what this vision has to do with Matan Torah, the topic of Parshat Yitro : The Armies of G-d

Linear annotated translation of the Haftarah of Yitro

Pictures of 6-winged Seraphim are left to your imagination

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Yitro – The Armies of G-d

Parshat Yitro describes Ma’amad Har Sinai, the prophetic experience shared by the entire Jewish People at Mount Sinai. It was a pivotal point in our history, marking our entry into the covenant with G-d and our commitment to accepting His Torah. The experience itself was awe-inspiring, even frightening. As the Torah describes:

וְכָל הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת הַקּוֹלֹת וְאֶת הַלַּפִּידִם וְאֵת קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר וְאֶת הָהָר עָשֵׁן וַיַּרְא הָעָם וַיָּנֻעוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מֵרָחֹק
And the whole nation saw the sounds and the lights and the sound of the Shofar, and the mountain was smoking; the nation saw, and shook, and stood far away. (Exodus 20:14)

The Haftarah of Yitro also describes an awe-inspiring prophetic experience. Yeshayahu is shown G-d’s Throne, as it were, surrounded by angels. This vision also becomes frightening, in similar ways:

וַיָּנֻעוּ אַמּוֹת הַסִּפִּים מִקּוֹל הַקּוֹרֵא וְהַבַּיִת יִמָּלֵא עָשָׁן
The pillars shook from the sound of the call, and the house was filled with smoke. (Yeshayahu 6:4)

But unlike Har Sinai, where the overwhelming experience was a prelude for receiving G-d’s Torah and becoming His nation, Yeshayahu’s vision is followed by a message of destruction of the cities of Yehudah.

Why is this prophecy of punishment and destruction introduced by a such a lofty vision, practically a reenactment of the experience of Har Sinai? What does Har Sinai have to do with the failings of Yeshayahu’s generation?

In Yeshayahu’s vision of the Heavenly Court, we read the famous prayer of the angels:

וְקָרָא זֶה אֶל זֶה וְאָמַר קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ ה’ צְבָא-וֹת מְלֹא כָל הָאָרֶץ כְּבוֹדוֹ:
Each [angel] called out to the other and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Hashem Tzva-ot! The whole world is filled with His Glory!” (Yeshayahu 6:3)

The Name that the angels use to address G-d, “Hashem Tzva-ot,” is the key to understanding how the vision ties to Sinai, and to the message of destruction.

“Hashem Tzva-ot”, one of the Names of G-d, is usually translated as “Lord of Hosts,” which literally means “commander of armies.” The word “army” is plural, because G-d has two armies: an Army of the Heavens and an Army on Earth. The Army of the Heavens consists of the various angelic beings described in prophetic visions in the Tanach, including that of the Haftarah of Yitro. G-d’s Army on Earth is the Jewish People. We know this to be the case because it says so explicitly in the Torah. When the Jewish People leave Egypt as a newly formed nation, the Torah uses the following phrase to describe them:

וַיְהִי בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה יָצְאוּ כָּל צִבְאוֹת ה’ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם:
…on that very day, the armies of Hashem left the land of Egypt (Shemot 12:41)

The purpose of an army is to execute the will of their commander. The angels do this as a matter of course; our tradition tells us that they have no freedom of choice, and no independent thought. Their entire being is dedicated to doing G-d’s will.

The Army on Earth is made up of human beings, the Jewish People. Unlike the angels, we do have freedom of choice. When the Jewish People accepted the Torah, we made a conscious decision to put G-d’s will above our own, and His wisdom above our understanding. That is what it meant when we said, “We will do, and we will hear” (“Na’aseh Ve’nishma”) at Sinai: whatever G-d says, that is what we will do. He is now our commander, and we subordinate our freedom of choice to His Torah.

The Midrash links this decision to accept the Torah to the Haftarah of Yitro:

אמר רבי הונא בשם רבי חייא אלו ישראל שהקדימו עשיה לשמיעה ואמרו כל אשר דבר ה’ נעשה ונשמע (שמות כ”ד) בא ללמדך שגדולים הצדיקים יותר ממלאכי השרת תדע לך שבשעה שאמר ישעיה כי איש טמא שפתים אנכי ובתוך עם טמא שפתים אנכי יושב (ישעיה ו) א”ל הקב”ה ישעיה בעצמך אתה רשאי לומר איש טמא שפתים אבל לישראל אתה אומר בתוך עם טמא שפתים שהם הקדימו עשיה לשמיעה ומיחדין את שמי פעמים בכל יום ואת קורא אותן עם טמא שפתים
R’ Huna said in the name of R’ Hiya: Israel put doing before hearing, and said “Everything that Hashem says, we will do and we will hear” (Shemot 24). This teaches us that the righteous are greater than the angels.

Know, that when Yeshayahu said, “I am a man of impure lips and I live among a nation of impure lips”, Hashem said to him, “Yeshayahu! About yourself you can say “impure lips”, but about Israel you’re saying, “a nation of impure lips”?! They put doing before saying, and unite My name twice a day [by saying Shema], and you’re calling them a nation of impure lips?!” (Midrash Tanhuma Vayishlach 2)

According to this Midrash, the choice of the Jewish People to accept G-d as their Commander makes us greater than the angels themselves. They do not have a will of their own to subordinate to His, and we do.

Moreover, the Midrash points out, this choice was not a one-time occurrence; we accept our commitment to G-d’s sovereignty every single day when we say Shema. When we say, “Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad,” what we mean is that He, and Only He, runs the world. He, and only He, gives commands to all Creation, and only those commands are to be followed; it is only within His framework that we must exercise our free will. Shema is the mission statement of the Army of G-d.

When Yeshayahu received his prophecy, the Jewish People had been derelict in fulfilling their mission. Before being sent to tell them to shape up, Yeshayahu was shown a vision of angels, G-d’s Army of the Heavens, as they chant their motto, “Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Hashem Tzva-ot.” This vision was meant as a reminder of the dedication expected of the Army of G-d on Earth. Yeshayahu was sent to tell them that they need to do better; they need to hear what G-d has to say and act on it, as they had committed to do at Sinai by saying “Na’aseh ve’Nishma.”

However, when Yeshayahu himself starts criticizing the Jewish People, and says “I live among a nation of impure lips”, G-d gets upset with him. Saying that the Jewish People are “people of impure lips” suggests that our commitment to the Torah was mere lip-service. This is not the case. As the twice-daily Shema demonstrates, our commitment is both real and lasting.

Unfortunately, being that we are not actually angels, and we do have free will and make our own decisions, we occasionally fail to live up to the expectations of Hashem Tzva-ot. We occasionally need to be reminded of our mission, of what is expected of us. That is the purpose of the Haftarah in showing Yeshayahu a vision that was an awe-inspiring re-enactment of Har Sinai, before sending him to remind the Jewish People to execute the Will of our Commander.

That is also the reason that the Siddur has us repeat and recreate this vision of angels chanting “Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh”, right before we reaffirm our commitment to the commandments by saying Shema, and again, as we stand, angel-like, at the Amidah of Shemoneh Esrei.

The Army of the Heavens reminds the Army on Earth to do the will of our mutual Commander, Hashem Tzva-ot.


Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל
Haftarot Unrolled http://www.torahforum.org/haftara

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Beshalach

The Haftarah of Beshalach is the longest Haftarah of the year, comprising two chapters of Shoftim: the story of Devorah and Barak’s defeat of Sisra, and Shirat Devorah (The Song of Devorah). (Sefardim only read the second chapter, but then they would be missing a serious textual connection to the Parsha: see Death Trap)

I did my best to keep it brief while still explaining what’s going on. I tried to have the translation capture the spirit and intention of Devorah, who was one of the toughest, scariest ladies who ever called herself a “Jewish Mother”. In truth, it would have been even more accurate if I could have used four-letter Anglo-Saxon words, especially in verse 5:30, but then this is intended to be read in shul. I recommend that you fill them in yourself. Trust me, that’s what Devorah meant to say.

Linear annotated translation of Beshalach

This is where Sisra was camped out. Barak and his people were on top of the mountain.

This is where Sisra was camped out. Barak and his people were on top of the mountain.

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