The Haftarah of Behar is from Yirmeyahu, and takes place in the last few months before Jerusalem is destroyed.
Linear annotated translation of the Haftarah of Behar
The connection is obvious, as it describes Yirmeyahu fulfilling a commandment listed in Parshat Behar. But the basis for that commandment and the basis for the prophecy of comfort wind up being the same.
Filed under Behar, Sefer Vayikra
In Parshat Behar, the Torah severely limits certain types of real estate transactions. A person may only sell his ancestral lands if he really cannot support himself and has no other option. If this does happen, the person who buys the land cannot have too much invested in it; he might be asked to sell it back to the owner or to the family; if that happens, he may not refuse. Even if nobody from the family is able to come up with the money to redeem the land, the seller will anyway have to give it up at the next Yovel, 50th Jubilee, when all lands revert to their original families.
The Torah explains why G-d limits the rights to buy and sell land freely:
וְהָאָרֶץ לֹא תִמָּכֵר לִצְמִתֻת כִּי לִי הָאָרֶץ כִּי גֵרִים וְתוֹשָׁבִים אַתֶּם עִמָּדִי:
The land shall not be sold forever, for the land is Mine, for you are tenants and residents with Me. (VaYikra 35:23)
The land belongs to G-d, and He can legislate and regulate the market however He pleases.
In the Haftarah, Yirmeyahu is asked to redeem land about to be sold by his cousin. Yirmeyahu does so, and makes sure that the sale is performed in accordance with every detail of Torah law, and is fully documented. This would not be in any way remarkable or worth recording in the Tanach, except for the fact that it took place only months before the capture of Yehudah by the Babylonians and the destruction of the Temple, while Yirmeyahu was himself in jail for the treason of prophesying about this destruction. This sale is a prophetic act and comes with an explicit message:
כִּי כֹה אָמַר ה’ צְבָא-וֹת אֱ-לֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עוֹד יִקָּנוּ בָתִּים וְשָׂדוֹת וּכְרָמִים בָּאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת:
For so said Hashem Tzva-ot the G-d of Israel: “Houses, fields, and vineyards will yet be bought in this land.” (Yirmeyahu 32:15)
This is a beautiful message, full of hope. Yes, the destruction is imminent and in the short term, the deed to this land that Yirmeyahu just purchased is entirely worthless. But one day, there will again be people buying and selling land, and life will go back to normal.
While this is clearly meant to bring comfort and hope, Yirmeyahu gets upset. He turns to G-d and says, roughly, “G-d. You run the world. You took the Jewish People out of Egypt and chose them to be Your people. You gave them this land, and now, because they have been an utter failure at Your mission, You are about to throw them off this land. They are already dying of starvation under siege, more will die in the sacking of the city, and the survivors will be taken into slavery and exile. And you want me to get excited about a real estate deal?!”
It would be as if someone were to go into the Warsaw Ghetto, as people are dying in the streets and the transports to the concentration camps have begun, and tell them, “Don’t worry, I bought land in Tel Aviv, one day it will be worth a lot of money.”
Yirmeyahu does not feel that this is comforting. Yirmeyahu also does not feel that the current situation reflects well on G-d’s influence on history. If He is the owner of the land, and the land is about to be conquered, how will He remain the owner? And of what? A desert? Malaria swamps? So when Yirmeyahu addresses G-d, he says:
הָאֵל הַגָּדוֹל הַגִּבּוֹר G-d who is great, and mighty; (Yirmeyahu 32:18)
He does not say, as Moshe did, “G-d who is great and mighty and awe-inspiring”. The Midrash (Yoma 69b) comments on this omission:
אתא ירמיה ואמר: נכרים מקרקרין בהיכלו, איה נוראותיו? לא אמר נורא.
Yirmeyahu came and said, “Foreigners are about to be prancing about in His palace, where is His awe?” He would not say “awe-inspiring”.
Sitting in jail in Jerusalem under siege, Yirmeyahu could not bring himself to say that G-d is all that awe-inspiring. The Babylonians surely are not showing any awe.
It wasn’t only Yirmeyahu who couldn’t bring himself to say that full sentence. A generation later, Daniel says:
אָנָּא אֲ-דֹנָי הָאֵל הַגָּדוֹל וְהַנּוֹרָא –
Oh, Hashem, G-d who is great and awe-inspiring (Daniel 9:4)
The Midrash explains Daniel’s phrasing:
אתא דניאל, אמר: נכרים משתעבדים בבניו, איה גבורותיו? לא אמר גבור.
Daniel came and said, “Foreigners have enslaved His children, where is His might?” He did not say “mighty”.
The Midrash continues by asking an important question about Yirmeyahu and Daniel:
ורבנן היכי עבדי הכי ועקרי תקנתא דתקין משה!?
But how could they have come and uprooted Moshe’s formulation ?!
If Moshe said, “G-d who is great and mighty and awe-inspiring”, then that must be the way to address G-d. How could Yirmeyahu and Daniel have changed that formula?
אמר רבי אלעזר: מתוך שיודעין בהקדוש ברוך הוא שאמתי הוא, לפיכך לא כיזבו בו.
R’ Elazar said, because they knew about Hashem that He is truthful, and therefore, they did not lie about Him.
Yirmeyahu and Daniel could not use Moshe’s formulation because it contradicted their experience of G-d in this world, and you don’t lie about G-d.
Yirmeyahu did not have personal experience of Geulah, of redemption. He knew, as a prophet, that G-d said that this exile would last only seventy years. He knew, as a prophet, that G-d said that one day life would go back to normal and mundane things such as real estate transactions would take place again. But it is one thing to know it in theory, and a completely other thing to know it from experience. Yirmeyahu’s experience in this Haftarah is of deepening darkness and impending destruction. He could not see the light of redemption, even though he was told that it would come. He did not find it comforting to hear, “Fields will yet be bought in this land”, when he would not live to see the field he just bought.
So how is it that we now say in our prayers, “G-d who is great, and mighty, and awe-inspiring”? Are we lying about G-d?
The Men of the Great Assembly, the rabbis who gathered together during the time of the Second Temple, after prophecy ended, found a way to have this phrase reflect their experience of G-d:
אתו אינהו ואמרו: אדרבה, זו היא גבורת גבורתו שכובש את יצרו, שנותן ארך אפים לרשעים. ואלו הן נוראותיו שאלמלא מוראו של הקדוש ברוך הוא היאך אומה אחת יכולה להתקיים בין האומות?
They came and said, “On the contrary! This is His might, that He overcomes His own wishes, by having patience for the evildoers. This is His awe, for if not for the fear of G-d, how could one nation survive among all the nations?”
The Men of the Great Assembly, having lived through the exile and the redemption, and having been a part of the first Return to Zion, saw things differently than Yirmeyahu and Daniel. They redefined G-d’s power to include situations whose effects are not immediately visible. G-d has power over all the nations, even if you can’t see it just yet. He protects the Jewish People, even if it looks like He has forgotten us completely. He is still the owner of the land, and He will not let it be given over to strangers indefinitely.
The Haftarah of Behar has indeed brought comfort for the Jewish People throughout the centuries.
We have waited for a long time to see these words come to pass, and now that they have, we must not forget how incredible it is that there is a vibrant and flourishing real estate market in the Land of Israel.
הִנֵּה אֲנִי ה’ אֱ-לֹהֵי כָּל בָּשָׂר הֲמִמֶּנִּי יִפָּלֵא כָּל דָּבָר
I am Hashem, the G-d of all mankind.
Is anything too incredible for Me? (Yirmeyahu 32:27)
Real Estate prices in Petach Tikvah – a town whose name means: “The beginning of hope”
Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל
Filed under Behar, Connections, Sefer Vayikra
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.
Filed under Mishpatim, Sefer Shemot
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
Filed under Connections, Mishpatim, Sefer Shemot
