Haftorah This Week
Welcome to Haftorah This Week, the place where you will find thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on this week's Haftorah.
HAFTARAT BO
(Jeremiah 46:13-28)
What a paradox: Jeremiah, a Hebrew prophet, speaks to Egypt. He speaks to an Egypt on the brink of destruction, waiting to be "a waste, desolate, without inhabitants." Her strongest routed, her mercenary defenders spoiled cowards, ready to run. Fair Egypt--the great Israelite hope--shall be shamed, defeated. But she does not know it.
And the Israelites do not know it either. The Divine voice in Jeremiah does not speak to Pharaoh. It speaks to those In Israel who dream of a strong Egypt to protect them from powerful King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon. But they cannot fathom the raging might of Babylon, ready to cut down an entire forest to destroy the Egyptian snake within it.
Who can blame Israel for their refusal to grasp Babylon? To know it, they would have to withstand the revelation of terrible, crushing, unlimited annihilation. For Babylon does not set its own boundaries. Babylon's storm is the passion for devastation unleashed. Better the hopeless dream of Egypt and rescue from this horrifying drive to nothingness.
The Divine voice in Jeremiah invites Israel to remember instead the Divine force ruling history which may stand against this Babylon. Defeat and banishment will not be absolute. Divine measure and limits shall rule Babylon. There will not be an end to Israel.
But where is the comfort in this? This Divine voice will not remove the grief of human history. It will not suspend the suffering of Israel's captivity. There will be no avoiding either the destructive consequences of action or the evil irrationally welling up to consume the innocent. True, Israel will not be destroyed. But it will be painfully chastened.
I cannot help but wonder: Is my ache at this merely the residue of my childhood wish for the good parent who shields me from all harm? Is there really no moral dimension in my anguish at discovering that, however limited, raging Babylon too is a Divine force?
(Tsvi Blanchard)
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