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 KEDOSHIM
(Amos 9:7-15)
Israel is God's chosen people, but what does that entail? For Amos, the covenant calls into existence both the uniqueness of Israel and a universal hope for all the world.
Amos believed that ease and prosperity in the north had revealed a dark and dangerous side of Israel's chosenness. God's unconditional love for Israel had become an excuse for sinfulness and a presumption of invincibility. Chosenness had led to a sense of elitist entitlement and, paradoxically, moral laxity. Furthermore, the covenant, by separating Israel from the gentiles, had taught her to denigrate the families of the earth she was called upon to enlighten.
In the beginning of the Book of Amos, God holds all nations to account, citing the crimes of Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab before addressing Israel and Judea. Israel is different in the nature of her violations. Where others have been brutal and violent, Israel is chided for having abandoned the poor and the humble. No one is invincible, and all are called to account. But Israel is accountable for more than human decency. She is called upon to be holy. The holiness of Israel is designed to teach, not to demean. The holiness of Israel is a testimony to God's love for the nations. In the course of human history, God redeemed Israel from Egypt, but he also redeemed the Philistines from Caftor and the children of Aram from Kir.
The implication is that God chooses according to God's will in different ways. According to Amos, everyone has a role to play. The prophet Isaiah goes even one step further than Amos and claims that God's general plan is to extend the chosenness itself to the nations. Isaiah makes the radical claim that even nations who once were Israel's nemeses, Egypt and Assyria, will be God's chosen.
"In that day, Israel shall be a third partner with Egypt and Assyria as a blessing on earth; for the Lord of Hosts will bless them, saying, Blessed be My people Egypt, My handiwork Assyria, and My very own Israel" (Is. 19:24).
(Steve Greenberg)
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