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 KI TAVO
(Isaiah 60:1-22)
"You shall call your walls `Salvation', and your gates `Praise'."(Isaiah 60:18)
What did the prophet Isaiah mean when he foretold that the nation of Israel, at the moment of redemption, would call their walls `Salvation' and their gates `Praise'? Could it be that the people would experience impenetrable protection from God as they waged their wars, and therefore their protective walls would be symbols of God's salvation and their sturdy gates cause for divine praise? This doesn't seem to be the case, for the very beginning of this verse predicts that "Violence shall no more be heard in your land!" (Isaiah 60:18)
The Aramaic Targum Yonatan records this verse as follows: "You shall proclaim redemption from your walls, and from your gates you shall offer praises."
Rabbi David Kimchi, a medieval commentator, explains that prior to redemption, when war and violence does plague the nation, they would climb the city walls to protect themselves from the enemy, and the people would gather around the shut city gates to share and discuss information about the battle. But when salvation comes, when the walls no longer need to be scaled and the gates no longer need to be used as a meeting place for war stories, the people will instead gather at these places to proclaim redemption and sing praises to God.
We live in a world not yet fully redeemed, wherein most of our cities do not have walls or gates. And those that do are hardly able to keep the world our, what with instant global telecommunication.
Yet, despite the relative physical openness and accessibility of our world, we continue to build walls and gates made of ideological, religious and racial divisiveness. Oppression persists as we make our differences into blinders, opaque and unfeeling, severing the human family.
But cultural and ethnic diversity will never disappear. And it shouldn't, for it testifies to the beauty and grandeur of God's creation. Our task in hastening the day of redemption is to celebrate these "walls" and "gates" which define each of our communities, but not to enable them to force others out. We must find a way to promote and glorify that which distinguishes us while, at the same time, we appreciate and respect that which is unique about the other. Only then will our walls become sources of salvation and our gates become causes for praise.
(Adina Lewittes)
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