Seventh haftarah of consolation
Sep 7, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
We might expect that for the seventh and final haftarah of comfort, the Sages would have chosen a passage recounting complete redemption. Instead, we are given a vision of the removing of obstacles, and the building of a solid foundation, to permit a path forward. Two such obstacles鈥斺�渞ocks鈥� to be removed鈥攁re highlighted.
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Sixth haftarah of consolation
Aug 31, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
In the sixth haftarah of consolation, Isaiah draws heavily on the metaphor of light and darkness, and the repair and redemption is imagined as individuals鈥� and society鈥檚 embodiment of divine light. When God鈥檚 presence truly shines upon a person or nation, that person or nation is in turn able to bring light to others. This light鈥攚hich may be understood as moral guidance and instruction, truth, compassion, justice, unification, love鈥攊s the true source of power and honor, the 鈥渨ealth鈥� of which the prophet speaks.
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Fifth Haftarah of Consolation
Aug 24, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
This fifth haftarah of comfort describes a process of reconciliation. Now on the other side of the abyss, God鈥檚 anger and 鈥渉iding of the face鈥� can be seen in retrospect as temporary, even momentary, and confidence on the reliability of love and kindness can be restored.
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Fourth haftarah of consolation
Aug 17, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Shofetim
This fourth and middle haftarah of consolation and comfort begins with a challenge to the people: why do you allow a mere mortal, however seemingly powerful, to send you into a tailspin of fear and anxiety? Isaiah points out that the people are suffering not only from externally imposed oppression, but from their own internal response鈥攄read, reeling like a drunkard, despair. This hopelessness that denies or ignores unforeseen possibility and unexpected redemption is called 鈥渇orgetting God.鈥�
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Third haftarah of consolation
Aug 10, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Re'eh
This third haftarah of consolation and comfort contains a beautiful promise of a society established on righteousness, and consequently free of oppression and fear and safe from ruin. Most strikingly, it critiques the worldview that sees the accumulation of wealth and material possessions as the highest value, offering an alternative vision, in which that which truly satisfies is available 鈥渨ithout money.鈥�
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Second haftarah of consolation
Aug 3, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
Underlying this second haftarah of comfort is a sense of near-despair: the people lament having been abandoned by God, and God responds to their unspoken fear that God is powerless to save them. As the honest grief of the heart and soul that knows what it has lost, such despair is necessary; without it, comfort and hope are false. But despair is dangerous too; it can lead to helplessness, disengagement, and resignation to injustice. It can also create an inability to embrace a redemptive message: while the people lament being abandoned by God, God is calling to them and being ignored.
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First haftarah of consolation (Shabbat Nahamu)
Jul 27, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
This special haftarah, which begins nahamu nahamu ami鈥斺�渃omfort, oh comfort, My people,鈥� is the first of seven special haftarot of comfort (drawn from Isaiah 40鈥�63). During these seven weeks, the relationship between the people and God鈥攕trained almost to breaking on Tishah Be鈥檃v鈥攊s slowly rebuilt, allowing us to stand before God once again on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
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Third Haftarah of Rebuke (Shabbat Hazon)
Jul 20, 2018 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Devarim | Tishah Be'av
In this third haftarah of calamity or rebuke, the opening chapter of Isaiah, the once noble society has sunk to the level of Sodom and Gomorrah. Strikingly, there is no dearth of external piety (indeed, God is over-satiated to the point of disgust with the people鈥檚 offerings and prayers), nor is there any charge of sexual impropriety or impurity. Rather, the suffering of the people is caused by injustice, indifference to the cries of the vulnerable, oppression, systemic greed, and selfish and self-serving leadership.
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