Would Our Mother Forget Us?
This Shabbat is the second of the seven Shabbatot of consolation that follow Tishah Be鈥檃v, and, as on all these Shabbatot, its haftarah comes from the last part of the book of Isaiah. These are highly appropriate passages to console us after we commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem, because they were written by a prophet who lived in exile roughly a generation after the Babylonian empire demolished the Jerusalem Temple, destroyed the Judean state, and exiled much of its population. Because the name of this prophet is unknown, scholars refer to him (or perhaps her; women served as prophets in ancient Israel, as the examples of Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah show) as Deutero-Isaiah or Second Isaiah.
Deutero-Isaiah anticipated the victory of the Persian emperor, Cyrus, over the Babylonian empire and predicted that the Persians would allow the Judean exiles to return to their homeland and to rebuild their Temple there. Addressed to a despondent people who have experienced a catastrophe, this prophet鈥檚 poetic orations attempt to convince the Judeans that the God of Israel is still powerful and still loyal to the people Israel.
Unusually among biblical texts, Deutero-Isaiah refers to God using not only masculine metaphors but feminine ones as well (e.g., Isa. 42:13鈥�14, 45:10, 49:14鈥�15, 66:13). The reasons behind this innovation cannot be known with certainty. Perhaps the prophet鈥檚 intense monotheism requires the prophet to show explicitly that Hashem has characteristics that polytheists associate with goddesses as well those associated with gods. At the same time, the feminine imagery, and especially maternal language, Deutero-Isaiah uses for God suit this prophet鈥檚 focus on solace and hope, and the opening lines of today鈥檚 haftarah are a banner example. They also display this prophet鈥檚 frequent practice of borrowing language and images from earlier biblical texts and recasting them to comfort the exiled Judeans. Let鈥檚 take a closer look.
In the opening lines of the haftarah, the prophet portrays Jerusalem as a woman who thinks that her husband has left her and that her children are gone forever. Zion (i.e., Jerusalem) serves as a stand-in for the Jewish people, who believe either that the God of Israel no longer loves them (i.e., has ended the covenant) or that Israel鈥檚 deity is one of many gods, and has been defeated鈥攐r even killed鈥攂y the god of Babylon. Further, because the nation is in exile, the prophet portrays Zion not only as a rejected or widowed wife but also as a bereaved mother: her children have been taken away forever, destined to live in Babylon and probably to assimilate into the population there, thus ending the Jewish people鈥檚 existence. Zion laments in the first verse:
Hashem has abandoned me,
And my Lord has forgotten me. ()
But the prophet quotes God as forcefully denying this:
Would a woman forget her infant,
()
Forget to love the child of her womb?
Even if they would forget,
I never forget you . . .
Your children come quickly . . .
Lift up your eyes and see鈥�
All of them have gathered, they鈥檙e coming towards you!
I am making a vow (an utterance of Hashem):
Truly, you will wear all of them like jewelry,
You will adorn yourself with them as a bride.
Zion鈥檚 question in verse 14 uses a marital metaphor to describe the covenant: God is the husband and Zion or Israel is the wife. The same metaphor was used by the prophet Jeremiah shortly before the exile began, quoting God:
Why do My people say,
()
鈥淲e鈥檙e leaving You! We鈥檙e not coming home anymore!鈥�
Would a young woman forget her jewelry,
A bride her ornaments?
But My people has forgotten Me
Days beyond number.
In our haftarah, Deutero-Isaiah takes up language from Jeremiah鈥檚 prophecy of rebuke but uses it in radically new ways. In Jeremiah, God asked, 鈥淲ould a young woman forget her jewelry, a bride her adornment (讛植转执砖职讈讻址旨讞 讘职旨转讜旨诇指讛 注侄讚职讬指讛旨 讻址旨诇指旨讛 拽执砖只旨讈专侄讬讛指)?鈥� But in Deutero-Isaiah, God asks, 鈥淲ould a woman forget her infant, forget to love the child of her womb? (讛植转执砖职讈讻址旨讞 讗执砖指旨讈讛 注讜旨诇指讛旨 诪值专址讞值诐 讘侄旨谉志讘执旨讟职谞指讛旨). Words found immediately thereafter in Jeremiah鈥檚 question reappear several verses later in Deutero-Isaiah: 讻注讚讬 (鈥渓ike jewelry鈥�) in recalls 注讚讬讛 (鈥渉er jewelry鈥�) in Jeremiah. Deutero-Isaiah鈥檚 phrase 鈥淵ou will adorn yourself with them as a bride鈥� echoes Jeremiah鈥檚 question: the later prophet鈥檚 verb 讜转拽砖讈专讬诐 recalls the earlier prophet鈥檚 noun 拽砖讜专讬讛 (鈥渉er adornments/ornaments鈥�), and the word 鈥渂ride鈥� (讻诇讛) appears next to the word for adornment in both texts.
By repeating vocabulary from Jeremiah鈥檚 complaint, Deutero-Isaiah encourages us to read these passages alongside each other, making clear that in the later text, God denies abandoning the people, even though they forgot God in Jeremiah鈥檚 day. Both texts include the metaphor of a woman, but in Deutero-Isaiah the figure is a more tender image: in place of a woman who covets jewelry, we read of mother and child. The jewelry does reappear, but is no longer used critically. Instead, God promises Zion that she will have children with which to adorn herself鈥攖hat is, that Jerusalem will again be inhabited by multitudes of Jews. The later prophet repeatedly uses words and images to comfort that the earlier one had used to castigate. Deutero-Isaiah reverses the message of the passage from Jeremiah鈥攂ut never denies its accuracy (for simply by reminding the audience of Jeremiah鈥檚 prophecy of doom, Deutero-Isaiah implicitly confirms that the exile Jeremiah long predicted has indeed come to pass.) For the later prophet, God reprimands but does not renounce Israel.
The most interesting change Deutero-Isaiah works on Jeremiah鈥檚 language involves the metaphor each uses for God. In Jeremiah, the woman who is fickle and ungrateful is Israel, and God is her husband. But in today鈥檚 haftarah, the woman is not a bride but a mother鈥攁nd that mother is God. In fact, the persuasive force of the passage depends on the fact that God is portrayed here as Israel鈥檚 mother rather than Israel鈥檚 husband: a husband can divorce a wife, but a mother remains a mother forever.
In rare cases mothers do abandon their children, but Deutero-Isaiah anticipates this objection and responds to it in a daring way: the prophet likens Hashem not merely to a mother, but to a mother who breast-feeds (注讜诇, which I translated above as 鈥渋nfant,鈥� refers specifically to an infant who is nursing; the noun is derived from a verb that means 鈥渢o suckle鈥�). A mother who is breast-feeding is physically unable to forget her child: if she does not express milk every few hours, her breasts become engorged and painful. God is physically connected to the Jewish people, the prophet insists, as a breast-feeding mother is connected to her infant. The people did forsake God. But God will never renounce Her child. Deutero-Isaiah provides reasons for God鈥檚 loyalty unrelated to Israel鈥檚 behavior鈥攚hich are therefore more believable to a guilt-ridden exilic audience.
Deutero-Isaiah is a constantly allusive poet, borrowing language from older biblical texts and reworking it to provide a message of comfort and encouragement in place of the often negative predictions of prophets who came earlier. The allusion to we have examined is but one of roughly a dozen in today鈥檚 haftarah that rework language from Jeremiah, Deuteronomy, First Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, and Psalms. In fact, all of this prophet鈥檚 compositions () display a very clever artistry of allusion and revision even as they constantly echo and reinforce older biblical traditions.
And this prophet is the one biblical author who repeatedly uses female metaphors to describe God (as well as masculine figures of speech). This prophet鈥檚 work seems surprisingly contemporary in suggesting that God is as much a mother as a husband鈥攚hich is to say that God is neither man nor woman, and that whatever language we apply to God is always figurative, never literal. In both these respects today鈥檚 haftarah is a reminder of the literary sensitivity and theological depth we are privileged to experience on Shabbat morning.
This commentary was originally published in 2018
The publication and distribution of the 91快播 Commentary are made possible by a generous grant from Rita Dee (锄鈥漧) and Harold Hassenfeld (锄鈥漧).
