Dear Readers,
Have you ever experienced a challenging situation and found yourself saying, “G‑d! Please can You hug me? Show me that you love and care for me!”
This week’s haftarah can classify as G‑d’s hug and perhaps we should bookmark it to read whenever we need that extra assurance.
Haftarot are portions from the books of prophecy, read after the Torah portion. This week’s haftorah is the second of a series of seven “haftarot of Consolation.” These seven haftarot begin on the Shabbat following Tisha B’Av (called Shabbat Nachamu) and continue until Rosh Hashanah.
The haftarah begins with the exiled Jewish people expressing their distress that G‑d has abandoned them. “And Zion said, ‘The L‑rd has forsaken me, and the L‑rd has forgotten me’ ” (Isaiah 49:14).
Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Jewish nation was driven out of its homeland and sent into a pain-filled exilethat lasts to this very day. But exile is more than being ousted from our homeland; it is a state where our relationship with G‑d has been damaged.
The Temple was G‑d’s home on earth. It represents our tangible connection to growth, spirituality and connection, and its destruction sent us into exile—a state of fragmentation where our spiritual, emotional and physical selves are disconnected from our Source. We await the time when our world will be redeemed, healed and whole again.
Meanwhile, we don’t always feel G‑d’s tangible presence in our lives. So, we call out to G‑d from our innermost being, from the depths of our hopelessness, “G‑d are You there? Have you forgotten me? I need your embrace!”
G‑d reassures us that He has not forsaken us. “Can a woman forget her sucking child, or not feel compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, but I would not forget you. Behold I engraved you on My palms; your walls are before Me always” (Isaiah 49:15-16).
G‑d compares His love to that of a mother to her baby, a relationship expressing the most intense love and compassion. (Abarbanel) G‑d assures us that just as we would constantly see a message that we have engraved on our palms, G‑d sees us and remembers us (Rashi).
G‑d promises us, too, that very soon, we will witness a different time.
“Look to Abraham, your forefather, and Sarah who bore you … .”
After many decades of marriage, Abraham and Sarah had given up on the hope of having a child, but G‑d gave them a son. So, too, although our exile may extend so long that we may give up hope of redemption, G‑d promises to redeem us (Radak).
“For the L‑rd shall console Zion, He shall console all its ruins, and He shall make its desert like a paradise and its wasteland like the garden of the L‑rd; joy and happiness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and a voice of song” (Isaiah 51:2-3).
May it happen now!
Chana Weisberg
Editor, TJW
