Shabbat Hazon and Parshat Dvarim
Shabbat Hazon and Parshat Dvarim

Ever since the annual Torah-reading cycle was standardized in the late Second Temple period, Parashat Devarim, opening the Book of Deuteronomy, has been read on the Shabbat of the Nine Days.

There is a subtle message here: Deuteronomy is the Book which begins with us on the other side of the River Jordan, facing Jericho, led by Moshe. This is the Book which guides us into the Land of Israel, and which concludes with Moshe’s death.

It is desperately sad – this image of Moshe, who had dedicated his entire life to the nation of Israel, about to part from them forever; allowed to gaze into the Land of Israel yet never to enter it; Moshe, who had jeopardised his very life over and over again, from the time he had killed the Egyptian slave-driver when he was but a teen-aged Egyptian prince, who would die alone in an unknown crevice of an unknown mountain.

Yet it is also an exhilarating time – the exile about to end, the nation about to become independent in its own Land, G-d’s promise to bring us “to a good and spacious Land, to a Land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8) about to come true.

This dichotomy is the paradigm of the dichotomy of the Ninth of Av. To be sure, the Ninth of Av is the day of greatest disasters: “Five disasters befell our fathers on the ninth of Av: It was decreed that our fathers would not enter the Land, and the First and Second Holy Temples were destroyed, and Beitar was destroyed, and the City [of Jerusalem] was ploughed over” (Ta’anit 4:6).

The litany of disasters continues throughout our history: Pope Urban II declared the first crusade on the 9th of Av 4855 (1095), in which 10,000 Jews were massacred in the first month.

It was on the 9th of Av 5050 (1290), that King Edward I of England decreed that all Jews in his kingdom – who included among their number some of the great Tosafists – be expelled.

The Jews of Spain were expelled from their comfortable exile on the 9th of Av 5252 (1492).

And it was on this same day, the 9th of Av 5674 (1st August 1914), that Germany declared war on Russia, precipitating the First World War with all its attendant horrors – and which led directly, inexorably, to the horrors of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust.

And the mass deportations of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka began on the 9th of Av 5702 (1942).

And who can forget the hideous irony that when the government of Israel decreed the extirpation of the Jewish presence in Gaza and northern Samaria in 5765 (2005), they instinctively chose the ninth of Av as the final day on which Jews could be there legally?

Yet the ninth of Av was the day when we were supposed to enter the Land of Israel, and would have done had the spies not demoralised the nation with their evil report (Numbers 13-14). The ninth of Av was originally ordained as a day of redemption – and, indeed, it is deeply entrenched in Jewish tradition that Mashiach was born on the day that the Holy Temple was destroyed (see for example Yerushalmi Berakhot 2:4, Eichah Rabbah 1:51, Midrash Abba Gurion, et. al.). That is to say, the redemption is born out of the darkest destruction.

This is the dichotomy of the ninth of Av: yes, it is a day of destruction and exile; yet it is also a day of hope and redemption. This is the dichotomy of Parashat Devarim, and indeed of the entire Book of Deuteronomy: yes, it is the Book that brings us into the Land of Israel; yet it is also the Book which sees the death of our greatest teacher and Rabbi ever.

The Midrash notes that “three people prophesied using the word eichah (‘alas!’ or ‘how!’) – Moshe, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.

Moshe said, ‘Eichah – Alas! How can I alone carry your quarrelsomeness and your burdens and your infighting?’ (Deuteronomy 1:12).

Isaiah said, ‘Eichah – Alas! How has the faithful city become a harlot!’.

Jeremiah said, ‘Eichah – Alas! How this city of a great nation sits in solitude!’ (Lamentations 1:1).

Rabbi Levi said: This is like a lady who had three attendants; one saw her when she was in tranquillity, one saw her when she was harassed, and one saw her when she was disgraced. Thus Moshe, who saw Israel in their glory and tranquillity, said ‘Eichah – Alas! How can I alone carry your quarrelsomeness?’; Isaiah, who saw them when they were harassed, said, ‘Eichah – Alas! How has the faithful city become a harlot!’; and Jeremiah, who saw them in their disgrace, said, ‘Eichah – Alas! How this city…sits in solitude!’” (Eichah Rabbah 1:1).

The first of these three laments of eichah! is in Parashat Devarim, the second is in the Haftarah for Devarim, and the third is the recurrent theme of Lamentations which, in previous years, we have read on the ninth of Av. (Will the Book of Lamentations still be relevant this Tuesday on the ninth of Av? Or will we be dancing and eating of the sacrifices in the rebuilt Holy Temple?)

The first chapter of Isaiah, the passage which Hazal selected as the Haftarah for Parashat Devarim (which, as we noted above, is always read on the Shabbat of the Nine Days), is perhaps the gloomiest, the most frightening and depressing chapter of the entire Tanakh. Beginning with the word hazon (“vision) – “the vision of Isaiah…about Judah and Jerusalem”, hence the name of this Shabbat as Shabbat Hazon – the prophet portrays his faithless nation: “The ox knows his owner and the donkey his master’s trough; Israel does not know, My nation has not perceived. Woe, O sinning nation, O people heavy with iniquity, offspring of evil, destructive children! They have forsaken HaShem, they have infuriated the Holy One of Israel…”.

Verse follows verse of castigation, of prophecy of destruction, of mourning. But the final verses of our Haftarah look ahead to after the time of gloom, to the beginning of forgiveness: “Therefore, says the Lord HaShem, Master of Legions, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah! How I will comfort Myself from My adversaries and avenge Myself of My enemies! I will return My hand upon you [Israel], and purify your dross as with soap, and I will remove all your base metal. Then I will restore your judges as in the earliest times, and your counsellors as at the beginning; after that, you shall be called City of Justice, Faithful Town” (Isaiah 1:24-26).

In one of Isaiah’s final prophecies, looking ahead to the End of Days, the prophet depicts the final Redemption: “The sons of your oppressors will go to you submissively, and all those who had contempt for you will prostrate themselves at the soles of your feet, calling you City of HaShem, Zion, the Holy One of Israel…Then you will know that I, HaShem, am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob…Your nation will all be tzaddikim, they will inherit the Land for eternity…I am HaShem – in its time I will hasten it” (Isaiah 60:14-22).

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 98a) and the Midrash (Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah 8:1[12]) point out an apparent problem: if the Redemption comes “in its time”, then how can G-d “hasten it”? And if He does “hasten it”, then how can the redemption come “in its time”? – “If they merit it, then He will hasten it; if they do not merit it, it will come in its time”.

Another Midrash (Tanhuma, Bekhukotay 3) cites other perspectives: “Rabbi Yehudah said: if Israel do not repent, then they will not be redeemed… But Rabbi Shimon said: Whether they repent or not, when the end time comes they will be redeemed immediately, as it says ‘I am HaShem – in its time I will hasten it’.

Rabbi Eliezer said: If they do not repent of their own accord, then G-d will set up an evil king whose decrees will be as vicious as Haman’s, who will subjugate them; and as a result they will repent, as it says ‘when suffering comes like a river, the Spirit of HaShem will be exalted in it [Israel]’ (Isaiah 59:19). And at that time, ‘the redeemer will come unto Zion’ (ibid. v.20)”.

There are two ways in which the Redemption and the Mashiach can come: because of us and our actions, or despite us and our actions. The Redemption can come either because we have deserved it through our righteousness, or even though we do not deserve it but the time that G-d has decreed has come.

The difference is not merely chronological; it is the difference between a Redemption which comes with horrendous suffering, and a Redemption which comes with glory and majesty. It is the difference between entire Jewish families and communities being exterminated in exile and lone survivors straggling into Israel and slinking in as thieves in the night, and entire Jewish families and communities making Aliyah together and entering Israel joyfully in tranquillity.

And in the very last verse of our Haftarah, Isaiah gives us a tiny glimpse into that future time: “Zion will be redeemed in justice” (Isaiah 1:27). The usual interpretation is that Zion will be redeemed in the merit of those Jews who do justice (Rashi, Radak, Malbim, Metzudat David et. al.). I suggest an alternative understanding: Isaiah is prophesying here that “Zion will be redeemed in justice” – that her Redemption will be deserved; that when the time comes, G-d will judge Zion and deem Israel to be worthy of Redemption. The Redemption will be justice – that is to say, deserved.

The absolute end time for the final Redemption is the year 6000, another 228 years in the future. But the Redemption is in our hands to bring at any time – “today, if you listen to His voice” (Psalms 95:7, Sanhedrin 98a, Yerushalmi Ta’anit 1:1, Shmot Rabbah 25:12).

Today, for the first time since the First Temple era, more Jews live in Israel than any other single country (Israel overtook the USA about a decade ago); according to present trends, the majority of the world’s Jews will be living in Israel in another decade or two. We are well on the way to the final Redemption, and we can hasten it further.

It is in our hands to transform the ninth of Av this year – just a couple of days away! – from a day of mourning to the day of Redemption that it was always intended to be.