Daniel Pinneris a veteran immigrant from England, a teacher by profession and a Torah scholar who has been active in causes promoting Eretz Israel and Torat Israel.
On most Shabbatot, the Haftarah (the reading from the Prophets which follows the Torah-reading) echoes or complements the theme of the morning’s Torah-reading. However, the final ten Shabbatot of the year follow a different paradigm.
The Haftarot for the three Shabbatot of the Three Weeks from 17th of Tammuz till 9th of Av (this year, 8th, 15th, and 22nd of July) are called the תְּלָתָא דְּפֻרְעָנוּתָא , the Three Haftarot of Castigation; these are drawn from Isaiah and Jeremiah, and are prophecies of destruction, G-d’s warnings of the terrible things that will happen if we stray from G-d and His Torah.
And then for the next seven weeks, we read the שֶׁבַע דְּנֶחֱמָתָא, the Seven Haftarot of Consolation; these are all drawn from Isaiah, and are his magnificent and inspiring prophecies of the halcyon days yet to come, in our return en masse to the Land of Israel.
The Haftarah for Parashat Re’eh is the third Haftarah of the שֶׁבַע דְּנֶחֱמָתָא, and consists of Isaiah 54:11-55:5. It is one of the Prophet’s magnificent and inspiring prophecies of the future time, in which Israel, the “afflicted, storm-tossed, unconsoled” nation, will at last find its long-deserved and hard-earned tranquillity and prosperity. It will be in the era that “all your children will be students of Hashem, and great will be the peace of your children” (Isaiah 54:13).
The Haftarah concludes with the restoration of the inspiration of King David’s kingship, not only for us but for all nations:
“Behold! – I have given him as a witness to the nations, a prince and commander to the nations; Behold! – You will call to a people whom you did not know, and a people who did not know you will run to you, for the sake of Hashem your G-d; and for the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you” (Isaiah 55:4-5).
There is a peculiarity in these words, specifically in verse 4:
הֵן עֵד לְאוּמִּים נְתַתִּיו, נָגִיד וּמְצַוֵּה לְאֻמִּים:
“Behold! – I have given him as a witness to the nations, a prince and commander to the nations”.
The word “nations” appears twice in this verse, but with a very subtle difference. The first time it appears as לְאוּמִּים, the second time as לְאֻמִּים. And this demands an explanation, because the second spelling לְאוּמִּים (with the vav) is not only wrong, it is grammatically impossible:
The shuruk (vav with a dot in it) is a long vowel, and after a long vowel there can never be a dagesh (a dot in the letter which emphasises or doubles it). Yet the spelling לְאוּמִּים violates this rule. The grammatically correct spelling is לְאֻמִּים, with a kubbutz (three dots at a slant) under the aleph, which is a short vowel – as it appears at the end of this verse.
So why do these two spellings appear in this once verse, the first one violating the rules of grammar and the second the expected form?
The Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, France, c.1160-c.1235), in his commentary, notes this peculiarity: “With a vav, with a dagesh”, but he offers no explanation for this peculiarity.
I have not found any of our commentators who explain this, and so, without anyone else to rely on, with some trepidation, entering uncharted waters, I offer the following observation: –
Ten times in the Tanach a mem with a dagesh follows a shuruk (-וּמּ-):
1. וַיִּהְיוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם עֲרוּמִּים הָאָדָם וְאִשְׁתּוֹ וְלֹא יִתְבֹּשָׁשׁוּ (בראשית ב:כה).
“They were both of them naked – Adam and his wife – and they were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25).2. וַיֵּלֶךְ הַמֶּלֶךְ אָחָז לִקְרַאת תִּגְלַת פִּלְאֶסֶר מֶלֶךְ אַשּׁוּר דּוּמֶּשֶׂק... (מלכים ב טז:י).
“King Ahaz went towards Tiglat-Pilesser, King of Assyria, to Damascus…” (2 Kings 16:10).
3. הַקְשִׁיבוּ אֵלַי עַמִּי וּלְאוּמִּי אֵלַי הַאֲזִינוּ כִּי תוֹרָה מֵאִתִּי תֵצֵא וּמִשְׁפָּטִי לְאוֹר עַמִּים אַרְגִּיעַ (ישעיהו נא:ד).
“Hearken to Me, O My People; and O My nation, hear me! Because the Torah will go forth from Me, and My judgment will be a light for peoples, to whom I will give tranquillity” (Isaiah 51:4).
4. הֵן עֵד לְאוּמִּים נְתַתִּיו נָגִיד וּמְצַוֵּה לְאֻמִּים (ישעיהו נה :ד).
“Behold! – I have given him as a witness to the nations, a prince and commander to the nations” (Isaiah 55:4).
5. כִּי תַחְבֹּל אַחֶיךָ חִנָּם וּבִגְדֵי עֲרוּמִּים תַּפְשִׁיט (איוב כב:ו).
“Because you have taken collateral from your brothers without cause, and stripped off the clothes of the naked” (Job 22:6).
6. פֵר גּוּמָּץ בּוֹ יִפּוֹל, וּפֹרֵץ גָּדֵר יִשְּׁכֶנּוּ נָחָשׁ (קהלת י:ח).
“He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who bursts through a fence will be bitten by a snake” (Ecclesiastes 10:8).
7.וַיֹּאמֶר הַתִּרְשָׁתָא לָהֶם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יֹאכְלוּ מִקֹּדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים עַד עֲמֹד הַכֹּהֵן לְאוּרִים וְתוּמִּים (נחמיה ז:סה).
“Hattirshatha [1] told them not to eat of the most holy offerings until a Kohen [Priest] would arise [who would be instructed by] the Urim and Tumim” (Nehemiah 7:65).
8. וּשְׁלַח לִי עֲצֵי אֲרָזִים בְּרוֹשִׁים וְאַלְגּוּמִּים מֵהַלְּבָנוֹן... (דברי הימים ב ב:ז).
“Send me also cedar-trees, cypresses, and algums [2] from Lebanon…” (2 Chronicles 2:7).
9.וְגַם עַבְדֵי חוּרָם וְעַבְדֵי שְׁלֹמֹה אֲשֶׁר הֵבִיאוּ זָהָב מֵאוֹפִיר הֵבִיאוּ עֲצֵי אַלְגּוּמִּים וְאֶבֶן יְקָרָה (דברי הימים ב ט:י).
“Also Huram’s servants and Solomon’s servants, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum trees and precious stones” (2 Chronicles 9:10).
10. וַיַּעַשׂ הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת עֲצֵי הָאַלְגּוּמִּים מְסִלּוֹת לְבֵית ה' וּלְבֵית הַמֶּלֶךְ... (דברי הימים ב ט:יא).
“And the king made from the algum-trees paths to the Temple of Hashem and to the king’s house…” (2 Chronicles 9:11).The first of these describes Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the sin of eating the forbidden fruit; in the perfect physical world which G-d had created and intended His creation to dwell in. An environment in which they were עֲרוּמִּים, naked, and not ashamed.
The second was a terrible time, when King Ahaz, King of Judah, humiliated himself and the entire Jewish nation before the Assyrian king; he then built a replica of the Assyrian idolatrous temple in Jerusalem and replicated all the Assyrian idolatry in Jerusalem.
Maybe in this context the dagesh in the mem is simply because Damascus is usually spelt דַּמֶּשֶׂק (it appears with this spelling 39 times in the Tanach) and this is the sole time that it is spelt דּוּמֶּשֶׂק. So even though the Tanach adds the vav to the name, it nevertheless retains the dagesh in the mem.
The third and fourth of these are Isaiah’s prophecies of the Redemption (the fourth being the verse from our Haftarah).
The fifth, from Job, is the primordial attempt to answer the eternal conundrum: Why do good people suffer?
These are the words of Eliphaz the Temanite. He was wrong in his understanding, and the “comfort” he offered to his friend Job was completely insensitive – but nevertheless, he was making a [sincere?] attempt to understand G-d’s ways.
The sixth, from Ecclesiastes, posits the principle of cause-and-effect, measure-for-measure, that we all carry responsibility for our actions.
The seventh is a pivotal event in the return to Zion under Ezra and Nehemiah, the reconstruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and the yearning to restore the Urim and Tumim, which would have elevated the Second Temple to the same level of sanctity as the First.
It wasn’t to be, there were no Urim and Tumim in the Second Temple – but Nehemiah didn’t yet know this, he still hoped that the Urim and Tumim would be restored.
And the final three all record the construction of the First Temple by King Solomon – the climactic event of the first redemption, the redemption from Egypt, which had happened 480 years earlier.
So with the exception of the name דּוּמֶּשֶׂק (2 Kings 16:10), a unique spelling of Damascus, each of these is somehow connected with our drawing closer to G-d.
In Kabbalistic thought, the letter mem alludes to G-d’s dominion over the universe: מַלְכוּת (Kingship) and מֶמְשָׁלָה (dominion).
The letter mem has two forms: usually מ; when it is at the end of a word, its form is ם. These two forms, מ and ם, are respectively open and closed shapes. The open represents G-d’s open, revealed Kingship and dominion over the world; the closed represents G-d’s hidden, concealed Kingship and dominion over the world [3].
The dagesh, as we noted earlier, emphasises or doubles a letter. So when the Tanach inserts a dagesh into the mem against the normative rules of grammar, it is emphasising G-d’s kingship and dominion over His world.
The word וָו, vav, means “hook”; in the Tanach it appears solely in the context of the construction of the Mishkan (Exodus 26:32-38:28). Therefore the letter ו, vav, denotes a connexion – which is why the prefix ו, vav, means “and”.
Combining these, the confluence of -וּמּ-, which demands our attention by violating the normative rules of grammar, suggests a special connexion with G-d’s kingship and dominion over His world, both the revealed and the concealed – the connexion which Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden when the world was still in its perfect primordial state, and which will be when G-d’s Glory will be manifest in the time of the final Redemption.
This, maybe, is the inference of Isaiah’s prophecy in our Haftarah:
הֵן עֵד לְאוּמִּים נְתַתִּיו נָגִיד וּמְצַוֵּה לְאֻמִּים (ישעיהו נה :ד).
“Behold! – I have given him [King David] as a witness to the nations, a prince and commander to the nations” (Isaiah 55:4).
When the monarchy of the line of King David is restored in a sovereign and independent Israel, then G-d’s מַלְכוּת (Kingship) and מֶמְשָׁלָה (dominion), both in their concealed and in their revealed aspects, will be manifest in His Land, and we will have our close and intimate connexion with His Kingship and dominion.
I suggest that this is the inference of the extra vav in the word לְאוּמִּים.
The first-ever occurrence of the confluence -וּמּ- was in the Garden of Eden, when the world was in its state of perfection.
It is this state of perfection to which we will yet return, when G-ds Kingship and dominion will again as manifest throughout the world as it was in the Garden of Eden.
This is the perfect comfort to follow the commemoration of the disasters of the Three Weeks, a perfect component of the שֶׁבַע דְּנֶחֱמָתָא, the Seven Haftarot of Consolation.
Endnotes
[1] Hattirshatha, Hebrew הַתִּרְשָׁתָא. This is either a name or a title awarded to Nehemiah; vide Nehemiah 8:9 and 10:2 with the commentaries thereon.
[2] Hebrew אַלְגּוּמִּים, some type of tree. JPS translates “sandal-wood”. The Radak understands it to be a red tree, which description fits sandal-wood; however he specifies that it is the tree which in foreign languages (presumably French) is called ברזילי, suggesting the ironwood tree. The Persian Ironwood fits the description of a fragrant tree which resembles corral, and whose wood is very hard.
[3] Vide Shabbat 104a and Otiot Rabbi Akiva, Chapter 2. For an easily-accessible and in-depth analysis, see The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet (ArtScroll), chapter 13.