The Talmud (Megillah 31a) tells us that the Haftarah for the first day of Sukkot is Zechariah Chapter 14. The Rambam (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Prayer 13:12) and the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim, Laws of Lulav 659:1) cite this as practical halakhah. Zechariah was among the last of all the Prophets: he lived and prophesied during the Return to Zion in the days of Daryavesh (Darius), the King of Persia who succeeded Achashverosh (Ahasuerus). The Second Jewish Commonwealth was beginning, the Second Redemption was in its infancy, Israel was still a province of the Persian Empire, Jews were streaming back home to Israel after the Babylonian exile, and King Daryavesh granted them permission to rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. It was against this backdrop that the Prophet Zechariah lived and prophesied. His Book, which is the penultimate of the 12 Latter Prophets, consists of 14 chapters, 211 verses, and our Haftarah is the final chapter. Why did our Sages choose this Prophetic Reading as the Haftarah for first day Sukkot? Rashi explains succinctly: “Because [the phrase] ‘to celebrate the Sukkot Festival’ (Zechariah 14:16) is written therein” (commentary to Megillah 31a, s.v. הנה יום בא לה'). Typically for Rashi, this telegraphically-brief comment requires explanation. This chapter opens with a terrifying prophecy: “Behold! – a day is coming for Hashem, when your spoils will be divided up in your midst. I will gather all the nations for war against Jerusalem, the City will be captured, the houses will be pillaged, and the women will be violated; half the City will go out into exile, but the rest of the nation will not be cut off from the City…” (Zechariah 14:1-2). This seems like an unusual choice of Prophetic Reading for a Festival – and all the more so for Sukkot, which is the Festival par excellance , the pinnacle of rejoicing in the year. While every Festival is axiomatically a time for rejoicing (the word חַג is the root of חָגַג, “rejoice”), nevertheless Sukkot is the sole Festival about which the Torah explicitly commands us, “ You will rejoice on your Festival, you and your son and your daughter, your servant and your maidservant, the Levite and the convert and the orphan and the widow who are within your gates…and you will surely be happy ” (Deuteronomy 16:14-15). Whenever our Sages speak of הַחַג, “the Festival”, without any definition, they invariably refer to Sukkot. So how is a prophecy like this appropriate for a day of such rejoicing? — The Prophet continues: “Hashem will go out and will wage war against these nations, just as He waged war on the day of battle” (v. 3). The Prophet’s reference to when G-d “waged war on the day of battle” is a reference to G-d’s fighting against the Egyptians for the Jews when He split the Red Sea (Targum Yonatan, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, et al.). The Prophet continues by describing the open miracles which G-d will perform on that day: “His feet will stand on that day on the Mount of Olives, facing Jerusalem to the east, and the Mount of Olives will be split at its middle, east-west – a very big valley; half the mountain will shift northwards, and half of it southwards. And you will flee…as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, King of Judah; then Hashem my G-d will come, all [His] Holy Ones will be with you… ” (Zechariah 14:4-5). And then the Prophet describes numerous wondrous miracles – frightening, disconcerting, but awe-inspiring: the very terrain of the Land of Israel will change, plagues will afflict those nations which fought against Israel, and civil war in Israel when “Judah, too, will fight against Jerusalem” (v. 14). And then, as the riposte to this terrifying era, “all who will still remain from all the nations who had come against Jerusalem will go up, year-by-year, to bow to the King, Hashem the Lord of Legions, to celebrate the Sukkot Festival ” (v. 16). So this seemingly-happy even is hardly the innocent celebration that a casual reading might have suggested. It is rather the wonderful and joyous aftermath of a horribly violent and unsettling series of events. Yet the Prophet’s message is one of hope and optimism: His message is that even the most terrible wars that we may be forced to endure are part of G-d’s plan for us. They are not random happenstance. A prophecy of Israel being independent and being attacked by a massive international coalition of dozens of nations would have seemed bizarre until not long ago. Today it is as concrete as tomorrow morning’s headlines. In the midst of a vicious war imposed on us by a genocidal and bloodthirsty enemy, at a time when the international community is condemning Israel for the attacks against it, when even our ostensible friends in the international area have turned or are turning against us, this Haftarah brings ultimate reassurance: G-d is in firm control of His world, directing His world and the nations in it as He wills. “As streams of water is the heart of a king in Hashem’s hand: He turns it to wherever He desires” said King Solomon (Proverbs 21:1), and if all the “kings”, meaning all national leaders – whether kings, presidents, prime ministers, premiers, supreme leaders, sultans, emirs, or any other title – are making common cause against Israel, then we see Zechariah’s prophecy coming true. The Torah gives us the rules of warfare in Parashot Shoftim and Ki Teitzei; the final words of Parashat Shoftim are “you will do what is right in Hashem’s eyes” (Deuteronomy 21:9), and the next verse, the opening words of Parashat Ki Teitzei, continues “When you go out to war against your enemies…” (v. 10). The Ba’al ha-Turim (Rabbi Ya’akov ben Asher, Germany and Spain, c.1275-1343) notes this juxtaposition, and expounds: “This is to tell you that Hashem will go out [to war] with you, as the Prophet says ‘Hashem will go out and will wage war against these nations’ (Zechariah 14:3)” (commentary to Deuteronomy 21:10). All the terrorist gangs, all the nations, all the hostile armies combined are but a cipher. As Sukkot begins, the Prophet reassures us that, however long and grim the journey, however saturated with tears our history, however frightening our situation may currently seem — — our story has a really happy ending. Read the final page of our story in the Haftarah for the first day of Sukkot.
