This year 5786, as in all non-leap years, Parashot Tazria and Metzora are combined. And this year, as in about 18% of all years, the double Parashah Tazria-Metzora coincides with Rosh Chodesh Iyyar.
The Haftarah for Tazria-Metzora is the events of the four lepers who heralded Israel’s victory over the Aramæan Army (2 Kings 7:3-20). But this Shabbat we read instead the Haftarah for Rosh Chodesh, which is abstracted from Isaiah 66, the final chapter of the Book.
The opening words record G-d’s castigation of the generation:
“This is what Hashem says: The Heavens are My Throne and the earth is My footstool; what kind of House [=Temple] will you build for Me? And what kind of place can be for My rest? All these My hand made, and all these have come into existence - says Hashem. But I look to the poor, to those of crushed spirit, and those who fear My Word.
“One who slaughters an ox has struck a man; one who sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; one who offers up a meal-offering is like blood of pig; one who burns the frankincense sanctifies corruption; they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighted in their abominations.
“I, too, will choose their mockeries, and I will bring their own fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they didn’t hear; instead, they committed what is evil in My eyes, and they chose what I never desired" (Isaiah 66:1-4).
And then, after castigating those Jews who bring insincere sacrifices, Jews who think that they can oppress helpless people and then appease G-d by bringing their sacrifices, the Prophet directs a far more hopeful message to the loyal Jews:
“Listen to Hashem’s Word, O fearers of His Word: your brothers who hate you, who have rejected you, said ‘For the sake of my name Hashem will be glorified’; we will see your joy, and they will be ashamed. There is a voice of tumult from the City, a voice from the Holy Temple: the Voice of Hashem paying retribution to His enemies" (vs. 5-6).
Virtually every Bible commentator understands the prophet to be castigating corrupt Jews who bring insincere sacrifices. The City means the City of Jerusalem (following Targum Yonatan, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Malbim, Metzudat David, and others), and the Prophets words of consolation are directed to the Jews who remain faithful to G-d and who are oppressed by their fellow-Jews.
I cite here the introduction to this Haftarah by Rabbi Dr Joseph Hertz (Chief Rabbi of the British Empire 1913-1946):
“The Second Temple is nearing completion, and the Prophet corrects false ideas concerning the Temple building and the worship therein. He contrasts the faithful Israelites with the apostates, given the idolatrous practices, and doomed to extinction. The chapter concludes with the renewed assurance of the triumph of the Faithful Remnant, and the universal worship of the one G-d".
So far the standard understanding of the Prophet’s words.
But then, Rabbi Hertz cites a radical and boldly different interpretation [1], the interpretation of the English Jewish Bible scholar Harold Marcus Wiener (1875-1929):
Wiener suggests that in verses 1-4, the Prophet is protesting energetically against the construction of some temple in or near Babylon - an unacceptable blasphemy, since the Holy Temple could be constructed solely in Jerusalem (vide the Rambam, Laws of the Holy Temple 1:3).
This led to a violent divisions of opinion in the Jewish community. Its supporters held that the exile was permanent, a Jewish restoration out of the question, and that the Temple was therefore to be restored in the countries of exile.
The Prophet Isaiah was of course utterly against this blasphemy, and assured the orthodox party that events would yet prove how right they were in their faith for the future.
The city, according to Wiener, is not Jerusalem; rather, the city in which the voice of tumult is heard is Babylon; it, too, contained a temple - but not Hashem’s Temple.
Then in verse 5, the Prophet Isaiah turns to the party which had remained faithful to G-d, and had consequently been hated and rejected by their opponents - who were their own brethren.
These opponents had said incredulously: “Let Hashem be glorified, so we may see your joy" (Wiener’s interpretation of verse 5). The Prophet predicts that the result will rebuke their lack of faith, “and they will be ashamed".
How will this come about?
- “A voice of tumult from the city, a voice from the temple: the Voice of Hashem paying retribution to His enemies" (v. 6).
In other words, there will be fighting in this foreign city, centring around the idolatrous temple. The sequel will be the painless and unprecedented rebirth of the Holy Land, bringing comfort and joy as the result of the Divine intervention (manifesting itself in the Persian campaigns of Cyrus).
Hence Wiener’s interpretation that the temple whose construction the Prophet opposed, the two parties, and the city and temple connected with this fighting were in or near Babylon.
After all, though the Tanach refers to the Holy Temple as the הֵיכַל (Temple, Shrine), it also uses the same word to refer to temples of idols and secular palaces (vide 2 Kings 20:18, Isaiah 39:7, Joel 4:5, 2 Chronicles 36:7 et al.)
This interpretation of Isaiah’s message resonates particularly deeply for our generation, the generation that is returning to the Land of Israel, abandoning the lands of exile. And even as we are rebuilding the Land, we have our enemies from within our own people who oppose the Return to Zion, who yearn to perpetuate the exile, who are so mired in the “Babylons" of today - Britain, the USA, Australia, Germany, wherever - that they would prefer to build their “temples" in those lands of exile than come home to Israel.
This Shabbat is the first of Iyyar: אִיָיר, the month in which we celebrate both יוֹם הָעַצְמָאוֹת, Israel’s miraculous rebirth as an independent State 78 years ago on the 5th of Iyyar (this Wednesday), and Israel’s equally miraculous victory over 13 Arab and Muslim states which launched a war of aggression and attempted genocide in 1967, which became the Six Day War, the pinnacle of which was the liberation and reunification of Jerusalem on the 28th of Iyyar (Friday 15th of May), which we celebrate as יוֹם חֵרוּת יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Jerusalem .
The two modern Festivals which we have added to our calendar, and which explain the name אִיָיר (Iyyar): the first two letters א"י are the standard abbreviation for אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל (the Land of Israel), and the final two letters יר allude to יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (Jerusalem).
Tragically, Harold Wiener did not live to see a free and independent Israel. He made Aliyah in 5684 (1924), believing in Israel’s destiny in its own Land, and worked for peace and coexistence between Jews and Arabs.
He was attacked in the Arab riots of תרפ"ט (13th August 1929). Facing his attackers, he boldly declared: Ana Yahudi (I am a Jew), whereupon they murdered him. It mattered not to them that Wiener had funded an Arab school and established scholarships for young Arab students. He was a Jew, and that was enough.
As much as history proved right the Jews of Isaiah’s generation who believed in שִׁיבַת צִיּוֹן, the Return to Zion, and as much as those Jews who believed that the Land of Israel had finished its role and that their destinies lay in Babylon were lost to Judaism and to history -
- so too the last century has fully vindicated the Jews who believed and believe in the שִׁיבַת צִיּוֹן, the Return to Zion of our generation. Harold Wiener was murdered almost a century ago, but his belief that the Jewish renaissance was beginning in the Land of Israel is now undeniable.
Isaiah’s magnificent, inspiring prophecies are coming true before our very eyes. They are no longer a matter of faith: they are now tomorrow’s headlines.
Nissan has always been the month of Redemption; it was the month in which we were redeemed from Egypt, which was the paradigm for all future redemptions.
And it is the prelude to Iyyar, the month in which the redemption of our generation has begun.
Redemption means our return to Zion and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. “Rejoice with Jerusalem and exult in her, all you who love her; be joyful for her joy, all you who had mourned for her!" exhorts the Prophet (Isaiah 66:10). These words become more tangible with every day that passes.
Isaiah concludes his Book: “It will be that on every New Moon and every Shabbat, all flesh will come to worship Me, says Hashem". This concluding verse is the reason for reading this chapter on Shabbat that coincides with Rosh Chodesh.
And so we conclude the Haftarah with this glimpse into the future time, a time when the Holy Temple will stand once again in a rebuilt Jerusalem, a swiftly-approaching time “when Hashem will be King over all the world: on that day Hashem will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).
Endnote
[1] This appears only in the commentary on Deuteronomy of the five-volume Hertz Chumash, published 1936. It does not appear in the subsequent one-volume edition, first published 1937.