Herald of Zion

This reflection is part of the ongoing Forest Hills Haftorah Series. The rest of the content can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/groups/FHJC-Haftorah-Series .

This week we read the opening words of what might be the most uplifting and poetic of all of our ancient oracles:

To this day, we do not know the name of the one who uttered such words of comfort and encouragement, and he has since come to be known as "Deutero-Isaiah," for his oracles have been appended to the end of Isaiah-proper. We do know that he can be dated to the second-half of the 6th century BCE, when the Persian emperor Cyrus declared that the Judean exiles can return home.

Rather than continually refer to him as "Deutero-Isaiah," which sounds silly as a proper name, let's call him "the Herald," borrowing YHWH's term from verse 9 below.

It is this exiled Judean community that the Herald addresses, announcing that the appointed time of redemption and deliverance has arrived at long last.

And YHWH, the Lord Almighty himself, will personally lead them home:

The Herald announces a leveling-out of the land, a removal of all obstacles, so that an even and straight-forward highway can be set down, enabling the exiles' journey to be as smooth-sailing as possible.

This news is indeed worthy of publicity and celebration. And so the prophet enjoins someone to climb up to the mountaintops and bring such joyous news to all of the towns of Judah. No one will be left behind, not even those unable to make the journey, for if need be, YHWH will personally carry them himself in his own bosom:

I find this to be such a moving and beautiful image. I once spent a summer working as a goat-herder, and can therefore share from personal experience that the herder of a flock can only be truly successful if there is such deep care and affection for the flock's entirety. This caring is realized through the endeavor to lead the flock to pasture, leading it to water, and protecting it from anything that would do it harm. It is not insignificant that some of those chosen to lead our ancestors at crucial moments in our history started their careers as herders of flock.

Consider the young David's epic and immortalized words to King Saul before sallying forth to challenge the Philistine hero Goliath in single-combat, when the courage of all of the other "battle-hardened" Israelite soldiers around him had already failed:

By virtue of being a shepherd, David has demonstrated that he has what it takes to stand up to the threat of Goliath, and to eventually tend YHWH's people Israel.

YHWH, as our ultimate ruler, provider and care-giver, is our shepherd par excellence. We see the Herald expressing this here, but he is not the first, nor the last, to draw on this metaphor to explain our relationship to YHWH.

The most stirring and poignant of this example is psalm 23:

You'll doubtless encounter so many other beautiful examples in our literature in your own readings; Some other places to keep your eyes open for it include the psalms, as well as the prophecies of Micah, Amos (yet another Biblical shepherd), Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

With this in mind, let's take another look at these words of encouragement of the Herald:

Note that both here, and in some of the previous verses quoted from this Haftorah above, the point is made that both YHWH and Judah are returning form exile together. This is another major point in the Herald's oracles that cannot be overemphasized, for it speaks to the reversal of what might be the most tragic moment in all of the TaNaKh; YHWH's physical abandonment of the Temple, and of Judah.

In Ezekiel chapters 8-10, Ezekiel describes how, almost seemingly in slow-motion, he witnesses YHWH stepping off of his throne (the Holy Ark), and continually distancing himself from his earthly throne-room, the Holy of Holies, before leaving this world behind entirely.

We went in-depth into this in another limmud, Departure and Return in Ezekial (https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/235655?lang=bi). Here is a snapshot of but one moment on that fateful day:

This would have been just a few years before the Temple would fall. And it was only because YHWH had left, that an army of flesh-and-blood human beings would have the ability to bring down YHWH's Home; For by the time the Babylonians would raze it in 586, it had since ceased being YHWH's dwelling-place, and was by then a mere structure of stone, like any other.

The Judeans' merely relocating from exile to Judah - while certainly a step in the right direction - was not in-and-of-itself the redemption that had been hoped for; For dwelling in Judah without the presence of YHWH is akin to the emptiness of a hollow shell.

What the Herald assures his listeners is that YHWH is ready for a complete reconciliation, allowing him and Israel to triumphantly and blissfully return, hand-in-hand, to Judea, which will once again be their shared home.

Starting with verse 12 through the rest of the Haftorah, the Herald shifts focus in turning to a point which he will continually revisit throughout his oracles; YHWH is Incomparable. No other entity, no other gods, nothing throughout the cosmos can compete with the grandeur, might and majesty of YHWH of all celestial Hosts.

Let's jump ahead and see the climax of this, the last verse of our Haftorah:

I have to share with you Robert Alter's beautiful comment on this line:

This is a beautiful instance of the focusing or heightening that takes place between the first verset and the second in a line of biblical poetry: First, God musters the host of the heavens, the stars, as their supreme commander; then, gong beyond what any terrestrial general could to, He is able to name each one of the vast multitude of the stars.

This might also call to mind a passage from psalm 8:

I love that the psalter here describes the heavens as the work of specifically YHWH's fingers.

As far back as human memory probably goes, we have been gazing up at the heavenly tapestry of stars and seeing order emerge, witnessing epic stories and heroic personalities materialize from the starry heavens above. The psalter here seems to picture YHWH as very carefully placing each and every one of those myriad of flickering lights, with utmost deliberation.

Like a Mozartian symphony made up of thousands of notes, every single detail is intended, and contributes to a grandiose and majestic whole.

And as the Herald says, YHWH not only placed each one, but has the most intimate knowledge possible of them all; calling each one by its own unique name, with all of them heeding his call in turn.

Just to further drive this point home; astronomists have estimated that there are around the same number of stars out there in the observable universe as there are grains of sand in all of the beaches on Earth! Note - Specifically the beaches. Were we to include the sands at the bottom of the sea and the deserts as well, then Team Sand would win by a long-shot.

Still, this is a mind-boggling statistic about the utter and incomprehensible vastness of space. And keep in mind, this is only in comparison to the observable universe. As for how many are beyond that... only the Almighty can know.

(Don't believe me? Bob Berman of Astronomy Magazine wanted to answer this old cliche once-and-for all, so took off a few years to just go ahead and count them: https://astronomy.com/magazine/bob-berman/2019/01/more-sand-or-stars .)

One thing I love about the Herald's oracles is that we now see YHWH's lofty and colossal grandeur, and immediate, earthly intimacy emphasized side-by-side within the same paragraph. For the High Lord Almighty, who reigns from one end of the universe to the other... Is also the shepherd of Israel, who upon returning home, would refuse to leave a single one of his flock behind.

This week starts off a series of several weeks in a row of Haftorahs from Deutero-Isaiah. So if you were moved by anything we explored today, be sure to stay tuned for more of this in weeks to come.