Redemption over Comfort

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 .

Before getting into this week's Haftorah specifically, I just have to say that reading through the words of the Herald is just... wow, such a joy. I can't think of another work I've encountered which is so completely filled to the brim with as much optimism and confidence that right around the corner is a future worth singing about.

There's a reason that George Friderich Handel, composing in the 18th century, would choose the Herald-oracles' opening words with which to begin what would become his timeless masterpiece, the "Messiah" Oratorio.

Here's the oratorio's opening below (after the overture). I highly recommend that you treat yourself, and take a few minutes to enjoy and really soak it in; In my opinion, Handel so perfectly captures the way a dear friend or loved one would thoughtfully and warmly begin to offer comfort to someone who had been in a period of extended hardship and mourning.

Note his transitions from hushed consolation to uplifting encouragement, and finally to euphoria, when the hoped-for future is such a certainty that it may as well have already arrived.

Here are the words, taken right out of Isaiah 40:

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your god!
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our god.

This week's Haftorah (Isaiah 51:12-52:12) continues this joyous sentiment; but it begins in the middle of a conversation!

To get the full context, we have to go back to Isaiah 51:9, in which we see a frantic Israel trying to rouse her god from slumber:

The beginning of this might seem strange. Who is Rahab, that YHWH hacked to pieces? And when did he ever pierce a dragon?

This is actually quite a huge topic. Suffice it to say for now that amongst some of our ancestors in ancient Israel and Judeah, there were myths floating around, most definitely inherited from the Canaanites, about a primeval war that was waged between YHWH and other supreme beings before YHWH was able to create the world as we know it. Rahab the dragon was one such being, and the memory of this myth made its way into some places in our TaNaKhic-literature.

What's more important here than the myth itself is why it is being invoked.

What exiled Israel is doing is reminding YHWH that we know the extent of his power. And more than this - we even remember that YHWH had once demonstrated his willingness to use such power for Israel's benefit! That is, when the seas were dried up, and a redeemed Israel was able to walk across on dry land!

With this, Israel is now using such memories as leverage to compel, or even to goad YHWH to act once again, stating: Hey, what gives already!? Are you sleeping, that we need to rouse you from your extended slumber? We're hurting over here, and are depending on you!

And only after this does our Haftorah begin, giving us YHWH's response.

The response itself goes all the way through 52:6, and wanders around between a few different ideas. Instead of posting the whole thing, let's just look at some highlights, starting from the beginning:

Sound familiar? Comfort, if you haven't yet noticed, is the leitwort, or the milah manha, of the Herald; It comes up again and again.

We also see YHWH throwing Israel's complaints right back at her. Israel shouted at YHWH to wake up already! To which YHWH responds:

It's not YHWH who has dozed off; It is Israel!

What starts happening at the end of the verse above seems to be YHWH validating, in a way, all of the grievances leveled at him. Israel misbehaved, that's true. But then perhaps YHWH overreacted, in letting himself get carried away by his wrath. As YHWH recounts some of the hardships of Israel, his statements seems to be tinged with regret and sadness:

Incredibly deep and moving imagery. With all of the Judeans in exile, Jerusalem is personified as a lonely, miserably bereaved widow. YHWH, the ultimate source of comfort, realizes that even he might not be able to console adequately; How can I comfort you?

This portrayal of Jerusalem has roots going quite a ways back. Recall the first few lines of the first poem in the Lamentations section:

The HarperCollins Study Bible commentary states that this Lament-poem might very well originate with one who endured the witnessing of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586:

Lamentations is probably the work of a survivor (or survivors) of the nation's destruction who poured out sorrow, anger, and dismay after the city's traumatic defeat and occupation by the Babylonians.

Consider that between this lament-poem responding to evens of 586, and the time of the Herald's pronouncements after Cyrus's proclamation in 538, this bat-Zion, the daughter of Zion, has been sitting in the darkest depths of loneliness and despair for nearly 50 years.

How can one even comprehend such a pitiful, enduring state?

And since YHWH realizes he cannot even offer comfort, he resolves on something infinitely better:

Redemption.

Once again we see YHWH turning Israel's initial exhortation back on herself:

YOU awake!

And similarly, while we then had Israel calling on YHWH to clothe himself with splendor, here it is Israel being called upon to do the same, being summoned to shake off the dust and take her place back on her throne.

In verse 7, we get a change of speaker.

It seems that the Herald has heard YHWH's declaration loud and clear; that the time for redemption is nigh. And the Herald's jubilation is palpable:

It was less than two chapters ago when YHWH was surveying the wretched state of a bereaved Jerusalem. He was moved to act, made known his intentions, and now Jerusalem is coming back to life!

This oracle takes us on a beautifully and poetically-crafted narrative journey. In verse 7, the herald of good-fortune is racing across the mountains, ecstatically shouting out the good news. In verse 8, the city watchmen see him approaching, hear the message, then add their own voices to the shouts of joy. At the end of verse 8, the city starts to behold the arrival of YHWH himself, who, it turns out, had been not too far behind the herald! With his arrival, the ruins of the city too, start to joyously sing!

Word will continue to spread. And by the end of verse 10, the grandeur and triumph of Judea's god is recognized from one end of the earth to the other!

Addendum

Originally I had planned to end this limmud here. But then realized that I cannot, in good conscience, hold myself back from saying a word about something YHWH said earlier in chapter 52:

I'm going to make this very brief, for if I'm not careful, I could write a whole dissertation here which not everyone will have time to read. (We'll save that for another time.)

When Moses in Exodus 3, standing before the burning bush asked: "When I tell the Israelites that "the god of your fathers sent me to rescue you," and they ask me his name, what should I say?

What is the Almighty's response?

As I read the literature left to us from our Israelite and Judean ancestors, it seems so clear to me that YHWH desperately wants to be close and intimate with us, and therefore decided to reveal to us, by way of Moses, his actual name.

Being called by your real name is validating; Someone actually took the time to learn it, first of all, and then cared enough to remember it, and then finally to use it. If you thought about it, you might be able to recall a moment when someone used your name, and as a result you immediately felt valued, and that you truly mattered.

(And alternatively, it never feels good when someone forgets your name with whom you had thought there was a relationship.)

The English word "god" is not a name; It is a non-specific noun. Turning to the Lord-Almighty and saying, "Thank you, God," is like saying "Thank you, librarian." It is impersonal, distant.

Would you believe that many Israelites and Judeans, even those deeply yearning for a real, meaningful relationship with the Almighty, go their entire lives without ever calling on him by name so as to invite him into their lives?

YHWH emphasizes the importance of his name, and the importance of being called by it many times throughout the oracles of our prophets. We see one such example in our Haftorah, in which he looks forward to our learning his name once again.

What could this line have been in response to?

I wonder if in exile, many of the Judeans stopped turning to YHWH in prayer, thinking that the destruction of Jerusalem indicated that the Babylonian gods had triumphed over their own. And overtime, after not hearing his name called out in prayer, YHWH started to wonder if perhaps an extended period of exile had resulted in his name actually being forgotten.

And so we see YHWH declaring here that along with redemption will come the remembering of his name, enabling us to call out to him, personally, in prayer once again.

Thanks for bearing with me there; this is something you can probably tell that I believe strongly; That it is high time for us to bring back YHWH's name from the dead, inviting him by name to be a part of our lives.