יום רביעי, כ״ג תמוז תשפ״וWednesday, July 8, 2026
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Avraham Levitt is a poet and philosopher living in Samaria. He has written extensively on Jewish and Israeli art, music, and spirituality. He is particularly focused on Hebrew philology and the magic of late antiquity. He can be contacted at avraham@thegeula.com.
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On the stage of history, we have been taught that Hashem often uses the wicked to destroy the wicked. One evil nation will conquer another, only in due course to be conquered by the next to arise.
In our haftara, we find Shlomo HaMelech completing the construction and initiating the dedication of the First Beit HaMikdash. In Shlomo we find a unique synthesis of the attributes of Moshe and of Betzalel.
The wickedness of men and women can live long after they are gone.
Baal and his prophets are not worth the time or the energy of the last remaining prophet to Hashem. His mission is to the people of Israel who have abandoned the service of Hashem.
When the navi Yechezel is given a vision of the third Beit HaMikdash, he is commanded to teach its measurements and dimensions to the people of Israel. The people to whom he delivers this prophecy have yet to build the second Beit HaMikdash, so it's a bit incongruous to be speaking of a third.
The trebled height of the Beit HaMikdash the Malbim associates with greater ambition that Shlomo has for the spiritual purpose of the Sanctuary that he has built.
We have heard and not understood. We have seen and not known. Now we are those holy seeds lying in the ground waiting to sprout so that the decrees of Hashem might at last be heeded and carried out.
What nation has ever returned from exile, or even been remembered after a thousand years or more?
Our true salvation and our joy doesn’t come from the downfall of the wicked.
The Sefardim and Ashkenazim read different portions for the haftara this week. These portions seemingly have little to do with each other or with the parsha.
What is the way of all the world? Naturally, we live and then, after a while, we die, leaving this world behind.
Rav Amiel invokes the verse from our haftara in a discussion of the nature of chosenness, which he understands as a unique burden placed upon the people of Israel. A set of responsibilities as opposed to privilege.
There’s a temptation for earthly leaders to believe that events unfold as a result of their decisions, the exercise of their power.
This wanton disregard for the welfare of others is the epitome of chamas for which the world was already destroyed once and, the navi is warning, for which Israel will yet be exiled from her land.
Esav is the last of all the nations to come into the world. He is a pretender. He uses his strength and deception to humiliate and to conquer others, but in the end he is just a bully.
Just as Yaakov tended the sheep of Lavan, guiding and guarding them so he could win the hand of Rachel, so Hashem protects his offspring until the end of time.
Abarbanel describes some of the spiritual depths to which the inhabitants of Yerushalayim had sunk at this twilight of prophecy. Those who should have been the leaders, the best among us, had become the worst.
Of Sarah we know that her beauty, as legendary as it was, was only one small fragment of her greatness.
A story is told in the Gemara (Shabbat 53b) of a man whose wife died, leaving him an infant son. The man was too poor to afford a wet nurse to feed his baby, so he miraculously grew breasts and nursed the baby himself.
Yeshayahu is anticipating the future destruction and exile and is trying fruitlessly to inspire the people of his generation to return to Hashem before it’s too late.
The first thing to understand in encountering our haftara is that there is no belief in millennial destruction that is axiomatic to Judaism.
There are unfortunately many people of Jewish extraction who believe the election of the Jews, our “chosenness,” to be a birthright or a guarantee of a sort of superiority over other nations.
In Jewish tradition, noga tends to be ambiguous – it is a great demonstration of superficial beauty with a tendency to obscure what is essential.
It’s interesting to note here that in the West, the dove of Noach has come to represent peace, although this was neither the promise to Noach nor the sign of the promise.
The Ishbitzer teaches that everyone comes into this world with Torah in his heart, cloaked in a disguise. We all have some special lesson to impart, some perspective that is uniquely our own, but is the opposite of what is readily apparent in our nature.
If their weapons do not suffice to destroy us, then they will turn to the treachery of falsehood and hateful speech to overcome us.
Hashem is our go'el, our redeemer. The congregation of Israel was banished from the marital home because she had betrayed her Divine husband, but He never severed from her and He has been waiting for her repentance so that she could return.
The Esh Kodesh teaches that each of us has an aspect of the Divine in us when we make moral choices to act or refrain from acting in certain ways.
It is sometimes difficult to understand, but when Hashem is “angry” at us or punishing us, He is acting out of love for us because He knows that we have to improve.
It is a consolation to Yirmiyahu, although perhaps a small one, that he is also given many of the most explicit and moving visions of the ultimate redemption.
For Everything There Is A Time And A Moment
How can I curse, says Bil’am, that which G-d did not curse? What rage can I bring against those whom Hashem will not rage against?
The Ammonites are not interested in learning the truth - they only want to destroy Israel.
We believe in nonsense and promote ridiculous ideas that can’t be rationally defended and refute themselves as quickly as we utter them.
In the case of Yaakov, there was already a covenant with Hashem and mutual expectations.
July 3, 2026 
