This week the customs of Ashkenaz and Sefard part ways when it comes to the haftarah we read. In this column we will focus on what is read in Ashkenazic shuls: sections from Yeshaya (Chapters 27, 28, and 29) that discuss galus Mitzrayim and Klal Yisrael enduring many other galuyos. In addition, the Navi makes clear that despite the exiles, Klal Yisrael will survive and live to see its ultimate salvation.
The first pasuk of the haftarah (Yeshaya 27:6) reads, “Haba’im yashreish Yaakov, yatzitz u’farach Yisrael umaloo pnei sevel tenuvah – Days are coming when Yaakov will take root; Israel will sprout and flower and fill the face of the earth with fruit.”
We suggest that the first word, haba’im, alludes to the secret of survival in galus. “And these are the names of the children of Israel who are coming (haba’im) into Egypt” (Bereishis 46:8-27). Why is the present tense used instead of the past tense, ba’u? The Rav, Rav Yissachar Ber Soloveitchik, zt”l suggested that the key to redemption lies in our ability to see ourselves as having “just arrived” and being nothing more than “temporary occupants.” As we read in the Pesach Haggadah, Yaakov had no intention of dwelling in Egypt; he meant only to live there temporarily. Insisting on this awareness of temporary existence as a necessary condition for achieving redemption, Rav Soloveitchik would comment that he disliked the term “diaspora,” preferring instead the harsh word “galus” (exile). “Diaspora” gives legitimacy to the exile, while “galus” clearly indicates removal from an original homeland and a yearning to return.
Interestingly, the Chida (quoted in Rabbi Eli Wolf’s sefer on haftaros, page 131) says that the word ba’im is an acronym for the four major exiles, Bavel, Edom, Yavan, and Madai.
Later in the haftarah, there is a pasuk well known for its poetic sound, and it repeats itself in close proximity – 28:10 and again in 28:13. “Ki tzav la’tzav, tzav la’tzav, kav la’kav, kav la’kav, ze’eir sham, ze’eir sham – For it is commandment by commandment; line by line; a bit here and a bit there.” While there are various interpretations of this pasuk, Rashi understands it to mean that Klal Yisrael were entrenched in idol worship and when the prophet would try to pry them away by discussing a special mitzvah from the Torah, they would say that they have their own “mitzvos” in their idol worship.
Rav Avrohom Yitzchok HaKohen Kook, zt”l relates an amazing explanation in regards to this pasuk. In Oros HaTorah (3:3) he writes:
“The essence of knowledge is that the totality of the Torah should cleave to our hearts so strongly and with such clear understanding that this totality will powerfully pour forth, resulting
in a powerful, individual concern for every mitzvah and detail of the Torah. This will be like the powerful life force that pours forth from the heart, spreading to every limb. This is not the case when there is no true, all-encompassing knowledge. Then everything in the Torah is separate. This creates confusion in our basic understanding of the Torah. It prevents our service of love and generosity. Then the word of Hashem shall be for you a command and a command, a line and a line, tzav latzav, kav lakav. We must recognize the words of the Torah as one law and one command” (Rav Yaakov Dovid Shulman’s translation).
Rav Kook laments those who take a particular mitzvah out of the context of the totality of Torah. When one looks at one detail of the whole, one may fail to appreciate why that one specific detail is valuable. One can see individual mitzvos as a line here, a line there, tzav latzav, kav lakav, a little bit here and a little bit there, ze’eir sham, ze’eir sham.