This week we have another haftara that is rarely read, because in a typical year our haftara would be for Shabbat HaGadol. But once again, this is not a typical year. The theme of the haftara is incongruous and should give us pause, knowing as we do that it’s really only read in times such as these. This year is not only a leap year but is also a shemittah year. An extra long year of not tending our physical crops. The spiritual stakes seem unusually high; the whole world is charged with unresolved tension.
We are awaiting redemption. As a rule, the spirit of Adar and of early spring anticipating Pesach is one of joy and excitement. So it is unusual and somewhat arresting to encounter such unmitigated negativity as we find in our haftara. It seems to be out of place. We ought to be reading it in the summer, during the Three Weeks perhaps.
On the surface, the connection to our parsha seems to be the many sacrifices concerned with the expiation of guilt. The parsha deals with sins, transgressions, moral failures – so our haftara tackles these topics. But the haftara is also a sweeping and historical condemnation of the wicked leaders of the kings of Yehuda, and the false kohanim and false prophets that encouraged them in their persistent immorality. Their hedonism and lust for power led them to idolatry and capriciousness. Now, the navi says, let their bones be dug up and scattered beneath the stars they worshiped so fervently.
We are living in times dominated again by such characters who seek wealth, power, and personal aggrandizement with a callous indifference to the lives that are affected, even destroyed, in their amoral and depraved pursuits. Clearly there are leaders among the nations of the world who exhibit these reprehensible traits, as there have always been. But even among the people of Israel, to the discredit of us all, much influence is concentrated in the hands of those who don’t consider the responsibility to others which accompanies wealth and power.
One might think that after the many exhortations of the true prophets who were sent to us for so many years, this lesson would be fully internalized both by those who would lead and those who empower those leaders so as to be led by them. Yet so frequently it is those charged with this awesome responsibility who instead see it as a reflection of some merit on their part, as if they deserve all the money and the fame. They tell themselves they worked for it or, if they inherited it, that perhaps they’re just cut from better stock than the rest of the people of Israel. Moshe, Shmuel – nearly all our prophets warned against this menace but still we are not vigilant.
When our haftara was designated for a week such as this, thousands of years ago, the sages saw fit to add another couple of verses to the end, spoken by Yirmiyahu almost a thousand years before that. Often when we have a difficult haftara, a verse or two is added to the end to soften the blow, to mitigate the harshness of the message. Not so this week. The navi proclaims: “This is what Hashem has said: Let the wise not praise himself for his wisdom nor the powerful one for his power; the wealthy person should not praise himself for his wealth. Only thus (“b’zot”) will the praiseworthy one be praised. So become informed and know Me, as I am Hashem. I do kindness, justice, and charitableness in the world. These are (the things) I want, Hashem says” (Yirmiyahu 9:22-23).
The grammar is problematic. Translated here literally from the Hebrew, there is no reference for the clause beginning “Only thus.” One might read that the expectation is that a person will become informed and know Him, but that is not how the verse was written. It seems to suggest that by becoming informed and knowing Him, one will come to know how to be glorified. Not by achieving wisdom, power or wealth. The Perush HaRokeach on the haftara points to the word “thus” (b’zot) as referring to the Torah itself – the written and the oral, the gift that we received from Har Sinai on Shavuot and reaffirmed our commitment to on Purim. A person is accomplished, praiseworthy, notable when he or she is a faithful servant of Hashem and lives according to His laws.
These are what I want, says Hashem. If a person has been given means, intelligence, or a large inheritance, then it is his or her responsibility to act as Hashem acts with His wealth and power: to practice kindness, ensure that justice is done, and use the wealth to support the community. A person who benefits from these gifts and believes the gifts themselves confer glory upon him or her – and those in the community who support these twisted values – are no better than the kings of Yehuda who worshiped idols, or the leaders of the nations of the world who wantonly slaughter their fellow humans to enhance their fame and glory.
