Upon analyzing this week’s haftarah, a nevuah found in the second perek of Sefer Hoshea, we would find ourselves somewhat limited in understanding the complete message of the navi if we fail to take a look back at the prior chapter. It is there that Hashem tells the prophet to take a wayward woman as his wife (symbolic of the nation that was wayward in its faithfulness to G-d) and to give his future children names that would reflect the punishments that await Israel. In the final pasuk before the opening of our haftarah, Hashem tells Hoshea to name his youngest son “Lo Ami” – “NOT My nation” – an expression of G-d’s abandonment of His people.
And yet, immediately following these most troublesome prophecies, Hoshea starts our haftarah reading with the words “The number of Israel will be as the sand of the sea that cannot be measured nor counted, and, instead of being said of them “You are NOT My nation,” it will be said of them “They ARE the children of the living G-d.” It would appear that this new chapter does not begin a new nevuah but is a continuation of the first perek! Hoshea seems to be telling the people that the terrible prophecy of Hashem’s abandonment of Israel of which he spoke is but a temporary one.
How beautifully does Rav S.R. Hirsch translate the haftarah’s opening words (the obvious connection to the “number” of Israelites counted in the parasha) as “HOWEVER, the number of Israel will become (as important) as the sand...,” and, by doing so, he clearly explains how the haftarah is meant to “soften” the harsh prophecy found in the first chapter and give the people hope for the future.
But, if so, we would find the message that follows especially difficult. Clearly, Hoshea is returning to the original theme of Israel being a wayward “wife” to Hashem, and, as a result, they would suffer fitting punishments for their faithlessness. “Argue with your ‘mother,’” G-d says, “I will have no compassion for her children,” adding, “I will cancel her joy, her festivals....and lay waste to her vines and vineyards...” Are these the words of comfort, words meant to soften the harsh prophecy or give the nation hope as Rav Hirsch contends?? Certainly not!
However, the final verses of our haftarah are indeed comforting, as they promise G-d’s return to His people and that, upon His return to His “wife”/nation, they will refer to Him as “husband.” The description of Israel’s relationship with G-d being one of a wife to her husband is purposely continued through the psukim of punishment as well to underscore that, as upset the “Husband” might be with his “wife,” He could never abandon her.
That message is driven home in the very last verses of the haftarah, words that men recite upon winding the tefillin straps around the fingers, a betrothal “ring” in a sense: “And I will betroth you unto Me forever...”
RABBI NACHMAN WINKLER
