This week’s Haftorah is taken from Sefer Yeshayohu, Chapter 54, verses 1 — 10.
1. This is the fifth Haftorah in the series which is collectively called, “the Seven Haftorahs of Comfort.” These Haftorahs started with the Shabbos after Tisha b’Av (called, because of the initial word of that Haftorah, Nachamu — “Shabbos of Haftorah ‘Be comforted’”) and continue till the Yommim Tovim starting with Rosh HaShonnoh. There is not really any connexion between the Sidras of these weeks and their Haftorahs. The theme of these Haftorahs is clearly consolation, comfort and reconciliation. If some connexion is perceived, it is more incidental (and rather contrived or even imagined) than intended.
2. We have become so accustomed to the loss of the Beis HaMikdash and our exile and dispersion throughout the world today that we hardly know what we have lost and, especially today, we hardly appreciate the tragedy of our exile and dispersion. But perhaps this imbalance of three weeks of warning to seven weeks of comfort can serve us as some sort of an indication of what we have indeed lost, as follows. The series of three weeks of Haftorahs recall the warnings by our Nevi’im of the punishment that would come if we strayed from the Torah. Their warnings were ignored and this annual three weeks of warning ends with Tisha b’Av, which is the anniversary of the Destruction of the Beis HaMikdash and our subsequent world-wide dispersion, just as the Nevi’im warned. Sadly, for two thousand years now, this national calamity has not been undone. The Beis HaMikdash is still not rebuilt, the Jewish People are still dispersed over the whole globe. Even if, thankfully, there isn’t today the horrible persecution as in previous times, we are nevertheless made aware of the quite palpable animosity towards us almost everywhere. And yet we have learned to live with this and we are quite used to it. So, if we do not see the calamity, why did our Chachommim see the need for seven weeks of Haftorahs of comfort?
3. Perhaps a rather childish parable will help us to understand. Two little boys lose their nice colourful piece of paper which they had made into a paper aeroplane. It flew into the open fire and they cry bitterly at their misfortune. Eventually they’re comforted — unlike their older brother who, when he hears what happened, is even more upset than his little siblings. When he sees his little brothers quite happily playing and no longer upset, he realizes that they are indeed little children who don’t understand what they have lost. For that colourful piece of paper was a £50 note! But then, when the children see their older brother so sad, they too realize, perhaps without quite understanding, that they have lost more than a pretty paper aeroplane.
4. We ourselves might today have come to terms with the lack of a Beis HaMikdash and with our dispersion throughout the world. We might even have come to accept the ubiquitous anti-Semitism as an everyday fact of life. But we should always be mindful that in the insult to us there is, as it were, the insult to HaShem Whose People we are. Even if we are willing to put up with our own humiliation, we have no right to condone the insult of Someone else. Indeed, just because we are the People of HaShem, for that very reason we should see it as our responsibility to bring an end to the Chillul HaShem that is implied in our own low status among the Nations of the world. And in HaShem’s honour being restored in the world, will be restored our honour and respect as His Chosen People, as in times past.
