By Rabbi Moshe Pogrow
Parshas Shemos describes the Egyptian galus, the cauldron of suffering in which Yaakov’s family was to be purified and strengthened. The words of the haftarah now depict the depths to which that “Yaakov” nation would sink once it achieved its political independence: its sorry errors and estrangements, despite the freedom and abundance of wealth in a richly blessed land.
In the haftarah, Yeshayahu prophesies for Yaakov what the pasuk calls a “storm of death”—the nation's loss of independence, its loss of possessions as the means of salvation, and, most importantly, the freeing of the enslaved minority who had remained faithful as the kernel of the nation that would survive.
Now the two concluding pesukim direct our view, across thousands of years, to a time when the galus will have accomplished its work as a great refining and educating school for Yisrael, who had again become Yaakov.
Through galus, Yisrael will have become what it was meant to be: “a kingdom of priests and a holy people” who, in the midst of the surrounding nations, makes the name of G-d holy and proclaims G-d as the One mighty Power through its way of life and teachings.
With infinite tenderness, these pesukim depict Yaakov Avinu, who had been ashamed of his children throughout the long, anxious time of darkness, his countenance now lit up with joy. The nobility of his children, whom he sees around him once again after such long estrangement, will have been brought about by G-d’s Divine rule.
This nobility is simply the belated growth of the seeds that he planted, the seeds for which the children must thank their ancestor Yaakov.
It is the Holy One whom their father Yaakov taught them to know and to fear, the One whom they sanctify, and it is the G-d of their father Yisrael whom they proclaim as the Almighty.
Based on the commentary of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt”l on Chumash, with permission from the publisher.
