Messages of the ProPhets __________________________________________________________________________________ Haftara of Parshas Ki Seitzei 5780
by Jonathan Shooter
A moment of anger What’s the Haftara about? This is the fifth of the Seven Haftaras of Comforting, and is a part of the Haftara that we read for Parshas Noach. There will be a time when the Jews will ‘sing out . . . break out into glad song’ (54:1). At that time, Yerushalayim will be far more inhabited than the cities of the nations that afflicted them. Yerushalayim will expand in all different directions. So great will be the salvation that the suffering of the earlier times will be forgotten. Hashem will swear never again to be ‘wrathful’ or to rebuke you.’ Finally Hashem’s kindness ‘shall not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace shall not falter’ (54:10). What’s the connection to the Parsha? The Haftara is appropriate for the Seven Haftaras of Comforting because it speaks about the bright era when Yerushalayim is rebuilt and the Jews ingathered. There are also several connections to the Parsha. The Parsha says that a person shouldn’t take vows lightly, and should fulfil his oaths. The Haftara mentions an oath that Hashem has sworn, that just as He swore never to flood the world again as He did in the days of Noach, so, too, He will never be angry with the Jews after the Redemption. The Parsha speaks about mitzvos related to marriage and divorce. The Haftara compares the future uniting of the Jews and Hashem to a husband reconciled with his wife. Also, the Haftara begins by mentioning a barren woman who is subsequently blessed with fertility. The Parsha mentions the mitzvah of yibum, which is done when a husband dies leaving no children. Yibum is performed with his widow, by his brother, in order to build the house of the deceased. The verse says ‘For southward and northward you shall spread out’ (54:3). Chazal say that if one wants to become wise, he should veer to the south, whilst if one wants to become rich, he should tend to the north. This is symbolized by the fact that in the Mishkan, the shulchan was to the north, whilst the menorah was to the south. The menorah represents the light of Torah, whilst the shulchan represents the more physical side, and wealth. It is well know that Torah and prominence through riches are incompatible. If one has Torah, the pursuit of wealth won’t be a priority to him, and if one pursues wealth, he won’t be able to grow in Torah to the best of his abilities. Someone once asked a certain Rosh Yeshiva, ‘how can one be a Ben Torah whilst working as an accountant?’ The Rosh Yeshiva replied that you can’t. Whilst one may have connection to Torah, the title Ben Torah reflects how one spends the ikkar part of his day, so if one is involved in other pursuits for most of the day, he cannot be defined as a Ben Torah. The verse however is telling us that in the future, what was until now impossible to achieve, Torah and wealth, will indeed be compatible, and both ‘southward and northward you shall spread out’. Bilaam was unique The verse says ‘For a brief moment have I forsaken you, and with abundant mercy shall I gather you in’ (54:7). What is this ‘brief moment’ that the verse is talking about? All the trials and tribulations of a 2000 year exile, inquisitions and holocausts, in front of Hashem they are like a brief moment, when compared to the ‘abundant mercy’ which will happen in the future. The verse says ‘And G-d is angered everyday’ (Tehillim 7:12). Chazal say that the length of this moment is so miniscule that noone can possibly work out when that moment is. Only one person could, that was the evil Bilaam who somehow could calculate as to when that was, and tried to curse the Jews exactly at that moment. Hashem in response didn’t have that miniscule moment of anger for all those days. If Hashem had gotten angry during those days, there would be nothing left of the Jewish people, that shows the danger that we were in because of Bilaam.
Rav Yehonoson Eibshutz asks several questions. The verse says that Hashem is angered every day, so how could there have been days when He didn’t get angry? Also, the Gemora (Brachos 7a) first says that the length of this brief moment is 1/48888 of an hour, roughly 1/16 of a second, yet later on it says the length of the anger is the time it takes to say the word ‘regah’ which is longer than the above amount. Also, Tosafos says that Bilaam only intended to say one word ‘kilaem’, ‘destroy them’, whilst elsewhere Chazal say that in fact from his words in the verses we see that he intended lengthy curses, only that Hashem changed them into a blessing? Rav Yehonoson explains that indeed the conduct of Hashem in this world involves getting angry each day. This is so that there is a constant connection between the attribute of strict justice, and the attribute of mercy. The verse says ‘a world of kindness be established’ (Tehillim 89:3). The world was created to stand on kindness. Yet for a person to earn the right to reward, and that it not just be a gift, there has to be a partnership, and the world is run with both justice and mercy. If there was only kindness then people would get away with everything as no one would be punished, and if there was only strict justice, then the world wouldn’t be able to survive either. Therefore for the world to function there needs to be a certain measure of anger in the world, albeit for a small moment. Even when we speak of this moment, there are two types, a longer moment, and a shorter moment. Every day, Hashem would get angry for the longer moment. However during the times of Bilaam, He didn’t get angry for the longer moment, but only the shorter moment, as in the verse that says Hashem is ‘angered everyday’ has to be fulfilled somehow. Bilaam was able to curse the Jews using the larger moment, through which he could say whatever he wanted. Therefore he said those statements, but Hashem turned them from being curses, to blessings. Bilaam didn’t have the ability to curse during the short moment. He wanted to say ‘kilaem’, yet Hashem turned that word into a different word, namely ‘melech’, which is made of the same letters. This is in the verse ‘His king shall be exalted over Agag’ (Bamidbar 24:7). So Billam was able to have some effect. The verse says ‘I gave you a king in My anger’ (Hoshea 13:11). This refers to the fact that when Hashem decided to appoint a king, it was done at a time of anger. As we have mentioned elsewhere, the request for a king wasn’t done appropriately. So in the end, the bracha of Bilaam turned into a curse, and having a king would set in motion a long process which ultimately would lead to the exile of the Jews from their land. Now going back to our verse ‘For a brief moment have I forsaken you’ for the brief moment that Bilaam was allowed to curse, the word kilaem turned into Melech, which would ultimately result in the exile. Yet despite this, ultimately ‘with abundant mercy shall I gather you in’. The low one The Haftara begins, ‘Sing out, O barren one, who has not given birth’ (54:1). The Gemora relates that a Saducee asked Bruria, is ‘not given birth’ a reason to ‘sing out’? She answered that Yisrael should sing out that they did not give birth to children who are destined for Gehinom, as the goyim do. This is seen in the end of the verse ‘for the children of the desolate (Jerusalem) outnumber the children of the inhabited’. The Shaar bas Rabim explains with a parable. A group of men are sitting talking about their children. One says he has 10 sons all of whom are as wise as can be. Another says he has 5 sons who are experts in various fields. Then one of the men says why are they all so happy, he has one son who is really something. The other men wait to hear his greatness. Then he explains that he is both deaf and dumb, but because he is an only child to his mother, he is a cause for great rejoicing. The other men erupt into raucous laughter at this crazy man. In the future, the nations will gather, and each will proudly boast about their descendants. This one will say they had doctors, astrologers, this one had accountants. Then the Jewish nation will explain that because they only have a single child and no more, that will be a cause for rejoicing. The other nations will mock and scorn at this, how can this be a cause for rejoicing? Yet the prophet is saying that not giving birth to others is a cause for rejoicing. The nations were successful in this world, but it is only a fleeting success. They would have no share in the next world. All their success in this world is to live for the moment, without anything beyond that. The Jewish nation in this world is downtrodden and scorned by the nations. Yet there should be rejoicing that the single nation has the opportunity to get the next world. Despite being few, they are destined for great things. The Jews will be persecuted, looked down upon by the other nations who seem successful in this world, but nothing will last of those nations. In the future, the nations will understand that the ‘lowly’ nation is destined for greatness, whilst the others will fade away.