Two Minute Torah Podcast

Devarim (Shabbat Hazon) 5768 by Rabbi Marc D. Israel

Shalom, my name is Marc Israel rabbi educator at Ohr Kodesh Congregation in Chevy Chase, MD, recording today from Camp Ramah in New England. Welcome to KOACH’s Two-Minute Torah; a project of the College Department of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

This week we begin the book of D’varim and mark Shabbat Hazon, the Shabbat immediately preceding Tisha B’Av. The special Haftarah that we read for Shabbat Hazon comes from the 1st chapter of Isaiah and provides us with some important understandings about how the Prophets, and the rabbis that followed, viewed the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash.

From the viewpoint of the prophets, and later expressed by the rabbis, the only explanation for the Temple’s destruction was God’s anger with the people of Israel. As we say in the musaf amidah on the festivals, מפני חטאנו גלינו מארצינו -- it was due to our sins that we were exiled from our land and that the Temple was destroyed each time. So what were those sins?

According to the rabbinic interpretation, as found in Masechet Yoma, the First Temple was destroyed due to עבודה זרה, idol worship,גלוי עריות , illicit relations andשפיכות דמים murder. The second Temple was destroyed, according to the same source, due to sinat chinam, senseless hatred.

Isaiah has a somewhat different understanding of the cause of the destruction. As we read in this week’s Haftarah the offense of the Israelites was the empty ritual being performed in an unjust society. Note the language of the Haftarah: "What need have I of all your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am sated with burnt offerings of rams and suet of fatlings and blood of bulls. And I have no delight in lambs and he-goats...Your new moons and fixed seasons fill me with loathing; they have become a burden to Me and I cannot endure them." The language makes clear that the people have continued to make the proscribed sacrificial offerings, but their offerings have no meaning. God also provides a prescription - and in the prescription, we get an even more clear sense of the crime "Cease to do evil, learn to do good. devote yourselves to justice - aide the wronged, uphold the rights of the orphan and defend the cause of the widow." It is the people’s lack of concern for justice, especially for the justice of the least powerful in the society, that appears to be God’s chief concern.

This message is similar to that of the Yom Kippur Haftarah, also taken from Isaiah, where he states "To be sure, they seek Me daily, eager to learn My ways. Like a nation that does what is right, that has not abandoned the laws of its God. They ask Me for the right way, they are eager for the nearness of God; Why, when we fasted did You not see? When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed? Because on your fast day, you see to your business and oppress all your laborers."

It is more than just an interesting note that on the two most solemn days of the Jewish calendar, the haftarot that the rabbis chose both emphasize the same idea - that ritual observance in the face of an unjust society is an offense to God.

As we are in the midst of another election season, both in America and now in Israel, I think it is worthy to note that Judaism does not allow us the luxury to simply go to our synagogues, daven our services and remain in our own insular world. Rather, it demands that we go out and actively seek to create a more just society. While Judaism does not dictate a political party, it does require us to move from the sidelines to the playing field. A closer look at the words from this week’s haftarah makes clear that demand -- לִמְדוּ הֵיטֵב דִּרְשׁוּ מִשְׁפָּט אַשְּׁרוּ חָמוֹץ שִׁפְטוּ יָתוֹם רִיבוּ אַלְמָנָֽה all of these verbs are in the tzivui -- command form. It is not, according to Isaiah, an option to simply sit back and observe -- each of us must take an active role in creating that just society.

The theology that suggests that we are to blame for the destruction of the Temple on both occasions may not be, as traditionally understood, God’s lifting the veil of protection from us as a punishment for our sins. Rather, I would suggest, the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash is symbolic of the destruction of the fabric of our society when we forget that the purpose of our rituals, and of our lives, is to create a more just society that will be deserving of God’s protection.