First Haftarah of Admonition [Jeremiah 1:1-2:3]:
Lessons from an Almond Tree
(Torah discussion led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on Shabbat Pinchas–July 8, 2023)
Starting today, none of the next ten weeks will feature haftarah selections associated with the Torah portion. Rather, today, we read the first of three haftarot of admonition, since we just recently began the three weeks leading to Tishah B’Av, which, along with Yom Kippur, are the two major fast days in our tradition.
First, let us look at the major part of the penultimate (next-to-last) verse of the haftarah (Jeremiah 2:2):
זָכַ֤רְתִּי לָךְ֙ חֶ֣סֶד נְעוּרַ֔יִךְ אַהֲבַ֖ת כְּלוּלֹתָ֑יִךְ לֶכְתֵּ֤ךְ אַֽחֲרַי֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר בְּאֶ֖רֶץ לֹ֥א זְרוּעָֽה׃
I accounted to your favor
The devotion of your youth,
Your love as a bride—
How you followed Me in the wilderness,
In a land not sown.
Quick Question: Does anyone recognize where else we use this verse? [HINT: It’s on a holy day.]
This verse is one of the ten verses selected as part of the Zichronot (“Remembrance”) verses during the Musaf service on both days of Rosh HaShanah. It is actually one of the more famous of those verses, and many of you may well remember hearing the cantor, with or without a choir, entoning these words as set to music by the great nineteenth-century composer Lewis Lewandowski.[1] [NOTE: Here is a 2020 version from the Virginia Chorale, featuring Cantor Jennifer Reuben. Here is a 2008 version from the all-Israel women Sirenot Ensemble. Finally, here’s a version from last year’s Rosh HaShanah service at the Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue.]
So the choice of haftarah helps us begin the Three Weeks, when the walls of Jerusalem were breached and the Babylonians in biblical times and the Romans in rabbinic times, entered the city, destroyed it, and took our people as captives. Yet because of this verse at the end of the haftarah, the chanting also wants us to look toward next year, toward the future. But what meaning might it hold out for us?
Let’s look first at verses 1:11-12:
וַיְהִ֤י דְבַר־יְהֹוָה֙ אֵלַ֣י לֵאמֹ֔ר מָה־אַתָּ֥ה רֹאֶ֖ה יִרְמְיָ֑הוּ וָאֹמַ֕ר מַקֵּ֥ל שָׁקֵ֖ד אֲנִ֥י רֹאֶֽה׃
וַיֹּ֧אמֶר יְהֹוָ֛ה אֵלַ֖י הֵיטַ֣בְתָּ לִרְא֑וֹת כִּֽי־שֹׁקֵ֥ד אֲנִ֛י עַל־דְּבָרִ֖י לַעֲשֹׂתֽוֹ׃
G!d’s word came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
I replied: “I see a branch of an almond tree.” G!d responded to me:
“You have seen right, for I am watchful to bring My word to pass.”
QUESTION for CONSIDERATION:
These two sentences are a self-contained complete unit. G!d could have asked Jeremiah to notice any number of things, yet from G!d’s response, it is the almond tree that G!d was hoping Jeremiah would notice. However, anyone who has been to Israel, has seen almond trees. They are not rare; indeed, they are ubiquitous, and almonds seem to be a staple of Israeli cuisine. So, nu, why would G!d want Jeremiah to notice an almond tree, and what might we learn?
Some ideas:
1) Perhaps Jeremiah noticed an almond tree in a stage of ripening. They ripen relatively quickly. The Hebrew word shaked in v. 11 is an almond tree. The word is used as a verb in verse 12. Some interpret that verbal form to mean, “to quicken; to happen quickly.” Sometimes we glance at things without really noticing them. Perhaps one lesson here is that we need to be more aware of changes all around us. Life is changing and rather quickly. We can’t stay in 5783 forever. The New Year 5784 is approaching. How will we make ourselves ready to embrace it?
2) The verbal form of the word for almond tree, shaked, also can mean “to be watchful, to keep guard.” That is its most common usage in the Tanakh [Hebrew Bible]. Perhaps this hints that we need to be more attentive to our own possibilities of growth and change, of attending to our own character, so that we will be better grounded as we think of the challenges we face as Jews and as we prepare for a new year.
3) Radak[2] understands the context differently. He contends that the almond tree was not ripening or blossoming. Rather it was bare, without leaves and without blossoms. It can be very difficult to identify such a tree; one must be discerning. The Hebrew word shaked might come from a Phoenician word meaning “circumspect.” All of this suggests another lesson: We need to be more judicious, prudent, and discerning in making decisions and taking actions in our personal and communal lives.
Let’s consider the last part of v. 12, where G!d states, “I am watchful to bring my word to pass.”
QUESTIONS for CONSIDERATION:
- Is G!d making a vow?
- Does G!d’s word always come to pass?
- What is the importance of keeping one’s word?
- What might G!d be feeling when telling this to Jeremiah?
If this is a vow, we learn that G!d sometimes makes specific commitments to human kind. Therefore, another lesson we might draw, is the importance of our commitments, and to keeping our word. Sometimes we have trouble keeping our word. We might make an appointment without checking our calendar. Indeed, sometimes we make an appointment and think to ourselves, “If I need or want to avoid this, I will get out of this.” But can’t we find a way not to get into these situations? How can we strengthen others’ conviction that our word is our bond?
Finally, let’s look at 1:17-1:19:
וְאַתָּה֙ תֶּאְזֹ֣ר מׇתְנֶ֔יךָ וְקַמְתָּ֙ וְדִבַּרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵיהֶ֔ם אֵ֛ת כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֥ר אָנֹכִ֖י אֲצַוֶּ֑ךָּ אַל־תֵּחַת֙ מִפְּנֵיהֶ֔ם
פֶּֽן־אֲחִתְּךָ֖ לִפְנֵיהֶֽם׃ וַאֲנִ֞י הִנֵּ֧ה נְתַתִּ֣יךָ הַיּ֗וֹם לְעִ֨יר מִבְצָ֜ר וּלְעַמּ֥וּד בַּרְזֶ֛ל עַל־כׇּל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וּלְחֹמ֥וֹת נְחֹ֖שֶׁת לְמַלְכֵ֤י יְהוּדָה֙ לְשָׂרֶ֔יהָ לְכֹהֲנֶ֖יהָ וּלְעַ֥ם הָאָֽרֶץ׃
וְנִלְחֲמ֥וּ אֵלֶ֖יךָ וְלֹא־י֣וּכְלוּ לָ֑ךְ כִּי־אִתְּךָ֥ אֲנִ֛י נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֖ה לְהַצִּילֶֽךָ׃
So you, gird up your loins,
Arise and speak to them
All that I command you.
Do not break down before them,
Lest I break you before them.
I make you this day
A fortified city,
And an iron pillar,
And bronze walls
Against the whole land—
Against Judah’s kings and officers,
And against its priests and citizens.
They will attack you,
But they shall not overcome you;
For I am with you—declares G!d—to save you.
The role of the prophet was difficult. The entire panoply of relationships among G!d and the various groups of Israelites needed management, attention, and encouragement, if this new experiment of holy covenant (b’rit) was going to work. Having a partnership between G!d and the diverse persons that make up a complex people is no easy business. At the center of all this was not G!d, nor the priest, nor the monarch, but the prophet. So in asking Jeremiah to serve as a prophet, G!d was asking Jeremiah to do something inherently demanding.
Questions for Consideration:
- Have you ever felt that you were asked to do something that seemed so difficult?
- Did you ever have to say something that was unpleasant or difficult to say?
- On which occasions did you, like the prophets, rise to the occasion?
- What do you think is in you, or in your character, that helps you to rise to the occasion? How might you bring out that quality or characteristic even more?
G!d knew what was in Jeremiah; and here G!d readies him by asking him to get ready. Because to face what was ahead–his entire prophetic career, one that included navigating a people through the difficult terrain of war and exile, required Jeremiah to be a “fortified city.” To do that, he needed to be:
- “an iron pillar”–very grounded in who he was and very solid in character;
- have “bronze walls”–have clear limits and boundaries, particularly navigating all the different groups involved in the covenant, and maintaining a certain detachment although these were his people and his G!d
As G!d reminds Jeremiah, being yourself and being a leader is not always popular; people may attack you, defriend you, call you out, and try to cancel you. But if you have “girded your loins,” preparing yourself for the moment, forming your own “iron pillar” of character and setting the “bronze walls” of clarity, “lo yush-lu lach,” you will not be overcome or overrun. This is the work and consequence of faith.
These ten weeks between now and Rosh HaShanah is the time for all of us to “gird our loins” and prepare ourselves for whatever we might face in the New Year. May enter this time of process and readiness with determination and grace, and may we find gentle strength, calm, hope, inner peace, and joy as our reward. Amen.
Shabbat shalom!
[1] Louis Lewandowski (1821-1894), was a tremendous force in shaping the music of the modern Synagogue, most of them written during his tenure at the Neue Synagogue in Berlin. A number of his melodies, including “Zacharti Lach,” are still in use in synagogues of all movements throughout the world.
[2] Rabbi David Kimchi (1160-1235) was a French biblical commentator, philosopher, and grammarian.