Haftarah for Lech L’cha 5782/2021 – Torah Study

Shabbat Torah Discussion with Rabbi Sacks

(given on October 16, 2021)

Once again, yasher ko-ach to Maayan on his chanting of today’s haftarah.

In the haftarah, Second Isaiah wants us to see ourselves as a people who live and act in the world as Abraham lived and acted in his time.

Chapter 41 that Maayan chanted focuses on a universal call to the nations. I want to focus on two rich verses of this universal call: Verses 5 and 6. Let’s start with v. 5:

RA-u i-yim v’yi-RA’u; k’tzot ha-aretz ye-che-RA-du.

The coastlands look on and are afraid; the ends of the earth tremble. 

This is a poetic way of stating that all over the known world, people in the time of Second Isaiah, lived in fear.

Do people all over the world in our time live in fear? Please explain. (Take responses.)

What kinds of global concerns do people share? (Take responses, such as: world economy collapsing, climate change, corporations controlling more and more governments without oversight, etc.)

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the founder of the Orthodox movement in the nineteenth century. taught that the coastlands and the world are afraid because all the might and power in the world cannot guarantee peace and security. Rather, Rabbi Hirsch taught that the only way to ensure true peace and security is through the mutual support of people. In essence, I think, Hirsch was stating that I can be secure only if you are secure, and you can be secure only if I am secure.

Do you agree or disagree with Rabbi Hirsch? Why or why not? (Take responses.)

Politicians on all sides often tell us that a strong police force and a strong legal code control crime.

Does this idea agree with Rabbi Hirsch’s teaching? Why or why not? (Take responses.)

Do you agree with the politician’s idea that strength provides serenity and peace. Why or why not? (Take responses.)

The logical conclusion to Rabbi Hirsch’s statement seems to be that there would be virtually no violent crime, theft, or terrorism if society ensured that all people live well.

Do you agree or disagree? Please explain. (Take responses.)

Verse 6 seems to provide a solution to the problem of security, peace and well-being for all throughout the world. Let’s look at it.

Ish et rei-ei-hu ya’zo-ru; u-l’achiv yomar “chazak.”

Each person helps another, and encourages their fellow, “Be strong!” 

So, a truly good person seeks to help all people.

1) How do you define altruism? (Take responses.)

2) Can you give any recent examples of altruism, whether personal or public? (Take responses.)

3) In our culture we sometimes hear, “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.”

Is this altruistic? Why or why not? (Take responses.)

In what ways do we at CAH help each other and encourage one another? (Please give examples.)

So Second Isaiah seems to be saying that if we all resort to goodness and kindness, to helping and encouraging each other, that what may feel in the moment to you like a small thing, actually has cosmic reverberations that ring throughout the universe. These things, in Second Isaiah’s words, can thresh mountains to dust, and make hills like chaff, which the wind shall then carry off.

Let us hope that our words and our deeds lead us to support a world

not of power, but of security;

not of imposition, but of sharing;

not of angling for position for ourselves, but of opening up the space to include others;

not of closed communities and guarded thoughts, but of shared spaces and loving hearts.

May Second Isaiah’s vision of all persons and all peoples drawing near to one another, helping each other, and offering to one another the encouragement to move forward come to fruition, and may we see at least the beginnings of this in our own time, and in our own country. Amen.