Haftarat Eikev: The Evolution of G-d (as We Know Them)
(A discussion led by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on August 20, 2022)
We just read this week’s haftarah,[1] the second of the Seven Haftarot of Consolation, read during the seven weeks following Tishah B’Av. The Haftarah opens in Isaiah 49:14 with the words:
וַתֹּאמֶר צִיּוֹן: “עֲזָבַנִי יְהֹוָה, וַאדֹנָי שְׁכֵחָנִי.”
Zion says: “My Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.”
Unlike in some Jewish and Christian translations, here at CAH we do not usually translate HaShem’s name as “my Lord,” for a number of reasons, one of which concerns gender. But as we shall soon see, in this haftarah, the word “Lord” is actually helpful for our understanding. Zion, Israel personified, feels that HaShem has abandoned her. How do we know that Zion is female? We need only look ahead to verses 17 and 18:
מִהֲרוּ בָּנָיִךְ; מְהָרְסַיִךְ וּמַחֲרִיבַיִךְ מִמֵּךְ יֵצֵאוּ. שְׂאִי־סָבִיב עֵינַיִךְ, וּרְאִי! כֻּלָּם נִקְבְּצוּ בָאוּ־לָךְ! “חַי־אָנִי”, נְאֻם־יְהֹוָה, “כִּי כֻלָּם כָּעֲדִי תִלְבָּשִׁי, וּתְקַשְּׁרִים כַּכַּלָּה.”
Swiftly your children are coming; those who beat you down and ruined you shall leave. Look around and see! They are all assembled, come to see you. “As I live,” declares the Lord, “You shall wear them all like jewels, and deck yourself with them like a bride.”
It’s time to unpack the language:
- Why is their bridal imagery?
- What is the significance of the jewels?
- Where does HaShem come into play?
When personified, Zion is traditionally HaShem’s bride! She hasn’t had an easy life. She feels that her husband neglected to protect her. It is clear from the wording that others have physically violated her. Coincidentally, the Hebrew root הָרַס, in the word מְהָרְסַיִךְ (translated here as “those who ruined you”), sounds coincidentally like the English word “harass.”
But now Zion’s fortunes have been restored, and she gets to wear the jewelry of a bride again! The jewels are us, her children: b’nei Yisrael. Isaiah is foretelling the day when the Jews will return to Zion. That day will be like a second wedding for Zion. But it is actually not so much like a second wedding, as much as it is a renewal of vows. HaShem remembered the Covenant, the marital vows He (in keeping with the metaphor) made with His wife. He was bound to honor those vows in the end, because we see in 50:1 that He never truly divorced her:
כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה: “אֵי זֶה סֵפֶר כְּרִיתוּת אִמְּכֶם אֲשֶׁר שִׁלַּחְתִּיהָ?”
Thus said the Lord: Where is the bill of divorce of your mother whom I dismissed?
This is a rhetorical question. G-d has always loved Zion. They were merely going through a temporary period of separation.
The word “Lord” is very helpful for our understanding. As a Lord, Hashem is honor-bound to defend those who have sworn loyalty to Him (as spouses to each other do as part of their marital vows).
The Nevi’im (Prophets) books have different metaphors for the actions that led to the temporary separation of Zion and Hashem. In this reading from Isaiah, Zion was violated by other nations. In Ezekiel 16, Zion lost HaShem’s trust because she actively seduced other nations, and was intimate with them by choice.[2] For multiple reasons, both versions are unsettling.
In either case though, while HaShem does choose to reunite with Zion, He is “a jealous G!d.”[3] And, in keeping with traditional gender roles, this also makes Him a jealous husband.
What might an all-powerful husband do to those who were intimate[4] with his wife?
The answer comes later in the haftarah reading, in verse 50:3:
אַלְבִּישׁ שָׁמַיִם קַדְרוּת, וְשַׂק אָשִׂים כְּסוּתָם!
I will clothe the sky in darkness, and make their clothing sack-cloth.[5]
In Jewish tradition, sackcloth has been traditionally worn by those in mourning. But here, HaShem has turned the tables! When He and Zion temporarily separated, Zion was in mourning, and her enemies rejoiced. But now that the Couple is reunited, HaShem devastates our enemies, apparently killing many of them, but leaving enough survivors for them to be in the pain of mourning. Zion now gets to wear jewelry, but her enemies now wear sackcloth! This is a stark contrast.
As Jews, is this how we want our enemies to be punished?
Some may say that they got what they deserved, but I find it unsettling, especially since this is a different generation. Still, HaShem treats his rivals as traditional literature teaches us that a jealous husband would.
But while the haftarah definitely uses the word “bride,” it never uses the word “husband.” If a woman gets married in the Tanakh, does that automatically make her spouse male?
Who says G-d has to be a male?
Up until this point, I have been translating HaShem as “The Lord” (a very masculine term in Hebrew), not because I wanted to be true to the literal meaning of the Hebrew,[6] but because I wanted to be true to the metaphor of G!d and Zion as husband and wife. We know that Zion is the wife, because she is characterized as a bride in Isaiah 49:18, as we have already seen. And HaShem in turn, has the part of the jealous Husband in how he treats his bride’s oppressors. It is true that in the metaphor of HaShem and Zion, there are strong implications (based on traditional gender roles and attributes) that G!d is male. But that doesn’t mean G!d is always characterized as male. In fact, in this very haftarah reading, G!d is also characterized as female! We already read the first verse in the haftarah reading, Isaiah 49:14. Let’s read it again, but this time along with the verse that follows it:
וַתֹּאמֶר צִיּוֹן: “עֲזָבַנִי יְהֹוָה, וַאדֹנָי שְׁכֵחָנִי.”
Zion says: “My Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.”
הֲתִשְׁכַּח אִשָּׁה עוּלָהּ מֵרַחֵם בֶּן־בִּטְנָהּ? גַּם־אֵלֶּה תִשְׁכַּחְנָה, וְאָנֹכִי לֹא אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ!
[HaShem responds: ] “Can a woman forget her suckling baby, or disown the child of her womb? Though she might forget, I could never forget you.”
G!d reassures Zion by comparing Herself to a mother! While a human mother may forget her children, HaShem never will! And though G!d has no physical body, in this metaphor, She has breasts! She suckles her children!
If any imagery like this was ever in the Torah, it was quickly and largely stricken from the record.[7] But Isaiah seems to be more progressive than the writers of the Torah, and is able to envision G!d as not only male, but also female.
In a final reference to clothing and accessories, towards the end of the haftarah, Isaiah even says of his enemies in 50:9:
כַּבֶּגֶד יִבְלוּ, עָשׁ יֹאכְלֵם!
They shall all wear out like a garment, a moth will consume them!
Though this probably wasn’t the original intent, clothing can act here as a stand-in for traditional gender roles. Since the writer of Isaiah doesn’t feel the need to assign a consistent gender to HaShem, it makes perfect sense that HaShem would be the moth that would eat away clothing!
Who wears the pants in a marriage? The question is phrased that way because we used to think that only males could wear pants. Oh, how our thinking has evolved!
The final verse of the haftarah (Isaiah 51:3) shows how HaShem comforts Zion. I have removed the gendered wording in the English translation.
כִּי־נִחַם יְהֹוָה צִיּוֹן נִחַם כָּל־חָרְבֹתֶיהָ. וַיָּשֶׂם מִדְבָּרָהּ כְּעֵדֶן, וְעַרְבָתָהּ כְּגַן־יְהֹוָה.
שָׂשׂוֹן וְשִׂמְחָה יִמָּצֵא בָהּ, תּוֹדָה וְקוֹל זִמְרָה.
Surely HaShem comforted Zion, comforted all [Zion’s] ruins. [HaShem] made [Zion’s] wilderness like Eden, [Zion’s] desert like the garden of HaShem.
Gladness and joy will be found [in Zion], thanksgiving and song.
When you think of this verse, how might you see G!d? Male, female, or other? Note that the word נִחַם (comfort), is doubled for emphasis.
When analyzing traditional literature, this is a fair question. Because in traditional literature, we go to our mothers for comfort, not our fathers! But in modern times, we have learned that traditional roles don’t have to remain so!
In polytheism, different gods have different traits. In Judaism, we believe in just one G!d, who encompasses all traits! Some of those traits seem to conflict with each other, and so to help us understand G!d better, we sometimes say that G!d has both feminine and masculine traits.
When we assign gender roles to G!d, what does this say about our worldview, the good and the bad?
Here at Am HaYam, we believe in gender inclusivity! When we read masculine Hebrew terms in our siddur, such as the names of the patriarchs, we often add the matriarchs alongside them. We believe in a world where females are just as important as males. To take it a step further, we can say that the way we view G!d, is often a reflection of how we view humanity.
To view G!d as just one gender, is to suggest that other genders aren’t as holy! G!d shouldn’t be confined to simply being male. It’s wonderful to say that G!d could be female! But that still gives us the same problem. Gender roles aren’t binary. One G!d, who encompasses all of godly traits, couldn’t possibly be only male, or only female. G!d may not even HAVE a gender, but if G!d DOES have a gender, it is a case of: “Yes AND.” G!d’s gender probably isn’t binary!
And just as how we view G!d is often a reflection of how we view humanity, the way we view humanity is often a reflection of how we view G!d. If we can recognize that we don’t need to force strict (or binary) gender roles or limitations on G!d, then why do we need to do so for humans?
That’s not to say that gender doesn’t exist. It does. If we know someone has a certain gender identity, then that identity should be honored. But whatever that gender identity may be, we shouldn’t place limits on the way we view someone just because of their gender. We are all created in G!d’s image. Just like G!d, every human individual contains multitudes.
Shabbat shalom.
[1] Isaiah 49:14-51:3.
[2] Zion is actually described as a harlot in this chapter.
[3] Deuteronomy 4:24.
[4] Perhaps forcefully.
[5] In fact, the imagery with the sky is somewhat reminiscent of the second paragraph of the Shema, as read in the Torah this week in Deuteronomy 11:17.
[6] In fact, the English “the Lord” does not render the actual Hebrew text at all.
[7] Some traces do remain. To cite two examples, in Deuteronomy 32:11, G!d is depicted as a Mother Eagle, while in Deuteronomy 32:18, G!d is depicted as giving birth, echoing imagery used in Numbers 11:12.