Comforting (sort of) Haftarah #3: Nerding Out on Haftarah Practices

This week's Haftarah poses an interesting ritual conundrum, in a number of different ways. I'll try not to get too far into the weeds on this one, but I make no promises. And if anything here is confusing, BUT you are still interested in understanding it better, feel free to post a comment and/or write to me.

Ok, here we go: As I've now mentioned a few weeks in a row, we're right in the middle of a series of Haftarot of Comfort, that link together the special occasions of Tisha b'Av and Rosh Hashanah. However, this year, one of those Shabbatot (namely this weekend!) also falls on Rosh Chodesh, a new month on the Jewish calendar, so we replace the regular Haftarah with a special one for the new month. It actually works out well thematically, however, because the Rosh Chodesh Haftarah is also about reconciliation and God caring for the people. But then, a second Haftarah jumps in, pushes ahead in line, and changes the meaning entirely... though potentially in a crucial and timely way.

I've written and rewritten this next paragraph several times, but I can't get it quite right. The reasons WHY there's another Haftarah here seemed straight-forward enough to me at first, yet I am unable to explain it without taking up WAY too much
time and space here. If you're local, please join us for services on Saturday and all will be revealed... :-) For now, and for our purposes, I'll just say that there is a second Rosh Chodesh-related Haftarah at play, and one tradition enjoins us to just add the first and last verses of that other Haftarah, kind of like a little nod, a hat-tip, to the other reading. So here's what I think is so fascinating: Our first Haftarah, the "regular" Rosh Chodesh one, ends on a really unpleasant note. I won't give you the whole verse, but it starts like this: "They shall go out and gaze at the corpses of the people who rebelled against Me" (Isaiah 66:24). Believe me, it gets worse from there. The point is, our ancestors instituted a clever little practice, whereby we DO read that morbid verse aloud... but then we go back to the penultimate verse a second time, so we can end on a much more benign and corpse-free note.

My conundrum is this: If we're adding two verses from a DIFFERENT Haftarah, do we still need to repeat verse 23? Or perhaps the need to do so is obviated by these special additions? I find this especially intriguing, considering the final verse of the second Haftarah is focused on an entirely different topic.

No longer are we talking about the human-Divine relationship, about God forgiving our sins, restoring our Temple, and joyfully bringing back worship and sacrifice. Instead, the added verses focus on interpersonal relationships, human-to-human. The body of the text itself focuses on the strong emotional bond between David (before he became "King David") and Jonathan, and how external forces push them apart. The reading powerfully concludes with the two young men parting ways, but not before Jonathan could declare to David: "Go in peace! For we two have sworn to each other in the name of the Lord: 'May Adonai be [a witness to the bond] between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring forever!'" (I Samuel, 20:42) Not a seamless shift, to say the least. So why include it, and how does this alter the take-away of our first text?? 

I'll tell you what I think. The new month that we're entering (the reason for all these extra readings in the first place!) is Elul. It is the Season of Repentance, the "official" start of the High Holidays. And we cannot only look heaven-ward for

forgiveness, reconciliation, and change. The first Haftarah reminds us we have obligations to ourselves, to our faith, to our planet, and to God. Human beings are prone to marveling at their own accomplishments and stressing the value of self-reliance and independence. But there are forces beyond us, and we need to recognize and respect them as well. Simultaneously, we are in relationship with other PEOPLE - as Jonathan said - forever! It is inescapable. So we need to make peace, bridge divides, and form sacred bonds between one another as well. Keep both of these in mind as we enter Elul. We've got a whole month to work on it, but NOW is the time for a check-in and some self-reflection. And neither Isaiah, David, OR Jonathan (or I!) want you to forget it...


Images in this blog post:
1. CC image courtesy of Dover Air Force Base
2. CC image courtesy of Robert Hruzek on Flickr
3. CC image of an Otto Stemler Bible drawing, courtesy of pcstratman on Flickr
4. CC image courtesy of Len Raden on Flickr