Summary:
Our potion begins with the beautiful story when Jacob dreams of angels going up and down a ladder. God blesses him. Jacob names the place Bethel. Then Jacob works seven years in order to marry Rachel, but Laban tricks Jacob into marrying Leah, Rachel's older sister. Jacob marries Rachel but only after having to commit himself to seven more years of working for Laban. Leah, Rachel, and their maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah, give birth to eleven sons and one daughter. Jacob and his family leave Laban's household with great wealth.
Lesson from our Haftarah Portion – Hosea 12:13-14:10
Sometimes the link between the Torah portion and the Haftarah portion is quite weak. That is the case this week. The Torah portion speaks about the time Jacob dwelt in Aram. The first two verses of our Haftarah also speak of that event. Otherwise, the Haftarah is a prophecy that has little to do with the story of Jacob.
The prophecy of Hosea is familiar to us, because it makes up the bulk of the Haftarah we read on Shabbat Shuvah – the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The theme of the prophecy is quite predictable. It begins with the sins of the people of Israel, and how those sins challenge our relationship with God. It continues with a dire warning from God that because of the weight of these sins and due to the unrepentant nature of the people, destruction lies ahead. Finally, in a note of hope and compassion, God reminds the people that a repentant nation will find favor with God.
When we read this Haftarah on Shabbat Shuva, we emphasize the lesson that each of us has the power to repent. The word Teshuvah/Shuva at its core means to turn, or to return. Each of us has the power to turn from evil to goodness. We have the power to return to the path of goodness, to the best we can be.
However, for the prophet Hosea in our Haftarah, the concept of individual teshuvah – repentance, was unknown. Hosea lived in the 8th century BCE. It was the rabbis, after the year 250 CE (over a 1,000 years later) who assigned to the word Teshuvah the meaning of individual change.
When Hosea and the other prophets spoke, they directed their message to the entire people of Israel as a collective, as a nation. They exhorted Israel as a people to turn back to God so that the nation itself could live. For Hosea, teshuvah was a collective process. For the rabbis, who lived in an historical period when the nation state no longer existed, Teshuva transformed into a personal process.
Hosea’s message was directed at the leadership of the people. It was they who were responsible for mending their ways, as well as the behavior of the people as a whole. It was only when the entire nation returned to the path of goodness would the people be saved from destruction. The prophet was concerned with the well-being of all, because the evil actions of the nation would surely lead to doom for all.
This ancient communal concept resonates well with us today. In our democratic societies, where each of us as citizens have responsibility for the decision making of the larger community, the biblical setting which the prophet faced is recreated. In a democracy, we all have the power and are all responsible for turning the nation state toward the path of goodness. As individuals, each of us has an influence on the entirety of the nation. It is our responsibility to turn society away from evil and toward good. We have the power to shape the fate of the whole nation.
In this way, Hosea’s ancient words speak to us. They remind us of the shortcomings of our society and spell out the consequences that await us if we fall short. While in our time teshuvah - repentance remains a personal, spiritual act, Hosea reminds us that as active citizens, teshuvah plays out on a national scope as well.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Don Goor