Parashat
Devarim
Torah:
Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22
Haftarah:
Isaiah 1:1-27 (Shabbat Chazon – Shabbat of Vision – the Third Haftarah of
Rebuke)
Av 8, 5785 / August 1-2, 2025
Tisha
B’Av reading: Megillat Eikhah – The Book of Lamentations
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This Shabbat is Shabbat Chazon, the Shabbat of Vision,
so-called because we read on Shabbat morning the rebuking vision of Isaiah,
leading into the observance of Tisha B’Av on Saturday night and Sunday,
August 2-3, and the reading of the horrifying vision of the Book of
Lamentations (Megillat Eikhah). Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, commemorates
the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, and numerous
other calamities which have befallen the Jewish people on the same date.
This d'var torah is offered in memory of Sarah Labovitz Flom (my
grandmother) and Martha Gottschalk Stern (Lynn's grandmother), whose yahrzeits
fall Monday, August 4 (10 Av), and Wednesday, August 6 (12 Av), respectively.
Both were US immigrants and asylum seekers, escaping antisemitic persecution
from Romania (1902) and from Nazi Germany (1937 via France 1934). Their
memories are blessings.
This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah and a speedy
and safe return of all the hostages being held by Hamas.
This d’var torah is offered for an end to the hunger crisis in Gaza.
Lunch and Learn will not meet until September 8.
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RESISTANCE IS NOT
FUTILE – IT’S A TRADITION
In this week’s
haftarah, Isaiah warns the people what will happen to them if they continue to
disobey God’s instructions – particularly with regard to matters of justice.
“… Your hands are full
of blood. Wash yourselves clean; Put your evil out of My sight. Cease your evil
ways. Learn to do good; devote yourselves to justice; aid those who have been
wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow.” Isaiah
1:15-17
“If you refuse and
disobey, you will be consumed by violence – for it was the Lord who spoke.”
Isaiah 1:20
"Your rulers are
rogues and cronies of thieves, every one of them avid for bribery and greedy
for illicit gifts; They do not give the orphan justice, and the widow's case
never reaches them." Isaiah 1:23
This Saturday night and Sunday, Jews remember and mourn the destruction of the Holy
Temple in Jerusalem, twice, on the 9th of Av – in 587 BCE
by the Babylonians, and in 70 CE by the Romans. Other calamities suffered by
the Jewish people are attributed to or very close to the 9th of
Av.
The Book of
Lamentations (attributed, probably incorrectly, to Jeremiah) describes the
destruction by the Babylonians. The Talmud, in a number of places, attributes
both destructions, particularly that by the Romans, to baseless hatred among the
people.
Thus, we may read the
Talmud as teaching that failure to take to heart the teachings of Isaiah leads
to the moral and physical destruction of society.
We’ve seen resistance
to injustice before. Abraham argued with God for the sake of Sodom and Gomorrah
– he lost the argument, but he was not afraid to make the challenge - for
people he didn’t know, for people who were not so nice, but who were
nevertheless fellow human beings. Our Rabbis taught that one of the reasons God
ultimately destroyed the cities was because of “the cry of the maiden” – a
woman who was executed in Sodom for the crime of giving food and water to the
poor and to immigrants.
More famously, Moses
demanded justice from the Pharaoh of Egypt – and set an enslaved people free.
It took a while, and God’s intervention, but our Rabbis teach that had Moses
refused to do this, had he remained silent, the Israelites might still be
slaves. This story of the Exodus led to constant reminders to love the Other
because “you were strangers in Egypt” and “you know the heart of the stranger”.
On this point, we learn specifically, “You will love the stranger, because you
were strangers in Egypt.” Deuteronomy 10:19
Abraham, Moses,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and virtually all of the other Biblical prophets, have a few
things in common. They challenged the status quo of an immoral and unjust power
structure, and they demanded that the people act more justly. “For it is lovingkindness
I desire, not sacrifice.” Hosea 6:6
At BT Pesachim 66a,
Hillel the Elder says of the Jewish people, "If they are not prophets (who
have directly heard the voice of God), they are the children of prophets (and
thus will know and do the right thing)."
Remember where you
come from. Do the right thing. Resistance is not futile - ever.
Shabbat
Shalom! And have a meaningful fast.
Rabbi
Richard A. Flom - Rabbi Emeritus
Temple
B'nai Hayim
הרחמן
הוא יברך אותנו כולנו יחד בברכת אחוה, ובברכת אהבה, ובברכת שלום
May
the Merciful One bless us, all of us as one, with the blessing of brotherhood,
the blessing of love, and the blessing of peace.
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