HARSH WORDS

Sidrah:  Genesis 37:1-40:23

Haftarah:  Amos 2:6-3:8

Our Haftarah establishes its connection to the weekly sidrah through the unwarranted sale of Joseph. Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir (1) and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato (2) note that the text can mean that actually a band of Midianites sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites, even though tradition holds the brothers guilty of the sale. The reading from the Prophet Amos begins with a warning to the people of the Northern Kingdom that although Hashem may have given them multiple chances for repentance, His patience has run out with their corruption of civil justice, selling “the righteous man for silver and the needy man for a pair of shoes.”  The Malbim understands these “sales” in terms of witnesses being bribed to give false testimony in capital cases, “selling” innocent defendants to death, along with corrupt judges who overlook such criminal behavior. He further interprets those who “pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor” as those who are eager to see a poor man’s head cut off so they can claim the victim’s tiny homestead for themselves.

                After complaining of the nation’s ingratitude and listing other examples of oppression, including the oppression of those who act as religious spokesmen, Amos uses an infrequently found verb, l’ha`ik, to create a simile between the populace of the Northern Kingdom and a wagon loaded with grain.  The Malbim derives its intent from the word ma`akah, a boundary or protective railing.  In other words, according to him, Hashem threatens to hold the people in place so that they cannot escape His punishment, just as a frame around the top of a wagon prevents grain from falling out.  

The prophet’s next rebuke is extremely profound; “You only have I known among the families of the earth; therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities.”  No understanding of the expression, “chosen people,” could be more wrong than to think that the Jewish religion gives us a free pass on immoral or unethical behavior.  Hashem commands us to follow His commandments to a more stringent degree than our non-Jewish neighbors in order to demonstrate that they can indeed be followed and that following them makes our lives a blessing to ourselves and all those around us.

(1)    Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir (or RaSHBaM) was the grandson of Rashi and is better known for his commentary on the Gemara tractates Pesachim and Baba Batra.

(2)    Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato (or RaMCHaL) lived in the 18^th century in Italy, the Netherlands and the Land of Israel.  He is most famous for a treatise on ethics known in English as The Path of the Just (in Hebrew, Mesilat Yesharim).