THE
VALUES OF WORDS AND NAMES
Sidrah:
Exodus
18:1-20:23
Haftarah: Isaiah
6:1-7:6, 9:5-6
The
Revelation at Har Sinai is the
greatest miracle in the history of the world; Hashem revealed not only His holy
Torah but also His essence in the most direct way that our bodies could endure.
To match this, our Sages of blessed memory selected a haftarah in which the prophet Isaiah describes experiencing Hashem’s
majesty in the lofty imagery of a royal figure seated on a throne in a chamber
with an altar, surrounded by fiery angels.
Isaiah envisions himself as so unworthy of this experience that an angel
must touch his lips with a coal from the celestial altar to burn away his
sin. Yet when Hashem calls for a
representative, the mission He gives the prophet is purely down to earth and
even painful for Isaiah to hear.
In the original Hebrew the message Hashem has
for the people is written in the imperative voice. This gives the translation,
“Hear but do not understand; see but do not know (what you are seeing)!” Rabbi David Kimchi (1) discusses two
interpretations of this message. The first
follows the interpretation often associated with Hashem’s words to Moshe
regarding Pharaoh; Hashem will sometimes withhold the chance to repent from a
person immersed in wrongdoing so that others will see the consequences of
disobedience. The second viewpoint
regards the intent of the Hebrew as a warning, as if the verbs had been written
in the future tense. In English we would
read it, “You will hear but not understand; you will see but not know the
meaning of what you see.”
The
Malbim (2) also analyzes the choice of words in this verse linguistically. He points out that Hebrew has two words for
“no”. The word al, used here, refers to prohibiting a specific, voluntary action
that someone is about to perform. The more familiar word lo is closer in usage to the English word “never.” The Malbim also disagrees with Rashi’s
understanding, which would be rendered, “I tell you ‘listen!’ but you do not
pay attention; I tell you ‘see!’ but you do not know.” He bases his disagreement on the nest verse in
Hashem’s charge to Isaiah: “Fatten this nation’s heart, make its ears
heavy, and shut its eyes, lest it see (pen
yir’eh in Hebrew) with its eyes, hear with its ears, and understand with
its heart, and return and be healed.” The
Malbim maintains that if Rashi’s interpretation were the one intended, Hashem
would have concluded, “perhaps it will see (ulai
yir’eh) with its eyes….” Instead,
concludes the Malbim, a better interpretation would apply the verb “tell” to
all the imperatives in the earlier verse.
In other words, he proposes this interpretation: “Tell them, ‘listen,’ but do not tell them,
‘understand;’ tell them, ‘see,’ but do not tell them, ‘know.’” Hashem predicts that the consequence will be a
“stock” of the kingdom of Judah will remain to let a healthier “tree” grow
back.
Hashem
instructs Isaiah, along with his son, to visit King Achaz of Judah. The son’s name, Sh’ar-Yashuv, means “a
remnant shall return.” Symbolic names
like this are not meant to refer to the person so named; instead they convey a
message to the public message. In this
case the message follows the one above, which states a remnant of the Northern
Kingdom will return to the true path and rebound, even after the tragedy
predicted previously. The encouragement
implied in the son’s name is essential to support what Hashem wants Isaiah to
tell the king—that he should not fear the conspiracy of the king of Israel with
the king of Aram.
The
haftarah breaks to a later passage in
which Isaiah announces that despite the moral failings of King Achaz, his son
Hezekiah will merit the name Sar-Shalom,
which means “Prince of Peace.” He will
be given (over)
this name by Hashem, Whom the prophet
assigns the title Peleh-Yoetz-E.l-Gibor-Avi-Ad,
which in English means, “The wonderful Counselor, mighty Deity, everlasting
Advisor.” (3) Throughout Hezekiah’s reign, the Northern and Southern Kingdoms
were united and a new spirit of devotion to Hashem was widespread, due to a
combination of the king’s personal integrity and the positive influence of
Hashem Himself, which Hezekiah’s high standards were able to spread to his
subjects.
1.
Rabbi
David Kimchi, often cited by the abbreviation RaDak, lived in Provence during
the twelfth and thirteen centuries. He
wrote commentaries on all the books of the Prophets, and on grammar and
history, as well as a Hebrew dictionary. (Cited from Wikipedia.)
2.
I
have discussed the life and works of the Malbim in a previous blog entry.
3.
Examine
Genesis 42:8 concerning the usage of the Hebrew Av
as “advisor” rather than the literal meaning of “father.”
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