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Please mail a check to:
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Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
This week we read one of the seven Haftarot of consolation. Dr. Tamar Kadari compares this to a Midrash.
Have you ever felt that you are in a dark and difficult period, that you cannot encourage yourself and see the light at the end of the tunnel?
Our Haftarah deals with such feelings.
We are in the days between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashanah, during which we read the “Shiv’at HaNachamta” the seven Haftarot of consolation. In many of these Haftarot, Jerusalem is depicted as a woman:
וַתֹּ֥אמֶר צִיּ֖וֹן עֲזָבַ֣נִי ה’
“Zion said: ‘The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.'” (Isaiah 49:14).
רׇנִּ֥י עֲקָרָ֖ה לֹ֣א יָלָ֑דָה
Sing, barren woman you who never bore a child;
The prophet uses the imagery of a forgotten woman, a barren woman, to emphasize the distressed state of Jerusalem.
Similarly, this Shabbat’s Haftarah opens with the words: “Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted.” The verses of the Haftarah describe Jerusalem after the destruction as a storm-tossed, forsaken and abandoned woman, that cannot find rest or comfort.
But despite the difficult situation, the destruction and loss, the Lord comforts the people of Israel, encourages them, and promises them that He has not forgotten them, and that He is destined to redeem them. The Lord promises Jerusalem that He will restore her to her former glory, when she was beautiful and magnificent:
I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
your foundations of sapphires
I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates of precious stones
and all your walls of gems.
God promises he will adorn her with dust, like a woman putting on makeup. He will crown her with jewels of grace. The use of strong stones gives a sense of stability and security in her unstable condition. He will redeem her and rebuild Jerusalem.
The midrash also sends consolation.
The Midrash refers to three figures: Sarah, Hannah, and Jerusalem. In every place where the verses say that there is nothing, that something is lacking, this lack is filled. So the two barren women, Sarah and Hannah, had children born to them. And also Zion, of whom it is said she has no comfort, the Almighty will comfort her. She did not have a suitor, but in the future she will have one.
We are also in a period where we are seeking comfort. Sometimes it seems to us that the Almighty has forsaken us, as the prophet says “Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me.'” We are troubled and have no comfort or rest. “A storm-tossed city, without comfort.”
The Haftarot of consolation teach us that even when it seems to us that there is no comfort, God has not forgotten us. He accompanies us and takes care of us. All that is lacking will be found and filled. And just as God has redeemed us in the past, He will redeem us in the future.
Shavua Tov from Schechter
Tamar Kadari is a senior lecturer for Midrash and Aggadah at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. She received her PhD in Midrashic literature from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at The University of Pennsylvania. In 2009, Dr. Kadari received a grant from the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) to head a research group preparing a critical edition of Song of Songs Rabbah. Her research interests include biblical women in the eyes of the rabbis, aesthetics and beauty in rabbinic literature and literary readings of midrash. Dr. Kadari is also a sculptor whose work has been exhibited in galleries in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
