Shabbat Hazon ~ The Sabbath of Vision

SUPERTRAMP: Child of Vision

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Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Vaetchanan Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11

By Shlomo Riskin
Tisha B'Av 2004 / 5764

Efrat, Israel - The Torah portion for this week is Vaetchanan which always comes out on the Sabbath after Tisha B’Av, the Sabbath of comfort, the bleak black fast in commemoration of the loss of our Temples and loss of our national sovereignty in Jerusalem. It is very strange however, that the Torah reading for Tisha B’Av is also taken from this portion of Vaetchanan. I would like to analyze a number of strange features surrounding Tisha B’Av which will illuminate the portion of Vaetchanan which has become so deeply associated with the fast we have just experienced.

The Sabbath before Tisha B’Av, the Sabbath of last week - is called Shabbat Hazon, the Sabbath of vision. But why is it called the Sabbath of Vision? Yes, I understand that it receives its name from the first word of its prophetic reading (haftorah) for last week’s Sabbath, Hazon Yeshayahu, the vision of Isaiah (Isaiah 1:1), a description of an Israelite nation which substitutes empty ritual for heartfelt righteousness, self - seeking indulgences for support for indigents. But the very word hazon really means an uplifting, prophetic vision of a better future. Why call the Sabbath before Tisha B’Av with a name Hazon, which suggests exalted sights?

Furthermore, which Torah portion do we read on the fast day of Tisha B’Av itself? Our tradition records that during the forty-year desert sojourn, each Israelite would dig his/her own grave and enter into it on the night of Tisha B’Av; the next morning, those who were alive would walk out upright, but thousands were left dead in their graves each year. During the Mishanic period (100BCE - 200CE), the Tisha B’Av reading was the episode of the sin of the scouts, the evil report which turned the Israelites away from the conquest of the Land of Israel, the initial loss of the land which is a reflection of our two subsequent losses of our land.

But then the Men of the Great Assembly changed the reading to the historiosophy in the portion of Vaetchanan, a prophecy of exile and return (Deuteronomy 4:25-40) which concludes with the repentance of the Israelites “in order that you may have long days on the land which the Lord your G-d gave to you forever.” I understand reading the cause of our desert doom on this day of destruction and dispersion. I find it difficult to understand why we read of return and repentance on such a day!

My final question is a textual - contextual one from this week’s Torah reading. The fifteen verses of historiosophy are a quintessential kaleidoscope of Jewish history, beginning with our return from the Babylonian exile, the period of reconstruction and transgression in Israel re-claimed, destruction, dispersion and assimilation throughout the world (worshipping word - the cross of Christianity - and stone - the El Aksa mosque of Islam, (Deuteronomy 4:28), our repentance and our miraculous return to Israel, which we are expressing today. But strangely enough, this magnificent account opens with the words, “When you will bear children and children’s children, and live a long time on the land….” (Deuteronomy 4:25). Why open the historical fate and destiny of a nation with its population growth? And if our nation at that point in time would have been at a zero or less than zero population growth (as is most of Europe today), would it have made a difference in terms of our Jewish historical experience?

I believe that the answer to our questions can be found in a fascinating interpretation of a Mishnah in Avot that I recently heard from Rav Shalom Gold. When Rav Yohanan ben Zakkai asked each of his disciples to express what he believed to be the most exemplary personality trait, Rav Shimon said, “one who sees that which is born.” Ha’ro’eh et ha’nolad (Mishnah Avot, 2, 13). This is usually taken to mean, one who sees the results of his actions before he does them, and on that basis decides what to do. Rav Gold gave this teaching another twist: one must see from whom one was born, we must be aware that we did not emerge from a vacuum, and that we must pay our debts to our past by accepting responsibility for our future.

Rav Avigdor Amiel ztz”l, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv during the period of the establishment of the State of Israel, cites the following poignant Tisha B’Av midrash:“When the Holy Temple was destroyed, the Holy One Blessed be He wept. He said, ‘My children, where are you? My loved ones, where are you? My priests, where are you? The Holy One said to Jeremiah, ‘I can only be compared today to an individual who had an only son, who led him under the nuptial canopy, and found him dead beneath the canopy. Call Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses from their graves, for they will be able to weep with me. Jeremiah went to the Cave of the Couples in Hebron woke them from their slumber, telling them they had been summoned by the Almighty.They said to him, ‘Why?,” for they had not heard of the destruction.Jeremiah said, ‘I don’t know,’ because he feared lest the forefathers lay upon him the charge, ‘How did you allow such a tragedy to befall our children in your life-time’?”

Judaism believes that the Almighty guarantees redemption. That is why this Sabbath, after Tisha B’Av is called the Sabbath of Comfort. Mostly because of the first words of its prophetic reading, “Take comfort, take comfort my people”(Isaiah 40:1). Indeed, the next six Sabbaths will all have a prophetic reading relating to national comfort and redemption leading up to Rosh Hashanah, which begins the Ten Days of Repentance. Yes, G-d guarantees redemption. But when and how depends upon the actions of His children, upon our political, moral and ethical deeds. We were elected by G-d to fulfill the special mission of bringing the message of ethical monotheism to the world. We were born to special patriarchs and matriarchs, we were granted unique forbears who were prophets and teachers, and the Almighty Himself forged us as a nation out of the furnace of Egypt and amidst great wonders and miracles. Now our destiny is in our hands, dependent upon our repentance and return to our homeland. All of this is expressed in the historiosophy read on Tisha B’Av beginning with a reminder that we were born into a special family, granted special miracles by G-d, and so slated for special responsibility.

The formative and formidable challenge of Tisha B’Av is the word Eicha, the first word of the Scroll of Lamentations, which means Wherefore (wherefore is the Sacred City alone and desolate ), our challenging question to G-d after the destruction. But the Hebrew letters Eicha also spell Ayeka, where are you, i.e. G-d’s challenge to us: where are you in these fateful times fraught with possibility for redemption?

Tisha B’Av is not merely a day of desolation and despair. The prophet Zechariah tells us that Tisha B’Av will one day become a Festival of great rejoicing. When? It depends upon us. That is the exalted vision of the Sabbath before Tisha B’Av, when the prophet Isaiah concludes his chastisement with a ringing declaration of faith - in G-d, but first and foremost in humanity. That is also why our Sabbath after Tisha B’Av is the Sabbath of comfort. But we will only be comforted and redeemed when we turn towards G-d with all our hearts and listen to His voice, when we begin our days of repentance.

The one agonizing question we must face on Tisha B’Av is Ayeka, where are you? Jeremiah was frightened to give an answer before those who formed and bore him. We will only be able to accept Isaiah’s comfort of this week’s prophetic reading if we can respond that we are on the road to repentance.

Shabbat Shalom.