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How Isaiah uses the creation story to rally the Jewish exiles for a return to their homeland

Michelangelo meets the Big Bang

We've come full circle. The annual Torah reading cycle has reset this week, as we finished up the final verses of  Deuteronomy (death of Moses) and read the opening verses of Genesis (creation of the world).

There's a lot to say about the first Torah portion of the year, Bereishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8). To take a fresh look at the creation story, I want to take us through this week's Haftarah (Isaiah 42:5-21). The "Isaiah" speaking hers is not the prophet who warned of the destruction of Judea and Jerusalem. This is a later prophet, "Second Isaiah," who lived 100-plus years later in Babylonia, after the destruction. Persia has conquered Babylonia, and King Cyrus gives the Jews permission to return home and rebuild the Temple.

This Isaiah gives the humbled Jews a pep talk that starts with the power of "their" God. No longer is YAH (Adonai) seen as simply the patron deity of the Israelites/Jews. Rather, YAH is THE God, creator of heaven and earth. Furthermore, God has selected the Jews, a small, weak and exiled people, as a "light to the nations." They are God's servants, whom God will vindicate so that the Jews will "glorify God's teaching (Torah)."

Jews returning from Babylonian exile (image courtesy of heartofashepherd.com)

Please join us this evening! The Zoom link is bit.ly/NafTorah

-Best, Rabbi David Goodman

248-508-0874, rebdovid@nafshenu.org