This week’s Haftorah always is read on the Shabbat preceding
the festival of Shavuot, the anniversary of the giving of the Torah. (This
year, Shavuot will be observed in the Diaspora the evening of Tuesday,
May 14 through Thursday, May 16.) Chief
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks explains that the way to understand the giving of
Torah is to understand the relationship between G-d and His people. One of the
most beautiful and intimate metaphors for G-d is husband, with Israel as bride
and Torah as marriage contract.
This week’s Haftorah (Hosea 2:1-22) is about the marriage of
the prophet Hosea and the harlot Gomer. In the opening chapter that precedes
the Haftorah, G-d tells Hosea: “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and
children of harlotry, for the land goes astray from following the L-rd. And he went and took Gomer, the daughter of
Divlayim.”
It is not clear whether Gomer was a wanton woman before her
marriage, or if she becomes licentious only after her marriage to Hosea. The
Talmud (Pesachim 87a-b) comments on Gomer’s name: All would gratify their lust
on her (gomerim) and they would tread on her like pressed fig (d’vilah)
[which is a euphemism for sexual conduct].
The “back story” to the marriage also is found in Pesachim
87a-b. G-d tells Hosea that His people have sinned. Instead of asking G-d for
mercy, Hosea suggests that G-d “exchange them for another nation.” G-d responds: “What shall I do with this old
man? I will tell him to go marry a harlot and have children by her. Then I will
tell him to send her away. If he can, then I, too, will send Israel away.”
Gomer bears three children who may not even be Hosea’s biological
offspring. She then leaves home, is unfaithful to Hosea many times and with multiple
men, and eventually she is forced to sell herself into slavery. Hosea still
loves her: he purchases Gomer’s freedom from slavery and provides her with
clothing and food. Writes the Chief
Rabbi: “In a flash of prophetic insight, G-d leads him [Hosea] to understand
that his own personal experience mirrors that between G-d and the Israelites.”
In the Haftorah, G-d goes on to tell Hosea that in the future
He will return the people to the wilderness where they were betrothed so that
they can renew their relationship with Him.
“And it will come to pass on that day, declares the L-rd, that you
will call Me ‘Ishi’ and you will no longer call Me ‘Baali.’”
The Hebrew words ish and baal both mean
“husband”. Baal has the additional meaning of “master” or “owner”. Baal also is the name of a pagan god,
the powerful god of lightning as well as the fertility god who sends rain to
“impregnate” the ground.
Writes the Chief Rabbi: “Hosea…hints at the kind of world
that emerges when you worship sex and power. It is a world without loyalties,
where relationships are casual and people are taken advantage of and then
dropped. A marriage predicated on the word baal is a relationship of
male dominance, in which women are used, not loved; owned, not honored.”
“Daringly, Hosea suggests that the making of woman from man
mirrors the creation of humanity. First they are separated, then they are
joined again, but now as two distinct persons, each of whom respects the
integrity of the other. What joins them is a new kind of relationship built on
fidelity and trust.”
The Haftorah ends with the words Jewish men recite as they
wrap the tefillin (phylactery) strap like a wedding ring around their finger: “I
will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and
justice, loving kindness and compassion; I will betroth you in fidelity, and
you will know G-d.” A loving and
faithful relationship with G-d is thus the foundation and model for the ideal marriage.
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