Vayelekh
Deuteronomy 31:1-30
Hosea 14:2-10, Micah 7:18-20, Joel 2:15-27
Every Shabbat morning, after we conclude reading from the Torah, one person reads a passage from the Prophets, the haftarah. The prophetic passage correlates with a theme of the just-completed Torah reading (Talmud Megillah 29b), except when it expresses the theme of some special Shabbat. This Shabbat before Yom Kippur, Shabbat Shuva, has its own special haftarah on the theme of penitence.
The prophetic reading also usually echoes the Torah reading in length. On a regular Shabbat, at least seven people come up to read from the Torah, and each one reads at least three verses. Similarly, the haftarah includes at least twenty-one verses (Talmud Megillah 23a). Perhaps our ancestors introduced the haftarah to replace the Torah reading at some ancient time of persecution when some authorities prohibited reading from the Torah, as some medieval commentators suggest. But that seems unlikely, since the malevolent authorities could just as well have forbidden reading from the Prophets.
Rabbi David Avudarham, writing at about 1340 in Toledo, Spain, notes an exception to the rule about the length of a haftarah: “If the topic is completed in fewer than 21 verses, as in the Haftarah of Shabbat Shuva which is small, one does not need to read more.” In the edition of the Torah and haftarot on my desk, the haftarah for Parshat Shuva has 25 verses (nine from Hosea, three from Micah, and thirteen from Joel)! Somehow, improbably, the haftarah for Shabbat Shuva has grown longer since the days of Avudarham.
How did that happen? How does a haftarah grow?
In one of his earliest responsa, the late revered decisor of Jewish law Rabbi Moshe Feinstein offered an explanation for the growing haftarah. The haftarah for Parshat Shuva begins with a passage in Hosea on the topic of repentance (14:2-10). It’s a wonderful, inspiring passage for the Shabbat before Yom Kippur, when we need encouragement to attempt penitence. It makes the point beautifully, in fewer than 21 verses.
But the last verse of this passage ends on a depressing note: “Who is wise enough to understand these, understanding to know them, that the ways of the Lord are straight, righteous people walk in them, and evil doers stumble in them.” We do not wish to end the haftarah with the image of the stumbling evil-doers. As Rabbi Yose ben Boon said, “One who reads from the Torah should always begin with something good and end with something good” (Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 3:7); we try to do likewise with a reading from the Prophets.
We cannot end on an upbeat by adding a verse from Hosea, as a glance at the contiguous passages reveals. So we skip to a nearby text with a properly sunny message. Fortunately, we find such passages in the very same scroll of the minor prophets. Micah 7:18-20, which focuses on divine mercy and on the merits of our ancestors, does fine. Joel 2:15-27 describes penitence leading to material plenty and divine acceptance. In some communities, the reader rolled the scroll to Micah; in some, to Joel.
When printing first became available, Rabbi Feinstein surmises, the printers included both conclusions to the haftarah. A mistake: No one would take the time to roll twice in the same haftarah, which would try the patience of the community. Anyway, one upbeat ending is enough. For this reason, 75 years ago, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein insisted that the members of his congregation read only two passages for the haftarah for Shabbat Shuva (Iggrot Moshe, O. H. 1:184 page 294).
Avudarham’s haftarah for Shabbat Shuva, which had fewer than 21 verses, must consist of the passage in Hosea, and no more than the passage in Micah.
We end each haftarah on a positive note. We do not end with the harsh and threatening admonitions of the prophets, which might have the effect of depressing us; we need their words of hope to motivate us toward change.
May we succeed in our efforts towards repentance.