Parashat
Ki-Tavo
Lectures on
the weekly Torah reading by the faculty of
Isaiah
on the Land and the People
Department of Bible;
Mikraot Gedolot
Ha-Keter
Isaiah’s words of consolation are mostly cast in the metaphor of a desolate woman, without husband or children. She is husbandless because of dissolution of marriage, [1] and childless either because of barrenness [2] or bereavement. [3] Even when the proximate context does not concern barrenness or bereavement, this theme sometimes appears suddenly, as in the haftarah of this week’s reading: “Your sun shall set no more, your moon no more withdraw; for the Lord shall be a light to you forever, and your days of mourning shall be ended” (Isa. 60:20).
The expression, “your days of mourning shall be ended,” conjures up the image of a woman bereaved of her children, and contains tidings that days of consolation are at hand. Nevertheless this expression is problematic: does one ever cease mourning the death of a child? For example, consider the instructions given by Joab to the wise woman of Tekoa, to pretend before King David that she is in mourning over the death of her son: “Put on mourning clothes and don’t anoint yourself with oil; [4] and act like a woman who has grieved a long time over a departed one” (II Sam.14:2). Clearly such comportment appears reasonable and would not arouse the king’s suspicions, for who can set a limit for the period of mourning of a mother for her son? [5]
If so, why does the prophet speak as if mourning were a sentence that has a specific time limit, and once it has been completed life returns to normal? It seems to me that the prophet chose the expression “your days of mourning shall be ended” (ve-shalmu, literally,“your days of mourning shall be completed”) because it contains two metaphors that act reciprocally, thus creating a special stylistic effect.
Metaphorically the text speaks of outward rites of mourning, which usually do have a time limit. Some of these rites are spelled out in the stories of the death of Nadab and Abihu [6] and the death of the prophet Ezekiel, on the one hand, [7] and in the law regarding a beautiful woman who is taken captive, on the other. [8] The rites include crying and wailing, secluding oneself, sitting silently doing nothing, and a marked change in patterns of dress and food. The mourner abandons all care for external appearance, most noticeably in not tending to one’s hair and fingernails. In the story of the clever woman of Tekoa, Joab commanded her to refrain from anointing her body with oil (one of the signs of mourning), and naturally that leaves its mark on her facial skin. Neglecting care for one’s looks was more evident among women than men, who apparently generally had beards and long side-burns. [9] It was easy to discern a woman in mourning, and perhaps therefore Joab chose a woman, not a man, to present a picture of mourning.
The external indicators of mourning cease when life forces a person to return to the normal routine, but apparently there was a generally accepted period of time for displaying these outward signs, which we learn from the law regarding a beautiful woman who has been taken captive: “She shall spend a month’s time … lamenting her father and mother.” Mourning for longer than this depended on the wishes of the mourner and the depth of his feelings. Clearly a bereaved mother who is blessed with other children has her time and attention taken up by raising her living children and cannot give herself over to unlimited grieving for the dead.
Thus, in his speech of consolation Isaiah alludes to the
conclusion of such a period of mourning, but the picture he draws is reinforced
by two metaphors. Since the
destruction of
The prophecy uses these multiple meanings of the root to
reinforce the sense of destruction, so that the meaning is not clear-cut.
When the prophet says, “The earth is
withered (a-b-l), sear (n-b-l); the world languishes (m-l-l),
it is sear (n-b-l),” is he talking only about dryness and desolation, or
is he also sharing with us the earth’s sadness over its barrenness?
This sense is reinforced by the
sophisticated use of the root m-l-l, synonymous to a-b-l, which
also denotes dryness and withering, as is clear from the context in Joel
1:12: “The vine has dried up, the
fig tree withers (m-l-l), pomegranate, palm and apple – all the trees of
the field are sear.” But the root m-l-l
also carries with it another meaning, relating to sadness,
[12] as we
see also from Isaiah 24:7: “The new
wine fails, the vine languishes (m-l-l).”
Adding to this the compactness of poetry
– for the earth (or the land, the world, etc.) is also used metonymically to
denote those who dwell on it – we come up with a verse that can be read on
several levels. When Jeremiah says,
“
Furthermore, sometimes the prophet is clearly playing with the multiplicity of meanings of the root a-b-l in order to convey a deeper message: since human life is dependent on the soil, laying waste to the tilled land spells disaster for those living on it. Moreover, just as a person who eats his full looks fresher and more sated, while in time of famine he looks hollow and shriveled, the roots describing dryness are fitting both for the land and for those who dwell on it. Thus, in Joel 1:9-10: “Offering and libation have ceased from the House of the Lord, the priests must mourn (a-b-l) who minister to the Lord. The country is ravaged, the ground must mourn (a-b-l) [14], for the new grain is ravaged, the new wine is dried up, the new oil has failed (m-l-l).” Likewise, let us add that a field which has been left untended is like a person who does not tend to his outer appearance because of mourning; or should we say that when a person lets his hair go unkempt he is like a field left wild?
So when Isaiah says, “your days of mourning shall be
ended,” he speaks of
In contrast to Isaiah, who only hints that renewal of the soil characterizes the end of exile, Ezekiel expresses the same idea quite unequivocally: “But you, O mountains of Israel, shall yield your produce and bear your fruit for My people Israel, for their return is near” (Ezek. 36:8). This has been interpreted as a clear indicator of Redemption and fulfillment of the prophecy of consolation: “Rabbi Abba said: There is no better verse than this to signify the end of exile” (Sanhedrin 98a).
[1] See
Isaiah 49:14: “
[2] See
Isaiah 54:1: “Shout, O barren one,
you who bore no child! Shout aloud
for joy, you who did not travail!
For the children of the wife forlorn shall outnumber those of the
espoused – said the Lord.”
[3] See
Isaiah 49:20-21: “The children you
thought you had lost shall yet say in your hearing, ‘The place is too crowded
for me; make room for me to settle.’
And you will say to yourself, who bore these for me when I was bereaved
and barren, exiled and disdained – by whom , then, were these reared?
I was left all alone – and where have
these been?”
[4] Also
Daniel 10:2-3: “At that time, I,
Daniel, kept three full weeks of mourning.
I ate no tasty food, nor did any meat or wine enter my mouth.
I did not anoint myself until the
three weeks were over.”
[5] Compare
with Jacob’s prolonged mourning over the “death” of his son Joseph.
Even Job, who accepted Heaven’s decree
with submission, could hardly be comforted for the death of his earlier
children by the birth of later ones!
[6] “And
Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, ‘Do not bare your
heads and do not rend your clothes, lest you die and anger strike the whole
community. But your kinsmen, all
the house of
[7] Ezek.
24:16-17: “O mortal, I am about to
take away the delight of your eyes from you through pestilence; but you shall
not lament or weep or let your tears flow.
Moan softly; observe no mourning for the dead:
Put on your turban and put your sandals
on your feet; do not cover over your upper lip, and do not eat the bread of
comforters.”
[8] Deut.
21:12-13: “You shall bring her into
your house, and she shall trim her hair, pare her nails, and discard her
captive’s garb. She shall spend
a month’s time in your house lamenting her father and mother.”
Also the derogatory description of
[9] See
Leviticus 19:27: “You shall not
round off the side-growth on your head.”
[10]
Mourning is not only over the dead, but over anything that causes pain and
distress, such as plague, defeat and famine.
The sin of the golden calf brought in
its wake deep mourning by the people, so much so that they removed their
adornments. See Ex. 33:4, after the
golden calf: “When the people heard
this harsh word, they went into mourning, and none put on his finery.”
[11] Cf. in
the Akkadian dictionary, CAD, under abalu B:
to dry up, dry out.
[12] See Ps.
6:3: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for
I languish (m-l-l).”
[13] See
Jeremiah 14:3-4: “Their nobles sent their servants for water; they came to the
cisterns, they found no water. They
returned, their vessels empty. They
are shamed and humiliated, they cover their heads.”
This is preceded by the verse, “
[14] Targum
Jonathan appreciated the significance of being dried up, rendering this
phrase as “the land was destroyed.”
Radak, in his commentary on Isaiah 24:4 said:
Avelah (rendered as “mourn” by
the JPS) – this refers to being ruined, likewise “the new wine is dried up (a-b-l)”
(verse 7, below). Menahem ben
Shimon, a medieval bible exegete, took a similar approach to the verse in
Jeremiah, even though the parallels speak of dryness.
In Joel 1:10, even though Joseph Qara
brings up this connection, he does not view this as a parallel construction,
rather as cause and effect: “The
country is ravaged, the ground must mourn – this belongs to the type of
double construction that at first appears enigmatic, but when taken side by
side become clear. When it says
‘the country is ravaged (lit. robbed, plundered),’ I do not know of what it is
plundered; when it says ‘the ground must mourn,’ I do not know what it must
mourn. But the key to understanding
lies in their juxtaposition: As I
said, the land is robbed, for it has been robbed of its grain; and the ground
must mourn – because the new wine has dried up.”
Ibn Ezra viewed this passage as
metaphorically referring to those who reside in the land:
“The ground must mourn – this
means its inhabitants mourn; the new wine is dried up – metaphorically,
as in ‘joy is dried up.’”
[15] In
modern Bible study many scholars have solved the problem presented by this
juxtaposition of verses by assuming that verses 21-22 are a later addition.
An exception to this rule is the
commentary by J. L. Koole in the series, Historical Commentary on the Old
Testatment. He suggests taking
the word evlekh in the sense of regret that is related to guilt and
punishment, which would mean that the term of punishment has been completed
(similar to what appears in Isaiah 40:2:
“that her term of service is over, that her iniquity is expiated.”)
He views the verb ve-shalmu,
which is in the kal form, as hinting at the word shalom in Isaiah
60:17.