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    TOLDOS

 

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Haftorah for Shabbat the day before Rosh Chodesh

 

I Samuel (Shmuel)

Chapter 20

 

18. And Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be remembered, for your seat will be vacant. 19. And for three days, you shall hide very well, and you shall come to the place where you hid on the day of work, and you shall stay beside the traveler's stone. 20. And I shall shoot three arrows to the side, as though I shot at a mark. 21. And behold, I shall send the youth, (saying,) 'Go, find the arrows.' If I say to the youth, 'Behold, the arrows are on this side of you,' take it and come, for it is well with you, and there is nothing the matter, as the Lord lives. 22. But, if I say thus to the youth, 'Behold, the arrows are beyond you,' go! For the Lord has sent you away. 23. And (concerning) the matter which we have spoken, I and you, behold, the Lord is between me and you forever." 24. And David hid in the field, and when it was the new moon, Saul sat down to the meal to eat. 25. And the king sat upon his seat, as at other times, upon the seat by the wall, and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat down beside Saul, and David's place was vacant. 26. And Saul did not say anything on that day, for he thought, "It is an incident; he is not clean, for he is not clean." 27. And it was, on the morrow of the new moon, the second (day of the month), that David's place was vacant, and Saul said to Jonathan, his son, "Why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?" 28. And Jonathan answered Saul, "David asked leave of me (to go) to Bethlehem. 29. And he said, 'Let me go away now, for we have a family sacrifice in the city, and he, my brother, commanded me, and now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me slip away now, and see my brothers. ' He, therefore, did not come to the king's table." 30. And Saul's wrath was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, "You son of a straying woman deserving of punishment! Did I not know that you choose the son of Jesse, to your shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness? 31. For all the days that the son of Jesse is living on the earth, you and your kingdom will not be established. And now, send and take him to me, for he is condemned to death." 32. And Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" 33. And Saul cast the spear upon him to strike him; and Jonathan knew that it had been decided upon by his father, to put David to death. 34. And Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger; and he did not eat any food on the second day of the new moon, for he was grieved concerning David, for his father had put him to shame. 35. And it was in the morning, that Jonathan went out at David's appointed time, and a small boy was with him. 36. And he said to his boy, "Run, find now the arrows which I shoot." The boy ran; and he shot the arrow to cause it to go beyond him. 37. And the lad came up to the place of the arrow, which Jonathan had shot. And Jonathan called after the lad, and said, "Isn't the arrow beyond you?" 38. And Jonathan called after the lad, "Quickly, hasten, do not stand!" And Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows, and came to his master. 39. And the lad knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 40. And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, "Go, bring (them) to the city." 41. The lad departed, and David arose from (a place) toward the south; and he fell upon his face to the ground three times, and prostrated himself three times. And they kissed one another, and wept one with the other, until David exceeded. 42. And Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace! (And bear in mind) that we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, 'May the Lord be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.' "

 

Though we will not be reading it this year, the following is the standard Haftorah for this week's Torah reading.

 

 

Malachi

Chapter 1

 

1. The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel in the hand of Malachi. 2. I loved you, said the Lord, and you said, "How have You loved us?" Was not Esau a brother to Jacob? says the Lord. And I loved Jacob. 3. And I hated Esau, and I made his mountains desolate and his heritage into [a habitat for] the jackals of the desert. 4. Should Edom say, "We were poor, but we will return and build the ruins"? So said the Lord of Hosts: They shall build, but I will demolish; and they shall be called the border of wickedness and the people whom the Lord has damned forever. 5. And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, "The Lord is great beyond the border of Israel." 6. A son honors a father, and a slave his master. Now if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My fear? says the Lord of Hosts to you, the priests, who despise My name. But you said, "How have we despised Your Name?" 7. You offer on My altar defiled food, yet you say, "How have we defiled You?" By your saying, "God's table is contemptible." 8. When you offer a blind [animal] for a sacrifice, is there nothing wrong? And when you offer a lame or a sick one, is there nothing wrong? Were you to offer it to your governor, would he accept you or would he favor you? says the Lord of Hosts. 9. And now, will you pray before the Lord that He be gracious to us? This has come from your hand. Will He favor any of you? says the Lord of Hosts. 10. O that there were even one among you that would close the doors [of the Temple] and that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain! I have no desire in you, says the Lord of Hosts. Neither will I accept an offering from your hand. 11. For, from the rising of the sun until its setting, My Name is great among the nations, and everywhere offerings are burnt and offered up to My Name; yea, a pure oblation, for My Name is great among the nations, says the Lord of Hosts. 12. But you are profaning it by your saying, "The Lord's table is defiled"; and its expression is "Its food is contemptible." 13. And you say, "Here is a weary one," and you cause it pain, says the Lord of Hosts. And you brought that which was taken by violence, and the lame and the sick. And you bring an offering-will I accept it from your hand? says the Lord. 14. And cursed is he who deals craftily; although there is a ram in his flock, he vows and sacrifices a blemished one. For I am a great King, says the Lord of Hosts, and My Name is feared among the nations.

 

Chapter 2

 

1. And now, to you is this commandment, O priests. 2. If you do not heed, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My Name, says the Lord of Hosts, I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed I have [already] cursed it, for you do not take it to heart. 3. Behold! I rebuke the seed because of you, and I will scatter dung upon your face-the dung of your festive sacrifices, and it shall take you to itself. 4. And you shall know that I have sent you this commandment, that My covenant be with Levi, says the Lord of Hosts. 5. My covenant was with him, life and peace, and I gave them to him [with] fear; and he feared Me, and because of My Name, he was over-awed. 6. True teaching was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. In peace and equity he went with Me, and he brought back many from iniquity. 7. For a priest's lips shall guard knowledge, and teaching should be sought from his mouth, for he is a messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

Please note: These Haftorah texts follow Chabad custom. Other communities could possibly read more, less, or a different section of the Prophets altogether. Please consult with your rabbi.

 

 

        For the Hebrew Text of the Haftorah

 

 

 

    Chabad.org

 

Jacob and Esau Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Courtesy of MeaningfulLife.com

In many respects, The Torah's account of Isaac's family reads like a replay of Abraham's. Many years of childlessness are followed by the birth of two sons--the elder one wicked and the younger one righteous. Isaac favors the elder son, Esau, much as Abraham is sympathetic toward his elder son, Ishmael, while Rebecca, like Sarah, perseveres in her efforts to ensure that the younger, righteous son is recognized as the true heir of Abraham and the sole progenitor of the "great nation" which G-d promised to establish from his seed.   There is, however, a significant difference between the two sets of brothers. Ishmael and Isaac were born of two different mothers: Ishmael was the son of Hagar, a former Egyptian princess still attached to her pagan ways, while Isaac was the son of the righteous Sarah. Furthermore, Ishmael was born when Abraham was still Abram and still uncircumcised, and can be said to belong to his father's imperfect past (Abraham was born into a family of idolaters and is even described as having himself worshipped idols in his youth), while Isaac was conceived after Abraham had attained the perfection signified by his name change and circumcision.   On the other hand, Esau and Jacob were twins, born of the same righteous mother and raised in the same holy environment. Their father, Isaac, was "a burnt-offering without blemish" who was circumcised on the eighth day of his life and who never set foot outside of the Holy Land. Unlike his father, he has no idolatrous past and no "pre-Isaac" period in his life. So where did Esau's "evil genes" come from?   Even more puzzling is the fact that Esau's wickedness seems predestined from the womb. If Esau had turned bad later in life, we might attribute this to the fact that every man is given absolute freedom of choice to be righteous or wicked. But how are we to explain Esau's gravitation to evil even before he was born?   The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that the fact that Esau was naturally inclined toward idolatry was not, in and of itself, a negative thing. It meant that his ordained mission in life was the conquest of evil rather than the cultivation of good.   Jacob and Esau are the prototypes for two types of souls, each with a distinct role to play in the fulfillment of the Divine purpose in creation. Maimonides calls these two spiritual types "the perfectly pious" and "the one who conquers his inclinations"; Rabbi Schneur Zalman refers to them as the "Tzaddik" and the "Beinoni." Humanity is divided into these two types, writes Rabbi Schneur Zalman in his Tanya, because "there are two kinds of gratification before G-d. The first is generated by the good achieved by the perfectly righteous. But G-d also delights in the conquest of evil which is still at its strongest and most powerful in the heart, through the efforts of the ordinary, unperfected individual." Thus Rabbi Schneur Zalman explains the Talmud passage which cites Job as crying out to G-d: "Master of the Universe! You have created righteous people, and You have created wicked people!" The actual righteousness or wickedness of a person is not predetermined by G-d--in the words of Maimonides, free choice is "A fundamental principle and a pillar of the Torah and its commandments," without which "What place would the entire Torah have? And by what measure of justice would G-d punish the wicked and reward the righteous?" Yet Job is right--G-d does indeed create "righteous people" and "wicked people" in the sense that while certain souls enjoy a life wholly devoted to developing what is good and holy in G-d's world, other souls must struggle against negative traits and ominous perversions implanted within them in order to elicit that special delight that can come only from the conquest of evil.   This, says the Lubavitcher Rebbe, is the deeper significance of Rashi's commentary on the opening words of our Parshah. Citing the verse, "And these are the generations of Isaac," Rashi comments: "Jacob and Esau who are mentioned in the Parshah." The simple meaning of this commentary is that the word toldot ("generations") can also refer to a person's deeds and achievements (cf. Rashi's commentary on Genesis 6:9); Rashi is telling us that here the word toldot is to be understood in its literal sense--the children of Isaac, though these are named only further on in the Parshah.   On a deeper level, says the Rebbe, Rashi is addressing the question: How does an "Esau" come to be a descendant of Isaac and Rebecca? How do two perfectly righteous individuals produce an offspring who is evil from birth?   So Rashi tells us: the "generations of Isaac" are the "Jacob and Esau who are mentioned in the Parshah." The wicked Esau we know is not a product of Isaac but the result of Esau's own failure to overpower his negative inclinations. The Esau of the Parshah--Esau as viewed from the perspective of Torah, where everything is seen in its innermost and truest light--is not evil, but the instrument of evil’s conquest. The Esau of the Parshah is the purveyor of the "second delight" and an indispensable element of the purpose of life on earth.   In this also lies the deeper deeper meaning of the Midrash that describes Jacob and Esau fighting in the womb "over the inheritance of the two worlds" (i.e., the material world, and the "world to come"). This would seem to be one area in which they would have no quarrel: the Esau we know desires the materialism of the physical world and shuns everything that is G-dly and spiritual, while the reverse is true of Jacob. So what were they fighting over?   Explains the Rebbe: The "World to Come" is not a reality that is disconnected from our present existence. Rather, it is the result of our present-day efforts in dealing with and perfecting the material world. The world of Moshiach is the culmination of all positive achievements of history, the era in which the cosmic yield of mankind’s every good deed will come to light.   In other words, our present world is the means and the World to Come is the goal. This is the deeper significance of Jacob’s claim on the World to Come, and Esau’s (and here we speak of the “Torah’s Esau,” the righteous conqueror of his inclinations) preference for the present world. Jacob sees perfection as the only desirable state of man, while Esau sees the struggle with imperfection as desirable in and of itself.   Yet both Jacob and Esau recognize the necessity for both of “the two worlds,” for the process and its outcome. The “perfectly pious” man also requires the material world as the vehicle that leads to ultimate perfection. And the “conqueror” also sees perfection as the goal to which his efforts lead. For although his purpose in life is defined by the process itself, a process, by definition, must have a goal.   So this is their "fight". Jacob and Esau each lay claim to both worlds as part of their life’s endeavor. But their priorities are reversed. To the Jacobs of the world, the material world is but a tool, a means to an end. To its Esaus, man’s material involvements and the struggles they entail are what life is all about. A futuristic vision of perfection is necessary, but only as a reference-point that provides coherence and direction to the “real” business of life.   The tension between them over their differing visions of the “two worlds” is not a negative thing. It is the result of two world views, both positive and necessary, both indispensable components of man’s mission in life.

 

     

     ONCE UPON A CHASSID

     By yanki Tauber

 

The Difference

And the children struggled within her (25:22)   Whenever Rivkah would pass the doorways of Torah study at the academy of Shem and Ever, Jacob would push and wiggle to get out; and when she passed a house of idol-worship, Esau would struggle to emerge… Rashi's commentary   It was a hot July day during the summer of 1866. The children of Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, five-year-old Sholom DovBer1 and his brother Zalman Aharon, had just come home from chederand were playing in the garden which adjoined their home. In the garden stood a trellis overgrown with vines and greenery which offered protection from the heat of the sun. It was set up as a study, with a place for books etc., and Rabbi Shmuel would sit there on the hot summer days.   The children were debating the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew. Zalman Aharon, the elder by a year and four months, argued that the Jews are a "wise and understanding people"2 who could, and do, study lots of Torah, both its 'revealed part' and its mystical secrets, and pray with devotion and 'd'vaikus', attachment to G-d.   Said the young Sholom DovBer: But this is true only of those Jews who learn and pray. What of Jews who are unable to study and who do not pray with d'vaikus? What is their specialness over a non-Jew?   Zalman Aharon did not know what to reply.   The children's sister, Devorah Leah, ran to tell their father of their argument. Rabbi Shmuel called them to the trellis, and sent the young Sholom DovBer to summon Ben-Zion, a servant in the Rebbe's home.   Ben-Zion was a simple Jew who read Hebrew with many mispronunciations and barely understood the easy words of the prayers. Every day he would recite the entire book of Psalms, pray with the congregation, and make sure to be present in the synagogue when Ein Yaakov3 was studied.   When the servant arrived, the Rebbe asked him: "Ben-Zion, did you eat?" Ben-Zion: "Yes".   The Rebbe: "Did you eat well?"   Ben-Zion: "What's well? Thank G-d, I was sated."   The Rebbe: "And why do you eat?"   Ben-Zion: "So that I may live"   The Rebbe: "But why live?"   Ben-Zion: "To be a Jew and do what G-d wants." The servant sighed.   The Rebbe: "You may go. Send me Ivan the coachman."   Ivan was a gentile who had grown up among Jews from early childhood and spoke a perfect Yiddish.   When the coachman arrived, the Rebbe asked him: "Did you eat today?"   "Yes".   "Did you eat well?"   "Yes" "And why do you eat?"   "So that I may live"   "But why live?"   "To take a swig of vodka and have a bite to eat," replied the coachman.   "You may go," said the Rebbe.

 

FOOTNOTES    

1.   Later to succeed his father as the fifth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch.

2.   Deuteronomy 4:6.

3.   Ein Yaakov is a collection of the tales and homiletics of the Talmud, compiled

by 16th century sage Rabbi Yaakov bar Shlomo iban Chaviv.

 

 

   

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