The haftorah for
parshas BeHaaloscha occurs during the end of the Babylonian exile. The good
king Cyrus of Persia has encouraged the Jews to return to the land of Israel
and rebuild the Temple. His Jewish viceroy Zerubbabel leads over 40,000 Jews to
the Holy Land among them Yehoshua the high priest. Disagreements with the
current inhabitants of Israel, the Kuthim (Samaritans), cause construction of
the Temple to halt.
Not too long after
this Zechariah, who is in Israel, has a number of prophesies. Their fundamental
message is the same message of the Chumash and the other prophets. About half
the book, though, is expressly about reestablishing the Jews in Israel. The
term Jew refers to the kingdom of Judah. Ephraim is the kingdom of Israel. They
will come back in the future but are not coming back at this time.
The first prophesy
contains much of the anger and bitterness of the prophets who saw the
destruction of the first Temple. Never the less it promptly extends an offer of
peace with Hakadosh Baruch Hu saying, “Return to Me and I will return to you,”
(Zechariah 1:3).
The next vision is
words of comfort where Hashem says that He is very much jealous for Jerusalem
and for Zion. The use of the word jealous קנא
in this context does mean envious, but does include the idea of being
possessive. The prime meaning here, if it’s possible to say, is that G-d is
agitated, obsessed, and fanatical about His city and His shrine. The peace and
tranquility of the nations is an irritant as long as the sacred places are in
ruins. Jerusalem, though, will be rebuilt, and the grounds so to speak are
being surveyed right now. The cities of Israel will overflow with prosperity,
Zion will be comforted, and Hashem will again choose Jerusalem.
The vision continues
and the prophet sees the menorah with high priest. A message is to be given to
Zerubbabel that the Temple will not be built through force, military or
otherwise. Rather it will be built through diligent study and conscientiously
applying the lessons. If this is done, he will receive encouragement from
others and even major difficulties will be easily overcome. The prophet then foretells
that Zerubbabel will see a successful completion of the work he has started.
The main moral message
of the book of Zechariah is to love truth and peace (ibid 8:19). The prophet
exhorts the people to be truthful with each other. Their judgements should be
based on truth and the ethics of peace. Their hearts should not be amused by
mischief on their friends. And a false promise should not be loved.
The second half of the
book is a vision of the coming of the Moshiach at the end of days. He will be
just and triumphant but demonstrably humble. He will defeat both the military
and intellectual enemies of Israel. The territory of Israel will stretch from
the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River. However, his dominion will be
over the entire world, which will be based on peace between nations. There will
be an ingathering of exiles and the ten tribes will return. The Temple will be
rebuilt, there will be no corruption of any sort in it, and it will be a house
of prayer for all mankind.
לע"נ האמא מלכה בת חיים ז"ל נלב"ע טז ניסן תשנ"ח
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