Wednesday, June 3, 2015

BeHaaloscha: Return to Zion

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
וגם בדואר אלקטרוני    ניתן באתר   http://dyschreiber.blogspot.co.il





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