Parashat HaShavua - Ha'Azinu/Yom Kippur

This year marks fifty years since the Yom Kippur War, arguably the closest Israel has come to losing a war. One stark image that has stuck with me – among the many actual images and fictional depictions available – is an early scene from the movie Kippur. The streets are empty and still, with everyone either in Synagogue or at home. A siren sounds. One person runs through the deserted streets as the siren wails. Slowly, more people wander into the empty streets, wondering what is happening, especially from the Synagogues where they had been immersed in tefillah, disconnected from the outside world.

We are all, I believe, meant to hear a siren on Yom Kippur. Not, God forbid, a signal for war, but an urgent signal nonetheless. And I think we can find the message we are meant to receive from that siren in the Haftarot for this Shabbat and Yom Kippur: Return. Return to God, to seeking God, to expressing yourself to God, and to the core of who you are as a person.

In this week’s Haftorah for Shabbat Shuva, the “Shabbat of Return,” the prophet opens: “Return, Israel to the Lord your God / שׁוּבָה יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל עַ֖ד יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ.” (Hosea 14:2) Then the path back to God isn’t even at first about action: “Take words with yourselves and return to the Lord / קְח֚וּ עִמָּכֶם֙ דְּבָרִ֔ים וְשׁ֖וּבוּ אֶל־יְהֹוָ֑ה.” (Hos.14:3) Or, as we like to say to our children, “use your words.” This opportunity is available to us all: “Those who dwelt in its shade shall return; they shall revive / יָשֻׁ֙בוּ֙ יֹֽשְׁבֵ֣י בְצִלּ֔וֹ יְחַיּ֥וּ.” (Hos. 14:8)

And when we do return, God is, thankfully, waiting for us. In one of the most beautiful notions of God’s relationship with us – and something we can carry over into our relationship with others – the prophet reports God’s assurance that “I will love them freely / אֹֽהֲבֵ֖ם נְדָבָ֑ה.” (Hos. 14:5) And when we turn to God, “God shall return and grant us compassion / יָשׁ֣וּב יְרַֽחֲמֵ֔נוּ,” as Micah reassures the people at the conclusion of our Haftorah. (7:19) 

One is reminded here of the poem by Yehudah HaLevi, “Lord where shall I find you / יָהּ אָנָה אֶמְצָאֲךָ.” He opens with the notion that God is both removed from us and also among us: “Lord, where shall I find You? / Your place is lofty and secret. / And where shall I not find you? / The whole earth is full of Your glory / יָהּ אָנָה אֶמְצָאֲךָ, מְקוֹמְךָ נַעֲלָה וְנֶעְלָם / וְאָנָה לֹא אֶמְצָאֲךָ, כְּבוֹדְךָ מָלֵא עוֹלָם.” (www.Benyehuda.org) Later in the poem, in HaLevi’s theological journey we can hear echoes of Hoshea and Micah from our Haftorah: “I have sought to come near You / I have called to You with all my heart / and when I went out toward You / I found You coming towards me /  דָּרַשְׁתִּי קִרְבָתְךָ, בְּכָל לִבִּי קְרָאתִיךָ / וּבְצֵאתִי לִקְרָאתְךָ, לִקְרָאתִי מצָאתִיךָ.”

Finally, a direct line can be drawn between this Haftorah and the Haftorah of Sefer Yonah (the Book of Jonah) at mincha on Yom Kippur. When Yonah is given his mission to inform the people of Ninveh that their evil is known to God, he instead tries to avoid his mission by running away. After God intercedes to sabotage Yonah’s getaway ship, the sailors throw Yonah overboard, where he is famously swallowed by a big fish. Yonah at that point finally realizes he cannot escape God, and so offers a tefillah instead.

However, the tefillah of Yonah does not seem to reflect what just happened: “I called out from my distress to the Lord, who answered me; from the belly of the grave I cried out, You heard my voice. / וַיֹּ֗אמֶר קָ֠רָא֠תִי מִצָּ֥רָה לִ֛י אֶל־יְהֹוָ֖ה וַיַּֽעֲנֵ֑נִי מִבֶּ֧טֶן שְׁא֛וֹל שִׁוַּ֖עְתִּי שָׁמַ֥עְתָּ קוֹלִֽי.” (Yonah 2:2-3) The problem is that the narrative of Chapter 1 does not tell us he “called out,” it tells us he ran away!

Perhaps Yonah’s revisionist history is intended to make himself look better, but that seems a tall order when attempted on God. A more compelling answer, I think, is that when Yonah refers to God hearing his voice, we can learn that God can hear us even when we do not express ourselves out loud, even when we can’t find our voice to know what to say. This is in sharp contrast to Hoshea and Micah assuming that in our return to God we will express ourselves to God, and HaLevi describing actively seeking God. But it is worth noting that Hoshea refers to “those who sit in God’s shade / יֹֽשְׁבֵ֣י בְצִלּ֔וֹ” (Hos. 14:8), and God provides Yonah with “shade over his head to save him / צֵל֙ עַל־רֹאשׁ֔וֹ לְהַצִּ֥יל ל֖וֹ.” (Yonah 4:6)

This Yom Kippur may we all be alert to the siren that calls us to return: to God and to our core beliefs, to knowing how to express ourselves, and to being heard and understood even – and especially – when we are not sure how.

L'Shana Tova Tikatevu ve’Tichatemu, may we all be written and sealed in the Book of Life.

Rabbi Jack Nahmod
Middle School Judaic Studies Head (Ivrit and Limudei Kodesh)
Rabbinic Advisor