on that day - a study of the book of isaiah

No drinking on the job!

2008-03-06T21:36:00.006-05:00

28, 1. Woe is to the crown of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim ...

7. These, too, erred because of wine and strayed because of strong wine, priest and prophet erred because of strong wine, they became corrupt because of wine, they went astray because of strong wine, they erred against the seer, they caused justice to stumble.

The prophet Isaiah is telling us something very obvious here. The Northern Kingdom was characterised by drinking and partying.

Now maybe this is figurative. Isaiah could be talking about a stupor that clouds the mind to religious and spiritual teachings. But the traditional and modern commentaries see this as a condemnation of drunken religious ceremonies.

Drinking on the leadership job is 100% not the Jewish way. Look at Amos 2,8 .... they drink in the house of their gods. Their gods, not ours. Take a look at Hosea 4,17 - drinking equals major league immorality and worship of foreign gods, especially as part of funeral rites.

Leadership, whether it is spiritual or temporal, priest, prophet or king, all require a clear head.

It's OK to enjoy a drink with one's dinner or in company of friends, but Prophetic Judaism steers a course of sobriety. To suggest otherwise is to deny the basic point of Judaism. Israel is a nation like all others. Judaism has elements to it that are found in other faith traditions. The difference is the focus on the highest level of ethics, morality, concern for other people and purity of body and mind.

In many ways, Biblical Judaism took the best parts of the world around it and separated out the dross. It kept only the pure spiritual core elements that are found everywhere. I think this process continues even today. Moses did not need to get high to reach the top of the mountain.

The picture is a Bronze age winepress is located on the north hillsides of Migdal Haemek, Israel.

Moses was high on Mt. Sinai: researcher (National Post, 05 Mar 2008, Page A2)

2008-03-06T21:34:00.002-05:00

(It's not true. And I can prove it from the Book of Isaiah.Read my next post for chapter and verse.)

Moses was high on Mt. Sinai: researcher
Agence France-Presse, with files from Reuters
National Post
05 Mar 2008

JERUSALEM • High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claims in a study published this week. Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites... read more...

The Messianic Vineyard

2008-02-29T12:34:00.007-05:00

27, 2. On that day, "A vineyard producing wine," sing to it.

Why is this blog called on that day?

The prophet Isaiah says on that day a lot. I am trying to find the good news, the happy pictures in the course of my study of the Book of Isaiah. On that day often refers to THAT DAY, the day we are all waiting for. The beginning of the golden age. As a believing Jew, I say when the Messiah arrives.

This short piece, verses 3 - 6, is a song. A very special song.

Here is how Rashi understands it - at the time of the redemption, they [the nations] will sing to Israel, “This is a wine producing vineyard. It has yielded its good wine.”

This is what the last verse says - In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom, filling the whole world with fruit. The fruit being wisdom, peace, cooperation, everything we do not have in the world right now. Israel past and present is the model vineyard for the world. A very imperfect model for how to live in harmony with your neighbours and the environment.

Take some time to read the lines in between. And look back at chapter 5, the original Vineyard Song. This is a love song of God to His people, Israel. The song combines two different areas of love and urges us to see things from His point of view. He explains it all to us in human terms.

Love is often bittersweet. The love between two people can become entirely bitter. Farming, the love of working the land is an unpredictable relationship too. We yearn, we hope, we commit ourselves and we are disappointed. That's life. That's love and that's relationships.

God is not above nature. God made the world like this and He has a committed relationship with Israel and ultimately with all of humanity, based on His rules of nature. In the Vineyard Song, God begs people, all people, to intervene with Israel to reconcile, to make shalom with Him. From shalom in the family of God and Israel, real shalom will come to the world. I am waiting for that day.

The picture is terraced vineyards in Switzerland. I think the vineyard in Isaiah Chapter 5 might look like this.

Monsters in the Book of Isaiah

2008-02-21T21:26:00.012-05:00

Isaiah 27, 1. On that day, the Lord shall visit with His hard and great and strong sword on Leviathan the bar-like serpent, on Leviathan the crooked serpent, and He will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

I love lines like this.

Sea monsters and dragons are what the end of days is all about. God will kill the ancient monsters and feed the righteous with their roasted flesh. I love fantasy and science fiction movies, so this Biblical scene appeals to me on more than one level. As we study the Book of Isaiah, we see so many layers of meaning for history, for our times and for the future.

The word Leviathan appears to be a proper name in this verse. Two similarly named, but different creatures, that only God can vanquish and only in the last days of the earth as we know it. Jewish Tradition tells us there is one sea monster remaining from the first days of the earth. So, are there two monsters here, or three or are they all the same creature?

The Jewish commentaries say the imagery is figurative. The monsters are the great nations, or their leaders, that will be defeated in the last great battle in the time of the apocalypse or were defeated in miraculous battles of the past.

Here's how Rashi reads it ... I say that these are three important nations, Egypt, Assyria, and Edom ... Leviathan the bar-like serpent is Egypt. Leviathan the crooked serpent is Assyria... the dragon in the sea is Rome or Greece.

Look ahead to Isaiah 51, 9-10 and some other places where we see God subduing but not killing these monsters at the time of creation. They are left alive only to be killed by God in the end of days. Maybe this is a metaphor for the continuing power of chaos and evil in our times. As we move through these normal days between creation and recreation, evil rears its ugly head like a monster roaring out of the depths of the sea. For reasons we do not know, God restrained these beasts in the ocean in the time of Genesis but chose to leave the final blow for the last days. This can help us accept the genocides and the bitter hatreds we see around us. There is an explanation but it is beyond our understanding and God has kept it from us. Or maybe we could not grasp it even if He told it to us.

The picture is an 1865 engraving by Gustave Doré.

The messiah and his donkey in Isaiah

2008-02-13T18:24:00.013-05:00

My son keeps asking me how do we know this or that particular thing. He is looking for sources, chapter and verse for everything. At age 17, he is a student of Kabbalah and philosophy and I do my best to answer his questions.

One of the most important rules of Judaism is always ask why and expect clear reasons and references in response.

Where in the Bible does it say that the messiah will ride a donkey into Jerusalem?

First, let's look at Isaiah 26, 1 - 6. We left off here in my last post.

Taken as a unit, these six verses are a psalm, a short poem about the end of days. The picture is of a great city humbled and another city exalted and transformed. Nineveh may be the first city, Jerusalem is certainly the second.

We should keep in mind what the Talmud tells us. Only the prophecies with a lesson for all time were included in the Book of Isaiah, same for the other prophets. So, the lack of a specific city in our verses makes the prophecy available to us in our time and place.

The prophet Isaiah is speaking of the humbled city: 26,6. A foot shall trample it, the feet of a poor man, the soles of the impoverished.

Here is how Rashi connects this with the messiah - the feet of a poor man = The King Messiah, who is referred to as a poor man riding on a donkey (see Zachariah 9:9)

This verse in Zachariah in the one with the clear picture of the messiah riding a donkey. Chapter and verse.

Now come the really hard questions. How do we apply this? Who is the messiah? Has he already come? Is this what is happening in the world today? If I knew the answers, I would be heir to the prophet himself. All I know is what I read in the newspapers - war, famine and devastation seem to be everywhere and the messiah and real world peace are a long way off. Until then, this is where verse three helps - Those of trustful mind, You keep in peace. When that day comes, let it be said of us that we trusted in God and God's promises in the prophets' words.

Misinformation warfare

2008-02-06T21:40:00.001-05:00

This article from Saturday's National Post says it all. As I was searching for a focus for my next post, this was in front of me. I am going to suggest that there might be an upside to all of the negative press that Jerusalem gets.

"Modern warfare has become PR by other means. In this new war, the NGOs and the media are not observers. Often they are combatants themselves, indeed the most powerful and lethal combatants."

read more | digg story

Jerusalem in Isaiah

2008-02-06T20:09:00.000-05:00

What's our focus? Where are we going?

Uncertainty is the only certain thing these days. Which way is the stock market going? Will there be a recession in the United States and how will that effect people in other countries?

There are so many questions and so few answers that even begin look like real predictions. I try not to say this too often, but the prophets of the Bible do not agree in their prophecies and preachers like me read their words to say whatever we want anyway.

There is one constant. In our study of the book of Isaiah, this mountain, this city and Jerusalem figure very prominently.

26, 1. On that day, this song shall be sung in the land of Judah: "The city that was our strength, salvation shall He place [for] walls and a bulwark.

Here is how Rashi understands this verse - The city of Jerusalem, which was always our strength from time immemorial, the Saviour shall place salvation for its walls and its bulwark. In other words, Jerusalem of the future will no longer have a physical wall.

If we believe what we read in the newspapers, Jerusalem really is the centre of the world. All the world's problems seem to come from or because of Israel. No amount of logic will persuade people that Israel is a country like any other, just trying to survive in a very hostile region.

We know some things about Jerusalem from our readings so far. The war at the end of days will be fought there. The new future will begin there. That's what the Prophet Isaiah is telling us. So maybe the focus of the world's media on Jerusalem is a good thing. Not the slander they produce every day, but the focus in and of itself. Jerusalem and everything the city stands for, is where we are all going. That's why I have added a clock with Jerusalem time.

Rebbe Nachman 's famous saying is "Wherever I go, I am going to Jerusalem"

Let's get a little mystical .... a quote from the Talmud: Abba Issa said in the name of Samuel Hakatan: The world is like a human eyeball. The white of the eye is the ocean surrounding the world, the iris is this continent, the pupil is Jerusalem and the image in the pupil is the Holy Temple. The focal point of the Jewish people is Jerusalem, and the image they are focusing on is the Holy Temple.

The Talmud teaches: God swore that He would not enter Jerusalem above (the spiritual Jerusalem) until He enters Jerusalem down below (the physical Jerusalem). Jerusalem below is the gate to Jerusalem above. God's palace below is the gate to God's palace above. That's why wherever Rebbe Nachman would go, he was going toward Jerusalem.

It is all about focus.

It's time for a new chapter

2008-01-30T19:23:00.000-05:00

It is time for a new chapter. I have been out of work for six months now and I am seriously trying to break into a new career. I am not going to give up blogging or teaching the Bible, I'm just looking for something different with a paycheck attached. Chapter 24 is too gloomy to stay with and study in detail.

Maybe this is what the prophet Isaiah is telling us as we move forward to chapter 25. The Great Banquet at the End of Days. He tells us about an amazing future. Bad times will come and go. And after all the tough times come to an end, there will be something that we can all recognize. A big feast. And more.

25,6. The Lord of Hosts will make for all the peoples on this mountain, a feast of rich food, a feast of wine well aged, food rich in marrow, aged wine well refined.

7. He will destroy ... the covering that covers all the peoples and the kingdom that rules over all the nations.

We will sit down to a royal feast of all the fatty foods that we love and that satisfy us the most. Not healthy foods, just rich and very yummy. Sharing a meal has so many meanings. Reconciliation, bonding, well-being, celebration. All peoples are invited to this party. Death and suffering are over for good.

We never know what lies ahead in the next stage of our lives. We cannot really picture the new world that will be revealed when God takes away the covering that hides the spiritual from our physical eyes. We will see and we will understand then, but what and how we will see are beyond us right now. And that's true of life too. There is a future and I choose to see it as a lot like the best of times I have known. I have no other vocabulary, and Isaiah reaches into this most basic set of feasting words and feelings to describe God's ultimate future.

This gives me hope. It keeps my spirits up as I look for work and as I see the world going down the drain in so many of the ways the Prophet predicted so long ago. The study of the Book of Isaiah brings meaning and understanding to my life.

Why I am drinking less

2008-01-22T06:34:00.000-05:00

24,9. In song they shall not drink wine, strong drink shall become bitter to those who drink it.

10. The wasted city is broken, every house is closed from entering.

11. A cry for wine is in the streets, all joy is darkened, the joy of the land is exiled.

Here is Isaiah at his clearest and most frightening. The Apocalypse has come. Destruction is everywhere. No more joyful singing and drinking. The alcoholic drinks that we used to love, have become bitter in our mouths. The city, or maybe all cities are in ruins. People are crying for a drink. People are crying for a drink they no longer enjoy, a drink that tastes bitter in their mouths.

As we study the Bible, especially the Book of Isaiah, we are often left wondering what is the prophet talking about. Here, there is no doubt. Our cities lie in ruins and people are crying for a drink. One picture that I see in this terrible future is men and women so addicted to alcohol that as the world collapses around them, they can only scream for another drink! Other addictive things too.

I love a glass of good single malt whiskey. After a funeral, a shot of scotch warms the body and helps chase away the chill of the graveyard. Give wine to the bitter of spirit, says King Solomon in Proverbs 31,6.

There is a nasty underside to the well known line from Proverbs. Here is Rashi's reading - Wine dulls the senses to the ultimate reality. Wine gives pleasure in this material world to those who have no share in the spiritual world. Give it to them. Let them have some joy now, because they will have no place in the world to come. That's what King Solomon is saying.

Maybe the cry for wine is a bitter lament about drinking. That's what I feel the Hebrew text is actually saying, tzavacha al ha-yayin.

We enjoy a drink for its spirit, in both senses of the word. And intoxicants have been part of spiritual practices and mind enhancing experiences from the very beginning of human history. It's only an illusion. A band aid for a wound that can never heal. And we know it because of this study of two biblical verses.

It hasn't happened yet. This future is still in the future. Let's keep our heads clear and our options open. I am drinking less from now on.

The Noachide Laws = survival

2008-01-15T06:49:00.000-05:00

24,5 The land deceived because of its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, changed statutes, broke the everlasting covenant.

This is Isaiah at his most universal. How things are going wrong in the natural world and why.

Here is how Rashi explains the land deceiving us - it shows us growing grain, but there are no wheat kernels in its stalks.

The earth becomes like the people who live on it. It has a mind of its own and it makes choices. The deception we practice, comes back to haunt us in the form of failing crops that look like they are growing well.

Here is the reading of one of the great Jewish commentaries on the Book of Isaiah, Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra (Spain & France 1o98 - 1167)
The list of transgressions in the verse:

the laws, torot, plural of torah, teachings, the laws which are dictated by common sense and to which all agree.
statutes, chok, the laws of God contained in the natural order of things.
brit olam, the eternal covenant, the covenant of the universe.

I think the real point of reference is in the story of Noah and the flood. It's something much more basic than any one set of laws. The brit olam in Genesis chapter 9 is God's promise never to destroy the world again. But now, since people have not kept up their side of the agreement, the deal is off. The world will not ever be destroyed by God, but it will come close. Our character, our nature will be thrown back at us in how our crops pretend to grow, yet give us nothing we can eat.

What looks like one of the more boring lines in the Book of Isaiah is really talking about much more than climate change, the effects of genetic modification of plants and frankenfoods. The plant world has gone mad because we failed to keep the seven laws given to Noah. Universal, basic rules of conduct for everyone. The plant world becomes like the world of people. Human moral, legal and ethical failings cause our doom just as much as pollution. As we study the bible, we see our time and our greatest challenges.

Look at Genesis chapter 9. Noah gets a list of laws after the flood. He gets drunk and some very bad things happen. Maybe the prophet Isaiah had this chapter in Genesis open in front of him as he wrote his words.

Chapter 24 - The Apocalypse Begins

2008-01-07T22:12:00.000-05:00

24,1. Behold God is emptying the land and laying it waste, and He shall turn over its face and scatter its inhabitants.

2. It shall be, as with the people, so with the priest, as with the slave, so with his master, as with the maidservant, so with her mistress, as with the buyer, so with the seller, as with the lender, so with the borrower, as with the creditor, so with the one who owes him.

This is the beginning of the Isaian Apocalypse. There is no introduction. No warning. Just a shift from the specifics of one nation after another suffering we read about in previous chapters, to the entire world being laid waste here in chapter 24. The prophet uses generic terms, no country or city is named.

I think he is telling us what we see in our time. One great nation after another falls. Next in line is the world itself. It's not a pretty picture. The End of Days as painted by the Book of Isaiah is almost all gloom and doom. Front and center are destruction of the environment and huge loss of life.

Here is how Rashi takes us beyond the dark times - "those of you who survive until the day of redemption, they shall raise their voice and sing, this is the end of the passage (v. 14), and for them have I prophesied the favorable prophecy." The night will be darkest before the new dawn, literally.

Good days are coming, but not yet. Now, in the time before the End, all are equal in suffering. Rich and poor are afflicted by climate change, upheaval in the financial and real estate markets - that's verse two. Sounds familiar to me. All I have to do is read the newspapers and I see this happening.

What I feel we are seeing here in the Bible is this: The earth, the environment, the financial markets and especially the power relationships among people will all come to an end. And it's all connected. Morality, ethics, basic rules for living are broken and everything falls into ruin. There are no details here. It's everyone, it's everything. We are bringing this on ourselves. Cause and effect. The Book of Isaiah references a short list bad things, not what we like to condemn from our pulpits.

Look ahead to verses 5, 9 and 11. It's substance abuse, booze, Torah (teachings), not our list of God prohibited things. I love the line "as with the people, so with the priest". It scares me. If I were still writing sermons, I would be very scared. I would be looking here for what to preach about.

Who is Edom?

2007-12-31T15:06:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest questions about any chapter in the Book of Isaiah is "what is he talking about?" We cannot always be certain. This is especially true of when he talks about a place or a time.

Well known places come up very often. Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Edom and Moab, to name just a few. On the other hand, in the chapters we are looking at now, 24 - 27, there seems to be what we would call political correctness, and the verses talk about generic or perhaps symbolic locations.

Looking at any chapter in the Book of Isaiah, we have to ask some serious questions:

When was this prophecy first spoken?
Can we say that in succeeding generations the prophecy was reworked or edited to fit a new time?
Do these words have anything to say to us today?
How certain are we of the titles and divisions into sections?

I am a traditional Jew. I believe that there really was a prophet called Isaiah. He was active in the politics of the Kingdom of Judah from about 730 - 700 bce. I see very little doubt that his words have been edited and refocused. This process begins in his time and continues into our own.

Look at 25, 5. For He humbled the inhabitants of the high places, the fortified city; He brings it low, he brings it low even to the earth, he makes it reach even to the dust. Is this a prophecy about New York City and 9/11 or 700 bce Nineveh?

I am focusing on four chapters that seem to go together. In the synagogues of the world this past Sabbath, the reading from the Prophets was Isaiah 27,7 - 28,14 and two verses from 29. The Isaian Apocalypse is not carved in stone as beginning here and ending there nor is it definitively apocalyptic. The haftara, the Sabbath prophetic reading seems to emphasize the folly of following the Northern Kingdom's drunken leaders. This is then a reference to the alliance Isaiah opposed before the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 bce.

Place names.
25,10. For the hand of the Lord shall rest on this mount, and Moab shall be trampled in its place as the straw is trampled in the mire.

RaDaK, Rabbi David Kimchi sees our problem. Here is some of what he says on this verse: Today, (he lived in Southern France, 1160 -1235) we do not know which nation was which. So it was in those days. .... Maybe Edom and Moab refer to nations inhabiting the places called Edom and Moab in former times.

In the Talmud, Edom often means the Roman Empire. Edom is another name for Esau, the twin brother and rival of Jacob. Look at Genesis 25,30 And Esau said to Jacob, "Pour into [me] some of this red, red [pottage], for I am faint"; he was therefore named Edom. A good article on the subject is in the Jewish Encyclopedia under Edom.

Maybe the divisions, the titles, the places and the dates are fluid. And that is the greatness of the original Isaiah. His words hit us hard as we look at the world we live in today. And for 2,700 years that has been a constant.

When we approach a page in the Book of Isaiah, we are often left guessing about the when, the where and the who. This is a lesson for life, as I see it anyway. What marks a turning point in my life? When I was let go from my job, for example, was that a beginning or an end? Was it really about me and my career, or my family or the calling I thought I had?

Where is Edom? Who is Edom? Who or where is anyone or anything? Is anything ever certain?

On that day

2007-12-25T19:34:00.000-05:00

Isaiah says "on that day" a lot. In the original Hebrew bayom hahu. He tells us about the end of days, but we cannot be sure if he is talking about the last days of the earth as we know it, or the end of a certain period of time. Maybe he's talking about the fall of Jerusalem.

I have taken the name of this blog and my screen name from chapter 24. It is the beginning of a set of prophecies and songs or psalms about the end of days. It seems to me to be a good place to start. Chapters 24 - 27 seem to form a themed set. Bad times are coming. Disasters, "the earth will be utterly laid waste" 24,3 - to give just one example. In these chapters he is talking about a city, a mountain and a country (or the world).

The Jewish Publication Society's old translation reads:
24,16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs: 'Glory to the righteous.' But I say: I waste away (razi lee), I waste away, woe is me! The treacherous deal treacherously; yea, the treacherous deal very treacherously.

Terrible time are about to arrive. The people who will be alive after all this destruction sing out to God. They see and acknowledge the Truth. [Here you can fill in your version of what The Truth is.] The prophet is not happy. He has troubling thoughts and he tells us what is bothering him.

Let's try and understand a prophet of Israel speaking to us across centuries of time, from a very different world than ours. I was a rabbi for a long time. I am not a prophet, but what I did and what I do now is in the tradition of the prophets. There might be something for me here.

The Targum, the Aramaic paraphrase of the bible is very old. Here's my translation of part of the paraphrase.

From the Temple .... we hear praises [being sung] to the righteous. The prophet said: the secret of the reward for the righteous has been revealed to me, the secret of the punishment of the wicked has been revealed to me, woe to the subjugated who will be oppressed and woe to the plunderers who will be despoiled.

Razi lee, in the Hebrew, means I have a secret. Or perhaps, my secret is mine alone. I have the burden of knowing without reference to time, past, present and future. Good things and bad.

Here is how Rashi, the greatest Jewish commentator explains it:

Woe is to me that these two secrets have been revealed to me, the secret of retribution and the secret of salvation, for the salvation will be far off until enemies come, plunderers after plunderers, and marauders after marauders (Talmud Sanhedrin 94a). Five instances of treachery are stated here, corresponding to Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, and Edom, who will enslave Israel before their redemption....

A raz is a very deep secret, known to God and revealed only to very carefully chosen people. (See Daniel chapters 2 and 4 for this sense of the word)

Isaiah knows what is really happening.

These terrible days are just the beginning. Everyone is happy that the good are getting their reward and the bad are getting their punishment. But it's not over. There will be a greater cull of humanity. The world and the stars and the planets will suffer. Hundreds and maybe thousands of years of pain and loss will come and go.

We all look forward to better times. We like to think that this latest tragedy is the last. It is not. It cannot be over until God says it's over. Isaiah knew this and wished he did not know. He has just told us about the great banquet and the beginning of a new era. But not now. That's the burden all teachers of faith share.

Isaiah is not the easiest prophet to read. We struggle to put a time stamp on his words. In truth, a lot of what he says belongs to many different times. A prophecy can be true of the year 7oo bce or 2007 ce. I think this is one of them. We search for happy prophecies, but Isaiah does not always give us what we want. He gives us the truth as God told him.