74 | MARCH 30 • 2023 

T

he institution of the haftarah 
— reading a passage from the 
prophetic literature alongside the 
Torah portion — is an ancient one, dating 
back at least 2,000 years. Scholars are not 
sure when, where and why it was instituted. 
Some say that it began when Antiochus 
IV’s attempt to eliminate Jewish practice in 
the second century BCE sparked the revolt 
we celebrate on Chanukah. 
At that time, so the tradition 
goes, public reading from 
the Torah was forbidden. 
So, the Sages instituted that 
we should read a prophetic 
passage whose theme would 
remind people of the subject 
of the weekly Torah portion.
Another view is that it was introduced 
to protest the views of the Samaritans, 
and later the Sadducees, who denied the 
authority of the prophetic books except the 
book of Joshua.
The existence of haftarot in the early 
centuries CE is, however, well attested. 
Early Christian texts, when relating to 
Jewish practice, speak of “the Law and the 
Prophets,
” implying that the Torah (Law) 
and haftarah (Prophets) went hand-in-
hand and were read together. Many early 
Midrashim connect verses from the Torah 
with those from the haftarah. So, the 
pairing is ancient.
Often the connection between the 
parshah and the haftarah is straightforward 
and self-explanatory. Sometimes, 
though, the choice of prophetic passage 
is instructive, telling us what the Sages 
understood as the key message of the 
parshah.
Consider the case of Beshallach. At the 
heart of the parshah is the story of the 
division of the Red Sea and the passage of 
the Israelites through the sea on dry land. 
This is the greatest miracle in the Torah. 
There is an obvious historical parallel. It 
appears in the book of Joshua. 
The river Jordan divided, allowing the 
Israelites to pass over on dry land: “The 
water from upstream stopped flowing. It 
piled up in a heap a great distance away 
… The Priests who carried the Ark of 
the Covenant of the Lord stopped in the 
middle of the Jordan and stood on dry 
ground, while all Israel passed by until the 

whole nation had completed the crossing 
on dry ground.
” (Josh. ch. 3).
This, seemingly, should have been the 
obvious choice as haftarah. But it was not 
chosen. Instead, the Sages chose the song of 
Devorah from the book of Judges. This tells 
us something exceptionally significant: that 
tradition judged the most important event 
in Beshallach to be not the division of the 
sea but rather the song the Israelites sang 
on that occasion: their collective song of 
faith and joy.
This suggests strongly that the Torah is 
not humanity’s book of God but God’s book of 
humankind. Had the Torah been our book 
of God, the focus would have been on the 
Divine miracle. Instead, it is on the human 
response to the miracle.
So, the choice of haftarah tells us much 
about what the Sages took to be the 
parshah’s main theme. But there are some 
haftarot that are so strange they deserve to 
be called paradoxical because their message 
seems to challenge rather than reinforce 
that of the parshah. One classic example 
is the haftarah for the morning of Yom 
Kippur, from the 58th chapter of Isaiah, 

one of the most astonishing passages in the 
prophetic literature:
“Is this the fast I have chosen — a day 
when a man will oppress himself? … Is this 
what you call a fast, ‘a day for the Lord’s 
favor?’ No: This is the fast I choose. Loosen 
the bindings of evil and break the slavery 
chain. Those who were crushed, release 
to freedom; shatter every yoke of slavery. 
Break your bread for the starving and bring 
dispossessed wanderers home. When you 
see a person naked, clothe them: do not 
avert your eyes from your own flesh.
” (Is. 
58:5-7)
The message is unmistakable. The 
commands between us and God and those 
between us and our fellows are inseparable. 
Fasting is of no use if at the same time 
you do not act justly and compassionately 
to your fellow human beings. You cannot 
expect God to love you if you do not act 
lovingly to others. That much is clear.
But to read this in public on Yom Kippur, 
immediately after having read the Torah 
portion describing the service of the 
High Priest on that day, together with the 
command to “afflict yourselves,
” is jarring 

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

Left- and Right-
Brain Judaism 

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

