Summary of Haftarat Massei
Jeremiah 2:4-18, 3:4
The Sages who created the synagogue setting ordinarily chose haftarah portions on the basis of some similarity in content between the passage and the weekly Torah portion. Instead the sages chose haftarah portions in connection with the catastrophic events of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple of God.
Haftarat Massei is the second of three prophecies of admonition and warning, which we read on the three Sabbaths between the Fast of Tammuz and the Fast of Av.
Last week was the first admonition and we read Jeremiah 1:1-2:3.
Next week is the third admonition and we read Isaiah 1:1-27
Judaism calls the three weeks between the Fast and the Fast of Av, Bein Ha HaMetazrim, which means “Between the Straits,” A Hebrew idiom for a passage through a difficult place of distress, like the English idiom, “between a rock and a hard place.”
The Fast of Av concludes the three weeks. The sages chose a reading from Jeremiah for Haftarat Massei because of the traditional association between Jeremiah and the book of Lamentations, which is read on the Fast of Av.
Haftarat begins where Haftarat Mattot concluded. The LORD contrasts the youthful fidelity of His bride Israel with her current state of wayward disaffection and wantonness. Though God had proven faithful, redeeming her from Egypt, leading her through the wilderness, and settling her in Canaan, Israel turned away and ceased to seek after the LORD.
They exchanged the LORD for gods of emptiness. Therefore, the LORD brings charges against her like a jealous husband bringing a lawsuit against his adulterous wife. He accuses Israel of forsaking Him, the source of living water (an illusion to His miraculous provision in the wilderness,) and seeking after idols, which He compares to broken cisterns. Moreover, they have sought water from the rivers of Egypt and Mesopotamia in the form of foreign entanglements and political alliances.
For that reason, Assyria has already devastated the Northern Kingdom. The latter half of the oracle quickly moves through a series of metaphors in which Israel is compared to a slave, the torn prey of a lion, a harlot, a vine bearing bad grapes, a soiled garment, a young camel, a donkey in heat, an adulteress, and ashamed thief.
From ffoz Voice of the Prophets
Ffoz.org