Yeshayahu 40:27 Haftorah Lech Lecha

The chachomim decided to send a lavish gift to the Roman emperor. They appointed Nachum ish gam zu to deliver the gift since he was a tzadik who was accustomed to miracles. He traveled with a heavy locked chest full of diamonds until one evening he stopped for the night at an inn. While he was sleeping the curious innkeeper picked the lock, and when he saw all the precious diamonds inside he quickly stole the contents, filled the chest with dirt and locked it back up so that it anyone who looked at the chest from the outside or lifted the chest wouldn’t notice any difference. Nachum continued on to Rome, oblivious and delivered the chest tot he emperor along with a note stating “The emperor should recognize how much we esteem the emperor by the value of our gift to you.” Excitedly he opened the chest and discovered that it was filled with… dirt. “This is what those Jews send me!” He shouted and ordered Nachum ish gamzu to be hung. On his way to the gallows Nachum ish gamzu said “gam zu l’tova” and Elyahu came disguised as a Roman. He said maybe this dirt is the type that Avraham avinu used to fight the four kings. When Avraham’s soldiers threw the dirt it turned into swords and their straw turned into arrows. As the pasuk says “Like dirt was (Avraham’s) sword and like blown straw was his bow.”

The Romans decided to test the dirt against an enemy that they were unable to conquer. When they threw the dirt it miraculously turned into swords and the Romans were finally able to conquer the area The emperor rewarded Nachum by allowing him into his treasury and allowing him to fill his chest with whatever he wanted.
When he next encountered the innkeeper, he was a bit surprised that Nachum came out alive. “What did you bring to the emperor?” he asked. Nachum answered, “You know the heavy chest that I left your inn with, that’s what I brought to the emperor.” When the innkeeper found out how richly Nachum was rewarded he knocked down his inn so he could dig up tons of dirt from underneath it. He delivered chests full of his miraculous dirt to the emperor hoping for a similar reward. The romans tested the dirt and when they threw it… it was still just dirt. So they killed the innkeeper.

This description of Avraham’s dirt is part of Yeshayahu’s answer to the question of the Jewish people. The haftorah starts with a question that the Jews ask. “Why is our path hidden from Hashem, why is our justice being passed over?” The questioners come from a serious generation, a generation that considers itself worthy of divine assistance. But that worthiness seems to be ignored and hidden from heaven. The galus has endured for so long, the tzaros have become so acute, and so they ask why aren’t we being treated with justice? The haftorah is Yeshayahu’s answer to this question.

How would you have answered this question? What does this haftorah add? What would be lacking from our Judaism, what principles would we be missing if this haftorah didn’t exist?

“Who shown forth from the east…”. A braysa states that Avraham wrote a perek of tehillim. But he didn’t sign it “Maskli l’Avraham” instead he signed it “Eisan haezrachi”, Eisan of the east. So the one who shown forth from the east is Avraham. The nimashal is that the world was covered in darkness of falsehood and idolatry until Avraham rose on the horizon to light up the world with the truth of Hashem.

“... he called out righteousness as he walked…” Another reference to Avraham who walked from Charan to Eretz Yisrael, and when he arrived in a city he would call out in the name of Hashem. Another reference to Avraham is that his mazal was Jupitor, Tzedek.

“..he delivered nations before him and he dominated kings..” Another reference to Avraham who defeated the 4 kings.

“..Like dirt was his sword and like blown straw was his bow.” Another reference to Avraham.

“He chased them and passed in peace…” A reference to Avraham’s army not having any casualties when they chased the 4 kings in the night. And also that after the battle he came to the city of Shalem.

“A road that his foot didn’t touch.” The battle was during the day and at night they chased after the 4 kings. It sounds like all together it was done within 24 hours. But from Chevron to Damascus is a long journey. Ramban quotes the medrash that Avraham got their miraculously, similar to kefitzas haderech, without walking on the road.

“ …descendants of Avraham who loved me”. Just in case all the hints to Avraham were not clear enough, the Navi finally mentions him by name.

“Don’t you know even if you didn’t hear” Another reference to Avraham who is the prototype for figuring out that Hashem exists through logic even if one was not taught about Hashem.

“Raise your eyes to the heavens, who created all this? Avraham’s proof of Hashem’s existence is the fact that the heavenly bodies move continuously without anyone apparently moving them

So there are lots of references to miracles, but how does this answer the question? And why these miracles specifically? These aren’t the greatest miracles in history. What’s the common denominator? Its true that one common theme here is miracles that happened to Avraham but still, it doesn't include some of the greatest miracles that happened to Avraham such as the visit from the angels, having a son at age 100 and the destruction of Sdom.

The common denominator is miracles that happened to Avraham in parshas Lech Lecha. Its specifically the miracles in Lech Lecha that are an answer to the question

What is special about the events of Lech Lecha that answer the question of why am Yisrael should not feel that they are being ignored. You would expect that the answer will not just answer am Yisrael’s question but will also reveal a new perspective on Lech Lecha.

“Who acted and did this, calling the generations from the start…” Just like there is a proof to Hashem’s existence from the heavens there is also a proof from the miracles that Hashem did with out first ancestor. But these miracles of parshas Lech Lecha are not for Avraham per se, they are in order to set the course of the future generations, to make Avraham the start and the head of a nation. Therefore Hashem yisbarach increased his wonders for him. It’s as if, with these events, Hashem spelled out each and every future generation tracing back to Avraham who started it all.

This idea, that he will be the head and start of a nation is seen in his name, Avraham, Father of Nations.

If someone goes to great lengths to acquire special “snap-dragon” apple seeds, its clear he’s not doing it for the seeds per se, he has a vision that he will one day plant the seeds, a sapling will grow and finally a tree with special apples that have a speckles on their skin and an extra crunchy taste.

Similarly, the Navi says, when Hashem orchestrated the events of Lech Lecha he had in Mind, not just the seeds, but the sapling and the tree, he had in mind all future generations.

“.. I Hashem am with the first and I’m the one who with the last ones.” Later, Yeshayahu states that Hashem says “I am first and I am last.” But here it says “es ha’acharonim” which means with the last ones. Who are those last ones? That’s us. That’s the Jews who are questioning why isn’t Hashem intervening for us. And Yeshayahu is answering is with you. Hashem is intervening for you. All those miracles that Hashem did in Lech Lecha was to set in motion all the events of our nation up to and including the current generation. He had you in mind when he did all that.

The Jews had complained that there judgement was skipped. I skipped pasuk 1. There Yehayahu tells us that there will ultimately be a reckoning with those nations that oppressed us so much. Ultimately they will be gathered together and forced to face Yisrael in court. Ultimately that’s where we are headed, but the rest of the haftorah is spelling out how we get there. The process was set in motion in the time of Avraham, but to get to that judgement of the assembly of nations there is going to be a battle first. The nations are going to unite, and strengthen each other in a frenzy to attack us.

And that’s why all the verbs in the pesukim about Avraham are in future tense. Because the same things that happened to Avraham will happen to us. We will be inspired to move to Eretz Yisrael, we will miraculously battle the goyim and dominate their kings. This is what “calling the generations from the start” means. With this phrase the Navi reveals that everything that happens to the avos is a sign of what’s to come to future generations, their children. We know this principle already as “maaseh avos siman l’banim” and we are familiar with applications of this principle, but the source for the idea, the revelation of this idea is in this haftorah.

Yeshayahu describes the goyim’s haste to prepare am Yisrael in the future. “The craftsmen will help the smelter…” The smelter makes the metal and delivers it to the craftsman to make weapons, but he’s taking too long so the craftsman goes to the smelter to help him hurry up. Similarly “the finisher will help the one who first strikes the anvil”. The makeh b’patish is the one who puts the finishing touches but the guy who first strikes the anvil isn’t working fast enough so he goes over to help him.

In 1588 King Phillip II sent the spanish armada to conquer England. Besides for warships, the Spanish Armada included thousands of troops for the planned invasion. The fleets met off the coast of Dover and the British wiped out the Spanish fleet. Analysts later figured out that in preparation for the invasion, Spain mass produced tons of cannon balls. Normally the smelter pours them into a cannonball shaped mold and when the metal cools he takes them out and pours in more liquid iron. But because they were in a rush to produce so many cannonballs, they dumped out the contents of the mold at the top of a tall tower and as the ball fell it cooled from the air till it fell into a basin of water which finished cooling it off. What they didn’t realize is that this made the cannonballs very brittle so when they hit the british ships, instead of knocking holes through them, the cannonballs shattered. In fact the Spanish actually scored a direct hit on the British flagship. Had they they sunk the flagship the whole tide of the battle would have turned. But instead the cannonball shattered. Which is fortunate because otherwise this dvar Torah would probably be in Spanish. And my Spanish is horrible.

“He declares that the glue is good and bangs a nail in to keep it together.” If the glue is good why do you think he needs to add a nail?

Because the sergeant makes an inspection of his troops and he sees that his troops have shattered weapons and sword blades that are broken in half with the flat sides of the the two pieces of the blade overlapping and glued together with some Elmer’s glue. Obviously it will break apart at the first stress of battle but the sergeant says “Oh yes, good glue, quite satisfactory.” Later when no-one is looking he sneaks back in and bangs a nail in, as if that nail will make any difference.

Ultimately we will defeat the goyim who attack us, but until then it looks quite scary. Masses of nations with a unity of purpose bent on our destruction. This might be the point at which the Jews will ask “Why are my paths hidden from Hashem? Why doesn’t Hashem intervene?” I don’t know the context in which Yeshayahu said this nevua, but it might have been in the lead up to Sancheirev’s assault on Yerushalayim. Had Chizkiyahu been given a choice in the matter he would have preferred to avoid the initial terror even if it meant forfeiting the miraculous destruction of Sancheirev’s forces. But Hashem didn’t ask him what he preferred. Hashem will ultimately judge the assembly of nations but to get there, Hashem had to set in motion the proper course of events. That’s why Avraham had to defeat the four kings, that’s why the nations of the future will have to gather together to attack us. Their defeat is not merely to nullify the threat they will pose to us, rather their unified defeat is necessary for their ultimate unified judgment and the threat they posed is necessary for their defeat. This might be the message for Chizkiyahu. That the threat posed by Sancheirev and the salvation from it is part of a grander context, and a necessary precursor to accomplish the worlds ultimate purpose.

To summarize: In the future the Jews will look at their dire situation and wonder why it seems like Hashem ignores their righteousness. Yeshayahu answers that Hashem does in fact perform miracles for them. Specifically the miracles of parshas Lech Lecha were not done with Avraham per se in mind but with the explicit intention of the effect these miracles would have on future generations. And that just like Avraham miraculously defeated kings, so to we will miraculously defeat many nations and that this will result in the ultimate Judgement of the nations. Along the way learned important, fundamental Jewish concepts. This is the source that “maaseh avos siman labanim”, that the ultimate revelation of Hashem will be in the form of a judgement of the assembly of nations and that that assembly will be formed for the purpose of attacking am Yisrael.

What can we take from this? In the first bracha of shmoneh esrei we praise Hashem with the words Moshe used “hakel hagadol, hagibor v’hanora”. But that’s not the end of the bracha. What comes next is Malki Tzedek’s praises of Hashem in the wake of Avraham defeating the 4 kings. Kel Elyon corresponds to Baruch Avraham L’Kel Elyon. Gomel chasadim tovim are the niflaos that Hashem did for Avraham in parshas Lech Lecha for the purpose of influencing all of his future generations. Koneh hakol corresponds to koneh shamayim va’aretz. And “asher migen.. b’yadecha” sounds like BA”H magen Avraham. This is in the present tense because those miracles that Hashem performed for Avraham are having ramifications till the present day.

The gemara gives a preview of what that ultimate judgement will look like. The first witness will be called to testify. How appropriate that the very first testimony, Exhibit A, will be the most famous miraculous event of parshas Lech Lecha. The gemara says that that first witness will be Nimrod who will be forced to admit Avraham’s unwavering emunah in one G-d when he was thrown into the kivshan haesh. This is so appropriate because that event was the very seed that lead to that judgement.

[1] Sanhedrin 109a. Apparently calling Avraham “Avraham avinu” didn’t blow Elyahu’s cover. This implies that the Romans at that time considered themselves children of Avraham (Yitzchak and Eisav) and also called him “Avraham avinu”. (This is also implied in Avodah Zarah 10b and 11b)
[2] Perhaps Ctesphion which was finally defeated at about this time. (106 C.E.)
[3] Taanis 21a.
[4] Sanhedrin 108b embellished by Me’am Loez Lech Lecha.
[5] Darki, our path, as apposed to our actions, refers to attitudes and values.
[6] R’ Hirsh on the Haftorahs
[7] Abarbanel
[8] Tehillim 97
[9] Shabbos 156b
[10] One of those nations was named Goyim
[11] Meam Loez says 10 days
[12] Medrash Rabba 43:3
[13] Yeshayahu 41:8
[14] Because some of the miracles above might be known based on the fact that these pesukim refer to Avraham.
[15] Yeshayahu 40:28
[16] Yeshayahu 40:26
[17] Rambam, chapter 1 Avodah Zarah 3. 1 Yesodei Hatorah 4 says this should be our proof as well. The counter-argument based on what I call conservation of momentum isn’t correct. Because it doesn’t give a mechanism for why certain things move continuously, instead it only multiplies the miracle by saying it happens even more frequently than you thought.
[18] Yeshayahu 40:26
[19] Abarbanel Yeshayahu 41:4
[20] 44:6 quoted in Rosh Hashana musaf and referenced in the bracha after shma
[21] Abarbanel
[22] Begining of Avodah Zara