Parshat Yitro

“Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh Hashem tzavakot … ”

What a powerful declaration! What a glorious revelation!

And what a remarkable introduction to Yishayahu’s divine mission!

Here, within the very first pesukim of our haftarah, Hashem summons His prophet and shares with him the image of God’s divine throne, allowing the Navi to hear the praises called out by the surrounding seraphim. Who could fail to feel overawed by such an experience?!

So how will Yishayahu respond? How would he regard this overwhelming theophany he had just experienced? What will he say?

And herein lies our bewilderment, for his very first words are:

“Oy li, chi nidmeiti!—Woe is me, for I am doomed!”

Why does he react in such a way? Simply because he sees himself as being unworthy for such a revelation, explaining that he is of “impure lips” and not deserving of such a revelation. And, at first, we might imagine that the reaction is quite an understandable one. Until the Navi adds a troubling—even “bewildering”—comment: “and I dwell within a nation with impure lips.”

Why, after all, would Yishayahu open his first conversation with God with words of censure against Israel? Why would he speak ill of his own people? God had not yet told him anything negative about Israel—so why did Yishayahu speak negatively? Indeed, Rashi shares our bewilderment, commenting that the need for the angel to “purify” Yishayahu’s mouth with a burning coal was because he had criticized his nation. Additionally, the text itself indicates that very point (verse seven), telling the Navi that upon the touch of the coal: “Your sin will be atoned,”—and it was Yishayahu’s criticism that was considered his sin!

So, why did the Navi start his conversation with HaKadosh Baruch Hu with a critique of Israel? Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch shares with us a salient point about the opening vision that—I believe—helps us understand the prophet’s behavior. The prophecy shown to Yishayahu, depicted Hashem’s glory sitting upon His throne but with only the “corners of His cloak” (shulav) filling the Temple. Rav Hirsch comments that the vision is speaking of God’s glory departing the Holy Temple with only the edges of His cloak still found in the Heichal. Yishayahu saw God’s Shechinah being “forced out” of His holy sanctuary due to Israel’s sins—and it was this mistaken assumption that had the Navi feel that he was “doomed” and why, consequently, he expressed these negative thoughts about Am Yisrael.

However—if Rav Hirsch’s approach is correct—we must wonder why Hashem considered Yishayahu’s words a “sin” requiring the prophet to atone? Why would God regard the Navi’s disappointment with the people to be sinful if that was exactly the purpose of God’s message to Yeshayahu—i.e., to warn errant nation to repent lest they find Hashem’s presence “departing” the Heichal and, thereby, distancing Himself from them?

I would humbly suggest that, perhaps, the vision—as understood by the Navi—was not considered fully. Clearly, much of the prophecy Yeshayahu was to share was focused upon Israel’s turpitude and faithlessness to God. Much of the divine message was filled with warnings of approaching punishments, of defeat and eventual exile.

But these were not the totality of Hashem’s mission for the Navi. Not at all. Much of Yishayahu’s future messages would be those of comfort, consolation and hope; there would be depictions of remorse, repentance and return as well as promises of rebirth, restoration and redemption. But Yishayahu saw in that vision only how the Shechina departed … and never considered that it might also have been returning. And that was his sin.

How do we see the difficult events that befall us? What do we think about when we study the history of our people? Only oppression? Suffering? Golus?

Is the story of our existence only a story of Hashem departing? Or can we also see—in so many ways—that God is returning, He is arriving back to His nation?

The truth may not be found simply in Hashem’s visions … It might well be found in our own vision!

Rabbi Neil Winkler is the rabbi emeritus of the Young Israel of Fort Lee, and now lives in Israel.