Shabbat HaChodesh
Parshat Shemini

In the first two pesukim of this week’s haftarah (according to the Ashkenazi minhag), the navi Yechezkel depicts the required gifts that the nation would give to the “nasi”—the king—and the required offerings that the king was required to bring on the holidays and on the Shabbatot as an atonement for the people. The remainder of the reading tells of the sacrifices to be offered and the rituals that would be followed from the beginning of the month of Nisan. Clearly, the bulk of the haftarah connects quite well to the Shabbat before the month of Nisan. But it is difficult to understand why Ashkenazi practice includes the introductory verses that have little—or no connection to the month of Nisan. Once again, we turn to the preceding pesukim to help illuminate the message of the navi.

The final section of sefer Yechezkel is one of comfort and consolation in which the prophet focuses on the future rites and rituals that would be followed in the final Beit Hamikdash. In specifying the exact Temple areas reserved for the Kohanim, the Leviim and the Nasi—as well as their limits. In this 45th perek, Yechezkel takes the opportunity to recall the past trespasses of the different kings who often overstepped their bounds, frequently stealing and pilfering from the common people. In the future, he adds, there will be an end to such behavior, it would be a time of fair weights and measures in the land as well as in the Holy Temple.

It is at this juncture that our haftarah begins, with the navi sharing with the people what they would give to the nasi and the many responsibilities that the leader had to do for the people—including his duties to bring atonement to the nation. The addition of these few pesukim, when properly understood, helps us better understand the message of Yechezkel—and extends the prophet’s lesson to all his visions of the future of divine service. Indeed, this introduction, and its previous verses, are not only meant for the coming month of Nisan and the holiday of Pesach—as we will see—but for the entire Messianic era.

The prophet Yechezkel’s visions of Israel’s glorious future includes the rebirth of Israel’s land, the resurgence of the nation’s seemingly “dry bones,” the reunification of the tribes and the final war of Gog and Magog (chapters 36-39). The navi then turns to detail the renewed service in the rebuilt Beit Hamikdash—including blueprinting the design and dimensions of the holy site—all of which would bring God’s presence back to the Temple (40-43). In these latter chapters (44-46), Yechezkel describes the functions of the different segments of the people in the Mikdash, including the divisions of the Kohanim and Leviim as well as the responsibilities of the King. The navi closes his book—in the 47th and 48th chapters—with a description of the future boundaries of the land, its partition to the tribes and the new boundaries of Yerushalayim herself.

But the prophet’s vision of the future life of Israel seems to focus primarily on the material: the practical workings of the divine service, the physical division of the land and the detailed depiction of the new Beit Mikdash. Where are the essential demands of all our prophets for צדקה ומשפט—righteousness and justice? Are these not indispensable values and vital requisites for fulfillment of the prophetic hope for an improved future? So where are they?

They are actually right in front of us or, more correctly, before us. The five verses that precede the opening of our haftarah are replete with Hashem’s demand to “set aside lawlessness … and pursue משפט וצדקה—justice and righteousness.” These were the demands that Yechezkel used to introduce the depiction of the great material successes and the religious advances.

There could be none of these without justice, without compassion and without righteousness. It might well have been the goal of the Ashkenazi scholars to open this haftarah with the responsibilities of the future leaders to the nation, in order to remind us that the idyllic future described by Yechezkel could only be realized when משפט וצדקה is practiced one to another. And, we need such reminders today as well!

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