I begin this week’s article with a question, wondering if any others have shared my experience—or not? During my first years after our aliyah, I entered my car one day to drive my usual morning route, only to find that the road I had been traveling on each morning had suddenly become a one-way street … in the opposite direction?! I did not read any warnings the day before nor saw any signs as I traveled that morning—but there it was! Everything had changed overnight!
Well, whether or not you have also undergone this kind of experience, I am relatively sure that you have heard residents of—or even visitors to—Israel remark of how there has been so much growth in such relatively little time. And, this gets me to this week’s haftarah.
“Roni akarah!” the Navi cries out to Yerushalayim at the outset of the 54th perek and of the haftarah itself, “Rejoice o barren one.” Hashem describes the holy city as an “akarah, a barren woman,” and reassures the city that, although she had been “barren” for so many years, bereft of her “children”—her population, she should now rejoice. But why? “Ki rabim bnei shomeima … For the children of the barren (Jerusalem) will (yet) outnumber those of the (present) inhabited Jerusalem,” explained by most commentaries as Hashem’s promise that the future population of Yerushalayim would increase significantly.
The Malbim, however, “tweaks” this common explanation with what is—I believe—an especially meaningful approach for us today. He explains that God comforts Israel with the promise of a renewed and repopulated Jerusalem, whose rebirth will be due to the arrival of those who were “barren” of their motherland and, who will return to her, and fill her streets once again. The Malbim elaborates on his unique “take” of these pesukim, by explaining that Yishayahu emphasizes his description of the barren Yerushalayim as a woman who “lo challah,” never had experienced birth pains and yet, her lost brethren from the Diaspora would pour into her borders, providing her with innumerable “children”—without causing her to suffer the pains that accompany birth!
The Malbim even supports this view by pointing to the pesukim in perek 49 (verse 21, in the haftarah we read for parshat Eikev) which depicts the astonished city of Yerushalayim wondering from where all of her population had suddenly appeared. “Who has begotten these?” she will ask, “For I have been bereaved and alone!”
A fair question, I believe. After all, who would ever imagine it? A quiet 18th century village with few inhabitants would overflow with a population close to one million?! Dusty roads once traveled only by caravans and camels would become streets and boulevards that would change overnight to one-way routes in order to absorb the ever increasing traffic?! And the once-barren plots of land would be humming with the never-ending sounds of heavy machinery—busily constructing more apartments to satisfy the growing demand for living space—and changing the country’s horizon each month?!
Indeed, would they have ever imagined hearing Amharic, French, Russian and English, languages reflecting diverse origins, emanating from the mouths of their once “lost” brothers and sisters?! I certainly doubt that they would … but today, living in Jerusalem, I see the unbelievable and hear the unimaginable!
And so, the next time you travel through the holy city and, perhaps, get a bit frustrated at the traffic tie-ups or at the cacophony of construction noises—just think of our haftarah and remember the Malbim! Or, perhaps, just close your eyes and listen—you might just hear Yishayahu’s words echoing in your ears … because they may well be the sounds of the approaching geula!
Rabbi Neil Winkler is the rabbi emeritus of the Young Israel of Fort Lee, and now lives in Israel.
