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Teaching
The Preaching Of Isaiah
Andrea L. Weiss
Assistant Professor of Bible
Hebrew Union College
I. Introduction: Why I Teach Preaching on the Prophets
Last spring, when [I was
invited to participate] in this session, I was in the midst of reading
a stack of sermons on selected passages from Isaiah and other prophets.
So I welcomed the opportunity to join this conversation and reflect
on the work that I do, and the work that I ask my students to do.
As Assistant Professor of Bible at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion in New York, I teach a semester long course
on the literary prophets to rabbinic students in their third year
of a five year graduate program. Since I teach at a rabbinical seminary,
I strive to help my students bridge the gap between the classroom
and the synagogue, between what they learn in school and what they
will do with this knowledge in their professional lives. One way
I do this is by asking them to write a d'var Torah, a short,
text-based sermon on a prophetic passage.
II. Why Isaiah Is Important
to My Students
My prophets course covers
Amos, Hosea, Isaiah 1-39, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah 40-66. Given
the limited time in this course, I select the passages for study
carefully. My selections are driven by two factors: (1) I highlight
texts that articulate important topics in the prophets, such as
ethics and repentance. (2) I emphasize texts that my students will
use in their rabbinic work. For both of these reasons, the book
of Isaiah figures prominently in this class.
In the Jewish calendar,
each week and each holiday is assigned particular readings from
the Pentateuch and the Prophets. Over the course of a year, week
by week, Jews read from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy.
Accompanying every Torah portion is a Haftarah reading from the
Former or Latter Prophets, which is linked in some way to the Torah
reading or the time of year. Of the fifty-four Shabbat readings,
the largest concentration (fourteen) comes from the book of Isaiah
(eleven from Isaiah 40-66 and three from the earlier part of the
book); the closest runner-up is Jeremiah with eight. Most of the
Haftarah portions from Isaiah 40-66 are read in the late summer
and early fall, paired with nearly the entire book of Deuteronomy.
Known as the "Haftarot of Consolation," these readings
span the Shabbat after Tisha b'Av, the day that marks the destruction
of the Temple, to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Add to this
list the six passages from Isaiah recited on special Sabbaths and
holidays, and it becomes clear that any rabbinic student needs to
be well versed in this particular prophetic book. Especially for
future Reform rabbis who will go out and serve a movement committed
to social justice and the notion of "prophetic Judaism,"
Isaiah is a vital homiletical source.
III. Which Isaiah Texts
are Important for My Students
Which texts, in particular,
are important for my students? I will highlight three groups of
passages from Isaiah that I think are valuable homiletical resources
for future Reform rabbis.
A. Isaiah 1:10-17 &
Isaiah 58: "Not Rite But Right"
In Isaiah 1:10-17 and Isaiah 58, both of which are Haftarah readings,
the prophets present a dramatic, rather shocking message. God emphatically
rejects all forms of sacrifice, all types of festival gatherings,
fasting, prayer, any conceivable means through which human beings
attempt to connect with the Divine. As Shalom Paul states in his
commentary on Amos 5:21-25, in these three related passages, "God
demands justice and morality and not the minutiae of the cult: Not
rite but right is demanded; devotion not devotions."1
"As
more excitement is generated by adult education programming, is
less time and energy going into social action events? Isaiah 1
and Isaiah 58 challenge my students to grapple with the interplay
of these two types of commandments and to think about how the
prophets' words apply to contemporary Reform Jews."
Historically, the Reform
movement has emphasized ethical commandments over the ritual mitzvot
(commandments). In more recent years, however, the pendulum has
swung a bit, and Reform Jews are more open to trying new rituals
in their homes and synagogues. If you walk into a Reform synagogue
these days, you are more likely to see people covering their heads
with a kippah or wearing a tallit (prayer shawl);
you will hear more Hebrew in the service, and you might even find
a kosher kitchen or Jewish day school. But some leaders worry that
while more people may be lighting Shabbat candles or coming to Torah
study classes, are fewer individuals volunteering at soup kitchens
or writing letters to their senators? As more excitement is generated
by adult education programming, is less time and energy going into
social action events? Isaiah 1 and Isaiah 58 challenge my students
to grapple with the interplay of these two types of commandments
and to think about how the prophets' words apply to contemporary
Reform Jews.
B. Isaiah 42:13-14;
46:1-4; 49:14-15; 66:13: Female Imagery for God
Just last week, at the
Biennial convention of the Union for Reform Judaism, the final version
of the new Reform movement prayer book was unveiled. One impetus
for creating a new prayer book was a sense of dissatisfaction with
the male, hierarchical language of traditional Jewish liturgy. For
many, women and men included, speaking of God as "Lord"
or as "King" sets up barriers. For many, this type of
language and imagery drowns out other, more egalitarian notions
of God.
Yet, those looking for
different ways to envision the Divine need not start from scratch;
instead, they should turn to the biblical prophets. In the fourteen
chapters of Hosea alone, we find metaphors of God as dew, rot, lion,
and parent, just to name a few. One of the distinctive features
of Isaiah 40-66 is that here we see God depicted as a woman.
In Isaiah 66:13, God promises
the Israelites: "As a person whose mother comforts him, so
I will comfort you." In Isaiah 49:15, the prophet uses a somewhat
similar metaphor to respond to Israelites' sense that they have
been abandoned, forgotten by God: "Can a woman forget her nursing
baby, have no compassion for the child of her womb? Though these
might forget, I will not forget you." In this cleverly worded
verse, the prophet compares God to a mother in order to emphasize
the enduring bond between God and Israel; but, at the same time,
Deutero-Isaiah also shows the limitations of any metaphor, for,
as this prophet repeatedly reminds us, ultimately YHWH is beyond
compare.2 In Isaiah 46:2-3, the maternal metaphor is less explicit,
but the message is clear nonetheless: God promises to support and
deliver those "who have been borne by Me from the belly, carried
by Me from the womb." For a prophet whose core mission is to
comfort the Israelites and to convince them of God's continued love,
the metaphor of a mother provides a fitting vehicle.
In Isaiah 42:13-14, the
prophet creates a startling contrast when he juxtaposes images of
God as a warrior and a woman giving birth. Using a string of first
person verbs, Deutero-Isaiah mimics the heavy breathing of a woman
in labor, which he compares to the shouts of a soldier going forth
to battle. Both images are meant to convey the zeal with which God
will transform the landscape in order to bring the exiles home.
Here, the maternal metaphor is used not to communicate God's compassion,
but God's power. It serves as a novel way to convince the Israelites
that their God has the ability and will to fulfill all that has
been promised.
I want the men and women
in my class to be familiar with these texts and to speak about them
from the pulpit. Inspired by the creativity of the prophets, I hope
they will craft their own metaphors and find language that helps
them and their congregants give voice to their unique conceptions
of God and the relationship between God and Israel.
C. Isaiah 54:1-10: Transformation
of a Metaphor & Message
When I teach Hosea, I set
aside a class to grapple with Hosea 2 and the problematic metaphor
of Israel as an adulterous wife and God as an angry husband. As
I help my students explicate this chapter, we also address the larger
issue of how to deal with a "troubling text" in a congregational
setting. When we get to Isaiah 40-66, we return to this metaphor
in chapter 54, so that my students can see how the prophet transforms
a metaphor used to castigate into one used to comfort. The "wife
forsaken and forlorn" is now embraced "with great compassion"
(Isa 54:6-7).
I want my students to appreciate
how the prophets adapt the language and imagery they inherit from
their predecessors (and for this reason they read Benjamin Sommer's
work on allusions in Second Isaiah). I encourage them to be aware
of how they use Jewish sources in their own sermons and to learn
from the rhetorical expertise of the prophets. In Isaiah 54, for
instance, the prophet enhances his message through word plays, sound
plays, allusion, metaphor, patterning, and repetition. In a final
reflection at the end of the semester, my students share examples
of their attempts to try out some of these rhetorical techniques
in sermons delivered at their student pulpits.
"...I
want my students to recognize that the tradition is not static,
but evolves in response to a changing world: a metaphor apt for
the nation of Israel in the mid-eighth century is altered to address
the needs of the exiles in Bavel two hundred years later."
On a more ideological level,
I want my students to recognize that the tradition is not static,
but evolves in response to a changing world: a metaphor apt for
the nation of Israel in the mid-eighth century is altered to address
the needs of the exiles in Bavel two hundred years later. I emphasize
this point throughout my course, showing, for example, how the concept
of repentance in the prophets is different than in the Torah or
how the notion of transgenerational punishment changes before our
eyes as we move from Exodus 20:5, to Jeremiah 31:29-30, and then
to Ezekiel 18:2. Especially for liberal Jews, it is empowering to
see ideas and practices evolve over time, even within the pages
of the Bible.
There is another reason
I teach Isaiah 54. Given the realities of our personal lives and
the world around us, people need to hear, and to emulate, this message
of forgiveness and reconciliation. We need to hear God say: "With
a flood of fury I hid My face from you, for a moment, but with kindness
everlasting I will have compassion on you" (Isa 54:8). We need
to hear God promise: "The hills may be shaken, but brit sholmi
My covenant of friendship will not be shaken" (Isa 54:10).
To show my students the rich homiletical potential of this chapter,
I give them samples of wedding talks focused on Isaiah 54 and encourage
them to think about using prophetic texts not just in sermons, but
in lifecycle events as well.
IV. Conclusion
Given the prominence of
Isaiah in the Haftarah cycle and in Jewish liturgy, my students
will return to this book again and again throughout their rabbinic
careers. As they do so, I hope their understanding of its message
and appreciation of its artistry will only continue to expand, so
they can better communicate its important words to those whom they
serve.
1. Shalom Paul, Amos, 188.
Paul adds: "Ritual per se, with all its paraphernalia and panoply,
simply cannot substitute for the basic moral and ethical actions
of humans. When these are lacking, religious life, with all its
ritual accoutrements, becomes a sham. What is required above all
else is justice and righteousness. The proper divine-human relationship
is based upon a correct human-human relationship" (192).
2. See, for instance,
Isa 44:6.
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