Visions and Messages

This Shabbat is called Shabbat Chazon (Vision) because the Haftarah we read during Shabbat services opens with the phrase “Chazon Yashayahu – the vision of Isaiah”. The prophet foretells the defeat of the Jewish kingdom, the conquest of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Holy Temple and the complete dispersion of the Jews throughout the world. As the anniversary of this devastation will be observed next week on Tisha B’Av, it is an appropriate preview to this sad event.

It is a harsh and traumatic reality but not fatal. After all, after experiencing this type of destruction twice and close to 2,000 years of exile, we are still here to tell the story. So what is the message of this week’s Haftarah? Are we simply crying over lost glory and missed opportunities?

One of the great Chassidic masters, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berdichev provided the following analogy for our current situation. A father once commissioned an expensive suit for his beloved son. The little boy proudly wore the handsome suit all the time. After several hours, he joined his friends playing in the mud and by days end the suit was soiled and torn beyond repair.

The father’s devotion to his son was such that he immediately ordered an even more expensive suit by the tailor and lovingly presented it to his son. Chastened by the previous experience, the boy was extra careful with his clothing and managed to keep the suit intact for a little bit longer than the first one. But a child is a child, and some time later the suit was reduced to rags.

The loving father requested that the tailor prepare a third suit of far superior quality but did not allow his son to wear it. Instead, once in a while he would show it to his son, to motivate him to train himself to be worthy of wearing such a special garment.

We merited to have a Holy Temple in our midst. An edifice that served as a gateway to Heaven and a place of G-dly revelation. Alas, we got carried away with frivolities and became unworthy of containing such divinity. The second time around we lost our moral vision and descended into utter civil war, causing the greatest national tragedies in our history.

This time around, the Third Holy Temple is waiting behind the scenes until we achieve greater spiritual maturity. Each year, on Shabbat Chazon every soul has a “vision” of the Third Holy Temple so that we are motivated to do more. To strengthen our commitment to Torah study and Mitzvah observance with the acute awareness that the redemption of the entire world depends on every good deed.

While the vision of Isaiah reads as a message of doom, Chassidus provides us the inner meaning of this vision. Exile is not G-d’s revenge for our failure to perform as expected. It serves as the catalyst for the ultimate redemption. The message of this Shabbat is one of joyful hope. We are not serving out a sentence. We are preparing for the greatest realities of all time, with the arrival of Moshiach.

As Isaiah concludes, “Zion shall be redeemed through justice and her penitent through righteousness.” May it happen right now!

Good Shabbos,

Rabbi Levi Greenberg