The Haftarah Project: Vayishlah — Entangled Roots

Image generated by Dall-E.

Editors Note: The reflections from the Haftarah Project represent the thoughts and opinions of the author.

The haftarah for Vayishlah narrates Obadiah’s prophecy of doom targeted at the Edomites¹, the descendants of Jacob’s twin brother Esau.²

“The house of Esau should be straw. They shall burn it and devour it. And no survivor shall be left.” (Obadiah 1:2)

Obadiah justifies this annihilation by describing the Edomites participation in ravaging the Israelites during the destruction of Jerusalem. Plaut, in his commentary on Obadiah, judges the Edomites particularly harshly because their actions targeted a sibling nation.³ A holy text that orders the destruction of a people is troubling. At the same time, it can prompt us to ask important questions. When we are wronged, how do we calibrate a reasonable response? When does justifiable retribution become vengeance? How do we hold onto our moral core when responding to violence against us?

Our haftarah uses a narrow time frame to examine Edom’s actions and judge them worthy of annihilation. This is important because the choice of a time frame can strongly influence how we allocate blame between conflicting parties. The frame here begins and ends with the Edomites behavior during the first exile and within that lens, they are clearly complicit in the violence against the Israelites. However, the relationship between these two peoples goes back to Jacob and Esau who had their own conflicts. Jacob took advantage of Esau to gain his birth rite, and tricked his father to gain the blessing that should have been given to Esau, the first-born. While this extended time frame does not justify the Edomites behavior, it does offer a context. Their enmity did not arise out of thin air. Moreover, the contention that the Edomites were more culpable because the Israelites were their siblings, wears thin given Jacob’s behavior toward Esau.

The meta narrative of the Torah and Haftarot focus on the creation of a holy Israelite nation. Actions are judged by their their role in that narrative. Those fostering nation-building are lauded and those impeding it are condemned. This may explain why the Torah does not interrogate Jacob’s duplicitous behavior toward Esau. It was implicitly justified because it expedited God’s plan to make Jacob and not Esau progenitor of the Israelite nation. Any harm to Esau was, in a sense, acollateral damage. We are left to reflect on how we feel about nation building as a rationale for punitive or violent behavior in biblical or current Israel, the United States or elsewhere.

This difficult haftarah prompts us to ask challenging questions about conflict in the world today, for example the war in Gaza? What is the difference between legitimate retaliation and revenge? Given that the events of Oct. 7th and the war that followed lives in a much longer history, how does the larger historical context speak to the current moment in time? The ongoing occupation? The two intifadas? The failure of leadership on all sides?

In sum, I believe that the portions of our sacred text that make us uncomfortable also spur important reflection on our own behavior and on events in our world today. In the case of Obadiah, the text prods us to examine how we view and ethically respond to conflicts around us, be they between individuals, communities, or nations.

¹ This is the only haftarah which opens with a prophecy of doom targeted not at the Israelites but at an enemy nation. It is also the shortest haftarah. In addition, there is little Jewish commentary on Obadiah. Almost all the searchable commentary is from Christian sources.
² In addition to their association with Esau, the Edomites are also associated with two other enemies of Israel, the Romans and the Christians.
³ Plaut, W. Gunther. Haftarah Commentaries. NY: UAHC Press. 1996.