For Shabbat Chol Moed Sukkot:
As has happened so often during the long history of the Jewish People, this year as we celebrate Sukkot, the Jewish People face a threat which some have characterized as “existential” (particularly with regard to Iran’s nuclear threat to Israel). Our tradition has its own apocalyptic motifs within it which are part of our readings this Shabbat.
During Sukkot, it is customary to read the Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes). Among its themes are the need to accept the realities of life, recognizing that life's struggles are nothing but a form of “havel” (vanity or emptiness). Many read the book, attributed to Solomon, as downbeat and despairing. The haftarah for Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot contains explicit horrors, but ends with a promise of redemption. In it we read Ezekiel’s description of a future battle against Gog in the land of Magog which will take place just prior to God’s ultimate victory and the inauguration of the Messianic era. His vision suggests a world entirely engulfed in war, with earthquakes, storms, hail, and fiery brimstone. He states that it will take Israel seven months to bury the dead invaders!
Why did the Sages select this reading for the Shabbat during Sukkot? Ordinarily, it is not too difficult to see a connection between the Torah reading (here about the Sukkot sacrifices) and the haftarah. But here, the tone of the two are strikingly different, at least on the surface. Sukkot is a time of joy, while the haftarah is grim and downcast. Why do we have this discussion of Gog and Magog, who in rabbinic thought become ultimate symbols of destruction?
It has been suggested that we read this haftarah because it is a tale that will be well-received by the oppressed. Through two millennia, the Jewish People were often oppressed, and Gog and Magog became symbols of the oppressors who could not be named without fear of retribution. The eventual prophesied triumph was a promise of Redemption to a people who experienced only pain and subjugation, and the promise came at a time when their continued existence was as flimsy as a Sukkah.
When we link Sukkot to Ezekiel’s vision, we are expressing our hope that the “doom and gloom” we read in Kohelet is to be replaced by an ultimate triumph, of a time when war is no longer learned, and when spears are turned into pruning hooks.
It is also a reminder that the struggles we face day to day in our relations with others, or in our relations with the community and fellow Jews, should not blind us to the potential of good we can perform. Despite Ezekiel’s predictions of destruction, we need to keep in mind that Sukkot is “z’man simchatenu” – a time of our joy.
