Rabbi Howard Morrison

Dear Congregational Family,

On Thursday, I began teaching a new class on the Haftarot, the Prophetic selections which complete the Torah service on Sabbaths, Festivals, and Fast Days. 

Did the Haftarot originate when Jews were banned from Torah reading during the period of the Maccabees? or during the period of Rabbi Akiva? While legends abound, the history is unclear.

In the early years of the synagogue, the Torah reading was complemented by the Haftarah and the Derasha, or homily, which often began with an opening verse from the Writings. Thus, every Shabbat contained references to the three strata of the Hebrew Bible - The Torah, Prophets, and Writings, Tanach, in short.

The Haftarot were selected either to connect in some way to the Torah portion or to reflect special days on the calendar. The latter would consist of Holy Days, Fast Days, the Seven Weeks of Comfort in the Summer, etc. Otherwise, the Haftarah would contain themes, verbal similarities, literary parallels, or more, which would unite the Haftarah with the weekly Torah portion.

Discoveries from the Cairo Geniza at the turn of the twentieth century demonstrate a wider selection of Haftarot than we use today and more differences between the selections of Ashkenazim and Sefardim. In part, these realities are based on the fact that the usage of Haftarot began in ancient Israel when the Torah was read over three years in a triennial system, thus resulting in more Haftarot. Over the course of the centuries, traditional congregations perpetuated the annual Babylonian Torah reading cycle, which reflects the range of Haftarot in our time.

Every Haftarah stems from one of the Biblical Prophets. For Parshat Noach, the Prophetic lesson comes from the book of Isaiah. As the Parsha contains the comfort that God would never destroy the world again and reaffirms God's covenant with humanity; the Prophet shares similar ideas of comfort and reaffirmation from God to Israel in the aftermath of the First Temple's destruction. The language of Noach and the flood finds direct referencing in the Haftarah.

Our class on the Haftarot will meet regularly on Thursdays at noon over Zoom and Facebook Live. Please check the website regularly to ensure the class is on, or when the class may not be offered due to personal time away or emergencies.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Howard Morrison