Yom Kippur 5770, Introduction to the Haftorah
by Mark Weinstein

The most impressive aspect of scripture is God’s gift of love and creation. Love and
creation is God’s life-force: Be Fruitful and multiply God tells us. This gift is our eternal
sustenance. And as the process of creation exemplifies, God has blessed all human beings
with the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual abilities to give and receive love. To
suppress our own wants and desires. Yet it also produces our greatest rewards. So while
it is important during this Yom Kippur that we are committed to acts of omissions –
refrainment and sacrifice – we must remember that God has a higher calling for us. That
is to proactively engage in acts that are life-giving: love and creation.

In this Haftorah section, Chapters 57 & 58 Isaiah, we discuss the concepts of repentance
and fasting. But this is against the backdrop of God’s true expectation that we must do
more. Acts of omission (through self-denial and sacrifice) vis a vis acts of commission
(dispensing with empty rituals and the veneer of sacrifice in favor of positive acts of
kindness, caring, and compassion). The scripture begins with the removal of all obstacles
to open the way for sincere repentance and contrition. And God will not be angry, but
rather will heal the repentant and lead them. However, the wicked, God states, are like
the “troubled sea” and cannot be healed.

Yet, mere fasting, God tells the prophet Isaiah, is repugnant: “You fast in strife and
contention and you strike with a wicked fist.” Instead Isaiah tells the Jews the proper way
to fast: “To unlock the fetters of wickedness, untie the cords of the yoke, let the
oppressed go free, share your bread with the hungry, take the wretched poor into your
home, and when you see the naked clothe him.”

Then “shall your light burst through like the dawn and your healing spring up quickly.”
Because, according to Isaiah, “Men from your midst shall rebuild ancient ruins, you shall
restore foundations laid long ago.”

These are acts of commission, as opposed to omission, that God calls on us. And these
are life-giving acts: acts of healing, rebuilding, and restoration. Acts borne out of love
and compassion that either restores or creates life itself. That is why God, according to
Isaiah, will then answer us.

The Haftorah portion then concludes with God’s promise of favor for those who honor
and enjoy the Sabbath day.

I view this Haftorah section as my calling to go beyond myself in order to love and
create. As the proverbial late bloomer, God’s calling has been overlooked, but not
forgotten. Just as solely singular acts to refrain or sacrifice are insufficient, a solely
singular life without love and creation – in any form, way, or means, is insufficient as
well. So let this moment, and the moments to come today, give pause for us to reflect
and review personal acts that we think are ostensibly consistent with God’s demands, but
inevitably ask more from us in heart, mind, and spirit.