All your children will be taught by God; your children will have great
peace (shalom). Isaiah 54:13
This is the third verse of the third
of the seven haftarot of consolation.
In the
opinion of Rabbi Hamnuna (a second generation Talmudic sage – late 3rd
century C.E.), “Jerusalem was destroyed only because they neglected (the
education of) school children;” [Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 119b] while the Sages teach in Tractate Yoma
[9b] that the Second Temple was destroyed as the result of unfounded hatred.
Rabbi Ḥayyim Yosef David Azulai
(1724 – 1806) notes that our verse comforts Israel with the declaration that
the redemption will surely arrive, and God promises, through Isaiah, that the
causes of Jerusalem’s destruction will be removed:
“All your children will be taught by God” – the Torah education of your
children will not be neglected; as well “your children will have great peace” –
peace and unity will prevail among you and there will be no hatred.
We may add that realizing “All your
children will be taught by God” depends upon God and us, for if we do not take
advantage of God’s readiness to teach our children, nothing will be gained. In
contrast, realizing “your children will have great peace” is dependent solely
upon us; God will not create the spirit of brotherhood and unity for the nation
of Israel, only we ourselves can accomplish this.
May we merit doing our part in order
to hasten the arrival of the Righteous Redeemer.
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