Impossible Hope

The Haftarah of Eikev is taken from Yeshayahu, from the chapters called Pirkei Nechama – Chapters of Comfort.

Comfort implies pain; one does not need to comfort someone who is perfectly fine. The Jewish People have certainly felt pain, and continue to feel it, and we do need comfort. In order to be truly healing, to give real hope, words of comfort must address specific problems, real fears, anxieties, and dilemmas. Yeshayahu’s words of comfort are not platitudes, nor generalities; part of our task in understanding them is figuring out which wounds they are attempting to heal.

In our case, the Haftarah gets straight to the point, we don’t need to guess:

וַתֹּאמֶר צִיּוֹן עֲזָבַנִי ה’ —

Tzion has said, “Hashem has abandoned me.” (Yeshayahu 49:14)

The Jewish People express their fear that the endless exile and the desolation of Eretz Yisrael are clear signs that God no longer cares about them.

Surprisingly, in order to comfort them and give them hope that they will resettle and rebuild Yerushalayim, the Navi brings up their forebears, Avraham and Sarah:

הַבִּיטוּ אֶל אַבְרָהָם אֲבִיכֶם וְאֶל שָׂרָה תְּחוֹלֶלְכֶם כִּי אֶחָד קְרָאתִיו וַאֲבָרְכֵהוּ וְאַרְבֵּהוּ —

Look to Avraham, your father, and to Sarah, your founder. For he was alone when I called him, I blessed him and multiplied him. (Yeshayahu 51:2)

How are Avraham and Sarah relevant to the Jewish People’s fear of abandonment? The Medrash explains:

כשם שנתיאשו ממנה האומות שלא נבנית והיא תבנה… אם תמהים אתם הביטו אל אברהם אביכם ואל שרה תחוללכם – כשם שעשיתי לאברהם ולשרה כך אעשה לירושלים —

It will be just as the nations will have given up on her that she will ever be rebuilt, and she will be rebuilt . . . If you are incredulous, “Look at Avraham, your father, and to Sarah, your founder” — just as I did it for Avraham and Sarah, so I will do for Yerushalayim. (Medrash Tanchuma, Vayeira 16)

The Medrash says that in order to keep up our hope that Yerushalayim will be rebuilt, and not give up in despair, we should consider what God did for Avraham and Sarah. Avraham and Sarah had been barren for years, and then God promised them that they would be the founders of nations. But the years passed, and they were still barren. The Medrash explains just how unrealistic their hope for children actually was:

אמר רב נחמן אמר רבה בר אבוה, שרה אמנו אילונית היתה שנאמר ותהי שרי עקרה אין לה ולד – אפילו בית ולד אין לה —

R’ Nachman said in the name of Rava bar Avuha: Our mother Sarah was sterile, as it says, “Sarai was barren; she had no child”: she did not even have the organs for childbirth. (Yevamos 64a)

Avraham and Sarah knew that what they were asking for was close to impossible, but God had promised, so they kept praying and kept hoping.

Why did God create this situation? Of all the people in the world whom He might have chosen to be the father and mother of His nation, why did God choose people lacking the physical ability to be the father and mother of anyone at all?

מפני מה היו אבותינו עקורים? מפני שהקב”ה מתאוה לתפלתן של צדיקים —

R’ Yitzchak said: Why were our forefathers barren? Because God desires the prayer of the righteous. (Yevamos 64a)

If they could have had children without God’s help, then they would not have needed to ask for His help. Their prayers, over decades, filled with increasing desperation and the ebb and flow of hope, created a deep relationship with God.

In Parashas Eikev, we learn that the same dynamic is present in God’s choice of Eretz Yisrael. Instead of giving us a land like Egypt that requires minimal effort to provide water for crops, God gave us a Land that depends on rain from the heavens. The reason for this is stated explicitly: to deepen our relationship with God.

כִּי הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ לֹא כְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם הִוא אֲשֶׁר יְצָאתֶם מִשָּׁם אֲשֶׁר תִּזְרַע אֶת זַרְעֲךָ וְהִשְׁקִיתָ בְרַגְלְךָ כְּגַן הַיָּרָק: וְהָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם עֹבְרִים שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ אֶרֶץ הָרִים וּבְקָעֹת לִמְטַר הַשָּׁמַיִם תִּשְׁתֶּה מָּיִם: אֶרֶץ אֲשֶׁר ה’ אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ דֹּרֵשׁ אֹתָהּ תָּמִיד עֵינֵי ה’ אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ בָּהּ מֵרֵשִׁית הַשָּׁנָה וְעַד אַחֲרִית שָׁנָה —

For the Land that you are coming to inherit is not like the Land of Egypt that you have left, where you would plant your seeds and irrigate on foot like a vegetable garden. The Land that you are crossing to inherit is a land of hills and valleys. By the rain of the heavens, you will drink water. The Land that Hashem, your God, scrutinizes; the eyes of Hashem, your God, are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. (Devarim 11:10–12)

The land that God had promised to give to the descendants of Avraham and Sarah requires constant prayer. We can never take it for granted that there will be water, and we rely on God for our very survival, year by year. But this also means that God’s attention is always on this land, year by year. Whatever happens here, for better or for worse, is because God means for it to happen, and is a direct reflection of our relationship with Him.

Avraham and Sarah had an impossible dream. It took years of prayer and hope and waiting, but ultimately, they were answered and blessed with all the bounty they had been promised.

The dream of the Jewish People, to return to their Land and rebuild it, had seemed just as impossible, and the wait seemed interminable. But the act of waiting, the prayers, and the hoping were not a sign that God has abandoned us, but quite the contrary. They have always been a sign of our direct relationship with Him, and of our faith that everything He does for us has meaning and purpose.

Our prayers are never in vain.