Looking to the Future - Yeshayahu 11-14

Podcasts

Text

Isaiah 10

Isaiah 11

Isaiah 12

Isaiah 13

Isaiah 14

Highlights

Perek 11: Vision of the Future

This Perek serves as the Haftorah for the last day of Pesach in Chutz La'aretz.

Christian View of the Coming of Messiah

Ramban, in his writings, published the transcript of his public disputation with Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, July 20-24 1263 in Barcelona. In his debate he notes that Messiah could not possibly have come already because of the sheer amount of war and bloodshed and certainly in Christian Europe at the time. Here are his words from the disputation itself.
Here the actual text from Ramban's transcript of the debate:​

For more on the topic about the pace of Geulah and the different perspectives in Jewish thoughts, please see my shiur on the topic by clicking here.

Prophecy as Potential - The Malbim Principle

We noted in our learning that Yeshayahu talks about this ideal time in the future and many of the Mefarshim are inclined to suggest that the time it is referring to is in the far future, at the times of Mashiach. They cannot conceptualize it being earlier since such a time never really happened in Biblical history. The Malbim contends that really it could have happened at various moments in history and the fact it did not was as a function of us missing the boat. For more on this topic, I suggest reading through a fascinating article written by one of my teachers, Rabbi Hayyim Angel.

"Prophecy as Potential" - Rabbi Angel Article

Contemporary Visions of Peace

Yeshayahu's vision of peace in perakim 11-12 has become a universal theme today. It is expressed in many walks of life. It is interesting to listen to Naomi Shemer's song 'Machar' which uses similar imagery to Yeshayahu's vision, as she looks to a future of no more war.

Naomi Shemer's "Machar"

Source for Havdalah

We noticed that some of the introductory verses to the Havdalah ceremony are drawn from Isaiah 12. 

Comments