The haftarah today is taken from Isaiah. It contains some of the most well-known verses in all of the Tanach.
Firstly, who knew while doing Israeli dancing, we were dancing to the words of Isaiah?
וּשְׁאַבְתֶּם־מַ֖יִם בְּשָׂשׂ֑וֹן מִמַּעַיְנֵ֖י הַיְשׁוּעָֽה Then there’s the line we say as part of Havdalah and Hallel that we sing together in harmony as part of the Seder כִּֽי־עׇזִּ֤י וְזִמְרָת֙ יָ֣הּ יְהֹוָ֔ה וַֽיְהִי־לִ֖י לִֽישׁוּעָֽה׃
It also includes this famous metaphor for the days of the Messiah where: ‘The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together’
I love this unfashionable observation from Rabbi Norman Lamm who notices that in paradise the wolf dwells with the lamb, and not that they become the same species. It’s just that in paradise, the wolf will be less rapacious, and the lamb will not be victimized. He says: ‘Unity is worthy only when it does not imply uniformity; harmony is a good when it does not insist upon homogenization. We must strive for oneness without insisting upon sameness.’
Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate, says something similar: ‘Treating different things the same, can generate as much inequality as treating the same things differently.’
Isaiah continues his vision of paradise. He says nothing evil or bad will happen in my holy place because “the Earth shall be filled of knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”
Maimonides likes that line so much he ends his massive Mishneh Torah with it. He believes the point of the law is to create a more equitable and peaceful world. Paradise for Maimonides is a peaceful place where he can get on with the business of knowing God.
Paradise for the Baal Shem Tov is another seder but this time with the joy of matzah soaked in water. (Gebrokts). In fact, today on the eighth day of Pesach, many Hasidim relax some of the dietary restrictions of the first seven days and they gather for a special meal called a se’udat mashiach (the messianic feast). Thanks to an innovation from the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1906, this seder also features four cups of wine. This meal complements today’s haftarah, which looks forward to the messianic era as a time of universal peace, that you’dd expect after four glasses of wine.
That’s the lesson of the eighth day of Pesach. To remember to go from slavery to heaven on earth by seeing that we are free in every moment. When we’re dancing to shaftei mayim be sason, to liberate ourselves from fear of how we look and to dance like no one’s watching. When we’re singing ozi ve zimrat ya at shul or at our seders, to liberate ourselves from fears of sounding imperfect and to sing our hearts out. When we’re talking to friends and family, to liberate ourselves from thinking about saying the right thing and really listen.
Paradise for me is forgetting my fears about sharks and to give myself over to enjoyment of swimming in the ocean. Paradise for me is remembering there is only God, and I am part of that oneness, and so is everyone and everything else. Paradise is when I know that nothing bad can happen in this place because we are all completely filled with knowledge of God like the waters cover the sea.
Shabbat Shalom
Postscript. After I said this in shul today, John Schlapobersky came over to me and told me he was comforted by these words from Isaiah that he would read when he was imprisoned in South Africa for his anti-Apartheid activism. He understood that although imprisoned, he was free. I am looking forward to reading his book When They came For Me.
