Discovering Isaiah’s message for the hostages

Since this horrific war began, communities began reciting Tehillim regularly. This was done both as a prayer to Hashem and to give us much needed comfort and chizuk.

Yet many of us have been reciting daily Tehillim for years. While there are several different approaches to completing the full 150 chapters (kapitlach), I choose to recite the allotted daily portions to complete the entire book in 30 days. Following the completion, it is customary to recite two prayers-one on behalf of completing the Tehillim order and another on behalf of the sick.

While reciting the first prayer, I was struck by its powerful words where I, as a supplicant, beseech Hashem to grant us all, as a people, forgiveness for our sins, return us to complete Torah observance, followed by a litany of requests, including opening our hearts to Torah study, granting us healing from illness, prosperity, etc. The list is exhaustive, conveying a full spectrum, from the mundane to the divine.

In my now seemingly perpetual post Oct. 7 state, one particular request resounded with urgency: “V’tikra Lishvuyim dror, v’la-asurim pe-kach ko-ach (And You shall proclaim freedom for captives and release from bondage for the imprisoned).”

Though I have recited this monthly prayer probably more than 300 times over the last 30 years, I never noticed this request to free the shvuyim (captives, hostages) until now. I guess it got lost in the shuffle among the rather lengthy litany of requests to G-d, sandwiched between “asking Him to send a refua shelaima to the sick of Your people” and asking for an “uneventful journey for those of Your people who cross roads, seas, and rivers.”

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Intrigued by the directness of the request to G-d to free the hostages, and the complexity of the language, I knew I had to investigate further. Luckily my ArtScroll siddur provided a footnote, from Isaiah, 61:1.

Chapter 61 of Isaiah is very short, only nine verses, sandwiched between two more famous Isaiah chapters (chapter 60, which is the haftarah for Parshat Ki-Tavo, and chapter 62, which is the haftarah for Parshat Nitzavim, both part of the seven haftarot of consolation that follow Tisha B’Av.

A quick examination of chapter 61 shows that it too is one of great consolation, yet it seems that it is almost intentionally skipped over, not chosen to be the final haftarah of consolation. In fact, it’s not a haftarah for any Torah portion, and therefore is much less well-known than the chapters of Isaiah that precede it and follow it.

And yet, it is the source of our request in the prayer following Tehillim, asking for freedom for hostages. Why is this so?

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A closer reading of this brief chapter provides an answer. I will not reproduce all nine verses here, but I strongly recommend readers pull out their Tanach and read the chapter themselves, preferably in the Hebrew (but even in English, the message is astounding). I will present the most relevant verses here with brief commentary.

Verse 1: Hashem “sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for captives and release from bondage for the imprisoned.” As mentioned in a previous column, the Kotzker Rebbe famously commented that “nothing is so dear to Hashem as a broken heart,” basing it on the verse from Tehillim 147:3, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their sorrows.” Here the prophet Isaiah is directly relaying the word of Hashem that the “binding up of the brokenhearted” is intimately tied to the declaration of freedom for the captives.

Verse 2: “To proclaim a year of favor unto Hashem and a day of vengeance for our G-d, to comfort all mourners.” Are we not the “brokenhearted and the mourners” of which Isaiah speaks? Are not these “captives and imprisoned” the hostages we long to see released? After a long year of horror, do we not deserve “a year of favor from G-d” and “a day of vengeance” on our enemies?

Verse 3: “To bring about for the mourners of Zion, to give them splendor instead of ashes, oil of joy instead of mourning, a cloak of praise instead of a dim spirit.”

Verse 4: “They will rebuild the ancient ruins…”

Verse 6: “And you will be called ‘priests of Hashem,’ ‘ministers of our G-d’ [and it] will be said of you, you will eat of the wealth of nations and will pride yourselves in their glory.”

Verse 7: “Because your shame was double, men cried: ‘Disgrace is their portion.’ Assuredly, they shall have a double share in their land; eternal gladness will be theirs.”

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These words overflow with joy and hope and reward and splendor! What better words of consolation can there be for those who’ve suffered such terrible persecution, bloodshed and tragedy? And yet, this chapter was not chosen as one of the haftarot of consolation?

I think the answer lies in the fact that it was hidden between the other two chapters that for centuries served as consolation for the overwhelming catastrophe of the two Holy Temples that were destroyed, tragedy that we have lived with as a people for over 2,000 years.

But this tragedy of Oct. 7, this fresh, horrific tragedy needs a haftarah of consolation all its own. A tragedy that has had the captives, the hostages as such a defining point of its enormity, what better chapter in Isaiah to console us than one that speaks of, first and foremost, of healing our “broken hearts by proclaiming freedom for the hostage?”

It’s almost as if there was a geniza, a hiding away of this chapter, just for this moment just for this time just for us. It is so apparent that the “year of favor unto Hashem and day of vengeance for our G-d, to comfort all mourners” (61:2) is at hand, to be followed speedily, we pray, by the ultimate Geula.

Dr. Alan Mazurek is a retired neurologist, living in Great Neck, Jerusalem and Florida. He is a former chairman of the ZOA. To reach him, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com