d’var torah
The Warning of
Shabbat HaGadol
BY RABBI ARTHUR WASKOW,
RABBI NATHAN MARTIN AND
ATARA SAUNDERS
Parshat Metzora
W e are approaching Pesach,
and Jewish tradition
marks the approach with
a special Haft arah to be chanted on the
last Shabbat before the holyday begins.

Th at Shabbat is known as Shabbat
HaGadol, named aft er one word in the
Haft arah, “the great.”
But especially in our own generation,
we feel the whole Haft arah and, because
of it, the whole Shabbat, is indeed “great.”
Why? Here are the last words of
the Prophet Malachi, the last of the
ancient Hebrew prophets. His words
seem almost uncanny, spoken 2,500
years ago in language that pierces our
ears and hearts with astonishing preci-
sion and profundity:
“Here! Th e day is coming
Th at will fl ame like a furnace,”
Says the Infi nite YHWH / Yahhhh,
Th e InterBreath of Life —
“When all the arrogant, all evil-doers,
root and branch,
will like straw be burnt to ashes.

“Yet for those of you who revere My Name,
Yes! My Name, Yahhhh, the
Interbreath of Life!
a solar sun of justice will arise
with healing in its wings, its winds,
its rays.

“Here! Before the coming
of the great [HaGadol] and awesome
day of YHWH/ the Breath of Life,
I will send you the Prophet Eli-Yah [Elijah]
[Whose name means “My God is the
Breath of Life”]
to turn the hearts of elders to the youth
and the hearts of youth to elders,
lest I come and smite the earth
with utter destruction.

(Malachi 3:19-24)
We ourselves live in the day of Earth’s
getting hotter and hotter, bringing on us
plagues of fi re, fl ood, famine and, in targeted
neighborhoods of color and low-income,
epidemics of asthma and cancer. All of us are
suff ering as in the days of Pharaoh, when the
plagues ruined lives and livelihoods of all.

Our ancient forebears had to choose
between “normal” — Pharaoh’s army,
slavery with meat and pickles — or the
unknown — the sea and the wilderness.

Th ey chose freedom, which always tastes of
the unknown.

Today, as in Malachi’s prophetic words,
Earth’s burning heat comes from the burn-
ing of fossil fuels. Th ose who survived in
the ancient story were Yisrael (the people of
Israel) who revered and wrestled with God.

Today, it will be villages, cities, whole coun-
tries whose people will be brave enough,
who love the breath of life enough, to swift ly
turn to solar and wind energy as remedy.

Today, let us pause on Shabbat HaGadol,
heed the words of the Prophet Malachi,
and invite ourselves to shoulder the task of
Elijah by taking active roles in the world
for healing Earth, not devastating the next
generation. Perhaps we can even ask ourselves to fi nd
a support partner for climate action and
share what single action we each will take to
uphold the Elijah covenant to turn toward
each other, young and old, to heal the
Earth. Th e youth are already speaking out
– the Jewish Youth Climate Movement, the
Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion.

Will we, the elders, turn our hearts to them,
our own grandchildren?
Were we to write a response to Malachi, it
would sound like this:
“Here! we ourselves are coming
Before the terrible day
of smiting Earth —
For we ourselves shall turn the hearts
Of elders and youth to each other
So that this day of smiting
Does not fall upon us.” JE
Rabbi Arthur Waskow is the founder and
director of The Shalom Center, Rabbi Nathan
Martin is the associate rabbi of Congregation
Beth Israel in Media and board chair of
Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light
and Atara Saunders is a student at Drexel
University. The Board of Rabbis of Greater
Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse
perspectives on Torah commentary for the
Jewish Exponent. The opinions expressed in
this column are the author’s own and do not
refl ect the view
of the Board of
Rabbis. P R E S E N T S
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