The Blogs: Isaiah in a Bomb Shelter

Shas chairman MK Aryeh Deri interpreted Isaiah and got it wrong.

Deri says that he sees a prophecy of Isaiah coming to fruition in the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites. Just compare, he says, the devastation of October 7, 2023, with the military successes of Israel, culminating with the United States joining the attack by bombing three of Iran’s nuclear sites.

“I see in this what the Prophet Isaiah said in his prophecy — ‘For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great compassion will I gather thee,’” the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox lawmaker told right-wing Channel 14’s “The Patriots” quoting Isaiah 54:7 as reported in Haaretz and then in The Times of Israel.

Audacity to claim to know that brutal murder and rape – that the celebration of hostage taking, both alive and dead – were punishments of God! Audacity to claim to know that the current military successes – and by implication that they will continue – are the direct hand of God! No, MK Deri, you do not know God’s plan, God’s will, the future, or our destiny.

Instead, you wound and insult the murdered, the violated, the hostages, and their families – as well as the brave soldiers of the IDF who have been defending us – by insinuating that their fates were somehow decreed by God as a purification, as foretold by the prophet.

Only pride and arrogance lead a man to interpret the hand of God. Against this, the prophet railed. “The prophet is struck by man’s interminable pride, by his soaring pretension,” writes A.J. Heschel in The Prophets (p.99). “The essence of blasphemy is confusion, and in the eyes of the prophet confusion is raging in the world” (p.98).

Even more audacious: Deri’s exultation of heads of state flies in the face of the prophet. “God performed one more big miracle: that [President Donald] Trump was elected,” Deri said. “Without October 7, without Trump, and without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — we wouldn’t have been able to do it,” he said, referring to the ongoing campaign against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“All sin, for Isaiah, stem from the failure to recognize that God alone can be exalted,” writes Benjamin D. Sommer in The Jewish Study Bible (p782).

Isaiah warned against alliances with Assyria and Egypt. He did not trust politicians or empires. Of the prophet’s message Heschel wrote (p.91): “For the moment a clever alliance of states may be of help. In the long run, it is bound to be futile.” Also (p.83): “The prophet who saw history as the stage for God’s work, where kingdoms and empires rise for a time and vanish, perceived a design beyond the mists and shadows of the moment.”

Here’s how you got it wrong, MK Deri. You were arrogant thinking you know God’s plan, that you can interpret this moment in the arc of history, elevating yourself to prophet. Under the guise of thanking God, you elevated alliances and rulers to the level of anointed chosen hands of God. You desecrated the memories of the dead, the wounded, the brutalized, the heroes, the first responders, and the soldiers of Israel by implying that their deaths, their sacrifice and service, came at God’s command.

I’ve been learning Isaiah in the bomb shelter, studying for the rabbinate as part the new Virtual Pathway to Rabbinical Ordination of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. I’ve been thinking about what a 21^st century Isaiah might preach, as missiles fly and interceptors soar, taking cover in a basement shelter. MK Deri, this one is for you:

Isaiah in a Bomb Shelter
Imagine Isaiah in a bomb shelter,
Preaching the word of God.

Interminable pride of man!
Arrogance and confusion
To believe you understand
The inscrutable arc of history
Which only God can bend.
Make your alliances.
Fight your wars.
Surely, defend the land,
Defend the people,
But dare not be so brazen
As to believe that your vision
Can penetrate the future,
That your successes will endure
Without the hand of the Almighty.

Therefore,
Make war when you must,
Make peace when you can,
Trust not in kings or ministers,
Neither princes, potentates, nor presidents.
Put your trust in God.

Make war with humility,
Make peace with bravery,
Trust not what your eyes behold,
What your ears perceive.
Put your trust in God.

Make war to make peace,
Make peace for all humanity,
Trust not in politicians and leaders
Who elevate themselves before you,
Who tell you they comprehend God’s word.
Put your trust in God.