Ezekiel 37:15-28

This week’s Haftorah relays a prophetic dream from Ezekiel in which G-d tells him to take two sticks—one representing Judah and the children of Israel, and the other representing Joseph and Ephraim, and G-d fuses them into one stick before Ezekiel’s eyes.

The merger represents the promise of a unified Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom of Josephs decedents and the Tribe of Ephraim and the Southern Kingdom under David’s lineage were often warring. The prophetic union was supposed to occur during the messianic era under a descendent of King David.

In a promise reminiscent of the Diaspora: “So says the L-rd G-d: ‘Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side, and I will bring them to their land. And I will make them into one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king [Read more…]