Exodus 18:1-20:23

This week’s Haftora opens in the “year of the death of King Uzziah,” King of Judah, who had battled leprosy for the last decade or so of his life, dying in about 740 BCE. Isiah recounts a prophesy where G-d reveals himself sitting on an “exalted throne” with his feet in the temple.

Isaiah says the “doorposts quaked from the voice of Him.” Indeed they just may have. Geologic evidence suggests a massive 7.8-8.2 magnitude earthquake hits Israel, Jordan, Lebanon & Syria somewhere in this time period.

The message relayed to Isaiah, “go and say to these people, ‘indeed you hear but you do not understand, indeed you see, but you do not know. This people’s heart is becoming fat, and his ears are becoming heavy, and his eyes are becoming sealed, lest he see with his eyes, and hear with his ears, and his heart understand, and [Read more…]