Volume 3 — The Prophets

(The Haftarah) Your Gateway to the Prophets of Israel

Discover ancient Israel and peer into the coming Messianic Kingdom.

Let the Torah be your gateway to the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. Volume Three takes students into the readings from the books of the prophets which accompany the weekly Torah portions. Students will learn the stories, characters and scenarios surrounding the prophets of Israel. Rediscover the vanished world of Kings and Prophets, as the Torah leads you through the history of ancient Israel. Meet characters like David, Elijah, Hezekiah, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Decode the difficult words of the prophets. The spirit of prophecy will water your soul as you peer into the coming Messianic Kingdom.

In Volume 1 we presented oral and written commentaries on the Torah in general, that is, an overview of the first five books of the Bible. This was done utilizing the annual weekly Torah readings of the synagogue, the Torah Portions or parshiyot. Volume 2 also was written according to the annual weekly parshiyot. However, the emphasis was on discovering the Messiah in each Torah Portion. Volume 3 ventures on an entirely new track. Here we study the Haftarah readings. The Haftarah is a reading from the prophets, which the ancient sages felt complimented or expounded the particular parasha of the week. Accordingly, this third level of the Torah Club examines some passages from the biblical prophets. In doing so, we will also be learning more about the Torah since each selected Haftarah reading was chosen because of its relevance to the Torah portion at hand.

The Haftarah

The most ancient historical evidence of the haftarah readings is actually found in the Apostolic Scriptures. Luke 4:17 records Yeshua reading from the haftarah of the day when He was participating in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth. Furthermore, Acts 13:15 speaks of the time when Rav Sha'ul was invited to give a sermon after the reading of the Torah and the Prophets when he visited the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch.

The earliest rabbinic reference to the haftarah is found in Tosefta, Megillah 4 (3):1 where the Haftarot for the four special Sabbaths are mentioned. Various haftarot are mentioned in the Talmud. However, curiously enough the haftarot for the weekly Sabbaths are not listed. Thus, at least in mishnaic time (up to the year 200 CE, give or take) there appears to be no set weekly haftarot. Moreover, not even in gaonic times (somewhere between 800 to 1000 CE does there appear to be a set and fixed pattern for the haftarot. Even in the present day, there is sometimes difference of opinion concerning which section of the prophets is to be the haftarah for a given Torah Portion. Mostly these differences are between the Ashkenizim and the Sephardim, though not limited to these two Jewish cultural groups.

Each week's study of the Haftarah follows the same basic format. This is done in order to help make each study "user-friendly." That is, in order to make it easier for you, the student, to not only study the passage for your self, but also to help enable you to teach it to others. Our format looks like this: