This Week's Parsha

Some Ashkenasi communities have the custom for Parshat Acharei Mot to read the Haftara from Amos 9:7-15. Even if your congregation does not follow this custom, the messages and hope that we can gain from it are relevant to the entire Jewish people, especially now.

At the beginning of the Haftara, Amos chastises the nation and tells them that they have become strangers to God and that they will be punished. However, the last five verses end on a positive note.

We read in verses 11-12:

On that day, I will raise up the fallen sukka (booth) of David; I will repair the breaches and raise up its ruins, and I will build it up as in days of old, so that they upon whom My Name is called may inherit the remnant of Edom and all the nations- the word of God, who shall do this.

Targum Yonatan explains that the entire nation will be united under the Kingdom of David and will no longer be divided.

Da’at Mikra explains that the only way that we can defeat our enemies and expand our borders is if we as a nation are united.

These verses especially speak to us today. Before October 7, Israelis were divided and in order to fight the war we needed to put our differences aside and become united. As well, the destruction took place right after the holiday of Sukkot.

Amos continues his prophecy (verse 13):

Behold, days are coming- the word of God- when the plowman will meet the reaper, and the treader of grapes will meet the one who carries the seed; the mountains will drip juice and all the hills will melt.

This is the fulfillment of the blessing in Parshat Bechukotai (Vayikra 26:5):

Your threshing will last until the vintage and the vintage will last until the sowing; you will eat your bread to satiety and you will dwell securely in your land.

According to Radak, this prophecy shows that there will be so much produce that before the harvest is finished it will again be time to till the soil and before the grapes have been sufficiently trodden to squeeze out their wine it will already be necessary to replant their seeds for the next year’s growth.

In verse 14 we see that God will return the captives:

I will return the captivity of My people Israel, and they will rebuild desolate cities and settle them; they will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will cultivate gardens and eat their fruits.

We see a similar statement in Parshat Nitzavim, Dvarim 30:3:

HaShem, your God will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you…

Metzudat David on Amos 9:14 explains that God will settle in peace the members of Israel who were in captivity. They will rebuild the cities that lay desolate and never again be banished from them. They will plant vineyards and cultivate gardens whose fruits they themselves will enjoy. No foreign nation will take their produce away from them.

The last verse of the prophecy (verse 15) states:

I will plant them in their land and they will never again be uprooted from their land that I have given them, said HaShem, your God.

As the gardens and the vineyards will be sown, the Jewish people will be planted firmly in their land, never to be removed again.

We have begun to rebuild and plant. Volunteers from all over the world are flocking to Israel to help out any way that they can, especially in the field of agriculture where we can’t harvest the produce fast enough.

Now we are waiting for the fulfillment of the promise that the hostages will return from their captivity, where they can be settled peacefully back in Israel never having to worry about the atrocities of October 7 repeating themselves again.