Rosh Hashanah Day 2 Haftarah ~ Jeremiah 31:2-20
The Haftarah explores the theme of redemption begun in our Torah reading, when Isaac was not sacrificed because of God’s saving hand. Jeremiah prophesied that God would bring the people back from exile and comfort them, emphasizing not exile but redemption. Thus, the Haftarah asks us to understand the Torah portion not from Abraham’s original perspective but backward, from the point of view of the saving moment at the story’s end. Similarly, Jeremiah focuses on the theme of God’s saving or redeeming, as he speaks to the people Israel, now in exile. These so-called “ten lost tribes,” collectively referred to as “Ephraim,” were exiled by Assyria in the 8th century B.C.E. (well before Jeremiah was born), but the prophet promises that they will return (Machzor Lev Shalem, p. 111).
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Cantor Jeri Robins 