THE FORBIDDEN CHAPTER: Message 2
By Solomon Ostrovsky
Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. As many were astonished at him – his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men – so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand.In the preceding chapter we saw the glorious vision of the prophet Isaiah concerning the latter days: the mountain of the house of the Lord established as the highest of mountains, a holy influence issuing from the house of the Lord and causing the nations of the world to “beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks … for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form nor comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one, from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.- Isaiah 52:13–53:1-3
But what is it that will bring about this revolutionary change? How will it happen that the mountain of the Lord’s house, which has stood desolate these many centuries, will come to life again and send out its Divine energy to the ends of the earth? What miracle will suddenly make the house of the Lord the spiritual centre of the nations of the world?
The great change will take place first in Israel herself, in the nation that dwells in Zion, and in the above-cited passage we have the answer to this mystery.
DIVINE REVELATION
1. Every Jew accepts in one way or another the fact of Divine Revelation. A Jew, whoever he may be, observes the rite of circumcision. But whence comes this religious custom? It derives from God’s revelation to our father Abraham: “This is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee; every man child among you shall be circumcised … and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you” (Genesis 17).
2. Or let us take the Sabbath. Through the centuries – from the beginning of Israel’s history to the present day – Israel has observed the seventh day as her weekly day of rest. There always have been and there are some today who do not care about the religious observance of the day, yet it is true to say that Israel as a nation has recognised the Sabbath as her weekly day of rest and as a nation “remembers the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Whence this “remembrance?” Divine revelation. It is the third commandment in the Decalogue (Exodus 20).
3. The nation of Israel in its great majority is conscious of the fact that there is only one country in the whole world which has been promised to them, and in spite of the fact that for 2000 years Israel has been a nation “scattered and dispersed” among the nations of the world, their longing for this one land has never ceased – for THIS land, and no other. This love and longing for the LAND are rooted in God’s promises, with which the books of the Torah and the prophets are studded. The very first promise was given to our father Abraham, “And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God…”
I want to emphasize again that Israel’s religion is based on Divine revelation. Our fathers received this revelation by faith, man’s “sixth sense”, as it is sometimes called. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and all the other prophets were given Divine illumination, they heard with the ears of their Divinely-illumined understanding, they believed and transmitted the message to their own generation and to the generations to come. Our fathers accepted this message by faith and it served as a foundation for their way of life.
But in the instance before us the prophet looks around, and a cry of surprise and uncertainty bursts from his lips. His heart is bubbling over with a great theme; he sees a great vision – the greatest of all, which thrills his whole being, but he feels that the chosen people of God will not understand and will not believe his word. “Who hath believed what we have heard and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”
THE REASON FOR THE PROPHET’S UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THE ATTITUDE OF THE PEOPLE IS THAT THEY NOW STAND BEFORE A HIGHER DEGREE OF DIVINE REVELATION.
If the Jew believes in circumcision as a sign of God’s covenant with him, if he accepts the Sabbath as God’s appointed day of rest, if he believes that the land of Israel is God’s gift to him – then it is because these are things which he can understand and accept without Divine enlightenment. They are within the area of natural intelligence and may even nourish one’s feelings of pride – the sense that “we are the elect of God.” But the prophet wants to bring before us the central prophetic Figure, the theme and essence of all prophecy, the paradoxical Man, who on the one hand “will be exalted and extolled and made very high,” Who “shall sprinkle many nations, and kings shall shut their mouths at him,” but on the other hand, “he had no form nor comeliness, that we should look at him, and there is no beauty that we should desire him.” This is revelation of a HIGHER ORDER. This is not a revelation we can inherit automatically from our forefathers. This revelation demands a PERSONAL encounter with the Holy One Himself, blessed be His Name. “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”
Who is this historical Figure, who representatives of all nations accept as the true Light, but who is still despised and rejected by the people of Israel? Why have we driven Isaiah chapter 53 from our synagogues? And why, outside the synagogue, do we distort these words of Isaiah? For two thousand years the Messiah has been stretching out His hands to the people of Israel, but the chosen nation deceives itself and hides its face from Him. Yet, we are assured, the nation that dwells in Zion will one day change its mind and repent. God is waiting for this moment. The whole world is waiting for it. “Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
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