בס׳ד

"Where does it say that you have a contract with G-d to have an easy life?"

the Lubavitcher Rebbe



"Failure is not the enemy of success; it is its prerequisite."

Rabbi Nosson Scherman



24 Jul 2009

Shabbat Chazon

This Shabbat is called "Shabbat Chazon" after the beginning of the Haftarah, “Chazon Yeshayahu ben Amotz,” the "Vision of Yeshayahu, the son of Amotz.” Rashi explains the word “Chazon,” Vision, as the hardest, the most stringent of words introducing a prophetic message to a People, such as “Masa,” Burden, “Dvar HaShem,” the Word of HaShem, etc.
It is chanted to the same haunting melody as is “Megilat Eichah,” the Scroll of Lamentations written by the Prophet Yirmiyahu, who was an “eye-witness” to the Destruction. Yeshayahu was an “eye-witness” as well, but only in the mind’s eye of his prophetic vision. In the external reality, it hadn’t yet happened. It still could have been averted, if only the People would have repented.
Yeshayahu (1:3)
“The ox knows its owner,
And the donkey its owner’s trough;
But Israel does not know,
My People does not understand.”
The ox and the donkey are not subject to “reward and punishment;” yet, they perform their appointed tasks unquestioningly. But the People of Israel, who know or should know full well that they will be rewarded if they follow the Laws of the Torah, and will be punished if they don’t, refuse to obey the Commandments of My Torah. (RASHI)

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