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at The 92nd Street Y, New York. Supported by The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity
Oct 29, 1992
What made Isaiah different? How to reconcile Isaiah the rebuker in the first part of the Book with Isaiah the comforter in the second? Scientific criticism’s resolution is to be rejected in favor of the Talmud and Midrash and the text itself. The 92Y lectures continue even though it seemed that 25 years was going to be enough. And looking carefully at each word of the Book’s first sentence recalls my teacher Shushani, with whom in Paris after the war I studied for two intense years and whose influence on me I have not spoken about enough here. Shushani and I spent an entire week on the first sentence of Isaiah. Isaiah is different from other prophets because, while other prophets tried to avoid the mission, Isaiah volunteered for it. He is compared by the Talmud to Moses, yet Isaiah is harsher. Yet his very harshness explains his metamorphosis in the second half of the Book: his powers of comforting are meant to compensate for his earlier severity. “When we speak of hope and peace anywhere for the people of Israel, and beyond it for humanity, it is always Isaiah to whom we refer.”
Explore The Book of Isaiah on Sefaria, a living library of Torah.
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