Summary of The Haftorah:
Haftorah Beha'aloscha
Zecharya 2:14
This week's Haftorah records the prophesies of Zechariya to Yehoshua the
Kohain Gadol.
In 3390 - 371 b.c.e, Zerubavel along with Yehoshua led 40,00 Jews back to
Israel. They began building the 2nd Bais Hamikdash only to be stopped when
Cyrus withdrew his permission. In this prophesy, Zechariya showed Yehoshua
that he could be worthy of effecting forgiveness for the Bnai Yisroel, in
spite of his own short-comings. He was shown a vision of the Menorah (the
obvious connection to our Parsha) representing the eventual purity of the
Jews, and their acceptance by the other nations.
The less obvious connection to our Parsha may be the concept of Teshuva and
its relationship to the fulfillment of our mission. Just as the generation
of the Exodus struggled with who they were in contrast with who they should
have been, so too, in the building of the second Bais Hamikdash and the
second Jewish commonwealth, Zerubavel and Yehoshua struggled with the
realities of who they were in contrast to their undertaking of resurrecting
the soul of their People.
