Parsha:

Shemot 

Description

The Egypt of the haftarah isn’t the Egypt we remember. While the context is cryptic, Rav Yaaqov Medan argues that during the First Temple period, small numbers of Jews were exiled to Egypt. Unlike their ancestors who remained united, these Jews found themselves isolated and lost. These Jews didn’t have the benefit their ancestors had in Egypt, to be surrounded by a large community to support them during times of trouble. They, the ‘strayed and exiled,’ must be picked up one by one to be brought back to Jerusalem. The experience of exile, the prophet highlights, is all the more challenging when the center of the Jewish world is in the homeland. Yet even so, God assures them that they, too, will be returned, gathered into Jerusalem and reunited with their people.