The Last Prophet of Israel

The Last Prophet of Israel
Rabbi Ari Lorge

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this important message.

That should be the announcement at the beginning of this week’s Torah service.

Every Torah reading has a fixed haftarah reading from the prophets. And I know - many of you have been waiting all year for this week when we get to read that beloved pairing of the Torah portion Tzav and its haftarah from Jeremiah. Sadly, Jeremiah will have to wait. On Shabbat HaGadol the regular haftarah is set aside for a special reading from the book of Malachi.

Why does the tradition demand we read Malachi for the Shabbat before Pesach? We aren’t given an overt explanation. But Malachi isn’t just any prophet. He is the last prophet of Israel (Sanhedrin 11a). After him, God stopped speaking through humanity. As one scholar states: “His message therefore deserves a special hearing, as the last cry…” of the prophets. There must be something important within the text that the ancient rabbis wished to communicate to Jews around the world as we prepare to enter the holiday.

You see, Malachi describes a situation that is rooted in his time, and yet timeless.

In Malachi’s days, tyrants ruled through might and mischief, corrupt priests ran the Temple, subverting God’s holy home and living off bribes. Wrongdoing was rampant.

And the Jews were enraged because God did not mete out punishment against the wicked.

There was a vast chasm between God’s promises and the lived reality of the people.

And so they declared: “it is useless to serve God” (Malachi 3:14).

Haven’t we heard that sentiment?

And who hasn’t felt it themselves when looking out at the world and seeing the wicked prosper, the evildoer get ahead, the grifters and grabbers gobble up more and more. When honor, integrity, truth, decency, and morality are denigrated, when those who get ahead do so through duplicity all the while scorning godliness and goodness, we can hear the echo of the Israelites around Malachi crying out, “it is useless to serve God.”

And it is that sentiment that connects us to the Exodus and makes Malachi’s message so important on the cusp of Pesach. In my reading, these are the words that transform this obscure prophetic book from niche to necessary.

The whole purpose of the Exodus was encapsulated in three Hebrew words.

“שַׁלַּ֥ח עַמִּ֖י וְיַֽעַבְדֻֽנִי”

“Let My people go, so that THEY MAY SERVE ME” (Exodus 10:30).

And now, thousands of years of serving God later, our people cried out to God and asked, “Why should we? You freed us so that we might serve You.”

“שָׁ֖וְא עֲבֹ֣ד אֱלֹהִ֑ים”

“It is useless to serve God.”

The Israelites throw God’s words back at Him.

That stunning rebuke contains so many questions.

Why defeat one Pharaoh, only to let dozens more darken the world generation after generation?

Why free us once from the taskmaster’s whip, only to watch generations continue in servitude and degradation?

Why let us taste redemption from Egypt only to experience a world where all of humanity is exiled from the Kingdom of Heaven?

Put even more succinctly - Where are YOU? Where are you God?

God’s final prophecy is spoken to any generation who sees wickedness thrive and evildoers prosper and wonders why.

How does God respond?

“הִנֵּ֤ה הַיּוֹם֙ בָּ֔א - Behold, a day will come” (Malachi 3:19).

The messianic time is coming when prophecies will be fulfilled.

On that day, Malachi promises, “You shall turn back and see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not” (Malachi 3:18).

It is not useless. Just wait. The Messiah will arrive and put everything right. But, that answer did not satisfy everyone.

At various moments in our people’s history groups of Jews decided to dare. They declared that waiting wasn’t enough. We are descendants of two of those movements founded in the 1800’s.

The first are the early Reform Jews. They noted: If God exiled the Jews among all the people it was surely in order to serve God. They would actively pursue messianic redemption. Maybe God was waiting for us. God gifted us prophecies detailing what the redeemed world would look like, and how society should be structured. Maybe God was waiting for covenantal partners to pursue those visions and help usher in that time.

The second group, a few decades later, organized themselves into the Zionist movement. They noted: God had not yet brought the Jews back to their homeland. Instead they were scattered across so many lands under the tyranny of despots. Our people couldn’t wait any longer. They would safeguard the remnant of the Jewish people by returning them to their homeland and building a nation that reflected the same prophetic ideals the Reform Jews venerated - only they would do it in Zion.

One group wanted to bring about the kingdom of heaven in the Diaspora and transform all the world.

The second wanted to build the kingdom of heaven in the Holy Land that would be a light unto the nations and transform the world.

Some Reform Zionists in the mid 1800’s even said why not choose both.

Now, almost 200 years later, the disposition of the Israelites in the days of Malachi feels relevant again.

Why serve God in times like these? Why live with the yoke of God’s mitzvot when pagan licentiousness rules the day?

It is not always easy to look out at the world around us without despairing.

The dreams and prophecies of our people, the ancient ones of Malachi and the modern ones of the Reformers and the Zionists are not yet fulfilled.

Some of them seemed closer 50, 40, 30, 20 years ago.

This is not the world we were promised.

Not by our grandparents or parents.

Not by our leaders.

Not by academics and pundits.

Not by our prophets.

Not by our God.

But Shabbat HaGadol arrives again, with Malachi’s message: it is not useless to serve God, no matter how difficult the times.

While Malachi says to wait, “The great and terrible day of God will come” (Malachi 3:23), we also inherit the words of the modern Jewish prophet: “do not say the day will come - bring about that day.”

This Shabbat asks us to set down the cynicism and the nihilism that anesthetizes our hearts, and to dare once more. When you sit at the seder and hear God’s demand to Pharaoh, “Let My people go that they may serve Me,” will you be ready to set off, with the message of Malachi ringing in your ears: even in a dark and troubled time, your service is not in vain. The question isn’t if you’re ready to go free. The question is, are you ready to serve?