The Jews’ Sin
Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim
Haftorah of Deuteronomy (Isaiah 1:1-4):
The prophecies of Isaiah son of Amoz, who prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah:
“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for God has spoken: ‘Children I made great, and set them on high, and they have rebelled against Me. An ox knows its owner, a donkey its master’s trough, Israel does not know, My people do not ponder [their God]. Woe, a sinful nation. People laden with iniquity. An evil seed (lineage). Destructive children. They have forsaken God, provoked the Holy One of Israel. They have turned backwards.’”
“Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; let the earth hear the words I utter!” (Deut. 32:1). Here, when admonishing the nation, Moses too called upon heaven and Earth. Rashi and Radak explain this to mean that Moses warns the Jews that their rejection of Torah will meet with God withholding heaven’s rains and Earth’s produce, also mentioned in Shima. Ibn Ezra says, “I believe that the correct interpretation is that Moses called heaven and Earth to witness because they last forever” (Ibid.). Both explanations mean that the prophets’ words reflect God’s absolute truths. When admonishing the nation, Moses and Isaiah conveyed the absolute, inescapable tragedy of violating God’s Torah, equating God’s reward and punishment as permanent as heaven and Earth. When the Jews are confronted with an inescapable system of reward and punishment, this is a great motivation not to violate God’s words.
“Children I made great, and set them on high, and they have rebelled against Me”
God bestowed Torah (greatness) and providence (highness) to the Jews. The sin was one of relationships: God raised the Jews like “children,” but the Jews sinned against “Me.” How does this differ from other sins?
They failed to see the Torah’s value, despite its “great” integral value and its social benefit of elevating them “high” over all other peoples. They also failed to recognize the value of the source of Torah—“the Jews sinned against Me”—the all-knowing and all-powerful God. Had the Jews possessed knowledge of Torah's benefits and the reality of who God is, they would not have traded those for false gods.
This explanation as a sin of ignorance is proven from the very next verse: “An ox knows its owner, a donkey its master’s trough, Israel does not know, My people do not ponder [their God].” Their sin was one of ignorance.
“Woe, a sinful nation. People laden with iniquity. An evil seed (lineage). Destructive children.”
In the final verse above, 1:4, notice the 4 terms: “Nation. People. Seed. Children.” These terms indicate 4 unique sources of the Jews’ sins. What is the dynamic of the corruption in each one?
One source of sin is “nationhood.” This refers to some shared, binding quality which separates one nation from another. Common ground fosters justification for a sinning, viz., “If my peers act this way, it must be okay.”
“People” refers to unifying behaviors in which group members take pride. It’s not that others justify some matter, but there’s an additional element of pride in “belonging.” We see this in groups marching for causes. And causes are not short-lived, but are movements over time, sustained values and actions. This explains “laden” with sin. Laden means a repeated, piled-up and sustained corruption based on identifying with others.
“Evil seed” is a deeper identification…a group with shared history, a common lineage or seed. People lend credence to their history. God told Abraham to leave his “land, his birthplace and his father’s house.” Why leave? It was for this very reason that one identifies with his history, and when that history is corrupt, it prevents one’s improvement through breaking from it. Thus, God told Abraham to break with his identification with his family’s history of idolatry. Identifying with a history is a greater corruption than the previous level of belonging to a group. How so? “Seed” and family are viewed as “integral” to oneself, as compared to joining an “external” movement. Seed is a stronger identification.
“Destructive children” means copying one’s parents, and feeling justified even at their destructive behavior. One trusts that his parents live and teach what is proper. So even destructive behavior is unquestioned. Jeremiah refers to the surprise realized by others: “Our fathers bequeathed to us futilities” (Jer. 16:19). They felt fathers should have been trusted, but they discovered otherwise.
“They have forsaken God, provoked the Holy One of Israel. They have turned backwards”
“Forsaking God” refers to denying the universe has a Creator, a rejection of reality.
“Provoking the Holy One of Israel” refers to causing their punishment. This is God not in the capacity as Creator, but as God of Israel—Torah recipients—which contains punishment.
“Turning backwards” is a critique of the Jews, independent of punishment or denying the Creator. It means they forfeited common sense. A rational person doesn’t turn backwards, but follows reality and moves forward using all his knowledge.