Restoration of Torah Ministries

Restoration of Torah Ministries

Haftarah Connections

Finding Thematic Connections Between Parashat Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18) and its Haftarah Reading (Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26)

1. How is Jeremiah 34:8 (This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them:) thematically connected to the Torah portion?[1]

2. How is 34:8-9 (This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them:that every man should set free his male and female slave—a Hebrew man or woman—that no one should keep a Jewish brother in bondage.) thematically connected to the Torah portion?[2]

3. How is Jeremiah 34:10 (Now when all the princes and all the people, who had entered into the covenant, heard that everyone should set free his male and female slaves, that no one should keep them in bondage anymore, they obeyed and let them go.) thematically connected to the Torah portion?[3]

4. How is Jeremiah 34:13 (Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying’) thematically connected to the Torah portion?[4]

5. How is Jeremiah 34:14 (“At the end of seven years let every man set free his Hebrew brother, who has been sold to him; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you.” But your fathers did not obey Me nor incline their ear.) thematically connected to the Torah portion?[5]

6. How is Jeremiah 34:14 (“At the end of seven years let every man set free his Hebrew brother, who has been sold to him; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you.” But your fathers did not obey Me nor incline their ear.) thematically connected to the Torah portion?[6]

7. How is Jeremiah 34:22 (‘Behold, I will command,’ says the Lord, ‘and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.’) thematically connected to the Torah portion?[7]

8. How is Jeremiah 34:18-19 (And I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it —the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf) thematically connected to the Torah portion?[8]

[1] Exodus24:8 – And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.” Exodus 23:32 – You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

[2] Exodus 21:2 – If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing.

[3] Exodus 21:7 – “And if a man sells his daughter to be a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.

[4] Exodus 24:8 – And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”

[5] Exodus 21:2 – If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing.

[6] Exodus 21:6 – then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever. Figuratively, once the servant’s ear was pierced, his ear was open to that which was on the doorposts; the mezuzah. The mezuzah contained the commandments of Adonai. Therefore, we can see a picture of one having his ears opened or “inclined” to the commandments.

[7] Exodus 23:29 – I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. Although the contexts which cause the land to become desolate are different, the word desolate thematically connects both passages.

[8] Exodus 24:1-8 – Now He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him.”So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do.” And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.” Both passages give a description (albeit in different terms) of a covenant ceremony. Jeremiah uses the words reminding us of the covenant ceremony described in Genesis 15, the covenant between the pieces. This was how two parties “cut” a covenant with each other. Jeremiah uses this language to describe the covenant Adonai made with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. The passage in Exodus also describes a covenant ceremony. Also, both passages mention the groups of people who were present for the covenant ceremony.