'Go Set a Watchman', published in 2015, is the title of the only other novel other than ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, written by Harper Lee, who died just one year later. The title is a quote from Isaiah’s obscure prophecy in today’s chapter, echoing across space and time to say something about those whose role in our societies is to provide a moral compass. The role often comes with a heavy burden and price, as Atticus Finch will learn, and did Isaiah.
Throughout this chapter Isaiah admits that some visions are very hard to bear and as painful as what he imagines to be labor pains: “My mind is confused,I shudder in panic; My night of pleasure, God has turned to terror.” Once he has entered the domain of visions he retrieves the images and brings them back as words, some that he hears inside his head and some that he hears spoken by the men outside his home, in the middle of the Jerusalem night, the watchmen’s echoes captured in his poetry. Generations of readers have pondered these particular oracular lines in chapter 21, that seem to contain a riddle - the riddle of the watchmen. Isaiah is calling upon a place that is not known to us - Dumah may be somewhere in Arabia, but it may also be another land, the underworld or an imagined city. The words used here may provide a partial clue to the riddle - what is this vision about and who is it for?
מַשָּׂא דּוּמָה אֵלַי קֹרֵא מִשֵּׂעִיר שֹׁמֵר מַה מִּלַּיְלָה שֹׁמֵר מַה מִּלֵּיל. אָמַר שֹׁמֵר אָתָה בֹקֶר וְגַם לָיְלָה אִם תִּבְעָיוּן בְּעָיוּ שֻׁבוּ אֵתָיוּ.
The Message of Dumah:
A call comes to me from Seir: “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”
The watchman replied, “Morning came, and so did night. If you would inquire, inquire. Come back again.”
Isaiah 21:11-12
One of the fascinating challenges in making sense of this complex, terse exchange is that the original is not all in Hebrew - some of these words are in Aramaic. This is most clearly the case for the word atah “come” and the two verbs teva’yun be’ayu from the root b‘y “to ask. From other chapters in Isaiah and the Book of Kings we know that Aramaic was the spoken language of the empire, used by Assyrian officials and understood by many, even in Jerusalem. But why does Isaiah use Aramaic?
Prof. Aaron Koller suggests “This may be an example of “code switching.” Speaking to Duma – associated with Seir in this passage, and plausibly modern Al-Jawf in northwestern South Arabia – Isaiah uses Aramaic words, to convey something of the flavor of the people addressed.”
Maybe the inclusion of Aramaic in this existential vision indicates its universal purpose, already intended for an audience of seekers far beyond Hebrew speaking Jerusalem?
And what os this riddle, taken on by Harper Lee, for us?
Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson (who’s become one of my top favorite readers of Isaiah so far) explores what this riddle and its solution may mean to each of us wrestlers and watchers:
“The call, from no one in particular, is one of fear and yearning. After standing watch throughout the long darkness, what do I need to know? You who stood guard, tell me where do we stand now? You can hear the fear in the question, and the forced courage of asking it nonetheless.
And the answer is unvarnished honesty. No false cover of beauty to the raw reality that we face together. Morning is coming. We have survived the terror of the dark. The light is dawning and we will see the sun again. But after that daylight, another stretch of darkness awaits. It will grow again cold and terrifying. The cycle will continue.
Yet all is not an endless cycle of doom. We always retain the capacity to seek, to change our ways, to find common ground and to advance together. Baba Kama 5b understands the word b’ayu to mean prayer, and goes further to say that human beings are praying beings. It is our nature to confront our fears by speaking our hopes, by calling out, an act both of resistance and of a stubborn insistence that the future may yet be altered.
Even in the darkest stretches, we can call out to each other and to our Source. We can nurture each others’ hopes, and strengthen each others’ faith. And then we return – spiritually and physically – to a common history, a shared destiny, and a mutual resolve to stand together to create a better tomorrow.
What of the night? We will bring the dawn.”
Image: Restoration of Rembrandt's 17th Century 'The Night Watch'
TODAY!
“Like Watchmen in the Night”
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