Words can hurt or heal and sometimes capture the elusive essence of what defies comprehension.
How many words do we have in English for ‘disaster’? And how politically problematic or divisive can these expressions be? Very. These tough days we know that use of words like ‘massacre’ and ‘genocide’ is debated to describe the horrors happening in Gaza or what happend on 10/7 in Israel. Words can become as deadly and dangerous as weapons --- and they also carry the weight of what happens when they seem to fall short of describing the extent of human cruelty, silent in the face of our utter loss.
And yet we try to use our words because they also hold the only way for us to disarm and harm each other less.
Another heavy word that lives on this spectrum is the English word ‘Holocaust’ - a translation of the Hebrew word ‘Shoah.’ Since the 1950’s this unique term that means ‘burnt offering’ refers to the Nazi attempt to eradicate the Jewish people. But it’s an old concept -- a Hebrew term that first shows up in the Bible to describe not a man-made massacre but the ultimate day of destruction - handled directly by the divine.
The term ‘Yom Shoah’ as in ‘The Day of Destruction’ shows up for the first time in today’s chapter - a 7th century BCE prophetic protest that warns the people -- beware, one day, the bitter end will come.
The man who coined this phrase is Zephaniah, a prophet who has an impressive lineage that goes back five generations. Unlike some of the other prophets we’ve met, we know exactly when he lived and who his people are. Zephaniah is the great-grandson of King Hezekiah of Jerusalem and he speaks out in the court of King Josiah (640–609 BCE) - they were probably cousins.
Zephaniah’s name means something like ‘the Secret of God’ and he is the 9th among the 12 minor prophets, with a slim volume of three chapters. Those contain a harsh message that may have given inspiration to the royal decrees of his cousin, the reformer king. Like Jeremiah who lived at the same time and walked the same streets - he calls for a return to faith, but he’s also calling out for a radical religious reform that will soon be activated by the young king. Zephaniah may have been the sort of religious zealot that is not very popular among the liberal folks… Yet what’s deeper inside his message that we can learn from and redeem?
King Josiah was just 8 years old when he sat on the throne - a puppet king, likely manipulated by some elders, possibly including Zephaniah. They are in the middle of a century old religious war - the old tribal ways of YHWH vs. the pagan paths of global assimilation. Little has changed..
Josiah inherited a kingdom that has turned powerful, wealthy - and big on local idols - for the past 2-3 generations his ancestors brought in the local cults and deities, as part of their political mindset, and turned Jerusalem away from YHWH’s ways. But not for long.
Zephania seems to stand for the old, tribal truths and warns that if the new king will not banish the idols and bring back the old Judean ways - the dreaded day of woe will crush them all:
וְהָיָ֗ה בְּיוֹם֙ זֶ֣בַח יְהֹוָ֔ה וּפָקַדְתִּ֥י עַל־הַשָּׂרִ֖ים וְעַל־בְּנֵ֣י הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ וְעַ֥ל כׇּל־הַלֹּבְשִׁ֖ים מַלְבּ֥וּשׁ נׇכְרִֽי׃
וּפָקַדְתִּ֗י עַ֧ל כׇּל־הַדּוֹלֵ֛ג עַל־הַמִּפְתָּ֖ן בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֑וּא הַֽמְמַלְאִ֛ים בֵּ֥ית אֲדֹנֵיהֶ֖ם חָמָ֥ס וּמִרְמָֽה׃
And on the day of YHWH’s sacrifice
I will punish the officials
And the king’s children,
And all who don a foreign vestment.
I will also punish on that day
Everyone who steps over the threshold,
Who fill their master’s palace
With lawlessness and fraud.
Zephaniah 1:6-7
The prophet warns that anything from foreign fashion to the worship of other gods will become a sign of heresy and betrayal, worthy of annihilation. He’s advocating for a public purge - and we know from other texts that that’s exactly what Josiah would eventually do once he is a little older. The Books of Kings and Chronicles describe the destruction of temples, the killing of priests and priestesses of other deities and the centralization of religious life that was enacted by force under King Josiah, and maybe with his cousin’s inspiration.
Even those who ‘step over the threshold’ will be killed. Who are those? According to most scholars, they are the ones to worship the old Philistine ways, in some way sanctifying the thresholds of homes and temples. There is a curious connection to the Egyptian religion and even where we get the holiday of Pass-Over from - it has to do with blood on the threshold -- but that’s another story.
Whether the people repent or not -- Josiah’s radical religious reform will lead towards the day of judgment, the final showdown of YHWH in Jerusalem, ushering the messianic end of the world and the start of a new era. Zephaniah describes it in vivid detail and introduces Shoah Day into the mix:
וְהָיָה֩ בַיּ֨וֹם הַה֜וּא נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֗ה ק֤וֹל צְעָקָה֙ מִשַּׁ֣עַר הַדָּגִ֔ים וִֽילָלָ֖ה מִן־הַמִּשְׁנֶ֑ה וְשֶׁ֥בֶר גָּד֖וֹל מֵהַגְּבָעֽוֹת.. י֥וֹם עֶבְרָ֖ה הַיּ֣וֹם הַה֑וּא י֧וֹם צָרָ֣ה וּמְצוּקָ֗ה י֤וֹם שֹׁאָה֙ וּמְשׁוֹאָ֔ה י֥וֹם חֹ֙שֶׁךְ֙ וַאֲפֵלָ֔ה י֥וֹם עָנָ֖ן וַעֲרָפֶֽל
“On that day, YHWH says, there shall be
aloud outcry from the Fish Gate,
And howling from the slopes of the city,
And a sound of great anguish from the hills…
That day shall be a day of wrath,
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of calamity and desolation,
A day of darkness and deep gloom,
A day of densest clouds”
Zephaniah 1:14-15
“A day of calamity and desolation” is one translation of the Hebrew phrase ‘Yom Shoah U’Meshoah’. This is where the concept of an annual day that remembers the pain of the past and resolves to ‘never again’ comes from. But what did the prophet actually mean? Is he describing a terrible future - or envisioning a day of transformation that can only be forged through pain?
The historian Prof. Ehud Ben Zvi suggests that he envisions both, as the prophet is already speaking for a future audience -- knowing that they will be the ones to appreciate his futuristic hopes:
“Zephaniah reports not only divine announcements about a future calamity set in the sinful past which the readers would see as already fulfilled, but also powerful divine announcements about utopian futures to follow the calamity. Like many prophetic books, the book of Zephaniah concludes with a positive final section, which in this case is particularly and intricately developed and quite lengthy in relation to the book…For these future readers, the eventual end result of the coming to pass of yom shoah umeshoah is not a world of ruin and ruination, but an emerging world in accordance with YHWH’s will; one in which there cannot be another yom shoah umeshoah.”
Will remembering the horrors of the past help us prevent the horrors of the future? Nowadays, alas, it’s fair to question that idealistic aspiration. But what words contain are not just facts but also feelings. What this prophet gave us is a set of words for us to honor and to use with care. Perhaps whatever is yet to come, beyond religious zeal and fear of other ways of worship - is a brand new day in which the horror of history becomes the hope of repair.
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