The Temple Institute: HAFTARA FOR SHABBAT PARASHAT MIKETZ/CHANUKAH

The Temple Institute:

 
HAFTARA FOR SHABBAT PARASHAT MIKETZ/CHANUKAH

This Shabbat is Shabbat parashat Miketz. It is also Rosh Chodesh and also the sixth day of Chanukah. The special haftara reading read on Shabbat Chanukah is from Zechariah Chapter 2:14 - 4:7:

"Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for, behold! I will come and dwell in your midst, says HaShem.

And many nations shall join HaShem on that day, and they shall be My people; and I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that HaShem of Hosts sent me to you.

And HaShem shall inherit Yehudah as His share on the Holy Land, and He shall again choose Jerusalem.

Silence all flesh from before HaShem, for He is aroused out of His holy habitation.

And He showed me Yehoshua, the Kohen Gadol, standing before the angel of HaShem. And Satan was standing on his right, to accuse him.

And HaShem said to Satan: HaShem shall rebuke you, O Satan; and HaShem shall rebuke you, He who chose Jerusalem. Is this one not a brand plucked from fire?

Now Yehoshua was wearing filthy garments and standing before the angel.

And he [the angel] raised his voice and said to those standing before him, saying, 'Take the filthy garments off him.' And he said to him, 'See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I have cladded you with clean garments.'

And I said, 'Let them put a pure miter on his head,' and they put the pure miter on his head. And they had clothed him with garments while the angel of HaShem was standing.

And the angel of HaShem warned Yehoshua, saying,

"So said HaShem of Hosts: If you walk in My ways, and if you keep My charge, you, too, shall judge My house, and you, too, shall guard My courtyards, and I will give you free access among these who stand by.

Hearken, now, O Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol - you and your companions who sit before you, for they are men worthy of a miracle - for, behold! I bring My servant, the Shoot.

For, behold the stone that I have placed before Yehoshua. Seven eyes are directed to one stone. Behold! I untie its knots, says HaShem of Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

On that day, says HaShem of Hosts, you shall call-each man to his neighbor - to come under his vine and under his fig tree.

And the angel who spoke with me returned, and he awakened me as a man who wakes up from his sleep.

And he said to me, 'What do you see?' And I said, 'I saw, and behold there was a menorah all of gold, with its oil-bowl on top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; seven tubes each to the lamps that were on top of it.

And there were two olive trees near it: one on the right of the bowl, and one on its left.

So, I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, 'What are these, my lord?'

And the angel who spoke with me answered, and he said to me, 'Do you not know what these are?' And I said, 'No, my lord.'

And he answered and spoke to me, saying, 'This is the word of HaShem to Zerubbabel, saying: 'Not by military force and not by physical strength, but by My spirit,' says HaShem of Hosts.

Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you sink to a plain! He will bring out the stone of the main architect, with shouts of grace, grace to it.'"