
by Immanuel Lutheran Church Macomb, MI
<p><b><em>The Wilderness</em></b> is an in-depth study of the <em>haftarah.</em></p><p>The <em>haftarah</em> is a section of Holy Scripture taken from the Prophets or Writings of the Hebrew Bible that is read after the weekly alongside the Torah. The specified section always has some connection to the theme of the Torah portion of the week and the time and season of year.<br><br></p><p>The reading of the <em>haftarah</em> began during the Greek oppression of the Jewish people in the period before the Maccabbean revolt. During this time public Torah readings were outlawed. The sages of the time instituted the reading of a section of the Prophets and Writings in place of the Torah to remind the people of the themes, motifs, and message of the weekly Torah portions that they could no longer read.<br><br></p><p>Most of the <em>haftarah </em>readings come from the books of the prophets and the prophets would often come out of the wilderness, enter the wilderness, or make use of wilderness