Barak out of the fire

Barak out of the fire

Undoubtedly it eluded most of us, but not Skokie's Rabbi Nachman Rosenthal, who rejoices in finding revealing wordplays and statements in Torah and rabbinic texts which provide startling allusions to contemporary events.

Rabbi Rosenthal was in typical form when the haftarah for the first day of Shavuot was read last week. It records the prophet Ezekiel's famous vision of the Divine Throne-Chariot. Four words popped out at him as particularly relevant: ???.

That is: "and out of the fire went forth lightning" ("lightning" in Hebrew is barak) (Ezekiel I:13).

Without attempting to make too much of these words, or the context or meaning of them …