Project Genesis




Authors of the Haftorah Portions

Question: Who actually writes the Haftorah portions?

Answer: From the time that God gave the Torah to the Jews about 3300 years ago, and throughout the time that the Jews lived in the Land of Israel, until about 2400 years ago when the Jews were exiled, there were prophets – people through whom God communicated messages to the world. Some of those prophets wrote those messages down, and we still have those writings. These writings were collected into what is called the Books of Prophets (in other words, they are considered part of the Bible.)

The Haftorah portions are actually selections from the books of Prophets. They were chosen because they have a theme similar to something from the Torah portion of that week. (Originally this was done because the non-Jewish government at the time banned the Jews from reading from the Torah. So the Jews chose to read portions from the prophets to remind them of the Torah portion. When the ban ended, and they began reading from the Torah again, they continued reading from the Prophets as well.) So the authors of the Haftorahs are various prophets who live thousands of years ago. Some of the famous prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Samuel and others.

All the Best,
Rabbi Azriel Schrieber

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