By the time we read this week’s haftarah, Israelis will have gone to the polls to elect a new Knesset. After months of political arguments, accusations, and promises, the votes will have been cast.
But the haftarah, II Kings 4:1-37, according to Ashkenazi custom, raises a question that no election can answer: What does it really mean to be a leader?
The haftarah recounts two remarkable encounters between the prophet Elisha and women who turn to him for help.
‘What can I do for you?’
The first is a widow whose husband has died, leaving her deeply in debt. A creditor is threatening to take her two sons as slaves in payment.
Desperate, she appeals to Elisha, who responds with a simple question: “What can I do for you?” (4:2).
When she tells him that all she possesses is a small jar of oil, he instructs her to borrow empty vessels from her neighbors. Miraculously, the oil continues to flow until every vessel is filled, enabling her to repay her debts and support her family.
The second account concerns a wealthy woman from Shunem, who regularly welcomes Elisha into her home. In gratitude for her hospitality, he promises that she will bear a son, even though her husband is elderly.
The promise is fulfilled, recalling the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah in this week’s Torah portion.
But years later, tragedy strikes. The boy suddenly becomes ill and dies in his mother’s arms.
She hurries to Elisha, and when his servant Gehazi tries to push her away, the prophet intervenes.
“Leave her alone, for her soul is bitter within her,” he declares (4:27).
Elisha initially sends Gehazi with his staff to revive the child, but the attempt fails. The prophet then goes to the house himself, prays to God, and successfully restores the boy to life.
The miracles are extraordinary. But there is something else in these accounts that deserves our attention: the way Elisha responds to people in distress.
Elisha does not turn away the widow who fears losing her children, nor does he rebuke the Shunammite woman when she confronts him in her grief. He understands that their suffering demands more than just expressions of sympathy.
‘A person must never become so engrossed that he fails to hear the cry of a child’
A well-known hassidic story about Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the alter rebbe and founder of Chabad, makes a similar point.
His son, Rabbi Dov Ber, was once so absorbed in his Torah studies that he failed to hear his infant son crying after falling from his cradle. The alter rebbe, who was studying upstairs, heard the cries. He interrupted his learning, went downstairs, and comforted the child.
Later, he admonished his son, telling him that no matter how lofty one’s pursuits, a person must never become so engrossed in them that he fails to hear the cry of a Jewish child.
There is a lesson here for Israel’s political leaders as the country emerges from another bitterly contested vote.
Politicians have spent months declaring how deeply they care about the people and their problems. They have promised greater security, lower prices, and a better future. But campaign pledges are easy to make. The harder part comes when the election is over, and the cameras are gone.
It means hearing the concerns of parents whose children have spent countless months in reserve duty, families struggling to pay their bills, and those still living with the grief and trauma of Oct. 7.
It also means remembering that those who voted for another party are no less deserving of attention, respect, and concern.
Gehazi carried the prophet’s staff, but that was not enough. Elisha had to go himself. There are moments when a leader cannot simply send someone else to deal with a problem.
Israel’s election will determine the composition of the next Knesset. But the real test of those elected will come afterward, when the campaign slogans have faded, and the difficult decisions begin.
Elisha’s example offers a reminder that those entrusted with leadership must never lose sight of the people they are supposed to serve.
After all, winning an election is one thing. Earning the public’s trust is quite another.
