Haftarah הַפְטָרָה
To match שִׁירַת הַיָּם (Shirat Ha-Yam, the Song of the Sea) in the parashah, the haftarah for this week includes the Song of Devorah in the Book of Shoftim. Devorah’s song celebrates Benei Yisrael, led by the general Barak, along with a woman called Yael, defeating the Canaanite general, Sisera.
Yael’s story is not for the faint of heart! As Sisera flees from battle, Yael risks her life and pretends to be a friend offering him shelter. She gets him to come into her tent by offering him a place to hide and rest. She lures him to sleep by covering him with a blanket and giving him some milk to drink. When he finally falls asleep, she hammers a tent peg through his head and kills him!
In her song, Devorah praises Yael:
מַ֥יִם שָׁאַ֖ל חָלָ֣ב נָתָ֑נָה
בְּסֵ֥פֶל אַדִּירִ֖ים הִקְרִ֥יבָה חֶמְאָֽה׃
He asked for water, she brought him milk
In a fancy bowl, she served him butter
This phrase is an example of parallelism: the same general idea is expressed twice, in different words. Poetry in Tanakh can be pretty difficult to understand, but as you get better at finding examples of parallelism, you’ll have an easier time making sense of it all.
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