This year #MLKDay falls in the week that we read the Torah portion of Mishpatim. The Haftorah (section of Prophets read aloud after the Torah reading on Sabbath mornings in synagogue) is from Jeremiah chapters 34 and 33. Chabad.org has both a nutshell and full-text version.
Most Haftorahs tend to be poetically rich, inspiring with uplifting lines. Not so much this one (aside for the end). Here’s the Haftorah of Mishpatim in a nutshell from Chabad.org:
In this week’s haftorah, Jeremiah describes the punishment that would befall the Jews because they continued enslaving their Hebrew slaves after six years of service–transgressing the commandment discussed in the beginning of this week’s Torah reading. King Zedekiah made a pact with the people according to which they would all release their Jewish slaves after six years of service–as commanded in the Torah. Shortly thereafter, the Jews reneged on this pact and forced their freed slaves to re-enter into service. G‑d then dispatched Jeremiah with a message of rebuke: “Therefore, so says the Lord: You have not hearkened to Me to proclaim freedom, every one to his brother and every one to his neighbor; behold I proclaim freedom to you, says the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine, and I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.” The haftorah then vividly depicts the destruction and devastation that the Jews would experience. The haftorah concludes with words of reassurance: “Just as I would not cancel My covenant with the day and night and I would not cancel the laws of heaven and earth, so too I will not cast away the descendents of Jacob . . . for I will return their captivity [to their land] and have mercy on them.”
Fascinating that #MLKDay falls in the week this Haftorah will be read. Yes, the slaves were freed after great struggle and the pact of King Zedekiah. But then Jews of that time found ways to enslave them again, with manipulation and pressures. How similar is this to the freedom of the slaves in the American Civil War in the mid-1800’s, only to struggle for their Civil Rights for another 100 years! The Mitzvah is not only to free the slaves once, but that they truly remain free.