Watchman, What of the Night?

Watchman, What of the Night?

One of the most mysterious calls in the Book of Isaiah appears in these words:

“Watchman, what of the night?Watchman, what of the night?”— Isaiah 21:11

Someone calls from Seir to the watchman and asks: Where are we in the course of the night? How much of it has already passed? When will morning come?

This is a question a person asks precisely when surrounded by darkness. He does not merely want to know the time. He wants to know whether the darkness is about to end—whether the light can already be seen.

But the watchman’s answer is surprising:

“The watchman said: Morning has come, and also night. If you would inquire, inquire; return, come.”— Isaiah 21:12

The questioner seeks a simple answer: Is it night or morning? But the watchman replies: morning—and also night.

Perhaps this contains one of the great insights of prophecy. Morning does not entirely abolish the night, just as night does not abolish the possibility of morning. There is no moment in which we can say: From now on, there is only light. Life is a constant movement between light and darkness, revelation and concealment, nearness and distance.

Elsewhere, Isaiah gives this idea an even more daring theological formulation:

“I form light and create darkness;I make peace and create evil;I, the Lord, do all these things.”— Isaiah 45:7

Light and darkness are not two separate powers. God is not present only in the light. Darkness, too, belongs within the world of the Holy One, blessed be He. Perhaps, therefore, our task is not merely to wait for the night to disappear, but to seek God’s presence even within the night.

This may bear a special meaning for us today.

We tend to think of teshuvah as a sharp transition: before, I was distant; now, I am near. Before, there was night; now, morning has arrived. But the prophet tells us: “Morning has come, and also night.” The movement never ceases. There is no point at which a person can say: I have arrived; my teshuvah is complete; there is nowhere further for me to return.

Perhaps that is why the verse ends with the word:

“Return.”

The questioner is not told exactly when the night will end. Instead of receiving an answer about time, he receives a call to movement:

“Return, come.”

Jeremiah likewise declares:

“From afar the Lord appeared to me:I have loved you with an everlasting love;therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”— Jeremiah 31:2

This may be the essence of the spiritual work of teshuvah. Teshuvah is not a final destination, but the ever-renewed possibility of returning: drawing near, moving away, and drawing near once again; falling and rising; passing from night into morning and discovering that even morning still contains shadows, while within the night the light of the coming dawn is already concealed.

“Watchman, what of the night?” We want to know when the darkness will end.

The prophet answers: Do not seek only the end of the night. Listen to the call that resounds from within it:

“Return, come.”

As long as we live within history, morning and night remain intermingled. Even within light, shadows persist; and even within darkness, the beginning of morning is already present:

“Weeping may linger for the night,but joy comes with the morning.”— Psalms 30:6

Yet prophecy does not content itself with an endless movement between light and darkness. It promises that, even if redemption is delayed, it will surely come:

“The sun shall no longer be your light by day…but the Lord shall be your everlasting light…Your sun shall no more go down…for the Lord shall be your everlasting light.”— Isaiah 60:19–20

Until that day, we learn to seek the light of the Holy One, blessed be He, even in the midst of the night, as David teaches the people of Israel in the psalm that accompanies us throughout the season of teshuvah:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear?”— Psalms 27:1

Rabbi Dr. Roberto Arbib