The Shabbat before Tisha b'Av (the 24-hour fast day on the ninth of Av) bears the name Shabbat Hazon (the Sabbath of Vision). It derives from the first word of the haftara: "The vision [hazon] of Isaiah son of Amoz that he beheld concerning Judah and Jerusalem... (Isaiah 1:1)." In English the translation conveys a note of irony, because the word "vision" tends to connote a depiction of beauty and inspiration, whereas Isaiah is delivering a stern reprimand of the hypocrisy and injustice of Judah in the late eighth century B.C.E. The Hebrew word "hazon", in contrast, is neutral, stressing the divine source of the vision rather than what is depicted. The prophet is a seer by virtue of his access to an experience of revelation, irrespective of its content.

And yet the reprimand is informed by a value system that stirs the heart. The Temple in Jerusalem, where Isaiah had his first experience of God and reluctantly accepted the divine call with a sense of deep unworthiness, is not an end in itself. The ultimate purpose of the Torah is not to placate God with sacrifices but to enact God's conception of social justice into law. Sacrifices and prayers that conceal a pervasive fabric of inequity are an abomination to God. Isaiah has God inveigh against a religious establishment that lacks compassion:

I hate your new moons, your festival days;

They are a burden to Me;

I can bear [them] no more.

When you stretch out your hands,

I will avert My eyes from you;however much you pray,I will not listen,while your hands are filled with blood.

Wash yourselves; cleanse yourselves,put your evil doings away from My sight.

Cease to do evil,learn to do good,seek justice; relieve the oppressed.

Uphold the orphan's rights;take up the widow's cause.(Isaiah 1:14-17 trans. by Chaim Stern, The Haftarah Commentary, UAHC Press, p. 432)

The effect of this inimitable haftara is not only to prepare us for the commemoration to come, but to offer us a measure of solace. The destruction of the Temple was not the supreme calamity that could befall Judaism. A sanctuary whose priesthood turned a deaf ear to the agony of the oppressed had forfeited its claim to being holy. Hypocrisy only compounded the sin of injustice.