Rebbetzin Chava Kuperman
The prophet Obadiah is included in the book “The Twelve Minor Prophets,” after Amos and before the prophet Jonah. He is considered the least of the Minor Prophets.
His book has only one chapter.
Oral tradition compares the prophet Obadiah with the prophet Isaiah. (We remind readers that the “major” prophet Isaiah, like the major prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, belongs to the 15 Latter Prophets, which also include the 12 “Minor Prophets.” Isaiah is the greatest of the three major prophets (he has the highest spiritual level). Obadiah is the least of the Minor Prophets and has the most modest spiritual level (but may G-d grant everyone a level like his!). Both Obadiah and Isaiah begin their prophecy with the word “chazon” - Vision.
According to tradition, Obadiah was an Edomite. He was the steward of King Ahab's palace. In the Book of Kings (book 1, chapter 18, verse 3), the following is said about him: “Obadiah … was in charge of the palace and... was a very G-d-fearing man.”
It must be especially emphasized that no one other than Obadiah received such a description.
When Ahab's wife, Queen Jezebel, an idolater known for her cruelty, decided to destroy all the prophets of the Almighty, Obadiah hid them in two caves and supplied them with bread and water. He saved a hundred people from certain death, sheltering fifty in one cave and fifty in the other. And according to tradition, his concern was not only to arrange supplies of the prophets' basic necessities—that is, to save them physically. He also provided them with olive oil so that they would have light and could study Torah. There was a famine, all this was ruinously expensive, and Obadiah spent his entire fortune and went into debt. Then he died. And when they came to take his children into slavery because his widow had no means of paying her late husband's debt, she rushed in desperation to the prophet Elisha. On learning that one last small jug of oil remained in the house, he told her to borrow many empty vessels from her neighbors and pour into them from this single jug until they were all full. The miracle of the inexhaustible oil was granted to the woman as a reward for her husband's exceptional righteousness.
Incidentally, while the prophet Obadiah was alive, the food at the royal table in Ahab's palace was kosher. Ravens brought the prophet Elijah, who was in hiding, food from the royal table. If the food in the palace had not been kosher, the Almighty would not have allowed this.
At that time, a restriction was already in place: to become a prophet, a person had to be born Jewish.
Originally, it was different: both Jews and non-Jews became prophets. But everything changed after the sin of the golden calf, when Moses asked the Almighty for this—and He granted his request. Those who were already prophets at that time could continue to prophesy, but only someone born Jewish could become a new prophet.
The only non-Jew who managed to overcome this barrier was Obadiah, who devoted his entire self and all his possessions to saving a hundred prophets.
Living among evildoers and exposed to the influence of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel (that is, subject to both male and female influences), he managed to remain pure and righteous. Born an Edomite, he was, in fact, the opposite of Esau, the progenitor of Edom. Esau, too, lived under male and female influences (the influence of two righteous people—Rebekah and Isaac), but he absorbed nothing.
It turns out that the prophet Obadiah and Esau share one trait—resistance to influence.
Only in Obadiah's case does it serve him well: he uses it properly; Esau does not. One very strong positive trait—and Obadiah receives just one prophecy. It is about Edom (and therefore about Esau).
This prophecy specifies what Esau did wrong and what he will be punished for. During the destruction of the 1st Temple, he handed Jewish refugees over to the Babylonians; during the destruction of the 2nd Temple, he became the one who actually destroyed it (the destroyer's name is known—it was the Roman emperor Titus).
But Esau is our brother! His treatment of us therefore gives us all the more grounds for complaint.
There is a Midrash that offers an interesting interpretation of Jacob's prophetic dream, in which he saw a ladder reaching to heaven and angels ascending and descending. The Midrash says that the number of rungs on the ladder symbolizes the number of years during which other nations will enslave the Jews. Jacob saw the angel of Babylon climb 70 rungs and descend (that is, the 70 years of the Babylonian exile were revealed to him), the angel of Persia climb 52 rungs and descend (the Persian exile lasted 52 years), and the angel of Greece climb 180 rungs and descend... The angel of Rome, having stepped onto the ladder, began climbing higher and higher, reached heaven, and never even thought of coming down.
Jacob became frightened.
And then the Almighty said to him: “If he soars like an eagle (the symbol of Rome is an eagle, as, incidentally, are the symbols of Russia and America), and builds his nest among the stars, I will take you away even from there.” This is how the Book of Obadiah begins.
“On Mount Zion there will be deliverance,” says Obadiah. (The Chofetz Chaim said the same thing on the eve of the Second World War).
Another very well-known phrase appears in Obadiah's prophecy: “The house of Jacob will be fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau straw.” That is, Esau's descendants will burn in Joseph's flame.
The final sentence of Obadiah's prophecy is included in the siddur. In the morning prayer, it is customary to recite it at the end of the “Song at the Sea,” together with a quotation from the prophet Zechariah: «And saviors will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and they will see that sovereignty belongs to the L-rd[1]. And the L-rd will become King over all the earth; on that day the L-rd will be One and His Name one[2]».
This ending reveals the essence of the miracle that happened to the Jews at the sea. When our ancestors, pursued by the Egyptians, crossed the sea unharmed, while their pursuers, every last one, perished in its depths, the world saw that the Almighty rules here—He is King, and everything is subject to His will. The same will happen in the future, when victory over Esau is achieved.