Shabbat Chazonשַׁבַּת חֲזוֹן

Shabbat Chazon (“Sabbath [of] vision” שבת חזון) takes its name from the Haftarah that is read on the Shabbat immediately prior to the mournful fast of Tisha B’Av, from the words of rebuke and doom coming from Isaiah in the Book of Isaiah 1:1-27. It is also referred to as the Black Sabbath due to its status as the saddest Shabbat of the year. Shabbat Chazon is the third and climactic of the "Three Haftarot of Affliction" (Haftarot d'Puranuta) read on the three Shabbatot of the Three Weeks between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av. Isaiah's "vision" is more than lament: it is a stinging rebuke of Judah and Jerusalem for hollow ritual divorced from social justice, naming the moral failures that led to the destruction of the First Temple, while insisting that catastrophe could still be averted through teshuvah (repentance). Fittingly, the chapter does not end in despair but in consolation: "Zion shall be redeemed through justice" (Isaiah 1:27). A widely cited Chassidic teaching (associated with the Rebbe of Ger and with Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev) holds that on this Shabbat every Jewish soul is granted a vision of the future Third Temple, even if the physical eye does not perceive it, turning a day on the threshold of mourning toward hope and redemption.

Shabbat Chazon has no fixed Hebrew calendar date; it is simply the Shabbat (Saturday) immediately preceding the fast of Tisha B'Av (9 Av), so it typically falls in the first week of the month of Av. It always coincides with the reading of Parashat Devarim, the opening portion of Deuteronomy, which is always read on the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av. When Tisha B'Av itself falls on Shabbat, the fast is postponed to Sunday (10 Av), and that Shabbat is still Shabbat Chazon. As an ordinary weekly Shabbat with a special haftarah, it has no date difference between Israel and the Diaspora; communities vary in their cantillation custom, not the date.

The Torah reading is the regular weekly portion, Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22), which fittingly contains the word "eichah" ("how/alas") in Deuteronomy 1:12 ("Eichah esa levadi," "How can I bear alone..."), a linguistic bridge to the Book of Lamentations (Eichah) chanted on Tisha B'Av. The Haftarah is Isaiah 1:1-27 ("Chazon Yeshayahu"), the third of the three Haftarot of Affliction, and it too contains "eichah" in Isaiah 1:21 ("Eichah haytah le-zonah," "Alas, how the faithful city has become a harlot"). A widespread Ashkenazi custom is to chant much of this haftarah not in the standard haftarah melody but in the mournful Eicha (Lamentations) trope, the same cantillation used to chant Megillat Eicha on the night of Tisha B'Av. The most common practice is a "mixed" reading: opening verses in regular haftarah trope, a shift to Eicha trope around the verses of harshest rebuke (commonly beginning at 1:21), and a return to the standard melody for the hopeful and concluding verses (ending at 1:27). The exact verses where the Eicha melody begins and ends vary by community, and some congregations chant nearly the whole haftarah in Eicha trope.

Because Shabbat Chazon falls on Shabbat, the mourning restrictions of the Nine Days are suspended for the day: one may eat meat and poultry and drink wine, wear regular Shabbat clothing, and the day keeps its normal joyous Shabbat character, since public mourning is not permitted on Shabbat. The day's distinctive observance is therefore liturgical rather than restrictive: chanting the haftarah (in whole or in part) to the mournful Eicha melody. Chassidic custom highlights the teaching that the soul is shown the Third Temple on this Shabbat, orienting the day toward hope. When Tisha B'Av begins on Saturday night (motzaei Shabbat), the Seudah Shlishit (third Shabbat meal) is eaten without the usual characteristics of a mourner's pre-fast meal, because open mourning cannot take place on Shabbat.