Daily Prophets
Day 12
Our inability to hear and heed the call of Adonai is so prevalent in Chapter 4 of Amos, as it is in all the words of the Prophets. After berating Israel for carousing, taking advantage of the poor and needy, then bringing sacrifices to make everything okay, Amos goes on a rant. One of the things that I missed in studying Amos before is how much I can and must identify with both the people Israel and the prophet Amos and Adonai. All of us have had the experiences of all three and most of us don’t realize it and/or pay the experience no attention. Ask yourself, how often do/did you take actions that were not correct and think ‘everyone does this’, ‘I am entitled’, ‘I will atone on Yom Kippur’, etc. The Rabbis of the Talmud made it very clear that people think that way so they decreed that to say “I will sin and atone on Yom Kippur” doesn’t work! Seeing how I have done this in the past makes me want to vomit at my arrogance, entitlement, and deafness. It takes all three to do this and, while we are not perfect, it is a call to us to continue to do T’Shuvah, take inventory so we stop this behavior quickly.
I hear Amos’ plea to the people Israel to look at themselves and turn back to God. “Yet you did not turn back to Me” is a phrase that is said 5 times in Chapter 3 of Amos verses 6-11. I am struck by the pain of Adonai and the prophet Amos in these verses. As Rabbi Heschel writes in The Prophets on page 35: “The song of lament concerning the obduracy of the people, with its recurrent refrain, five times repeated, “Yet you did not return to Me,” is an expression of God’s mercy and of His disappointment.” How easy it is for us to get confused and try to confuse/deceive others by reading these verses and making them into harshness and anger rather than mercy and disappointment. I did this for years, I realize. I heard judgement and castigating when the people that loved me were showing me mercy and expressing their disappointment. It is so easy to lie to ourselves out because we got caught, we love to deceive, we don’t want to be responsible and we just want to do what we want to do with no recriminations nor responsibility. Adonai called to me more than 5 times, more than 1 prophet reached out to me. I thought my brother, Rabbi Neal Borovitz, spoke to me in anger and disdain, now, re-immersing myself in Amos, I see how disappointed, afraid and merciful he was being towards me. It is humbling, it makes me joyous to realize this truth about Neal and so many others who have called and I have been unable to hear. I, like many people, have gotten resentful when people have chastised me for my own good as ‘who do they think they are’, ‘yeah, you do the same things’, etc. Rather than seeing in their eyes and faces and hearing in their voices the pain, disappointment and merciful plea to return. God’s words, “Yet you did not return to Me” are words of desire and welcoming.
How can we hear these words as a call to begin again? How can we hear God’s mercy and take it in and return to our core essence? How can we help our country heal? “You have become a brand plucked from the burning” (Amos 4:11) is a beginning, I believe. Every person in Recovery knows that we have been burnt by our addictions and almost consumed by them and we have been saved by the Grace of God. America was founded by the Grace of God, we have won wars by the Grace of God, our Capital was invaded on Jan. 6 and it survived by the Grace of God, our democracy has been threatened by lies and deceptions from the top and it has survived by the Grace of God. Are we, as Americans, willing to go to any lengths to grow and deepen our democracy, our commitment to truth, our repayment to God for saving us? To do this means we have to be as dedicated to steps 4-9 as anyone who is in recovery. To do this we have to do T’Shuvah each and every day/week so we can return to God and repay God’s Grace.
God has saved America, we ask God to Bless America all the time. God has saved the Jewish People, we ask for God’s Blessings 100+ times a day. Amos says: “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel”(Amos 4:12), which is commonly seen as a predictor of punishment according to Rabbi Heschel, is God’s last hope to change the hearts and souls of Israel. Maybe a face to face meeting will open their hearts, their minds and their souls. I know it did for me and every recovering person, “Having had a Spiritual Awakening as a result of these steps” is the beginning of the 12th Step of AA. I had a Spiritual experience/meeting with Adonai in a jail cell in Van Nuys, Ca in December of 1986 and it changed my life and the lives of so many others. I ask our Senators and Congresspeople, our Clergy and Laypeople, are we truly willing to meet God and have our hearts and minds changed? This reminds me of a statement by President George W. Bush, when I met him in Los Angeles for a roundtable discussion of faith-based recovery with 6 other people, he said: “I’m an old drunk who God opened my heart and I never have to drink again.” Maybe if we all let God in our hearts, we will argue for the sake of heaven and what is the next right thing to do to carry out God’s Will instead of arguing for the sake of ourselves, our own power and what serves me best! This is the way to honor Dr. King, Rabbi Heschel, RFK, JFK, LBJ and their struggles to make this happen. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark