Daily Prophets
Day 16
Continuing to re-read Amos is chilling to me as well as hopeful. Watching the Inaugural yesterday rekindled a pride, hope and proof that our democracy works and can work better, if we will seek truth, not let perfection getting the way of ‘more perfect’ and see our country and ourselves as works in progress. I feel this way every 4 years whether I voted for the person taking office or not. I was especially uplifted yesterday by the ex-Presidents club that came together to let our entire country know that we can find togetherness in our shared love for our country and our service. I was inspired as I am at the beginning of each Inaugural and this year, I am still inspired and hopeful.
Amos inspires me also. In Chapter 7 as God is letting Amos know what will happen to Israel because they have broken the Covenant, Amos says “Adonai, pray forgive, how will Jacob survive, he is so small.”(Amos 7:2,5). Each time, God repents and says it will not happen. I am so inspired by Amos because he stands up to Israel and stands up for Israel. He stands up for God and to God. WOW! Talk about speaking truth to power. He is the epitome of Rabbi Heschel’s description of a prophet in his interview with Carl Stern in 1972, “The kind of man who combine a very deep love, a very powerful dissent, a painful rebuke with unwavering hope.” Amos is our model for living, I believe. He is willing to stand up for Israel because he sees Israel’s flaws and cares for Israel. God too cares so God repents because Amos asked and God heard truth from God’s prophet. We get to do this also. We get to pray to God for others and we do this when we get out of ourselves. At an AA meeting I attend, one of the members said: “whenever I get stuck on me…” I loved this description of selfishness and narcissism, stuck on me. Amos goes beyond the me to embrace the we, he goes beyond his hurts and traumas to care for and about others. I am proud of the times I have done this and embarrassed about the times I didn’t. How often are you “stuck on me” and how often are you embracing the we?
We all are descendants of the Prophets, Jew, Christian, Muslim, all of us have the gift to combine love, dissent, rebuke and hope. Also shows us the way when one of the priest’s of King Jeroboam tells him to get out of here and stop prophesying. Amos, responds by saying: “I am not a prophet… I am a cattle breeder and a tender of sycamore figs. Adonai took me away…and said to me ‘go prophesy to My people Israel’.”(Amos 7:14-15). Amos tells the priest what is to befall him and it isn’t good. What is most important is that Amos recognizes his calling is from God. He is not concerned enough with what the priest thinks or the King thinks to stop him from speaking the words that God gives him. Yesterday, I listened as President Joe Biden told the 1000+ people he was swearing in to listen to their gut and allow what is inside these go up to their heart and then have their brain speak the words in a way that is kind and decent, Harriet and I remarked that the President was counseling us all to live from our souls and not our intellect. I think about the times I combined love, dissent, rebuke and hope in proper measure and the times I didn’t combine these essential ingredients in proper measure. Finding the right combination for the moment takes being present in the moment. It means I have to be maladjusted to conventional notions and cliches as Rabbi Heschel teaches.
All of us have a word of God in us, as my friend, teacher and guide Rabbi Ed Feinstein teaches, and we have to speak it. We have to shout it sometimes (a trait I am very good at), we have to whisper it sometimes (not so good at this sometimes) and we have to speak it clearly and in ways another person can understand (jury is still out on this one). I know that the word of God that I am compelled to speak is powerful and needed. I know this, because like Amos, I heard God call me, finally some 34+ years ago. I have kept hearing God call me and I know that my word is needed as is yours. I know that we all get to live from our guts and allow the words and experience of God in our gut can open our hearts and help our brains find the best way to speak to another human being, as Joe Biden said yesterday. I pray that you will hear God’s call to you, speak it to us and help to make a ‘more perfect union’ within oneself, within our community and within our country. Stay sage and God Bless, Rabbi Mark