Daily Prophets
Day 4
In light of yesterday’s events, hearing the words of the Prophets seems all the more important. We are engaged in a Spiritual and Moral war with charlatans who say that God is on their side, yet their vision of God is that God is the Lion. King David was great because he took what he wanted. They are certainly missing the words of the Prophets and the fact that truth is a principle that God is totally invested in. We say Adonai Emet, God is Truth, not man, just God. To those who encouraged this violence, to President Trump, the Senators who joined him in spreading the lie of a “stolen election”, to the Republicans who have gone along with his lies and grifting because of their own needs being met, I say in the name of the Prophet Elijah: “The Lord alone is God, The Lord alone is God”.
Elijah is sent away by God for his own protection. God sends him to a widow’s house who will care for him. The widow thought she did not have enough to feed him and her kindness was rewarded with her flour jar never being empty and her jug of oil never running out. This story is one that stands out to and for me. I think about how often it is that the poorest people among us are the most generous. Poor people, people who have suffered hardships they are generous because they know what it is like to be in need. Growing up, we were poor and my father made sure that we always gave charity when we went to Hebrew school. I asked him once why he was so insistent on this and he said that Tzedakah was God’s money that we get to return to God. I have never forgotten this. My grandparents on both sides kept a Pushke and put change in it every Shabbos Reading this 17th Chapter of 1Kings brought me back to these memories.
We get to give back to God what God has given us. Every act of kindness is not something that we do out of benevolence it is a return to and/or a repayment back to God for all the kindness we have been shown. It is never a burden to return to God a kindness by helping another human being. Yet, today as in the days of the Prophets, people in power see kindness as weakness. Mitch McConnell is proud to be the Grim Reaper, Ted Cruz is overjoyed to be Trump’s lackey, Mike Pence is the Trump Bobblehead always praising and agreeing with “Mr. President” under whose watch Covid-19 has raged without any coordination from the Federal Government. Business people who are proud of ‘making a killing’ and crushing their competitors.
As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says in his book The Prophets, “To the prophets even a minor injustice assumes cosmic proportions.” When I have railed against the injustice and cruelty of this administration I was told how great Trump was/is for Israel. How he helped the rich and the corporations with his tax cut and how his policies have helped people add to their wealth, etc. I was told to stay out of politics by Board Members and Congregants alike. I explained that I was not being political, I was being moral. When people “agreed with my views” I was extolled, when I screamed about the assault on our dignity, I was expelled. Rabbi Heschel took on the mantle of the Prophet by speaking truth to power and by following his conscience and God’s call no matter what.
The Widow who helped Elijah needed more help as her son fell ill and she accused him of “recalling/remembering her sin and causing the death of her son” (1Kings 17:18). Elijah then took the boy, gave him some type of CPR all the while calling on God to “let this child’s life return to his body” (1Kings 17:21). Elijah was willing to call God to task so the boy did not die. God heard Elijah’s plea and the boy was saved. Elijah was not willing to do nothing and say it was up to God. I have no part in this problem. Elijah was even so dedicated to repay the kindness the widow had shown him that he was willing to call God to task.
I call all of us to task today and everyday. As Harriet Rossetto says: “You don’t have to be an addict to be in recovery!” We have become addicted to hate and injustice. We have all become addicted to power and prestige, either having it or wanting it. We have all stood by while people have been abused, shunned and their dignity assaulted. It has to STOP NOW. I was sick to my stomach that the Capital Police and the Federal Law Enforcement apparatus allowed these criminals to invade our House. Then, they were just nicely asked to leave. Yet, if it was a BLM march, a march for true justice, the riot gear would have met the people before any of yesterday’s tragedy could have happened.
We the people must stop this here and now. Write to Congress, recall the senators and representitives that gave aid and comfort our enemies and failed to fulfill their basic oath to protect us from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
We may not be prophets, we are descendants of the prophets, as Rabbi Heschel teaches, and it is time for us to live up to our heritage. God Bless, Rabbi Mark