Daily Prophets
Day 5
After reviving the widow’s son, Elijah is called by God to return to Ahab and tell him about the rain. He had been gone for 3 years and all the rest of the prophets had been killed. There is a little bit of doubt about this as Obadiah claims he had saved 100 of them and Elijah then proclaims to the people that he is the only prophet left. Ahab had been looking for Elijah, presumably to kill him, and Elijah kept disappearing. This, of course, was God caring for Elijah.
Why does God have Elijah return to talk about rain? Is it because of Elijah’s earlier prophecy that the rain and dew will stop so we have a complete mission by Elijah? Is it because there is no prophet left and Israel needs to hear Elijah so they can repent? I believe both reasons are valid and I want to focus on the second one. It is so hard, sometimes, to turn back to God on one’s own. It is so hard because most of us are unaware of how we have turned away from God, our values and our principles. These turns are done so incrementally that unless we are hyper-vigilant, we will not even notice. This is true in the descent into addiction of any kind, it is true in crossing the line from moral to immoral, it is true in going from legal to illegal for most people. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says: “self deception is a major disease” (Carl Stern Interview, Dec. 1972). It is precisely this self deception that allows most of us to defend ourselves against criticism and proclaim our rightness! This is why we need sponsors in 12-step programs, to help us discern our part in any resentments, etc. It is why we need Spiritual Counselors to help us see the whole picture and the small drifts we make away from our proper path. We can’t always see how we drift from our path, prayer is meant to help us make daily corrections, Tshuvah is an aid to help us see these small drifts.
What happened Tuesday was the outcome of the inability of some of our leaders to see how far they have drifted off the path. They proclaimed their fidelity to God, yet it is evident they were only loyal to their own power and agenda. This is the type of behavior that the Prophets came to inform Israel of and to grind against them to return to the path of God. This is a condemnation of both extremes, as the Rambam teaches, the middle path is usually the best. We have strayed to the extremes where the people at the extremes have wrapped themselves in righteousness so tightly, they don’t see the ways they have drifted and the crimes they commit while bastardizing God’s name and word.
Elijah’s return is as God’s messenger. He says to the people Israel: “How long will you keep hopping between two opinions? If Adonai is God, follow Adonai and if Baal, follow him.” He is calling the people to make a choice and he then has a contest with the 450 prophets of Baal that Ahab and Jezebel have supported. It is similar to the Korah, fire pan contest, only with a sacrifice instead. The people needed to see physical proof of Adonai, they have the physical proof of Baal in all of the statues/Idols that are created, yet Adonai is abstract. This is the same situation we face today. The spirit of democracy is abstract. The constitution and rule of law is open to interpretation, so our vigilance has to be heightened. Our use of the ballot box is always superior to use of bullets. The travesty on Tuesday that was supported and incited by some Republican leaders tried to kill the spirit of democracy and prove that bullets mean more than ballots. The people that Elijah was speaking to, in my opinion, were all the people who stood idly by the blood of democracy. The people who have enabled the inciters of the Tuesday’s insurrection attempt. We have to hear Elijah’s call and we have to check ourselves and each other, not for power but for peace.
Adonai is the “winner” in this contest and then killed all of the prophets of Baal. The people realized their errors and said: “Adonai is God, Adonai is God”. What will it take for us to accept and keep this truth? It is time for all of us to worship God, not power. It is time to follow the soul of our democracy, not the lies of the grifters. It is time for us to make sure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” We do this by checking the ways that we drift from these principles, from the truth of our soul, from our unique purpose each day.
Yes, Elijah was crazy, he was a wild man and the people needed this type of person in order to hear the word of God and the truth of their behavior. Who do you use to hear truth about you? What are the words that will help you acknowledge the truth of your drift? How will you do T’Shuvah for the harm your drift has produced? God Bless, Rabbi Mark