Daily Prophets
Day 86
“If you will return, Israel, says God, return to me… If you swear God lives, in truth, in judgement, in righteousness… Circumcise yourselves to God and take away the foreskins of your heart…Wash your heart from evil, Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long shall your negative thoughts be lodged inside of you.”(Jeremiah 4:1,2,4,14)
Jeremiah is deeply committed to Judah saving herself. He keeps speaking truth to power, truth to the people and continues to call for Judah/Israel to “return to God”. The return, according to the second verse is to take an oath that God lives. How strange a request this is, on the surface, because the Temple and all of its trimmings and trappings, sacrifices and incense burnings, etc. were happening. Yet, Jeremiah is telling us that God doesn’t live in the rituals, God lives in truth, judgement and righteousness and can’t be bought off by the false rituals. Even after all of the betrayals, Jeremiah is saying that God will accept our oath one more time…
If we follow it up with an action; circumcise our ourselves, cut away the foreskins of our hearts that prevent us from acting in truth, judgement and righteousness. We are being given another warning, another opportunity to cut through the thickness that surrounds our hearts and our minds and prevents us from a real connection to and with God. Jeremiah is, as Moses did, reminding us of our stubbornness and our unwillingness to surrender to God. We will surrender to another country when they invade us, we surrender to supposed allies who harm us, yet, we will not surrender to God. We don’t surrender, I believe, because we are afraid to be seen, we are afraid to be authentic, we are afraid to surrender to God because then we cannot hide. How sad for Jerusalem, how sad for Judah, this lack of surrender caused their destruction. How sad for us, as this lack of surrender will and does destroy us individually and as a nation.
Jeremiah is calling on us to wash away the evil that is in our hearts. After we circumcise our hearts, we have to cleanse it, we have to wash away the evil, the negativity, the fear, the facades, the false self we have portrayed for so long. It is time to hold up our end of the covenant and we cannot do this with a heart that is full of evil and a mind full of negative thoughts. Jeremiah is imploring us to stop trying to fool God, lie to ourselves and get over on other people
Rabbi Heschel teaches: “He offered both grief and rebirth, both doom and redemption.”(The Prophets, pg. 161) regarding the first two verses above. Jeremiah’s belief is that God is offering both to us. I am struck by Rabbi Heschel’s observation, is grief the only way to rebirth, is doom the only way to redemption? In looking at the history of our people, our experience could be interpreted in this manner. We “get fat” and go away from God and our path; we are conquered by nations that do not know God, we suffer for a time and then we return and we are restored.
In the face of this indictment and call for return, “there was no sense of guilt, no feelings of shame. Judah said, I am innocent.”(The Prophets pg. 162). This is why Jeremiah’s words are so harsh and his passion for God and for the people is so strong; he knows that as long as evil has a hold of our hearts and negativity is controlling our minds, we are doomed; the problem is he can’t get the people to understand this and change because of the lies of the powerful and the priests.
In recovery, we are constantly circumcising our hearts and cutting away the layers that block us from our full connection with God. We know the power of the evil that resides in our hearts because of the need to be in power, the jealousy of another(s) and the lies we tell ourselves. In recovery we do constant and consistent inventories of our souls, our hearts and our minds to prevent us from going back to the evil ways we once practiced and the negative presence we brought to all our affairs. Now, we are able to return to God through the practice of justice, truth, righteousness and service to another(s). In recovery, we get to live free of the “need” to prove we are worthy, we just know we are and bring our value to all of our affairs as well as our principles.
I have to continually wash my heart and dislodge negative thoughts. I know Jeremiah’s anger and passion and, like Jeremiah, mixed my righteous anger for God’s sake with my own righteous anger for my sake and it has blown up in my face. Yet, I also know that if we are not willing to be angry for God, then we will never stand up for justice, truth and righteousness. I am guilty of being too passionate (some say angry) at times. Yet, if people will see me, they will see that my overzealousness is for the sake of another(s) and God a great majority of the time. I am guilty and I make amends, do T’Shuvah, more than once for this way of being. I know Jeremiah because I lose myself in the same ways as he does. I am not proud of my actions in those moments and I can accept my progress. I know that people use these ways against me, oh well, I loaded their guns so I should not be disappointed or surprised when they fire them. I also know that God is the only source that can help me dislodge my negativity and return in love, compassion, justice, righteousness and truth to those who feel harmed and, most of all, to those who love me and accept me. How do you stay in God’s will and not your negativity? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark