Daily Prophets
Day 99
“Cursed is one who trusts in man who makes flesh his strength and turns his thoughts from God. Blessed is one who trusts in God, whose trust is God. Lord, all who forsake you shall be put to shame. Heal me, God and let me be healed, save me and let me be saved; for You are my glory.”(Jeremiah 17:5,7,13,14).
Jeremiah is calling out to the people to wake up from their indifference and their complacency and what will happen to them. I do not believe Jeremiah is asking people to be cursed or blessed in the first two verses above. Rather, I believe he is informing the people they have the choice to choose curses and/or blessings.
Why is one who trusts in man lost and cursed? It is because this one is so enamored with their own or another’s strength that they have turned away from God. Knowing one’s strengths and the strengths of another(s) is important and wonderful, turning away from God, the provider of said strengths is dangerous. As I am reading this verse over and over, Jeremiah is saying STOP believing your own press.
Blessings come to those who are aware of the true order of living. Having God/Higher Power to trust in, be accountable to; allows us to let go of our petty concerns and need to prove ourselves as self-sufficient. I understand Jeremiah to be teaching us that self-sufficiency is a human myth-born out of some need to prove we don’t need God. How silly and sad! Recognizing our need for reliance is also appreciating the gift of God’s help and the help of another(s). The blessings are a never-ending chain of reciprocity to and from one human to another and from humans to God and back again.
The last two verses above are Jeremiah’s cry for justice, letting the people who have done the forsaking pay for their errors and, by their death, allowing the rest of the people of Judah and Jerusalem to not be destroyed. In the last verse, he is calling on God to heal him and save him; he knows the truth of the words he spoke about blessings so he knows that trusting in God is his only hope to be healed from the trauma of his experience with the people during his prophecy, the trauma of knowing the people will be captured, the Temple destroyed and the land will lie fallow. This, I believe is what he is asking to be healed and saved from.
Rabbi Heschel teaches: “Justice bespeaks a situation that transcends the individual, demanding from everyone a certain abnegation of self, defiance of self-interest, disregard fo self-respect.”(The Prophets pg 209). Immersing ourselves in the first two verses above and in Rabbi Heschel’s words, we can see clearly the need to transcend our selves in order to connect with God, be blessed by God and live in a world where Justice and Blessings, prevail. All of these actions lead to the blessings spoken about above. The perversion of our inner lives begins with the actions we take that deny justice, truth, love, kindness, generosity, etc. which leads to the curses. Rabbi Heschel goes on to say: “He who loved his people, whose life was dedicated to saving his people, was regarded as the enemy. Jeremiah was gentle and compassionate by nature and the mission he had to carry out was, to him, distasteful in the extreme.”(The Prophets pg.123). Rabbi Heschel is teaching us that truth will set us free in our inner lives and, sometimes, causes us to be an outcast with the people who know us best. As long as we can find something wrong with the messenger, we don’t have to listen to the messenger.
In recovery, we are all the messengers to and for each other as well as the person who is still suffering. We are blessed to learn the laws of self-abnegation, defiance of self-interest as Rabbi Heschel writes. We have been the cursed because we did not engage in trusting God, rather we trusted our strength and our minds. Now, we are blessed because we, like Jeremiah, cried out to God to be healed, we prayed to be saved and God answered our prayers; healing us and saving us to better carry out God’s Will each day. We know that another blessing is our constant progress, rather than the need to be perfect. In recovery, our days of forsaking God, turning away from God, not trusting in God are over, done finished. We are aware that our only path to stay in recovery is to trust in God, follow God’s teachings and be of service to another(s) in need.
I know Jeremiah’s pain and anguish well. I know how it is to see calamity coming and be powerless to stop it, yet hear the call to attempt to anyway. I know the power of people’s scorn when one is trying to do what is called for and the next right thing. I know the pain and the joy of “only God knowing the truth” as Rabbi Heschel writes in The Prophets on page 123. AND, I know the blessings that far outweigh the curses and the pain caused by another(s). I know the blessings of speaking truth to people and reaching out to help another(s). I know the blessing of hearing God’s call, responding to the call and following the Will of God, not my own will. I know that blessing that doing God’s Will brings to another(s) and to me. I know the blessings of reciprocity of generosity and I know the blessings of connection to family, friends and community. I know that all is right in the world when we study, learn, laugh and argue together for the sake of heaven and living a little better today than yesterday. Stay Safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark