Daily Prophets
Day 113
Yesterday’s quote was from Chapter 30 of Jeremiah, not Chapter 31 as I noted.
“Rachel weeping for her children, she refuses to be comforted. And there is hope for your future declares God: Your children shall return to their country. Just as I was watchful over them to uproot and pull down…so I will be watchful over them to build and plant-declares God. See a time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. I will put My Torah in their souls and write it on their hearts.”(Jeremiah 31:15,17,28,31,33)
The imagery Jeremiah gives to us is so sad, compassionate, beautiful and truthful. Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, the one who died in childbirth, never stops caring for her children, both the House of Israel and the House of Judah. In death, Rachel stops competing with her sister, Leah, she is portrayed as mother to all the children. She is inconsolable as long as her children are in exile. This is true for Rachel in Jewish lore and it is true for mothers (and fathers) everywhere throughout the generations. Even God, who exiled the people for their iniquities and sins, weeps for God’s children. In each and every family where exile is necessary, the remaining members, still weep and grieve over the loss of the one who is exiled.
God, however, gives us the message: “there is hope in your future”. Here is the real story of the Jewish People, as a story for all people; we are not stuck in exile, we can (and must) return from exile after we see the errors of our ways, repent and then we can rejoin the family, the tribe, God, the land, etc. We will return, the question that is ours to answer is when we will decide to return to God, decency, etc. We are promised a return to our country which kept the Jewish people hopeful for almost 1900 years of exile. God is “watchful over them to build and plant” which tells me to remember who we answer to, not a political will or whim, we answer to God, who brought us back from exile and gives us the tools, the Torah, to path to build back better.
We do this by accepting God’s gift of a new covenant. We build back better by accepting the Torah that God has placed in our souls and written on our hearts. We accept the Torah by actually living a life that is based in soul knowledge, which is connective, loving, just, truthful, compassionate and kind. We do this by rejecting the devisings of our minds which wants to “get over” “be in power” and play a “zero-sum” game. Life is not a game, according to God and to our history-it is a serious endeavor that God is helping us with by placing Torah into our souls; allowing us to live life from the inside out, to stop worrying about power over others and begin to live in accordance with God’s will not our own.
Rabbi Heschel teaches: “Prophecy is not God’s only instrument. What prophecy fails to bring about, the new covenant will accomplish: the complete transformation of each individual.”(The Prophets pg 128-129). Reading Rabbi Heschel this morning, with all that is going on in Israel, in the world and in America; I am at a loss to understand what prevents us from accepting this “complete transformation of each individual”? We continue to disregard the teachings that are written “on our hearts” and block them from entering our minds and being. We have locked up our souls and hardened our hearts so we can continue the zero-sum, power over everything, life. Johann Hari, in 2018 wrote about “junk values” and how they are “making us mentally sick…”. This is, in his opinion and the opinion of Tim Kasser, a professor at the University of Illinois, caused by living our lives based on extrinsic motives/values. Living life from intrinsic values, doing something because it is worth doing and the next right thing to do, brings happiness and joy. Rabbi Heschel’s words, along with Jeremiah’s, remind us that we already have the Teachings in our soul and on our heart-when will we activate them?
In recovery, we needed exile in order to return. We are so aware of our new covenant, we recite it everyday when we wake up and are grateful to be alive, when reach out to another person and ask how can we be helpful rather than what can I get from them. We live the teachings by building our lives under God’s watchful ‘eye’ and getting direction and strength from God to build back better and more joyous. We make the choice to live from our soul’s knowledge rather than our mind’s rationalizations so we can lie down in peace and happiness each evening after reviewing our day, repairing our errors and enhancing our ‘wins’. In recovery, we are dedicated to living life from the inside out-we know the pain of exile, the loneliness of exile and we are not willing to go back to that way of being.
I have been in exile and I am aware of the part I play in my exile. I have been comforted by God in my own exile by following God’s path back. I have, over these 32+ years, lived from the inside out more and more each day. I know what is written on my heart and I do my very best to make the Torah/Teachings of God, my path and my will. My life is so much better because, even when people exile me, God does not and we, God and me, are connected and carrying on. Each day gives me/us the opportunity to build back better under God’s watchful ‘eye’. I have made the choice to stop depending on extrinsic values for joy and instead rejoice in fulfilling the intrinsic values God has placed in my soul. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark