Daily Prophets
Day 135
“A spirit entered me when He spoke to me and I was set upon my feet as well…He said to me, “Mortal I am sending you to the people of Israel, that nation of rebels…for the sons are brazen of face and stubborn of heart. I send them to you and you shall say: Thus says Adonai, your God. Whether they listen or not, for they are a rebellious breed, that them may know there was a prophet among them.”(Ezekiel 2:2,3,4,5).
What Ezekiel is describing in the first verse above is similar to what the Midrash describes as the Israelites reaction to both the parting of the Red Sea and the receiving of the 10 Sayings. A spirit entered them and each Israelite had their own unique experience with God and were uplifted and moved. Ezekiel’s experience, while sounding like he was smoking some really good dope, is actually not that uncommon.
Love is a spirit that enters us, stands us up and allows us to hear differently and more attentively. Hatred, unfortunately is also a spirit that does the same. Ezekiel is telling us the importance of keep hatred out of our beingness, as I am understanding the verses above. Rebellion towards God, brazenness and stubbornness are all actions that lead to and comprise hatred. God knows the people may or may not listen to Ezekiel and God is sending him anyway. God sends us prophets from love, not for punishment, not for scolding, not from wanting to exile us.
Yet, we continue to act like the people of Judah who were exiled to Babylonia and, still, stayed rebellious and brazen, both in captivity and in Judah. Rebelliousness, brazenness is not just an action, it’s an attitude that eats away at our soul from the inside out. Living in this brazenness of face does not allow us to appreciate, rejoice and take advantage of God’s grace, love and loyalty. We continue to reject the words of the Prophets, from the Bible up to today’s prophets. We quote them, we “revere” them, yet we don’t heed their words.
We see this in the way our democracy is unfolding. Our founding fathers (and mothers) wanted us to grow our democratic ways, not shrink them. They wanted to ensure that we would never go back to a King George way of being-where power was so centrally located that we would again be under the tyrannical rule of a lunatic despot. We see how their words are not being heeded in the ways racism, anti-semitism, anti-anyone who is White Anglo Saxon Protestant/Evangelical is growing each day. We see the ways the words of the prophets past and present are not being heeded by belief in and promotion of the BIG LIES.
The last verse above is so beautiful and so telling. Rabbi Tarfon, in Pirke Avot, says “it is not our job to finish the work and we are not free to annul it.” The prophet’s job is not fulfilled if the people listen, it is fulfilled by his delivering the message. Rabbi Heschel teaches: “The life of a prophet is not futile. People may remain deaf to a prophet’s admonitions, they cannot email callous to a prophet’s existence…Ezekiel was told to not entertain any illusions about the effectiveness of his mission:” (The Prophets pg.18). We judge ourselves and others on results that we have no control over, while God, as Rabbi Heschel so beautifully explains, judges us on our efforts. Ezekiel’s effectiveness is proven by our still reading him and, I hope, learning more and more from him.
These verses give hope and strength to those of us in recovery. We have had Spirit enter us and stand us up-in fact this is the only way we stopped engaging in our own brazenness and rebelliousness. We have done inventory many times on how we defied God, what we knew was the next right thing to do, the harm we brought and how to repair the damage. In recovery, we know and appreciate our imperfections rather than try and hide them and deny them as we did before. We were deaf to the voice and words of the prophet until Spirit entered us, in many different forms-even the form of a judge and jail. We now carry the message of Spirit to another(s) and we are not investing in the results, only in the solution. In recovery, we know we are blessed and we continue to study the words of the prophets of old and our modern day ones to mine them for new, different and deeper ways to connect to Spirit and let Spirit lead us.
I have been blessed to have Spirit enter me. I also heard the voice of God calling me and, finally answered with Hineni, here I am. I was one of the people the prophet is speaking about, the brazen rebel, who kept up the rebellion long after I had been defeated, captured and exiled. I realize that the rebellion I was in and the brazenness I practiced were smokescreens for the inner emptiness I experienced and the loneliness I felt. Not being known and seen for who I am, a terrible experience that led to years of drunkenness and crime. So many people harmed by me and I pray that my t’shuvah has been accepted by most. As someone who has delivered a message for 32+ years, I know the feeling of futility that comes when it goes unheard, ridiculed, made irrelevant. I also know the experience of being exiled for continuing to be me and being rejected by the very people one has reached out to help. And, Ezekiel’s words brings me back to what is important, doing the work and staying out of the results. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark