Daily Prophets
Day 179
“Your iniquities have been a barrier between you and God, your sins have made God hide God’’s face and refuse to hear you. Your hands are defiled with crime…your lips speak falsehood…they rely on emptiness and speak falsehood, conceiving wrong and birthing evil. God shall come as redeemer to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn back from sin, declares God. And this shall be My covenant with them, says God,: My spirit which is upon you… shall not be absent from your mouth.”(Isaiah 59:2,20,21).
Second Isaiah is reminding us of all the things that separate us from God, and by extension, each other. We are so quick to blame God for things-“God why are you doing this to me”- is a refrain I heard growing up and up to today. Some people are quick to point out God’s “death” because there is no direct intervention in their eyes. So, Second Isaiah is reminding us of the root cause of our lack of connection, US! It is our iniquities that cause separation, it is our “missing the marks” that cause a hearing loss and a hiding for protection and for comfort. As children we play the game ‘hide and seek’ learning how to hide from another(s) and from God! That game continues into our adulthood and we then blame everyone and everything else for our loneliness and isolation, for not being heard, etc. Second Isaiah is reminding us that we are the cause of separation, we have to be responsible to and for our own actions prior to laying blame anywhere else.
It is difficult for us today as it was for our ancestors in antiquity to see the crimes our hands have committed; the theft of time, material goods, the slights of hand we use to fool people. It is even harder for us, as it was for them, to acknowledge our falsehoods. We speak lies like they are truth, we defend our lies and the lies of “our people” with more lies and perverted logic. We allow anything to be okay if it fits in with ‘our side’. Hence we have lies about Jews, Asians, Blacks, Muslims, Hispanics being promoted by both the far left and far right. We have bought the ‘poor underdog’ speech of people on both ends of the spectrum without examining the truth and the falsehoods of what is being said. So, we stop hearing anything that isn’t ‘our view’ and allow the falseness of ‘I’m right and you’re wrong’ dominate us and separate us further and further from one another and, by extension, God. Second Isaiah is calling us out to see our part, to stop blaming and to learn how to be responsible and to return, of course.
What is the wrong we are conceiving even as we read Torah, pray our prayers, read the prophets? Which wrongs are we thinking about as we get into our cars, go to work, try to ‘make a killing’? What evil are we birthing in our blaming of another and taking no responsibility for our part in wrongdoing? What evil are we birthing with our deception of another(s) and our practice of mendacity? We have choices each and every day, to hear and listen to God, to hear and listen to the call of our soul, to hear and listen to our false ego’s, to hear and listen to our self-protective self. When we need to make someone else bad for us to be good, when we betray the people who have helped us live well and when we seek to harm another for our own gain- we are birthing evil that separates us from God and from our inner essence. No one is born bad, it is a trait we learn and grow or not, depending on our environment, our education, and our desire for connection with God.
Rabbi Heschel teaches about the verses:”In contrast to the books of earlier prophets…now the Voice speaks to Israel directly…it is predominately God addressing Himself to the people; it is I, not He.” God is calling us back, God is telling those who turn back to God, who do T’Shuvah, being responsible for their own sins/errors, giving up their old ways, making proper and sincere amends to those we have harmed, God will redeem us and make a new/renew God’s covenant. Not only renew/make new the covenant, but put into our mouths the words, the ways and the spirit of this covenant so it never leaves us. God did this for our ancestors and is doing this for us today, will we turn back to God, will we be the true remnant of Jacob that takes the mantle of God and be the light to the nations? Will you do your T’Shuvah, acknowledge the evil you have birthed, the falseness you speak, the crimes we have committed and turn back to God by making the proper amends and retraining yourself to not go down these paths anymore?
This is the path of recovery! In recovery we have the new covenant and the words of God are the ones we speak most often, never being perfect is a sign of being in recovery:). In recovery, we have faced ourselves and we have made our amends and continue to grow along spiritual lines so we can continue to grow in our daily quest to do God’s work each and every day.
I have, of course, committed all the crimes Second Isaiah is speaking of. I also turned back and keep turning back. I am aware of the harm I have wrought and the amends I have made. I am aware of the good I have done and the lives I have helped to save. I know the good outweighs the harm and I know that people still want me to pay for the harm I have done. I am amazed at the ‘pounds of flesh’ some people I thought to be friends and colleagues want from me. I also know that God continues to redeem me and I can’t let the evil of another(s) influence me to do the same. God’s love and redemption will save me and does save you! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.