Daily Prophets
Day 158
“Therefore, says Adonai, God: I will return the fortunes of Jacob and I will have compassion/love for all of the House of Israel and I will be passionate for my Holy Name. They will bear and forget their guilt and trespasses that they committed against Me when they dwell in their land untroubled and secure. They shall know that I, the Lord, am their God when, having exiled them among the nations, I gather them back into their land…I will never again hide My face from them and I will pour out My spirit upon the House of Israel…”(Ezekiel 39:25,26,28,29).
After setting out an angry response to Gog, who represents the abuse of power and cruelty, the prophet gets to, what I believe is the main message. Israel will return to the land God swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They will have an opportunity for a do-over.
Reading the first verse above gives me both hope and trembling awe. God’s unconditional love is not in co-signing the BS of the House of Israel, not in accepting Israel’s phony ‘I’m sorry’, rather God’s unconditional love is shown through God’s absolute willingness to always take us back when we cry out, when we do T’Shuvah and when we have a new response. This, to me is the ultimate in compassion and love. This is what Ezekiel is reminding us of, God is passionate not only for God’s Holy Name, God is passionate to those who live in God’s ways as well. On a personal level, it is important for all of us to realize that God returns us to our proper places when we do our part of the T’Shuvah process: when we are willing to look at ourselves and be in truth with our foibles and our strengths.
God’s promise, God’s gift to us is when we do T’Shuvah with sincerity and commitment, we can bear the formerly unbearable guilt and shame of our previous actions. We can and will see the good we have done and will do in the future, we can and will see the ways we can “fail forward” from our past “missing the marks” and, as Reish Lakish says in the Talmud, “turn our sins into merits”. We can and will recognize the power of T’Shuvah to allow us to live in our own skin without the usual discomfort and pain, rather we will be able to live with ourselves in security and serenity(clarity). This is a pretty big gift that God is giving to Israel and to all of us, I pray we take advantage of it.
Here is the crux of God’s concern, I believe, in the the third verse above. God wants Israel to be re-acquainted with God, to know God again, to recapture the intimate relationship that God had with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, with Miriam, Moses, Aaron, King David, Samuel, etc. God’s promise and hope is that Israel can know God again, worship God again-instead of the idols of power, prestige and wealth-, and renew the covenant with God daily. God is bringing the people back to honor God’s word to our ancestors and it is up to all of us to honor the ways of our ancestors and return to God.
God is once again bringing us to our proper place in the world, both as a people and as individuals and God’s reminding us of the priestly blessing by shining God’s ‘face’ upon us continually and imbuing us with God’s Spirit constantly. This verse is reminding us that we don’t have to search for God. We have to, as the Kotzker Rebbe says, “allow God in”. God is, as Rabbi Heschel reminds us, “in search of man”. Ezekiel is reminding us that we have it all, if we are willing to do T’Shuvah, willing to renew the Covenant, and willing to have an open and truthful relationship with God and ourselves.
In recovery, we experience all of the promises Ezekiel lays out above. We are able to experience, be open to and bask in God’s light, God’s compassion, God’s love. We are aware that without all of these, we cannot live well, we would only exist. We have been returned to our proper place. After much shame and guilt, we have been able to live in our own skin “untroubled and secure” because of God’s infinite compassion and love. We are so aware of how passionate God is for us and to us because of the joy, love, connection we experience in recovery. We are proud to be of service, we are grateful to stay connected and spread the message, we are in love with our newfound “passion for truth” as Rabbi Heschel writes about. In recovery, we get to live these promises daily and we respond with love and gratitude for and to God.
I know these promises to be true. I know the love and compassion God shows me for my foibles and the passion God gives me along with my strengths. I know the pain of seeing my ‘missing the marks’ and the joy of my ‘hitting the bullseye’. I experience the clarity of being able to live in my own self/skin with both of these experiences-not wanting to erase either the pain nor the joy. I am so keenly aware of God searching for me and my recovery is about standing still enough for God to find me as well as seeking God’s guidance. I am blessed to have been in the right place at the right time for these past 32+ years and Ezekiel is reminding me to continue to trust God to show me the next chapter. I am basking in the light God is shining on me and will use it to better my life and the lives of all I encounter. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark