Daily Prophets
Day 204
“God has a case against God’s people…My people, what wrong have I done you? What hardship have I caused you? Testify against Me! I brought you up from the Land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage, I sent before you, Moses, Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak, king of Moab plotted against you and how Balaam, son of Beor, responded to him…and you will know the righteous acts of God.”(Micah 6:2-5).
Micah is speaking for God, presenting God’s case against the people to the hills and the mountains and God wants us to know the case against us so we can change. Reading these words, “God has a case against God’s people” makes me tremble with the knowledge, reminder that we are all God’s people and God’s case against us is based on the truth of our own actions. We are in the last 8 days of Elul, so we have 18 days till we face God and the indictment is readied and we will hear it on Rosh Hashanah, yet we already know it, we already are acknowledging that God has a case against us and now what? What are we going to do about the indictment, the case against us, we have 18 days to make things right, will we?
God’s cry is the cry we all have cried and heard: “what have I done to you that you treat me in this way?” Have we all forgotten that God brought us out from our narrow places, for the places where we were either trapped by another(s) and/or trapped by ourselves, our false egos, etc? It seems as if we have not only forgotten our redemption, we have decided to act like Pharaoh to a multitude of fellow human beings. We have forgotten the cries we (our ancestors) cried in Egypt, we have forgotten the hardship of slavery, the inability to ever be satisfied and in joy that our enslavement brought. We have forgotten to “see ourself as if we had been brought out from Egypt” as the Haggadah tells us. Reading this verse gives these words of the Haggadah even more importance. If we are to remember what it was like to be enslaved at the time of Passover and we are to inventory our good and not good actions/behaviors at Yom Kippur time, we will continue to return to God, and not have such a long indictment read against us on Rosh Hashanah. We do this by listening to the guidance of Torah, of Moses, Aaron, Miriam, of our prophets and of our spiritual guides and mentors that we choose for ourselves. We do this by doing T’Shuvah more often, remembering what kindness and righteousness God has shown us whether we think we deserve it or not and honoring this kindness and righteousness.
We are being asked to remember Balak and Balaam, remember the words of “Ma Tovu” prayer. Micah is calling on us to remember that God sees us as good and worthy human beings, God doesn’t want to harm us, God loves us, yet we continue to forget this, we continue to violate the commandment to have no other gods before God by making ourselves into gods and engaging in the idolatry of celebrity, power, wealth, etc. It is precisely because of our engaging in idolatry, because we keep forgetting that we are all redeemed from Egypt, we are all given a place and a purpose to live in and fulfill that we are called to the courtroom each year! When will we stop our lying ways, our willful blindness?
Rabbi Heschel teaches regarding these verses: “God’s sorrow and disappointment are set forth before the people. “Answer Me!” calls the voice of God. But who hears the call?” Again I filled with trembling awe at these words. God is calling out to all of us, God is reminding us of God’s righteousness, love, kindness, truth, justice and compassion for us and we are still not hearing this call to return, to change, to quit our idolatrous ways. We are not hearing the call nor answering God’s plea to explain ourselves. Even in our prayers on Yom Kippur and Kol Nidre, we are have to take our own responsibility in the actions we ‘confess’ to, not just recite a formula. We hear people call us up and say”if I have done anything to harm you, please forgive me” at this time of year, and they are empty words if we don’t do the work of T’Shuvah-be responsible, remorseful, truthful, in order to repair and change and have hope for a different year in this next one. God is calling, our souls are calling, the souls of the people who love us are calling: will we answer truthfully, righteously, gratefully and in true repentance this year?
In recovery, we are well aware of God’s call and we are painfully aware of how long we ran away from God’s call and the call of the people who love(d) us. To continue to grow in our recovery, we have to continue to hear the call of God and people around us, we are committed to not going back to depths of our previous negativity nor deafness and blindness. In recovery, we welcome God’s reminders to us about connection, commitment, kindness and taking the next right action.
I have heard God’s indictment and the indictment of the people I love and those that do not love me. I have responded with acknowledgment even when I have disagreed. I continue to turn to God, I continue to hear God’s indictment and I pray that people will forgive me, not need to “get even” with me nor I with them, that we treat each other as we want God to treat us, with charity, kindness, forgiveness, compassion and love. When we do this, the entire world changes, one person at a time. God Bless and Stay Safe, Rabbi Mark