Daily Prophets
Day 187
“In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of God came to the prophet Zechariah. Thus said God of Hosts, turn to me and I will turn back to you. Do not be like your fathers, when the prophets called to them “Come turn from your evil deeds and evil ways, they did not obey nor give heed to Me. Proclaim! I am very jealous for Jerusalem, for Zion…I graciously return to Jerusalem, my house shall be built in her. God will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem again.” (Zechariah 1:1,3,4,14,16,17).
Zechariah is preaching to the people who are getting ready to return to Jerusalem and to Judah. Cyrus has already allowed for the captives to return and, it seems, not everyone left all at once. We do know that some of the people stayed in Babylon as the Babylonian Talmud was developed there. I am not sure whom the prophet is speaking to, yet it seems as if he has to support and encourage the people to return.
The first verse above reminds the people that God is still calling for the people’s return. Today is the first day of Elul and it seems appropriate to be speaking about return/tshuvah. Just as God and the prophets called for the people to ‘turn from their evil deeds and ways” in real time, the prophet is calling for the people to do the same while in exile. This seems to indicate that some of the people had not learned the lessons of the exile, they were not accepting responsibility for their actions that caused the exile and believed they were ‘above the law’ even God’s law!
As we are entering this month of Elul, the month of inventory, tshuvah/amends, and reconnection with those we have harmed and those who come to us to repair the damages they are responsible for, we have to remember that God is still calling to us:”RETURN!!” God still is asking us some 2500+ years later to turn away from our evil deeds and evil ways. God is still hoping and praying that, unlike our ancestors, we will heed God’s call and turn back to God and God’s ways.
We are living in similar times as Jerusalem of old, when the leaders and followers believed they were God’s messengers and they could bend God’s laws, God’s words, God’s plan to their own liking. They believe their evil ways are actually good ways because they alone can fix everything. Reading the prophets words above I wonder what stops all of us from hearing and obeying the words of God and the prophets to RETURN!? We have this month of Elul to reconnect with our authenticity and our actions, positive and negative. We have this month to hear God’s call to return and to obey. We have the power within us to withstand our inner horror at our errors and to take appropriate pride in our good deeds. Let us begin this work now!
The final verse above is the catalyst for this work, I believe. God will always comfort Jerusalem and us when we return. Rabbi Heschel, in his interview with Carl Stern says: The biggest message of the Bible, of the prophets of Israel is that God takes man seriously…God should have been disgusted. He said, “No I will keep the human species alive. I’m waiting…But He’s still waiting, waiting, waiting for a mankind that will live by justice and compassion. He’s in search of man.” The prophet’s time and words prove Rabbi Heschel’s words. God has been waiting forever to comfort us and to comfort Jerusalem. God is waiting for us to stop our senseless hatred, our evil drive for power, our evil deeds towards God’s creations. God is waiting for us to turn back to living a life of justice and compassion, truth and kindness, caring and love. We do this by participating in our own inventories, engaging in the work of Elul and doing our T’Shuvah/amend.
In recovery, we have turned from our evil deeds and evil ways. We still make mistakes, they are not with evil intent anymore, they are no longer done with a lack of caring and thought. They are “missing the marks” rather than ‘how can I get mine’. In recovery, we turn our life and our will over to the God and become more of an instrument for God, for goodness, for recovery than an instrument for our selfish needs. In recovery, the interests of another(s) become our concerns as Rabbi Heschel teaches. We continue to do our daily inventory, each day is a day of turning away from our negative patterns/actions and turning to the positive patters/ways we are attaching ourselves to. In recovery, we are more connected to God, hear God and follow God more and more each day.
I have heard God’s call to return and I followed it, after hanging up on God many times. I am aware that God’s call to us is also God’s way of showing us love and acceptance. Heeding and obeying the words of the prophet above is my way of reciprocating God’s love for me back to God. Doing my inventory, which has come out in these writings and in other reflections, making amends/T’Shuvah, resewing the fabric of relationships that want to be resown are the ways I leave my evil deeds and evil ways. I left evil ways a long time ago, I still commit evil deeds, 95% of the time unwittingly. I am using this month to return to God, to return to the people who love me and to return to my rightful place. I pray you take advantage of this spiritual vortex in time to do the same. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark