Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 125
“The words the prophet utters are not offered as souvenirs. His speech to the people is not a reminiscence, a report, hearsay. The prophet not only conveys, he reveals. He almost does unto others what God does unto him. In speaking, the prophet reveals God. This is the marvel of the prophet’s work: in his words, the invisible God becomes audible. He does not prove or argue. The thought he has to convey is more than language can contain. Divine power bursts in his words. The authenticity of the prophet is in the Presence his words reveal.” (Essential Writings pg. 64)
There is a story told about the Hasidic Rebbe, Reb Zuysa, that each time during the study of the Bible where it says “God spoke”, he would scream and cry, and over and over again would say ‘God speaks, God speaks’. Rabbi Heschel’s teaching about “the marvel of the prophet’s work” reminds me of this story and of the lack of enthusiasm the people then and we, now, have for this marvel! Rather than be awed and overwhelmed with joy, fear, trembling at the experience of “the invisible God becomes audible”, we look to find the flaws, the interesting ‘facts’, we argue against the teachings and we have come to emulate the people the prophet speaks against, the priestly class, the ruling class and the wealthy class all who care for nothing outside of their selfish interests and, when convenient, one another.
Because the prophet rails against these ‘special interest group’ in the name of God and all the people, he was shunned then and is shunned now. While we give nice lip service to the prophet’s words and actions, very few of us are willing to stand with them and continue their battle, continue to live into their teachings and turn up the volume so “the invisible God becomes audible” to more and more people. The prophet was ‘one who knows’ just like Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Joseph, Judah, David, Solomon, etc and he kept screaming out to those who were ‘seeking to know’ and to unplug the ears of those who were so lost, so deaf they were sure they were right, they knew and they could do what they wanted in the ‘name of God’ and get away with it. We, the people today also fall into these three categories and, like in the Bible, those in the third category seem to dominate societal ways, dominate ‘the ways of the world’ and, what is so frightening, they have lied to themselves so well, they believe they are doing good, on ‘the right side’ of things, dominating and using the tactics of bullies in such ‘sweet’ ways, etc. When the prophet’s words reach out to them, they kill, defame, denigrate both the message and the messenger, otherwise they would actually have to do an accounting of their soul and and learn the truth-which is too scary and painful for the people in this category. An amazing ‘fact’ is that the people in this category come from all walks of life, all economic status and, seemingly even have completely opposite viewpoints and yet, they use the same tactics, have the same lies and deceptions and spew the same mendacious reasoning for their actions!
When we immerse ourselves in the words of Hosea, when we are truly able to see how we have “whored after our heart and our eyes” rather than stayed faithful to God, when we can admit our adultery, seek forgiveness and have a new path to follow so we can and will stay faithful, then we are hearing and living into the words of the prophet. Then, we will live into “in his words the invisible God becomes audible”. This teaching brings into clarity for me one reason the prophet is such an important figure in religious and spiritual growing and maturing; the prophet not only makes God “audible”, because the Torah does this as well, the prophet is relentless in making “audible” the entire teachings of God and the raison d’être of humanity=“love your neighbor as you love yourself”, “care for the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the poor, the needy”, etc. The prophet reminds us each day, each moment that God is calling, God needs us to do better, we have to stand with those in need and we have to rebuke the people who are unable to follow the words of God as spoken through the prophet. We need to say NO and rebuke those who use the words of the prophet to silence the voices of the “ones who know” and the “ones who seek”, we have to say NO and rebuke those who seek to enslave the people with lies, with deceptions and with ‘harsh labor’. We have to say NO and rebuke those who continue to ‘speak for the Lord’ while speaking for themselves, the ruling class, and the wealthy. This is how we help the prophet fulfill “the marvel of his work”!!
We recover our integrity in recovery, we recover the truth, we uncover the deceptions and mendacities we have bought into and sold. We recover the ability to hear the words of the prophet, we recover the ability to listen and understand “the invisible God” who now “becomes audible” because we have “taken the cotton out of our ears”. While the prophet isn’t mentioned in the Big Book, the teachings of the prophet are replete within it as a solution to the myriad of addictions we suffer from and, I believe the number one addiction, the first one is believing the lies we tell ourselves and the lies society tells us. When we recover our hearing and we listen to the call of God, as we understand God, follow this call, we are also continuing the work of the prophet, continuing to make audible “the invisible God”.
I spend my days recovering the voice, the sounds, the words of the prophet within me, within everyone I encounter. I love the prophet because he speaks in a language I can understand and believe in. In his words I hear God loud and clear, I know the “fire in the belly” of Jeremiah, the pain of Hosea at the unfaithfulness of the woman he loves, the call of Isaiah and Amos and Micah to return, to stop living in mendacity. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark