KN 5781 - Sermon
Shanah Tovah!
The Bible just CANNOT make up its mind about prophecy. It’s really quite intriguing. What the heck are the prophets all about? What is their role, who appoints them, how do you know when you’ve found a good one, what are the criteria, and what’s it like to have direct access to God Almighty? (Let me offer a quick spoiler alert: It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Being an ancient prophet - much of the time - stinks.) Yet, the Bible seems to love the institution of prophecy, certainly a lot more than kings and queens, and perhaps even more than High Priests or judges. God’s chatting with proto-prophetic figures like Adam & Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Joseph, then “official” prophets, such as Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, and lesser-known ones like Habakkuk, Nachum, Haggai, and Joel. SO many prophets!
Again: the Tanach - our Jewish Bible - BIG fan of prophecy. But then they all seem so miserable, and the Bible wants us to see that. Jeremiah lives a tortured and abused life, Jonah - in our service later this afternoon - desperately tries to run away from God so he won’t have to do his job, and Moses beseeches God repeatedly: “Please, PLEASE!! Pick someone else!!!” Then, to help you and me, who might be surrounded by people claiming to be prophets, determine who is a “true” Mouthpiece of the Divine, the Bible offers this nugget of wisdom, from Deuteronomy 18:18, 20-22: “I will raise up a prophet for them from among their own people, like yourself [Moses]. I will put My words in his mouth and he will speak to them all that I command him… But any prophet who presumes to speak in My name an oracle that i did NOT command, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And should you ask yourselves ‘How can we know that the oracle was not spoken by Adonai?’ If the prophet speaks in the Name of Adonai and the oracle does not come true, that oracle was not spoken by Adonai.” In other words, you’ll know which prophet to follow because their prophecy comes to pass. Wow, that is STUPENDOUSLY unhelpful!
So, here’s the thing. Those of you who were here last week, on Rosh Hashanah, do you remember how I talked about the importance of humor in the Bible? Even satire. Well, let me tell you something a bit edgy. I think the Torah is mocking us. Weird, right? What an odd thing for a rabbi to say, especially on Kol Nidrei. But I guess I should say it is mocking us if-and-when we refuse to see the plain truth in front of our faces. So, when it comes to prophecy, the Bible suggests this terrible litmus test. Absolutely impossible to implement beforehand. It’s like a joke! I believe it is poking and prodding us to ask ourselves what a TRUE prophet is actually about.
Do they merely perform parlor tricks? Fantastic. Turning a stick into a snake, or getting water to flow from a stone; impressive, to be sure, but does that feel central and essential to the institution of prophecy?
The Bible then also puts some humor-filled, ridiculous examples before us as well, as a test. Elisha, in the Books of Kings, clearly holds the Power of God. It’s incredible, it’s amazing. Oil pours endlessly out of a jug, he resurrects someone from the dead, and feeds crowds with just a loaf of bread. Impressive, right? But then the Bible turns up the heat. In 2 Kings, chapter 2, some young people mock Elisha for being bald, and he summons bears out of the forest to maul them. Gruesome, sure, but impressive, right? Doesn’t that seem like a great use of Divine power? How about when he goes down to a lake and a man chopping wood drops his axe in the lake. The man cries out to Elisha, “It was a borrowed axe!! Please help!” And Elisha uses his prophetic powers to make the axe head float to the surface. Folks, let me spell this out for you: The text is PLAYING WITH US. It cannot possibly be a good use of the Power of God, having access to any miracle front the Almighty you could ever want, and use it to make metal float, or bears attack teenagers. No, NONE of these things are the REAL roles of the prophets, and these stories are there to challenge, needle, and push us; making us really FOCUS on what matters and what we need in society today.
I told you last week that my sermon series over the High Holidays is about “Being.” Existing, being present, being mindful. Just Be. And actually using this Hebrew word, Lihyot, To Be, as part of the central theme. We started with Hayah, meaning “was,” and talked about the importance of history to help ground you in today. Then we talked about Hoveh, “the present,” and the need to dedicate ourselves to what we can change and what we can do RIGHT NOW. This third installment is about Yihyeh, “what will be,” but even that is kind of a red herring; I’ll admit that to you right now. Because the prophets are these oracles, right? Gazing into the future, telling us what will be. Even Joseph on this beautiful new Ark curtain behind me, is famous for his dream-interpretations. The sun, moon, and eleven stars at the top of the curtain represent a dream in his youth, where he saw his father, mother, and all his brothers bowing down to him in this celestial incarnation.
We also have the cup, embedded in the middle, referencing Joseph’s interpretation in prison of Pharaoh’s cupbearer’s dream, which would ultimately come true AND lead to his own salvation. There are seven hidden cows throughout the Ark curtain, as well as seven ears of grain, symbolic of Pharaoh’s dreams that Joseph was able to interpret as well, and which helped him know what the future would hold for Egypt. So clearly a main feature of prophecy is future-telling, right?
No!! Still not. The purpose of these prognostications is actually meant to tell you something about the HERE and NOW! Joseph’s family was already revolving around him, even before his dream. His kindness to the cupbearer IN THAT MOMENT was essential, and the whole point of Pharaoh’s dreams was to say do something NOW to avert the coming disaster! I suppose one could look at those scary forecasts and say “Eh, I don’t believe them.” I’ll wait until I see evidence of famine; THEN I’ll start saving grain. I’ll wait until sweeping-plague is clearly upon us, THEN I’ll enact these measures to protect our society. But that is the fundamental message of prophecy, and the one that is so hard to hear: You have to change NOW. If you wait to see rain falling from the sky before starting to build your ark, or crops destroyed before saving grain, or fallout upon fallout from climate change before you’ll consider amending your behavior and reducing your carbon footprint - IT IS SIMPLY TOO LATE. Your window of opportunity will be gone. The change MUST come first.
The question remains though, doesn’t it? How do you know a true prophet? Especially when I just said you CANNOT follow the Bible’s advice, because if you wait to see whether it comes true or not, it will ALWAYS be too late to do anything about it. Again, I think, the Bible taunts us. Because the answer is really quite plain. It’s not the parlor tricks, the dream-interpretation or future-telling, and it’s not even impressive speaking ability or charisma. The answer is staring us in the face. Humility. When Moses begs not to have this job, or Jonah runs the other way, those are actually the very signs that they are the right individuals for the job.
The opposite is also painfully, painfully true. Someone who says “I alone can fix this,” or “I am the best at x or y,” is showing you a terrifying sign. Now, that doesn’t mean we all have to be self-effacing all the time. There’s a spectrum. It’s not about putting yourself down… however, someone who puts themselves above all others is immediately self-disqualifying. Think about despotic leaders throughout history, who sought world domination and seemingly endless power. Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tze Tung, or Vladimir Putin today. Or you can even look to America, to examples of cults-of-personality, like David Koresh, Jim Jones, and Charles Manson. When it surrounds an individual, and it reeks of the exact opposite of humility, it is - by definition - a problem. A horrific, nightmarish problem.
So where should we look for prophecy? Because we desperately need it; no question there. But it’s such a daunting term! And I just told you anyone seeking to be a prophet should already be viewed with MASSIVE suspicion. Worse still, we are all so quick to censor one another. We say, or convey: “who the heck do you think YOU are, calling yourself a prophet?
Or lecturing to someone else?? You want to teach me something? You want to impart some aspect of your experience??? Well, first I gotta know: 1) What are your credentials? 2) How long have you been working on this message? 3) Have you vetted it with others first? 4) What if you’re wrong? 5) What if someone else has – or will – say it better? 6) What if I have my own way of doing things, and I like that better? 7) If I reject what you say, will you be mad? I don’t like that. 8) And you’re not going to tell me to CHANGE?? Not really, right? Or ask me to give up something I don’t want to let go of? I sure hope not… hahaha! So, instead, no one says anything…
But really, there is prophecy all around us. Wake-up calls, moments of beauty, inspiration, kindness, faith, hope. We SAY we’re waiting for it to happen… just in the future. It will Yihyeh, it WILL be. But not now. The fact is, we need to stop trying to discredit messages of truth, change, and most importantly of humility and compassion, and we all need to do the hard work of SEEKING it in the world all around us. TODAY! We’re eager for someone to be overt, explicit, and obvious about being a prophet… when really we should be listening for the “Kol Demama Daka,” “the still, small voice.” That is a term expressed by the prophet Elijah, who heard thunder, mighty wind, and fire PRECEDING God, but God was not in those things, God was in the “Kol Demama Daka,” “the still, small voice.” (I recently spoke at the funeral of a beloved Minyanaire, and referred to that person as the embodiment of a Kol Demama Daka. I won’t mention their name, because I know it would have made them cringe. If you disagree, please see my points above about humility…
In Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of our Ancestors, 4:1, a rabbi named Ben-Zoma declared: “Eizehu Chacham? (Who is wise?) Ha-Lomed mi-KOL adam. (One who learns from all people)” KOL Adam! ALL people have something to teach us. What prevents us from learning is our own lack of humility and preconceived notions about who can teach and who can’t. We need to STOP trying to select from whom we are willing to learn! EVERYONE can teach you something.
Listen for the still, small voice. Listen for quality, substance, kindness, and equality. If you don’t hear it, you may be following a false prophet. I want to mention a couple of prophets before I conclude this sermon, but then I also intend to share more examples before tomorrow’s Torah reading. I will tell a story about a prophet in our Family Service; I’ll talk about it again during Mincha, and I’ll connect back to it at Neilah. But most don’t have the title “prophet.” My whole point is; there is actually prophecy all around us. A prophetic voice that passed away last week, on Rosh Hashanah, was Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg. And you might be thinking, “well, of course SHE was!” Maybe it’s obvious. But I also worry it gets too hyperbolic, and we won’t actually stop to HEAR her teachings, both the ones taught in her powerful legal decisions or dissents, and then also the teachings conveyed throughout her life, just by being who she was.
An obvious example, perhaps, was her friendship with fellow Justice Antonin Skalia. Could such a friendship across a political divide exist today? Seemingly no. It feels impossible. But reminding ourselves again and again of their friendship may help us pursue something essential, which is mutual respect, cordiality, and a willingness to dialogue. She also wrote incredibly powerful statements, like after the repeal of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, when her still, small, but mighty voice declared: “throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet!” What’s prophetic to me about that is, not just the care for the discriminated and oppressed, but the realization that laws NOW need to protect against what MIGHT BE! That same understanding - that focusing on the Yihyeh, the future - is about working to improve TODAY, to affect what may be up ahead.
Ruth Bader-Ginsburg’s prophetic prowess was also deployed in 1975, as a lawyer arguing before an all-male Supreme Court. In the landmark case, Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, she defended a widower - a man - who was being treated unfairly, because he couldn’t collect Social Security benefits from his deceased wife who was the lower wage-earner. So she was advocating for a man, to gain the court’s sympathy, to ultimately highlight how women were ubiquitously the lower wage-earners and were treated unfairly in society. And it worked! Moses, Jeremiah, and Jonah would have been so proud.
In her 80s, Bader-Ginsburg became a pop culture icon, with the nickname “Notorious RBG,” after a rapper named “Notorious BIG.” She joked with Stephen Colbert, cameoed in operas, and was immortalized in Kate McKinnon’s fabulous imitation on SNL! In true prophetic fashion, Bader-Ginsburg LOVED it, and told interviewers: “She saw it as an opportunity to spread her message, her ideas about our Constitution, about equal rights, about the 14th Amendment… Here was a way to spread that message to a lot of people who really don't pay much attention to what's going on in the Supreme Court.” Just as the Bible can make fun of its own prophets, and never portrayed what they did as glamorous, so too Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg let people in to see her life, know about her friendships and interests, because it made them more likely to receive and internalize her message.
We need prophecy. Not to make axes float or fill endless jugs with EVOO, Extra Virgin Olive Oil. And definitely not so we can create new idols and follow their self-proclaimed, self-worshipping, overblown egos into the abyss. We need to stop looking for people who write “prophet” on their business cards, and instead look for the still, small, humble, compassionate voices. But they can also be loud, forceful, aggressive even, in your face, and filled with impassioned calls to action… IF, IF, IF they also seek equality, benevolence, generosity, and the betterment of society. We cannot hear those voices if we are constantly afraid, furious, indignant, or even apathetic. We need to Be Present. To take deep breaths and listen to those voices within ourselves that tell us which way to go. THEN we can look to the future. THEN we can plan for better, more, together, and yes, even the most elusive of blessings, peace. Then, and only then, when we are moving in the right direction, can we look forward to a brighter future; one that fulfills the prophetic hopes and prayers, that our world will Yihyeh Tov. Some day, it will be good. Kein Yehi Ratzon - so may it be one day soon. Amen.
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