It was great to see our group back from their respective summer endeavors; bright-eyed, caffeine fueled and ready for Isaiah. Here we go, this is going to be an amazing year! We begin with Chapter 47, not 46 as I led you to believe in my first posting. My humble apology!
What could the Israelites have experienced in Babylon as they were taken captive and stripped of everything they had known? They were force-marched into a foreign city whose scale and grandeur had no equal; they must have seen the Ishtar Gate, the Hanging Gardens and sumptuously decorated temples.
Amidst all this wealth they languished and labored. Isaiah offers hope of the coming deliverance by laying out the House of Jacob's (the Jews) return to Israel and the reasons for Babylon's impending destruction. God is displeased by the exceedingly heavy yoke the Babylonians have placed upon the Israelites.
Ellen and Ceil: In response to Chapter 47:6 "I was angry at my people, I defiled My heritage." God seems to be expressing human-like regret for punishing the Israelites. The choice of the word "heritage" is very interesting.
Rabbi: "Inheritance" would be a more appropriate translation from the Hebrew than the word"heritage."
Chapter 47:12 God chides the Babylonians because they have put their faith in "enchantments", and "scanners of the heaven, the star-gazers." They are full of hubris and drunk with their own power. These are some of the reasons God provides for their coming demise. Chapter 47:15 "There is none to save you."
Ellen: In response to Chapter 48:3 "Long ago, I foretold things that happened, from my mouth they issued , and I announced them;" These prophetic visions are curious! Why are images forbidden if the prophets had visions of God? Why the injunction?
Joel: Three dimensional image making is taboo because it can be seen as idol making. There is more tolerance for some two dimensional image making. Isaiah did not "see" God's face. He is experiencing him in another way.
Julie: Can images and names ever encapsulate a transcendental God?
Joel: Jews accessed Neo-Platonism. That means that God and his essence emanates down to us. There are many names for God. They just show different attributes.
In Exodus 33:20 God tells Moses that he cannot see the divine face, but he will show him his glory.
Rabbi: The names Adoni, Hashem... are nicknames of nicknames. This is an example of how we place fences around the Torah in order to protect us from transgressions.
Chapter 48:3 God appears to be frustrated with the stubbornness of the Israelites."Your neck is like iron sinew and your forehead bronze."
Ellen: I feel that ritual alone is not enough any longer; we must now use our hearts too. This is something new.
Joel: This is the new improved Israel... a light unto the nations.
Ellen: Does this make Israel a martyr?
Chapter 48:8: "Though I know that you are treacherous, that you were called a rebel from birth, For the sake of My name I control My wrath."
If God knows that human nature is treacherous does this imply that we were deliberately crafted in this way to enact treachery? Or can it mean that character flaws are unexpected blips in the creation process? Does free will allow for all possibilities? What is the function of our flaws and do our impulses drive us to greater things?
Bob: We are being tested and refined.
Rabbi: In response to Chapter 48:10, "See I refine you, but not as silver; I test you in the furnace of affliction." We don't melt like silver but perhaps we are being retooled.
The Israelites must have asked, just as we ask in times of suffering, "Why?" An acquaintance of mine who had experienced the loss of her mother, sister and uncle within a very short period of time said, "Most of us don't look up to God, until he puts us on our back." Humility, empathy and the opportunity to build resilience are certainly possible outcomes of suffering. Like Job 2:10, through suffering and faith more is restored back to us than what has been taken. On a personal note, shortly after my son was diagnosed with a bone disease he came home from elementary school and told me that he approached and "really saw" a boy in his school that was confined to a wheel chair. He had seen him before, but this time he explained, his "heart felt warm." My son's experience prompted him to speak to the boy for the first time.
I would prefer to skip the adversity and go straight to the wisdom but lets face it, there aren't any short cuts. Suffering certainly has a way of commanding ones full attention. Mel Brook's 2,000 Year Old Man is asked, "What is the difference between tragedy and comedy?" He answers, " Tragedy is when I cut my finger, I'll cry a lot, go into Mount Sinai for a day and a half. Comedy is if you fall in an open manhole cover and die. What do I care?" This is funny because it points to a tendency in human nature but what is available to a people in the absence of freedom, a homeland and a house of worship? It would seem that a softened heart and a new perspective would do much to help re-envision a more ethical future. The scientific theory of the Big Bang seems applicable to this concept. Suffering is like an intense gravitational pressure that squashes all focus and pushes all matter together into a singularity, thus creating a dense center. From that singularity all possibilities come into being. As the pressure is released and focus expands outwards, it encloses all under a shared roof where potential to develop a broader understanding becomes possible. This potential, if it is realized will enable us to see past our own "cut fingers."
Chapter 48:17: The time of deliverance is near. God is expecting Israel to follow his directions.
Chapter 48:22: "There is no safety-said the lord-for the wicked."
Ellen: Who is wicked? Are the Babylonians- are we?
Rabbi: This could be a politically motivated interpretation of "wickedness." There are 3 different types of sin: the sin of not following the law, acts of wickedness and failure to do the right thing.
Ceil: Would this definition of wicked apply to an individual who is non-observant but is "good?"
We end on Chapter 48:22. Before we part I'd like to share a Yiddish folktale about the Yetzer ha-ra(the instinctive impulse) and the Yetzer ha-tov (the ethical force).
The pious men of a small village are fed up with the wild behavior of theYetzer ha-ra. They catch it and lock it up in a barn. They soon realize that no homes are being built, eggs go unhatched, no music is being played. In short all of the creative endeavours of the village have ceased. After much debate, the men put out the eyes of the yetzer ha -ra and set it loose knowing that from this time forward it will only be able to see what reason shows it.
Keep your mojo in check untill we meet again next week.
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| Detail of a 6th Century Frieze depicting Jews being taken into exile by Babylonian warriors. |
What could the Israelites have experienced in Babylon as they were taken captive and stripped of everything they had known? They were force-marched into a foreign city whose scale and grandeur had no equal; they must have seen the Ishtar Gate, the Hanging Gardens and sumptuously decorated temples.
Amidst all this wealth they languished and labored. Isaiah offers hope of the coming deliverance by laying out the House of Jacob's (the Jews) return to Israel and the reasons for Babylon's impending destruction. God is displeased by the exceedingly heavy yoke the Babylonians have placed upon the Israelites.
Ellen and Ceil: In response to Chapter 47:6 "I was angry at my people, I defiled My heritage." God seems to be expressing human-like regret for punishing the Israelites. The choice of the word "heritage" is very interesting.
Rabbi: "Inheritance" would be a more appropriate translation from the Hebrew than the word"heritage."
Chapter 47:12 God chides the Babylonians because they have put their faith in "enchantments", and "scanners of the heaven, the star-gazers." They are full of hubris and drunk with their own power. These are some of the reasons God provides for their coming demise. Chapter 47:15 "There is none to save you."
Ellen: In response to Chapter 48:3 "Long ago, I foretold things that happened, from my mouth they issued , and I announced them;" These prophetic visions are curious! Why are images forbidden if the prophets had visions of God? Why the injunction?
Joel: Three dimensional image making is taboo because it can be seen as idol making. There is more tolerance for some two dimensional image making. Isaiah did not "see" God's face. He is experiencing him in another way.
Julie: Can images and names ever encapsulate a transcendental God?
Joel: Jews accessed Neo-Platonism. That means that God and his essence emanates down to us. There are many names for God. They just show different attributes.
In Exodus 33:20 God tells Moses that he cannot see the divine face, but he will show him his glory.
Rabbi: The names Adoni, Hashem... are nicknames of nicknames. This is an example of how we place fences around the Torah in order to protect us from transgressions.
Chapter 48:3 God appears to be frustrated with the stubbornness of the Israelites."Your neck is like iron sinew and your forehead bronze."
Ellen: I feel that ritual alone is not enough any longer; we must now use our hearts too. This is something new.
Joel: This is the new improved Israel... a light unto the nations.
Ellen: Does this make Israel a martyr?
Chapter 48:8: "Though I know that you are treacherous, that you were called a rebel from birth, For the sake of My name I control My wrath."
If God knows that human nature is treacherous does this imply that we were deliberately crafted in this way to enact treachery? Or can it mean that character flaws are unexpected blips in the creation process? Does free will allow for all possibilities? What is the function of our flaws and do our impulses drive us to greater things?
Bob: We are being tested and refined.
Rabbi: In response to Chapter 48:10, "See I refine you, but not as silver; I test you in the furnace of affliction." We don't melt like silver but perhaps we are being retooled.
The Israelites must have asked, just as we ask in times of suffering, "Why?" An acquaintance of mine who had experienced the loss of her mother, sister and uncle within a very short period of time said, "Most of us don't look up to God, until he puts us on our back." Humility, empathy and the opportunity to build resilience are certainly possible outcomes of suffering. Like Job 2:10, through suffering and faith more is restored back to us than what has been taken. On a personal note, shortly after my son was diagnosed with a bone disease he came home from elementary school and told me that he approached and "really saw" a boy in his school that was confined to a wheel chair. He had seen him before, but this time he explained, his "heart felt warm." My son's experience prompted him to speak to the boy for the first time.
I would prefer to skip the adversity and go straight to the wisdom but lets face it, there aren't any short cuts. Suffering certainly has a way of commanding ones full attention. Mel Brook's 2,000 Year Old Man is asked, "What is the difference between tragedy and comedy?" He answers, " Tragedy is when I cut my finger, I'll cry a lot, go into Mount Sinai for a day and a half. Comedy is if you fall in an open manhole cover and die. What do I care?" This is funny because it points to a tendency in human nature but what is available to a people in the absence of freedom, a homeland and a house of worship? It would seem that a softened heart and a new perspective would do much to help re-envision a more ethical future. The scientific theory of the Big Bang seems applicable to this concept. Suffering is like an intense gravitational pressure that squashes all focus and pushes all matter together into a singularity, thus creating a dense center. From that singularity all possibilities come into being. As the pressure is released and focus expands outwards, it encloses all under a shared roof where potential to develop a broader understanding becomes possible. This potential, if it is realized will enable us to see past our own "cut fingers."
Chapter 48:17: The time of deliverance is near. God is expecting Israel to follow his directions.
Chapter 48:22: "There is no safety-said the lord-for the wicked."
Ellen: Who is wicked? Are the Babylonians- are we?
Rabbi: This could be a politically motivated interpretation of "wickedness." There are 3 different types of sin: the sin of not following the law, acts of wickedness and failure to do the right thing.
Ceil: Would this definition of wicked apply to an individual who is non-observant but is "good?"
We end on Chapter 48:22. Before we part I'd like to share a Yiddish folktale about the Yetzer ha-ra(the instinctive impulse) and the Yetzer ha-tov (the ethical force).
The pious men of a small village are fed up with the wild behavior of theYetzer ha-ra. They catch it and lock it up in a barn. They soon realize that no homes are being built, eggs go unhatched, no music is being played. In short all of the creative endeavours of the village have ceased. After much debate, the men put out the eyes of the yetzer ha -ra and set it loose knowing that from this time forward it will only be able to see what reason shows it.
Keep your mojo in check untill we meet again next week.
Thanks for adding the pics, Julie. I wish they were in the book. Sometimes you forget how advanced civilization was at that time. Not such primitive peoples anymore.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great new blog, Julie-- yashar koach! Can't wait to see what comes next!
ReplyDelete