Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah
portion is Parashat Shoftim, which dictates the Biblical justice system in
quite some detail and which gives us one of my favorite commandments, “Justice justice
shall you pursue.” One of concerns in this parasha is about prophesy and
divination. The Torah commands elsewhere that divination and soothsaying is
forbidden, but in this portion God assures the people that there will be, from
time to time, prophets that God will send and God will put the proper words
into that prophets mouth, and it won’t be like other forms of divination or
soothsaying with witchcraft and wizardry but direct inspiration from God.
The possibilities for the people to
fall into a trap of following a false prophet are myriad. The most common or
obvious is the prophet of a false god. Our prophets often reference the
Israelites following pagan gods and forgetting the One and Only God as the
reason for the exile. However, there is also the possibility of a supposed
prophet claiming to speak for HaShem, but who HaShem did not give prophecy to.
Our prophets also reference these on occasion as the prophets employed by the
priesthood or the monarchy in order to maintain their power and discredit the
holy prophets who spoke Truth to Power and warned against the corruption of the
powerful.
The Torah equates these differing styles of false prophecy, but
I think the latter is far more dangerous. If someone is speaking from a
different position from you entirely, it is much easier to respect their
opinion and maintain your own. Those gods don’t fit into my monotheism, but
they aren’t hurting me or maligning my God, so, hey, pagans, you do you. If
someone claims to be speaking on behalf of my people or my God but offers
harmful words that protect the already powerful and oppress the marginalized,
that is far more distressing. The God of the Hebrew Bible can be quick to
anger, and proscribes some extreme punishments, but God also commands us to
love one another, to be holy, to protect the marginalized in society and to
take care of the environment. In this parasha alone, we are reminded to pursue
equality and justice, to have fair trials with multiple judges and witnesses,
to never convict someone until we are completely certain, to leave prejudice
out of the community.
So when someone uses “God”, “faith”, or my absolute favorite, “Judeo-Christian
values” to justify hate, bigotry, greed, injustice, environmental destruction,
or any other means to further subjugate marginalized voices, it seems to me
false prophesy. Claiming to speak with the authority of the One True God, but
spouting words which I cannot believe HaShem would put in their mouths, they
malign HaShem and embarrass and potentially endanger all people of faith. We can overcome this by speaking words of Divine peace and love, repeating the holy commandments that uplift, and committing to public acts of good faith in our communities.
Today there are 22 days left until Rosh HaShana, which is 3
weeks and 1 day. We are in the mystical realm of Chesed sheb’Netzach, enduring
kindness, this Shabbat. Reb Zalman offers for this:
BUILDING
THE REALM-Day 22
“Psalm 27:6- And then my head will be raised above my
enemies around me, and I will offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of jubilation;
I will sing and chant to the Lord. (#1)” Even the
strongest of us need love to endure. The Lord does not forget me but I must be
counted by my earthly family too. As we sing Halleluyah up to the One let me
gather in my holy sisters and brothers to celebrate. “Psalm 27:6- And
now, as You have held my head high despite the presence of my powerful foes
I prepare to celebrate and thrill, singing and making music to You, Yah!”(#2)
May we be
vessels for enduring kindness, matching the everlasting Divine love our liturgy
speaks of, and may we bring holiness and justice into the world through acts of
Tikun Olam, that the finals days of 5778 be for goodness and peace.
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