Three great teachers point the way not only for Jews but for us all to experience prayer in times of public anguish.
In the Prophetic reading for the morning of Yom Kippur, Isaiah 57:14 to 58:14, the Prophet Isaiah speaks on behalf of God: "What is the fast I demand of you? Is it to droop your head like a bulrush? No! -- It is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, strike off the handcuffs from prisoners ... "
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said that "prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive."
And a two-line short story by Franz Kafka goes, "One day a leopard stalked into the synagogue, roaring and lashing its tail. Three weeks later, it had become part of the liturgy."
When we pay attention not only to the content of Isaiah's outcry but to its life-situation, we realize that at every level, his "prayer" was subversive. Not only was he attacking the notion that obeying the letter of Torah -- "On the tenth day of Tishrei, afflict yourselves, press down your egos" -- was insufficient, but he was also interrupting the liturgy itself. And he says so.
He says that on the holy day itself, as the people heard his words, they shook their fists at him. They were probably angry not only because he was criticizing their exhausting fast, but precisely because he was interrupting the beautiful chants the Levites were singing.
Yet in many synagogues, as Yom Kippur rolls around again this year, this passage of Isaiah will be chanted in a Hebrew most of the congregation does not understand, or muttered in an English that makes clear that the words are unimportant. This breaking of liturgy has for many become mere liturgy. As boring as the rest. Kafka's leopard has been tamed.
What can we do to un-tame the leopard, to let God off the leash of the liturgy?
Over the years, I have tried again and again to invent ways to read the passage in such a fashion, with "interruptions" from the real world, that it can shake people as it is supposed to do.
One year, I arranged to disrupt the liturgy, working with a fellow-congregant who had been working with the poor of Philadelphia. We chose headlines from the local paper: "Old man freezes to death on downtown street," "Post Office announces twenty jobs; streets lined with 300 jobless people," "Welfare Department reports mothers having to choose between food and medicine for their children."
Then I read aloud a few verse from Isaiah, and my accomplice interrupted with one of those headlines. People were outraged. ""Shush," they whispered, and then shouted when he would not stop.
So he stopped, and I read again from Isaiah. He interrupted again, and just as Isaiah reported 3,000 years ago, they shook their fists at him.
It took a few more repetitions before they got it and began to listen to the real prophetic passage: the one from the newspapers. Then we could talk about what to do.
Another year, I read the passage, "Strike off the handcuffs put on by wicked power!" and then read from descriptions of the use of torture as an act of policy by the U.S. government in Abu Ghraib.
Why did I make that issue central for Isaiah's vision? Because for the first time in history, the U.S. government had said that it was legitimate to use torture methods that the whole world had outlawed and that U.S. law forbade, as well. And perhaps even more sickening, the present U.S. government -- yes, now! -- is still sending prisoners to other countries to be tortured by means that our own officials find too disgusting for their own dirty hands.
And the present U.S. government -- yes, now! -- has decided there is no point in "looking backward" to indict former high officials for the crime of making torture public policy. As if we were ever to say about a strongly suspected murderer, "There's no point in looking backward. Let's look to the future instead," and decline to try him.
And this year? Millions disemployed. Not "unemployed," as if they had accidentally stubbed a toe on the way to work. Disemployed, by the decisions of those in Big Banking and in public office.
And Yom Kippur is rolling around again. Let us let God's leopard loose on Yom Kippur. May we in Isaiah's name let "subversive" prayer leap from the letters in the prayerbook.
And when Yom Kippur is over, let us bring its teachings into the letters, words, and actions of our lives.
I am not saying to not reflect and pray about the past year, but to also make use of ourselves in a more contemporary way.
4 ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah does not predict the birth of Jesus. Isaish 7:14, in the original Hebrew, states "The young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son." In translating the Torah to Greek, this was misinterpreted as "virgin" because the Greeks had only one word for young woman, which also meant virgin, whereas Hebrew has both a word for virgin and a word for young woman. I know this because I have read it in the original Hebrew. Furthermore, Jesus echoed Isaiah because he was preaching Judaism. The Jewish and Christian beliefs about a Messiah are vastly different. In Judaism, the Mashiach is not one to be worshiped, but rather one who ushers in an age of peace and blessing, no more wars, no more poverty, G-d's just rule on earth. The worship of anyone or any being other than the Jewish G-d absolutely contravenes Jewish law.
As someone said: “We must not forget the past, but if we are not motivated to action, then we are doomed to repeat it”
supreme court justices Thurgood Marshall i heard say it held that because of the AND even if its creul it is not unconstitutional if it was usual
so i'm suggesting a constitutional amendment to read " no cruel OR unusual punishment " and perhaps even more enlightened language
i will forward this quotation to whitehouse.gov along with this suggestion [ which i hope republicans dont read ] in the constitution it says ' no cruel and unusual punishment "
supreme court justices Thurgood Marshall i heard say it held that because of the AND even if its creul it is not unconstitutional if it was usual
I'm not saying that this isn't the case. I'm just saying, I can't understand how you are seeing this, based on the passage, and I would like to understand.
Because I will learn the bible from anyone.
perhaps that would be subversive in a synogogue if ISAIAH 's speaking of prince of peace as christ are included in liturgy ? it would be an ' interuption ' to jewish beleif that the Messiach is still being awaited
Christ practically echoed Isaiah in some sayings
but the minister had so many things to read
2 missionaries in the basement hall asked for donations for roof of a church in Argentinia and ' peopel need medicines '
i asked where are the herbal medicines in their environment " silence
they didnt shake a fist
i asked the minister, pardon me the DEAN, to plant herbs around the little church
today i know that the most complete knowledge of natural medicine [ 64 treatment modalities or regimens , protocols + AYUSH + MD practices free of side effects[[ no drugs ]] + information and energy medicine] is Maharishi Vedic Medicine
i had written to the previous Pope about informing himself about herbology etc as the physical providence from God
needed in modern churches etc is the understanding that clergy had become like Pharisees but with beleif in Christ but little experience of that reality namely Holy Spirit present here and now
no doubt there are equivalent words in a synagogue and temple and mosque about the difference between " pharisees " those who know the book and mystics ,prophets, charismatics , dynamic living Holy Spirits , pure witnesses