By Lee Diamond, rabbi Isaiah cries in the name of God:
“Why, when we fasted, did You not see?
When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?”
Because on your fast day
You see to your business
And oppress all your laborers!
4 Because you fast in strife and contention,
And you strike with a wicked fist!
your fasting today is not such
As to make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast I desire?
A day for men to starve their bodies?
Is it bowing the head like a bulrush
And lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call that a fast?
A day when the Lord is favorable?
6 No, this is the fast I desire:
To unlock the fetters of wickedness,
And untie the cords of the yoke
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yoke.
7 It is to share your bread with the hungry,
And to take the wretched poor into your home;
When you see the naked, to clothe him,
And not to ignore your own kin.
“When we starve out bodies, You pay no attention” Such is the claim of the people of Israel, declares Isaiah. Isaiah speaks in the name of God and risks the danger of rejection and punishment by the people and its leaders. But Isaiah has no choice but to declare these words. For Isaiah was a God intoxicated man who demanded a revolution for truth.
Abraham, the father of our nation had no choice either. He called for a radical change, a revolution in his time. The world of Mesopotamia and its religions were unacceptable to his understanding of the nature of God and His world. He called for a revolution amongst his followers. Risking rejection, persecution and ridicule in his world, Abraham demanded a revolutionary path. His name had been changed from Avram to AvraHam but it was his essence that truly changed. He could no longer be silent. He like had to declare God’s truth to all men.
We are a nation of revolutionaries. A nation unable to accept the common and everyday; a nation unable to be silent or to be silenced; a nation which fails in its mission when apathy is our reaction to injustice.
For the Jewish people revolution for Justice is the very nature of our being.
For the Jewish people apathy is our undoing.
Isaiah, speaking in the name of God, makes this value very clear. God is not interested in the words of our mouths or the gifts of our guilt and placating gifts to cover our failures.
Empty ritual is meaningless in the face of morality, truth and Justice for the widow, the orphan and the stranger.
Why is it that Jews were so obvious in the civil rights movement in the USA?
Why is it that Jews were so vocal in the anti Vietnam war protest movement in the U.S?
Why is it that there was such support for socialism amongst Jews in Eastern Europe, in America and in Israel?
Why is it that Israel was built on principles of social Justice from its outset?
Because this is our very nature and our being and the revolutionary spirit built into us.
And because the State of Israel was built with this revolutionary vision of Isaiah as its blueprint
Why is it that so many of us from the west decided to throw our lot in with Israel?
We did so with a sense that here in Israel there was a social revolution happening before our very eyes. .
Surely we were drawn to our homeland. However there is no doubt that we were deeply influenced by the attempt to build a better society in our homeland. We wanted to add our voice and to be part of the revolution calling for a just society in Israel.
However apathy and indifference can so easily take control of us. It is comfortable to lower our guard and to seek individual comfort and success. It is so easy to rest on our laurels and disregard our creeping loss of Jewish identity. It is so easy to declare but not do; to placate instead of act; to avoid and remain silent.
The Jewish people who gather on Rosh Ha Shana and ultimately on Yom Kippur are called upon to awake from the trap of apathy that we fall into so easily. This is the purpose of the call of the Shofar– to wake us from our slumber.
We are called upon to renew the unending revolution for Justice, for truth, for change.
It is clear that we have to discharge our lethargy and complaisance, our apathy and our comfort and to recharge our Jewish souls by shouting from the rooftops along with Abraham and Isaiah for all to hear: We want social Justice for all.
If Abraham and Isaiah were to visit our towns and villages today they would see our youth wearing and carrying their message and shouting from the rooftops and from the tent cities; from the intersections on our roads and the plazas of our cities, not in fear but with pride.
We demand social justice
To Whom Will the God of Israel listen?
To those of us in the halls of power? To those of us praying contritely in our synagogues? To those of us demanding social justice?
Or Perhaps
To those of us, Jewish revolutionaries, who make social Justice happen?
