Do you think your
prophet comes to diminish the Christian story and raise you over
your Arab brothers and sisters? G-d did not choose you to exalt
you, but to humble you.
Set no one, nothing, above or below you. See the same One moving
in the life of everything that lives.
Do you search for your prophet? How glad are you to hear from him?
More glad than the complicitous sons of Jacob were to learn the
Egyptian prince who stood over them and had power to toy with their
destiny, was actually Joseph, the brother they plotted to murder
in their younger days? G-d places his worker in the hands of the
Egyptian to ply his scheme and save the land from disaster. Here
is the word G-d says to you:
"Where am I not, O Israel? What hand raised in anger is not
raised against me? It is not in destroying your brother's house
that you find me, but in building it up. It is not in uprooting
his orchards and ancient groves that you find me, but in planting
and tending them by his side.
"Have I favored one child over another? Have I set one beneath
and the other above? Then I have invited every wound and sown the
seeds of war.
"Have I set you over your brother's fields? Have I made you
master of his house? Then why are you there? Leave his house and
fields. If you only wanted peace, it would be given to the world.
"But instead of wanting peace, you want to justify your retribution
against those who hate you. Retribution heals no wounds. Love explains
every wound and heals each one.
"Will you hear your brother's cry or must I send someone to
hear where you will not? Will you answer his cry or must I send
someone to answer where you will not?
"In his own land, your brother cannot pass freely from one
town to the next because you stand in the way. You take the roof
from over his children's heads and the floor from under their feet.
When he cries out in pain, you accuse him of evil.
"You uproot his orchards and ancient groves, the trees he
loves. You take his sustenance and livelihood away. You take his
water so he has to come to you for a drink. You take away his town
and move into his house so he has to go into the hills and build
what he can there. Then you pay him to come down from the hills
and be your servant in the house that was his. When he cries out
in pain, you accuse him of evil.
"His children throw stones in protest and you answer them
with murder. In his own streets, in front of his eyes, his children
fall, and when he cries out in pain, you accuse him of evil. Testimony
against you goes on and on until it numbs my ears with villiany.
"Your hardened heart covers over a well of tears. From that
well, you have drawn the bucket and filled your pitcher. From that
pitcher, you have filled the cup of the world with sorrow.
"Feed not at the breast of contempt, O Israel. Its milk is
not nourishing. Neither is it sweet. Seeing my presence, the leaf
is not at war with the twig or with the tree. Seeing my presence
the cloud is at peace with the sky. Seeing my presence, the seed
is at peace with the soil and rain. Seeing my presence, be also
at peace with your brother and with your soul." m
Out of the Internet wilderness came a voice sounding
like one of the Hebrew prophets of old: "G-d did not choose
you to exalt you, but to humble you." In the current crisis
of moral privation and debased leadership, the prophetic voice of
Michael Bridge's poetry came as a refreshing reminder that we are
to live in service to and not as lords over others. May the spirit
that moves Michael begin to move all of us. Michael can be reached
by email at bmichael@neteze.com
