Isaiah brings it home with the final five chapters of prophetic promises, as he tries to give human despair a grand vision of hope.
What’s astounding in these chapters is the gap between the stark reality of Jerusalem in the early decades of the second temple era and the fantastic future the prophet insists on describing -- perhaps even manifesting, if only they/we dared to believe. The walls of late 6th century Jerusalem, under Persian rule, were not rebuilt, and this was a status and security issue for the inhabitants. But rebuilding them would indicate the restoration of the formerly rebellious city, and its renewed status as a fortified capital - not an image the Persian rulers wanted to permit, despite Judean pleas.
Eventually Nehemiah, the Persian-appointed leader, will succeed in rebuilding the walls but for our prophet Isaiah and his neighbors in the once proud city now struggling to survive - the ruined walls were a symbol of their crumbling reality. Perhaps that’s why the walls feature in these chapters, a symbol for the city which is in itself a symbol for the nation - and at times also a symbol for the world.
So who are the guardians of the walls of the sacred city?
Isaiah describes them in today’s chapter, standing guard on the walls of the holy city that is depicted as a bride, who is finally making love with her husband after longing for this union for a very very long time. By the way, “making love” is a nice way to describe Isaiah’s more explicit terms for the sexual act that Jerusalem and her lover, AKA YHWH, will enjoy. He does use ‘bride and groom’ as a metaphor for the redemption of Jerusalem and her renewed joy but also keeps using the word ‘Baal’ as in ‘owned’ or ‘ravaged’. The word stems from the name of the great local god Ba’al - creator-owner of all life. Baal is also the word used for ‘husband’ in modern Hebrew, echoing this patriarchal godhead’s central role as fertilizer of the earth -- a role of a god who would eventually be mostly lost to memory, replaced by YHWH and others, but still alive in our language and too many social norms.
But the guardians of Jerusalem is she unites with her groom or reunites with her husband is not just to make sure the union is not interrupted.
Somehow these standing guard have a duty to remind us that there is a sacred center.
Who are these guardians, what does their role represent, and what does it mean to keep remembering the divine or reminding the divine of its existence?
Interpreters over the centuries suggested that they are either angels who pray nonstop in Heaven for the restoration of the Jewish people; the “the mourners of Zion”, who take it upon themselves as representatives of all the Jews, to specifically pray day and night for the restoration of “Jerusalem,” and Jewish autonomy; The Jewish nation in its entirety, who constantly look forward to the rebuilding of “Jerusalem” and mention it again and again in their prayers; Torah scholars whose unceasing devotion to studying the Jewish holy texts constitutes a plea in its own right to restore and rebuild the walls of “Jerusalem.”
There is even an ultra orthodox non-Zionist sect, whose members live mostly in Jerusalem and some abroad, called ‘Neturei Karta’ - the guardians of the city. Their position is unique, complex and fascinating - believing that their role is the ones to watch over Jerusalem’s walls - to defend their understanding of Judaism against the secular Israeli state. As matters evolve in today’s Israel as it slowly turns ultra-nationalist - wild and fringe though their position may be - their voice is heard again among those of others who are concerned for our Jewish legacy and the prophetic visions of justice for all people.
Palestinians today, Crusaders in the past - so many people have taken it upon themselves to be the guardians of Jerusalem and what she stands for.
To read Isaiah’s words today is to blend all the interpretations and to imagine these guardians as all of us and the various ways we stand up vigilant for what we deem sacred.
If Jerusalem becomes the core symbol for the Jewish people’s highest hopes and the Jewish role is to be a light unto other nations, as Isaiah suggested earlier - then to be on the guard for Jerusalem is to be on the guard for the world we want to live in and leave behind. One of the roles of these guardians is to keep murmuring the memory that the divine dwells within the city. In other words - the guardians real role is to keep the memory of the sacred alive - for all.
Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson’s reflects on this noble notion as he laments the reality in which today’s ‘real’ Jerusalem is once again, miraculously, the capital of Israel, a city that offers both pride and concern. He calls on us not to be the guards who control the city - but rather those who guard its unique promise:
“It does not suffice to simply control our Mother City in ways comparable to other famous cities. Jerusalem is called to a higher standard, to be the Mother to all those who are forgotten, outcast, shamed. Jerusalem is home to the widows and orphans of history, to the lame and the blind of the world. The Jewish vision of a real ingathering that excludes no one is bound up in the redemption of Jerusalem, and she seeks more than simply to be the locus of Jewish power. God can only establish Jerusalem through our efforts and work.
Until God establishes Jerusalem and makes her renowned on earth: a synonym for justice, the very exemplar of inclusion and welcome.
For that Jerusalem, we all long. And so does God.”
This is indeed Isaiah’s prayer - and that’s the tone with which he opens this chapter:
“For the sake of Zion I will not be silent,
For the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still,
Until her victory emerge resplendent
And her triumph like a flaming torch.” Isaiah 62:1
Maybe it’s on all of us who love Jerusalem and what she stands for to take turns, as I once did as a young Israeli soldier, standing watch over the walls, not to prevent war, but to perpetuate the plea for peace?
THIS THURSDAY: OUR NEXT BELOW THE BIBLE BELT ZOOM TALK:
Goodbye Isaiah, Hello Jeremiah
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