Buber, Amos and the BiNational Vision of Healing and Hope

Amos 9:15

“They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them.” 

Amos is not just focusing on the trauma and triumph of his people - he lays the groundwork for the universal vision of liberation for all people - intertwined.  

This radical vision would keep surfacing through the words of later prophets and through history - championed by modern prophetic voices like Martin Buber whose idea of Bi-nationalism was rejected by mainstream Zionism but today continues to provide some spark of hope for many of us. 

And though I’ve known these words by heart for year - only now do I begin to comprehend the courageous and important meaning of his timeless message. 

When I turned 13 years old back in 1982 I had to chant by heart the verses from this ninth and final chapter of Amos - a prophet about whom not much that I recall was taught to me in preparation for my Bar Mitzvah. 

I can still chant these verses by heart - but today, thanks to this @belowthebiblebelt929 journey -- I finally know who he was, what’s it about, and why these powerful pearls of wisdom, like other prophetic texts,  became part of the Jewish liturgical cycle of inspirational readings.  It’s perhaps time we broadcast them louder and wider. 

Amos, mid 8th Century BCE lives in dual time. He is an eye witness to the decline of the civilization he was part of -- and he imagines the eventual futures of ruin -- and then repair. 

When he turns his gaze towards the better days that will one day come --  Amos visions the future redemption with a few famous verses that will make it not only into the liturgical selections of the synagogue but into the symbolic and mythological iconography of a nation that spent most of its history yearning for a national safe home: 

בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֔וּא אָקִ֛ים אֶת־סֻכַּ֥ת דָּוִ֖יד הַנֹּפֶ֑לֶת וְגָדַרְתִּ֣י אֶת־פִּרְצֵיהֶ֗ן וַהֲרִֽסֹתָיו֙ אָקִ֔ים וּבְנִיתִ֖יהָ כִּימֵ֥י עוֹלָֽם׃

“On  that day,

I will set up again the fallen Sukkah of David:

I will mend its breaches and set up its ruins anew.

I will build it firm as in the days of old”

Amos 9:11

What is the Sukkah of David? Translated as Tabernacle, Booth, Temple of Palace - it is an allusion to the structure built by Jews for one week each year to mark impermanence and the power of nature. Here it stands for the fragility and durability of sovereignty and all social structures, much as the Davidic dynasty that ruled for centuries, the temple and its central role -- all gone -- but one day to be built again. 

No wonder that these words of Amos became central to the religious zionist narrative of the second part of the 20th century.  By the time I was chanting these lines in 1982, the Israeli born child of Holocaust Survivors -- these words had deep resonance for my parents and community: 

וְשַׁבְתִּי֮ אֶת־שְׁב֣וּת עַמִּ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ וּבָנ֞וּ עָרִ֤ים נְשַׁמּוֹת֙ וְיָשָׁ֔בוּ וְנָטְע֣וּ כְרָמִ֔ים וְשָׁת֖וּ אֶת־יֵינָ֑ם וְעָשׂ֣וּ גַנּ֔וֹת וְאָכְל֖וּ אֶת־פְּרִיהֶֽם׃ 

וּנְטַעְתִּ֖ים עַל־אַדְמָתָ֑ם וְלֹ֨א יִנָּתְשׁ֜וּ ע֗וֹד מֵעַ֤ל אַדְמָתָם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר נָתַ֣תִּי לָהֶ֔ם אָמַ֖ר יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃

I will restore My people Israel.

They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them;

They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine;

They shall till gardens and eat their fruits.

And I will plant them upon their soil,

Nevermore to be uprooted

From the soil I have given them

—said the ETERNAL your God.”

Amos 9:14-15

But hidden in this chapter is not only the deep desire for the return of Israel to its home and land - but all people to their home and land - whatever and wherever their Sukkah may have been once built. 

Amos begins this vision future with a comparison to the other nations of the regions - also uprooted, and also worthy of return and redemption: 

הֲל֣וֹא כִבְנֵי֩ כֻשִׁיִּ֨ים אַתֶּ֥ם לִ֛י בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֑ה הֲל֣וֹא אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל הֶעֱלֵ֙יתִי֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם וּפְלִשְׁתִּיִּ֥ים מִכַּפְתּ֖וֹר וַאֲרָ֥ם מִקִּֽיר׃

“To Me, O Israelites, you are

Just like the people from  Cush

—declares YHWH.

True, I brought Israel up

From the land of Egypt,

But also the Philistines from Caphtor

And the Arameans from Kir.”

Amos 9: 7

The Arameans and Philistines were among Israel’s enemies during the time Amos is saying these words. The Cushites are considered foreigners. How is Amos expanding this vision of return to all people? What does this mean for us today? 

Calev Ben-Dor, in a lengthy but meaningful commentary, quotes Martin Buber, and brings this notion to where and how we are in the increasingly complex 21st century: 

“Jewish theologian Martin Buber, one of the ideological founders of the notion of binationalism before the State of Israel was established, was inspired by this verse of Amos. 

For Buber, Amos’ statement was significant. “Instead of imagining a universal exodus” Buber writes “Amos imagines a series; and the fact that he can specify the details of only one of the series does not deter him from acknowledging the value of the others.”

In ‘Martin Buber’s Myth of Zion’, Daniel Breslauer writes that pointing to the prophet Amos, Buber “averred that Jews never claimed that their history precluded the history of other nations - they never offered their uniqueness as a reason for disparaging even their enemies.” Yet for Buber, such recognition was imperative: “for other nations, even those hostile to us, are also acquainted with a divine deed of liberation, such as our history reveals”. 

One of Buber’s biographers, Paul Mendes-Flohr, explains that for Buber, the heartbeat of Judaism which he sought to amplify, was that God is also the God of the Cushites [the ultimate other], “not only the God of the Jews, but also the God of the Palestinians” Mendes-Flohr says. “Buber felt that Zionism cannot be at the expense of the people living here for hundreds of years, and he sought to alert the Zionist leadership that their understandable efforts to create a home for the Jewish people should not be at the expense of the Palestinians.”

Breslauer writes that “Because national history also implies personal choice and the ethics of decision making for all nations, not just Israel, Buber insisted on a Zionism respecting the history of the Palestinians.”

..But it’s worth remembering that the Land of Israel – a land that vomits out inhabitants who don’t act morally – doesn’t necessarily belong to one people only. 

And as Amos reminds us, we are not the only ones who may feel we have a unique relationship with the Sovereign of the entire Universe.”

With a nod to Buber’s vision, as he echoes Amos, we end this book with the words that he wished about his people and all people -  

“ May none, evermore, be uprooted from their soil.”

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