How can we forget such simple truths such as the fact that what connects us is far greater than that which divides us?
Amos enters the hall of fame of prophetic quotes in today’s chapter, which includes some of the Bible’s best-known aphorisms. Between verses 3-6, he asks 7 rhetorical questions, all answered in the negative, all riddles with a single response.
Can two walk together without having met? Does a lion roar in the forest when there is no prey? Will a great beast howl without having hunted? Can a bird be caught in a trap with no trap? Does a trap spring up from the ground unless it has caught something? When the shofar sirens go off, do the people not notice? Can misfortune come to a town if God has not caused it?
While many have argued what these mean, the general vibe is that Amos seems to say - everything happens for a reason and there are coincidences. Cause and effect is how the world works and ignoring the big picture of divine design is dangerous and dumb. The people’s complacency would lead to catastrophe, the prophet warns, unless they change their attitudes and assumptions, aware of the consequences of their actions. It’s as simple or not as two people walking together:
הֲיֵלְכ֥וּ שְׁנַ֖יִם יַחְדָּ֑ו בִּלְתִּ֖י אִם־נוֹעָֽדוּ׃
Can two walk together
Without having met?
Amos 3:2
The Hebrew word for ‘Together’ - ‘Yachdav’ - is one that triggers cultural memory of scenes when two people walk together and it’s not a simple scene. It is most memorable from that three day walk that Abraham took with his son Isaac, up to the mountain of the sacrifice. The word appears several times to describe that father-son scene, as if to challenge our sense of familial bonds in the shadow of the child’s binding.
What is Amos telling his listeners about the deeper meaning of things, and the danger that lurks in lives of rigid and route religious practice? What is he telling us about the inner road of intimacy?
Moshe Sokolow explores Amos’ seemingly simple question from another angle:
“ To what does two people walking together allude? Perhaps its purpose is to warn of the peril that lies even in the mundane. It is not hard to fathom potential trouble when you see ravaging beasts and hear warning sirens; it takes particular foresight to recognize it in the outwardly peaceful sight of two companions—until you reflect on the odds of two strangers going in tandem without having synchronized their movements in advance. Nothing—it reminds us—is coincidental.”
This is Amos’ plea for people’s return to look beyond what they may be missing, to turn from oblivion and to find faith again, to make their way back to their relationship with each other and with their shared collective spirit.
In “The Prophets”, Heschel reminds us why Amos’ powerful poetic riddles echoes then as they still need to resonate right now:
“Amos, a prophet to whom the call of God came as a surprise and stayed on as dismay, is startled. The voice of God is compared with the roar of a lion about to fall upon its prey; Israel, God’s chosen people, is the prey. And no one hears, no one trembles. All save the prophet are deaf and complacent. Yet Amos’ reaction is not fear but the inner compulsion to convey what the voice proclaims; not escape for shelter, but identification with the voice.”
What is Amos asking us about the inner road of intimacy? About what together means at time like these, for all of us?
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