Do We Not All Share One Father?
Ps. 49:2-3
What is worth the most in life? Purpose, power, money, love?
You can’t take wealth with you beyond the grave, but what will make life worth living while we’re breathing?
That’s what this psalm’s poet wants to know. The response, not surprising, reminds us today that it’s on each of us to keep attuning our actions and values, not get sucked into the societal whims that often try to shift our focus from the honorable values of humanity towards the violation of the sacred, and the violence of greed. And it’s on to remember - and it is difficult with so much that divides us - that we have a common ancestor. Biologically and mythically - we come from the same source.
We begin on equal footing - more or less. The soul’s the same although our bodies and conditions into which we’re born are different. We all share genetic codes and ancient ancestry. But very quickly we become the people on both sides of the tracks, with multiple reasons for hierarchies and distinctions , discriminations and divisions.
What will help us to remember that beyond these boxes we are all in this together, pieces of the same puzzle, all created in the same divine image in an ecosystem of mutual interdependence that honors all of our lives and requires our collaboration to survive and thrive?
Today’s poem is about humility and how to live with dignity, not fear, and it attempts to ground us in humility by by going back to the beginning of origins:
שִׁמְעוּ־זֹ֭את כל־הָעַמִּ֑ים הַ֝אֲזִ֗ינוּ אל־יֹ֥שְׁבֵי חָֽלֶד׃ גַּם־בְּנֵ֣י אָ֭דָם גַּם־בְּנֵי־אִ֑ישׁ יַ֝֗חַד עָשִׁ֥יר וְאֶבְיֽוֹן׃
Hear this, all you peoples; give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor alike.
Ps. 49:2-3
The poet is addressing the entire human family - not just the Judean tribe. What’s exciting here beyond this universal and somewhat socialist approach is that it is specifically going beyond the tribal and particular audience to insist that it’s on all of us - all humans - to be less of the problem and better at sharing the solutions.
The original Hebrew is very specific and the translators have wrestled with ways to manifest this subtle but important specific use of words. The Hebrew words call out to both ‘The sons of Adam’ and the ‘sons of Ish’. These have been translated as “both low and high”, or “men of all estates”. David Rosenberg’s translation in A Poet's Bible is “All who live in air - Important, ordinary, poor.” Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalmoi’s version is “No matter if you are high born or children of humble folks.”
Robert Alter is the closest to the original - with its specific primal read:
“You human creatures, you sons of man
Together the rich and the needy.”
Why do the distinctions make a difference? They allude to the phases of our evolution and therefore to the ways we need to keep evolving as an ever more interdependent species. In the original creation of humanity as described in the first chapters of Genesis, our first name is Adam -- taken from the Adama - the earth of which we are born. Only later, in the second and more problematic version of human’s birth, when Adam witnesses the birth of the first woman is the word ‘ish’ introduced - and it’s already a sense of being part of a more complex and puzzling plurality of being. Adam is our primal animal self. Ish is where our distinct human and cultural selves come into the picture, including gender. The psalm addresses both parts of ourselves and our collective identities -- a built-in aspirational measure to challenge the norms that will create the cultural hierarchies of have’s and the have not’s.
Being the ones born of Adama is what we share in common with each other. Being the children of Ish is when we are already part of different genders, clans and races.
What will happen when and if we figure out how to transcend the differences and focus more on what unites us?
But until this utopian reality kicks in, the poem wants to let all of us remember that despite the gap between the rich and poor we will all end back in Adama’s domain and won’t take it with us.
כִּ֤י לֹ֣א בְ֭מוֹתוֹ יִקַּ֣ח הַכֹּ֑ל לֹֽא־יֵרֵ֖ד אַחֲרָ֣יו כְּבוֹדֽוֹ׃
“for when they die they can take none of it along;
their goods cannot follow them down.”
Ps. 49:17
Even if we leave the wealth to future generations, what is it that is worth pursuing in our lives? The poet wants us to focus on honoring our ancestry, focusing on gratitude and grace, finding our way to faith that will become the main pursuit of our lives.
Today is Father’s Day - complex as all these made-up holidays can be and still a way to elevate the obvious and celebrate the gift of life we have received and keep on giving.
Tonight the Muslim world begins the celebration of Eid-al-Adha, honoring the faith of Abraham, the Patriarchal ancestor to so many of us.
So today we honor our shared ancestral father - not just Abraham but all the way to Adam, the original Ish, all the fatherly gifts we have inherited, and all the ways in which our fathers handed us traditions and transmissions that at the end of day remind us of this poem’s message -- we share more in common than what divides us. The prophet Malachi was the one to call out to his people at war — ‘do we not all share one father?’
Today we are reminded that our legacy, no matter how problematic patriarchy is - includes the ability to respect and even love our fathers and mothers, children and siblings, neighbors and strangers -- with the humble and compelling knowledge that we all come from and will end up with the same source of life.
Happy Father’s Day. Eid Mubarak.
Who Wrote These Psalms??
Our Monthly Zoom Session on 6/20 (rescheduled)
If it wasn’t King David who wrote the Psalms, despite popular religious lore, and according to most reliable scholarship - then who are the authors of these poets of piety and protest? Did they leave us some important information to decode as we struggle with our personal and public problems?
Clues are everywhere.
Join me on June 20th for our monthly Zoom conversation Below the Bible Belt - and find out more about the authors and how these ancient hymns may be helpful to us during this difficult time in the world, and as we each face challenges and celebrate life’s blessings.
Whether you are new to this journey or have been on it for a while - please join us on June 20th 2024, 5pm ET and please bring your questions, comments, responses and reflections on the PSLAMS so far.
Here’s the link to the next Below the Bible Belt Zoom Live Conversation:
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Let there be healing, and may peace prevail.
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