Is Our Flesh not the Same as the Flesh of our Siblings?
Nehemiah 5:5
Social Justice hero - shrewd politician with excessive pride - bit of both? Nehemiah’s character is complex and has baffled readers over the ages. Some of them, such as a few rabbis whose opinions appear in the Talmud suggested the hubris is what defined him - based on today’s chapter - and why he didn’t have a book named after him in the Hebrew Bible.
Yet at least some of this chapter, whether he wrote it or not, speaks of a leader who is attuned not just to the need to build a wall and defend the people from exterior threats but also in tune with the interior social landscape and where injustice must be addressed - no matter the costs.
The Persian King Artaxerxes I has been on the throne for 20 years and the empire is grinding along, but possibly because of droughts, bad governance, and ongoing conflicts with the neighbors - the province of Yehud is experiencing severe financial difficulties.
In order to survive, many local farmers sell their lands, and then themselves and their children as slaves to their local wealthy neighbors.
While this was not usual in the ancient world, and as desperate measure exists in some ways still today -- it still reads as unpleasant exploitation - wealthy Jews managed to exploit and enslave their poorer Jewish kin in the early days of the Second Temple. Probably later on too. It was essentially human trafficking even if within social-economic norms. What sort of nation can be built or rebuilt on such foundations of social fault lines?
The people’s protests are heard louder and louder - both women and men cry out in pain, demanding justice and equality:
וַתְּהִ֨י צַעֲקַ֥ת הָעָ֛ם וּנְשֵׁיהֶ֖ם גְּדוֹלָ֑ה אֶל־אֲחֵיהֶ֖ם הַיְּהוּדִֽים׃
וְעַתָּ֗ה כִּבְשַׂ֤ר אַחֵ֙ינוּ֙ בְּשָׂרֵ֔נוּ כִּבְנֵיהֶ֖ם בָּנֵ֑ינוּ וְהִנֵּ֣ה אֲנַ֣חְנוּ כֹ֠בְשִׁ֠ים אֶת־בָּנֵ֨ינוּ וְאֶת־בְּנֹתֵ֜ינוּ לַעֲבָדִ֗ים וְיֵ֨שׁ מִבְּנֹתֵ֤ינוּ נִכְבָּשׁוֹת֙ וְאֵ֣ין לְאֵ֣ל יָדֵ֔נוּ וּשְׂדֹתֵ֥ינוּ וּכְרָמֵ֖ינוּ לַאֲחֵרִֽים׃
There was a great outcry by the common folk and their wives against their brother Jews.
Our flesh is the same as the flesh of our siblings, and our children as good as theirs; yet here we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery—some of our daughters are already subjected—and we are powerless, while our fields and vineyards belong to others.”
Nehemiah 5:5
When Nehemiah is made aware of the severity of the situation he does not hesitate. He calls his fellow leaders—the ones who never left, the one who came back a generation earlier, and those who joined him to return to Zion, who are enriching themselves at the people's expense—to account. Just as Ezra compelled the Jews to expel their foreign wives and children, whether that campaign was carried out or not -- so too does Nehemiah force his wealthy fellow Jewish leaders to release the poor Jews they had purchased as slaves.
He leads by providing personal example and vows that he and his court will renounce all debts incurred by the local farmers.
And in the rich tradition of Israel’s prophets, he also leads with theater -- uses his garment as a symbol of his action:
גַּם־חׇצְנִ֣י נָעַ֗רְתִּי וָֽאֹמְרָ֡ה כָּ֣כָה יְנַעֵ֪ר הָֽאֱלֹהִ֟ים אֶת־כׇּל־הָאִישׁ֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר לֹֽא־יָקִ֜ים אֶת־הַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֗ה מִבֵּיתוֹ֙ וּמִ֣יגִיע֔וֹ וְכָ֛כָה יִהְיֶ֥ה נָע֖וּר וָרֵ֑ק וַיֹּאמְר֨וּ כׇֽל־הַקָּהָ֜ל אָמֵ֗ן וַֽיְהַלְלוּ֙ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֔ה וַיַּ֥עַשׂ הָעָ֖ם כַּדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּֽה׃
“I also shook out the corners of my garment and said, “So may God shake free of his household and property any man who fails to keep this promise; may he be thus shaken out and stripped.” All the assembled answered, “Amen,” and praised YHWH.
The people kept this promise.”
Nehemiah 5:13
Did it work? His memoir suggests that the people obeyed him and the situation got better but there is no real way to indicate what happens next. The archeology and research into the 12 years during which Nehemiah claims he ruled Jerusalem is limited and very vague.
He goes to to describe his moral leadership, the ways with which he led with personal example, as a governor, unlike his predecessors, who did not live lavishly and didnt get rich at the expense of the people. He bought no land, smoked no cigars, drank no champagne.. On the contrary—he and his brothers lived off his own resources, and he even hosted as many as 150 of the Judeans Jews at his table.
He ends this chapter with a plea to God that has irked some of the sages, blaming him for taking too much credit when other leaders just do their duty and don’t write a book about it:
זׇכְרָה־לִּ֥י אֱלֹהַ֖י לְטוֹבָ֑ה כֹּ֥ל אֲשֶׁר־עָשִׂ֖יתִי עַל־הָעָ֥ם הַזֶּֽה׃
O my God, remember to my credit all that I have done for this people!
Nehemiah 5:18
Jacob Wright explores this question of Nehemiah’s pride in Why the Bible Began and how it relates to the overall condition of the national process:
“What began to define Judean identity in this age of imperial rule was not a physical border but a common consciousness.
The genius of Nehemiah’s political approach was also a prominent feature of his own identity: pride. His memoir repeatedly calls the deity to remember “all that I have done for this people,” and such self-adulation has long irritated his readers. However, he succeeded in galvanizing a community of builders, and he did so by appealing to the sense of collective shame they and their ancestors had endured after the conquest of their kingdom. Whatever personal vanity may have motivated him, his larger objective was to restore collective Judean pride, and that objective likely would not have been achievable without him first convincing a defeated and humiliated population to rise up and rebuild their ruins.”
Now that he has paid attention and attempt to solve some of the domestic issues of the community, Nehemiah returns to the bigger picture - the wall is not yet done, and its gates are not up.
Who will be inside the walls and who remains outside in a world of conflicting claims for equity, equality and identity?
How will this nation rise to the challenge of establishing its moral stand with so many competing needs and narratives? once again we hear the people’s pleas from 2,500 years ago, and the demands for freedom, justice, equality, dignity - echoes in the same streets of Jerusalem, all those years later, with added layers of urgency - and hope.
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