How do we live up to the noblest aspect of our tradition and reframe the narratives that divide us with fear? How do we handle despair and hold on to what’s possible and good when all around points to the impossible?
Negation of the good, and of the presence of a good God - whatever that means — is the main trope of this harsh chapter, a painful psalm of protest.
Again and again the word “Ein” - ‘Not’ is introduced by the poet who looks around and only sees distress and deep doubts.
On one level this is early atheism at play, but on another level, following the prophets, what this poem is about is the lack of morality and ethical behavior that leads us to the horrific ways with which our world functions. Awe or belief in God is not just about faith - it’s about moral choices.
Such for instance is the mention of ‘the awe of god’ when it comes to the Exodus story of the midwives who practiced civil disobedience in Egypt to birth the Hebrew baby boys despite the cruel decree to kill them at birth. Of them it is said that they were pious and had ‘awe of YHWH’. The awe means commitment to human life and humanitarian justice -- the demand to remember that every human is created in a divine image and is worthy of life.
So what’s this PSLAM coming to teach us today about finding strength and some sort of faith in a world still so full of cruelty?
That inside the ‘no’ is a kernel of knowledge?
לַמְנַצֵּ֗חַ לְדָ֫וִ֥ד אָ֘מַ֤ר נָבָ֣ל בְּ֭לִבּוֹ אֵ֣ין אֱלֹהִ֑ים הִֽשְׁחִ֗יתוּ הִֽתְעִ֥יבוּ עֲלִילָ֗ה אֵ֣ין עֹֽשֵׂה־טֽוֹב׃
To the chief Musician of David.
The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that does good.
Ps. 14:1
The Hebrew word Naval is usually translated as “fool”, or ‘Scoundrel.” Nowadays it is a word that is identified with someone wicked. Norman Fisher prefers a gentler tone, but also changes what the claim is --
“The useless fool says in his heart
“God is nothing”
People are corrupt, do only harm
No one does good unselfishly, not one.”
Is it the fool's thought that there is no god in a cruel world, or that perhaps god amounts to nothing. Either way it leads to cruel behavior. God, the poet continues, looks down on a society where very few believe, and most focus on their selfish needs.
It gets worse when one is pious on the outside but believes that faith demands demanding others and demanding violence to validate religious rights.
Plenty of pious people function in our world with cruelty and viciousness, vindicated, from their point of view, by the fact that they are observing God's will and commandments. The tragedy of faith in the hands of power is even worse when so many keep claiming that their way is the only way, no matter how vile.
There is a powerful rabbinic expression of rebuke for such norms, created by the 12th century Nachamanides, to frame this kind of hubris and hypocritical thinking. “Naval B’reshut H’Torah -- a scoundrel who is acting on behalf of Torah Law” has become known as a criticism of criminals who cite religious law to defend their actions, and in recent years that is increasingly the case when it comes to justification of violence by settlers, and those who defend them.
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson wrote about this phrase in its contemporary context, warning us not to read Torah law from narrow self interest and apply them as
“sources of arrogance and smugness and judgementalism which is the very opposite of the true purpose of Torah. The laws of the Torah, rooted in the living earth of compassion, of justice, of love , those mitzvot bear beautiful fruit. But when they become an end in themselves, when they are severed from the soil from which they emerge, then they border on the blasphemous and the idolatrous. Then one becomes a Naval birshut Ha-Torah.”
There is another way to read the word “naval” - connected to its root - to wither, as in what happens when a flower fades for lack of water. At our core, in our essence, the Torah and the old law is meant to give us moral, ethical and helpful tools to love each other, to flourish, and to prosper, like the tree that crowns the first chapter of these psalms.
But we can just as easily forget the source, stick to the negative, our narrow interests, and become whatever version of Naval. Sometimes we even believe deeply that we are doing the right thing; and leave no room for error, for dialogue, for finding out how others think or feel or respond to the situations we are facing.
As we wrap up the week of Passover - I hope the courage of the midwives, their awe of morality and love of humanity will help us hope and love more, raise our voices for justice and peace, for all, and not be stuck in old fears that leave us behind in the narrow places.
The Seventh of Passover is about the Crossing of the Sea of Reeds - a milestone of faith in the face of the impossible.
PSLAM 14, like the Exodus story, reminds us not to let nay-saying take hold of our heart, block scoundrels or fools, so that we are not stuck in negative thinking, nor limit our options for expanding empathy, remembering that we are part of a much bigger ecosystem, intertwined with each other, eager to flourish, not wither, to hold on to the good, and to grow.
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This was one of my father's favorite psalms and one he quoted often. He used to define "fool" as someone who looks around and thinks there is no god at all, humanity made up the concept of a higher power to explain things. He thinks god is a fairy tale. But the wicked... they acknowledge the existence of the EverPresence but bend that knowledge to suit their will, or that because they have free will, they can do whatever the want, regardless of what the EverPresence wants from us.
This could apply to Hamas and their allies who refuse to release all the hostages and demand (with hubris) many of their kind in Israeli jails.
It can also apply to those of the "Gush Amonim" who are settlers in Samaria and Judea.
There is one exception -- Maale Adumim, a Development Town east of Jerusalem, built on bare rock in the desert east of Jerusalem.
"It gets worse when one is pious on the outside but believes that faith demands demanding others and demanding violence to validate religious rights.
Plenty of pious people function in our world with cruelty and viciousness, vindicated, from their point of view, by the fact that they are observing God's will and commandments. The tragedy of faith in the hands of power is even worse when so many keep claiming that their way is the only way, no matter how vile.