What is the fate of a nation in which human life loses value, where the poor get poorer at the hands of a merciless, greedy, unjust system?
Who will be the ones to carry the ultimate blame for generations-old trauma that keeps replaying its cruelty?
In his second chapter, Amos, a farmer turned public voice of protest for justice, mid 8th century BCE, continues in his tirade of transgressions, naming a few more of the local neighboring kingdoms for their crimes before focusing on his real audience - the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
He is likely standing in Samaria’s central square, in front of the opulent temple and palace, and his concern is this rich nation’s smug injustice and exploitation of the vulnerable and weak.
After his long list of crimes against humanity committed by the local nations he brings the final blow -- perversion of justice is the ultimate human misdeed and a desecration of the divine within all living beings. There will be a price to pay.
Amos uses a familiar formula to point an accusing finger at Israel’s societal failures, and he also may be hinting at a surprising ancient family sin, an ancestral stain we would prefer to admit never happened:
כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהֹוָ֔ה עַל־שְׁלֹשָׁה֙ פִּשְׁעֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְעַל־אַרְבָּעָ֖ה לֹ֣א אֲשִׁיבֶ֑נּוּ עַל־מִכְרָ֤ם בַּכֶּ֙סֶף֙ צַדִּ֔יק וְאֶבְי֖וֹן בַּֽעֲב֥וּר נַעֲלָֽיִם׃
YHWH spoke:
For three transgressions of Israel -
For the fourth, I will not revoke the decree:
Because they have sold for silver
Those whose cause was just,
And the needy for a pair of shoes.
Amos 2:6
The prophet is blaming the people for prioritizing profit over people, and for engaging in a bustling business of slavery, in which human lives are reduced to mere coins -- or just a pair of shoes.
What’s the shoes all about?
According to Jewish traditions found in several Midrashim - collections of oral teachings - the shoes that he’s referencing here point towards a skeleton in our family closet: That time when ten brothers sold their dreamer sibling Joseph as a slave - for twenty silver coins.
According to a strange tradition, what they did with this money was to buy themselves some shoes. The medieval Midrash Yalkut Shimoni repeats this tradition and cites today’s verse from Amos as prooftext.
How long can one go when disregarding the value of another human life? What will the repercussions be, over the many generations of trauma untold?
Amos is speaking up against society that is ignoring its purpose, repeating its trauma and guilty of betrayal to its truth and its god. It’s important to remember that the Kingdom of Israel is often known as Ephraim, the son of Joseph - with the lineage of the northern kingdom often linked to Joseph and his sons, while the southern kingdom is often associated with Judah and Benjamin - other participants in this ancient tribal drama.
Amos protests with potent poetry, both past and present - as powerful now as it was 2,800 years ago - and that’s what makes Amos the original voice of ethics, who will inspire many prophets who will follow his lead to demand a just society as a religious-moral obligation that will help repair the sins of the past.
Heschel asks in “The Prophets” about this prophetic role:
“Did Amos speak as a champion of ethics? Was it in the name of the moral law that the shepherd of Tekoa left his sheep to proclaim his message in Samaria? Amos insisted that it was God whose call he followed and whose living word he carried.
There is a living God who cares. Justice is more than an idea or a norm. Justice is a divine concern. What obtains between God and His people is not only a covenant of mutual obligations, but also a relationship of mutual concern.
The message of God is not an impersonal accusation, but the utterance of a Redeemer who is pained by the misdeeds, the thanklessness of those whom He has redeemed.”
Heschel, writing in the 1960’s, echos the cries for justice of Amos, as that prophet drudged up ancient history -- all leading us to ask the same questions today. The theological dimensions of this cry for justice may seem strange in our contemporary context where religion is not always the vehicle for visions of equity but often the holders of harm. And yet - Amos is inviting us into a deeper exploration of the very fusion of faith and fearless fight for justice, for a life lived with utmost respect to human dignity, fueled by divine worth and committed to change for god’s sake and everybody’s sake.
Can we be part of the paradigm shift? Amos invites us to at least ask the question, walking in these ancestral shoes of shame, step by hurting, honest step to build a better home for all, to bring them home, to heal and to repair.
Image: #Bringthemhome protest in Amsterdam, December 2023
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