"you shall never again bereave your nations"
When we talk of Mother Earth today there is, for some, a sense of reverence, and a sense of dread, not just as metaphor: Our planet, sometimes known as Gaia, is suffering so much because of human species abuse. Our abuse. Perhaps one of the sources of our sorrow is that some of us think that some of our lands are more holy than others. Where does this come from in our tradition and can these mythic-political notions evolve and expand?
Ezekiel, first prophet of the diaspora, is exploring the expansion of the sacred - from the territorial homeland where he and his people originated - to a wider sense of holy earth - everywhere. On some levels he’s introducing new tensions between the tribal and universal sets of loyalties. Perhaps he’s wondering - is all land holy, everywhere or are some lands more holy than others?
Whether in this chapter he is focusing on just one particular piece of land or the entire earth itself - the striking features of this prophecy is that Ezekiel is actually addressing the land - and not the people. He starts off by talking to the grieving “mountains and the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys.” (36:6)
And he promises the pained and promised land, on behalf of YHWH, that it will not be desolate for long, and the land will not be known as a place of death but rather a place of life:
כֹּ֤ה אָמַר֙ אֲדֹנָ֣י יֱהֹוִ֔ה יַ֚עַן אֹמְרִ֣ים לָכֶ֔ם אֹכֶ֥לֶת אָדָ֖ם אָ֑תְּ וּמְשַׁכֶּ֥לֶת גּוֹיַ֖יִךְ הָיִֽית׃ לָכֵ֗ן אָדָם֙ לֹא־תֹ֣אכְלִי ע֔וֹד וְגוֹיַ֖יִךְ לֹ֣א תְשַׁכְּלִי־ע֑וֹד נְאֻ֖ם אֲדֹנָ֥י יֱהֹוִֽה׃
“Thus said the Sovereign YHWH: Because the people say of you, “You are a land that devours humans, you have been a bereaver of your nations -- assuredly, you shall devour humans no more, you shall never again bereave your nations—declares YHWH.
Ezekiel 36:12
Note the plural use of ‘people’ in these verses, alluding to the more than one nation to whom the land has ties - and to the promise that the land will not be bereaved.
Vincent Calabrese explores the deeper dimensions of this promise - and the tensions between local and global in Ezekiel’s words:
“The redemption of the physical land or Israel seems to be inextricably bound to the redemption of the people Israel...
..We could interpret Ezekiel’s address to the land as an extended example of the rhetorical device known as ‘apostrophe,’ in which a speaker addresses herself to an absent person or inanimate object for effect. Really, Ezekiel is addressing the people, but in order to convey his point he speaks as if he is addressing the land itself. While this interpretation is possible, it is equally plausible, and perhaps more interesting, to take Ezekiel’s address more literally. Numerous texts in the Bible, including ones associated with priestly thinking (as is Ezekiel), seem to conceive of the land of Israel as a kind of agent, even as a third party in the covenant between God and the descendants of Jacob. Ezekiel is thus one of the founders of a tradition which attributes a special metaphysical status and even agency to the land of Israel. This tradition would go on to have an important afterlife in Jewish thought, animating the work of the medieval philosopher Judah Halevi and much of the Kabbalah as well.
Interestingly enough, it is also in Ezekiel’s writing that the seeds of a counter-tradition are to be found. One of the most significant characteristics of Ezekiel is precisely that he is a prophet of exile, who delivers his oracles outside of the land. In his own day, many would have believed such prophetic activity to be impossible. Even in the Middle Ages, Judah Halevi had a hard time admitting that prophecy could take place outside the land, and maintained that oracles like Ezekiel’s, delivered in exile, were only possible because they were about the land.
On this issue (as on so many) Ezekiel seems to embrace contradictory impulses — he elevates the land of Israel to a unique metaphysical status at the same time as he insists that the people of Israel can enjoy an intimate relationship with their God in whatever country they may dwell.”
In the future, Ezekiel promises his exiled neighbors -- you will be back home, and even if the sacred is everywhere -- being back home will feel familiar, safer - and sacred. There will be new rituals to mark the new beginning, the renewal of the commitment to the land. The new rituals will include immersion in the sacred substance from the earth itself, and a new sense of being in the world:
וְזָרַקְתִּ֧י עֲלֵיכֶ֛ם מַ֥יִם טְהוֹרִ֖ים וּטְהַרְתֶּ֑ם מִכֹּ֧ל טֻמְאוֹתֵיכֶ֛ם וּמִכׇּל־גִּלּ֥וּלֵיכֶ֖ם אֲטַהֵ֥ר אֶתְכֶֽם׃
וְנָתַתִּ֤י לָכֶם֙ לֵ֣ב חָדָ֔שׁ וְר֥וּחַ חֲדָשָׁ֖ה אֶתֵּ֣ן בְּקִרְבְּכֶ֑ם וַהֲסִ֨רֹתִ֜י אֶת־לֵ֤ב הָאֶ֙בֶן֙ מִבְּשַׂרְכֶ֔ם וְנָתַתִּ֥י לָכֶ֖ם לֵ֥ב בָּשָֽׂר׃
“I will sprinkle pure water upon you, and you shall be purified: I will purify you from all your defilement and from all your distractions.”
And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit into you: I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:25
With these wild visions of poetic healing rituals for the people and the land-- as stones will be replaced by flesh, and as holy expands beyond the homeland -- the prophet takes us into the next phase of the redemption.
He will go into the future where reunions of flesh and spirit, bones and branches come alive to bring together hope and healing, home and holy - in one of the more famous visions of Ezekiel and one of our most complex and compelling chapters of consolation.
It feels appropriate to write of this vision of renewal today - as we need hope and consolation for all of us, all lands and nations, and as on mother earth’s calendar tonight is the longest night of the year, a gestation through the dance with darkness into the new possible.
Image: earth-mother by Systemic Alternatives
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