(ו) בַּמָּה֙ אֲקַדֵּ֣ם יְהוָ֔ה אִכַּ֖ף לֵאלֹהֵ֣י מָר֑וֹם הַאֲקַדְּמֶ֣נּוּ בְעוֹל֔וֹת בַּעֲגָלִ֖ים בְּנֵ֥י שָׁנָֽה׃ (ז) הֲיִרְצֶ֤ה יְהוָה֙ בְּאַלְפֵ֣י אֵילִ֔ים בְּרִֽבְב֖וֹת נַֽחֲלֵי־שָׁ֑מֶן הַאֶתֵּ֤ן בְּכוֹרִי֙ פִּשְׁעִ֔י פְּרִ֥י בִטְנִ֖י חַטַּ֥את נַפְשִֽׁי׃ (ח) הִגִּ֥יד לְךָ֛ אָדָ֖ם מַה־טּ֑וֹב וּמָֽה־יְהוָ֞ה דּוֹרֵ֣שׁ מִמְּךָ֗ כִּ֣י אִם־עֲשׂ֤וֹת מִשְׁפָּט֙ וְאַ֣הֲבַת חֶ֔סֶד וְהַצְנֵ֥עַ לֶ֖כֶת עִם־אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃ (פ)
(6) With what shall I come before Adonai, And bow myself before God on high? Shall I approach God with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? (7) Would Adonai be pleased with thousands of rams? With myriads of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (8) God has showed you, O man, what is good; And what does Adonai require of you, But to do justice, and to love kindness, And to walk modestly with your God?
(17) Learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; Aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; Defend the cause of the widow.
(24) Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
EXCERPTS FROM "RELIGION AND RACE"
RABBI ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
JANUARY 14TH, 1963
- Perhaps this Conference should have been called “Religion or Race.” You cannot worship God and at the same time look at man as if he were a horse.
- What is an idol? Any god who is mine but not yours, any god concerned with me but not with you, is an idol.
- In several ways man is set apart from all beings created in six days. The Bible does not say, God created the plant or the animal; it says, God created different kinds of plants, different kinds of animals (Genesis 1: 11 12, 21-25). In striking contrast, it does not say, God created different kinds of man, men of different colors and races; it proclaims, God created one single man. From one single man all men are descended.
- There is an evil which most of us condone and are even guilty of: indifference to evil. We remain neutral, impartial, and not easily moved by the wrongs done unto other people. Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself; it is more universal, more contagious, more dangerous. A silent justification, it makes possible an evil erupting as an exception becoming the rule and being in turn accepted.
- What is the essence of being a prophet? A prophet is a person who holds God and men in one thought at one time, at all times. Our tragedy begins with the segregation of God, with the bifurcation of the secular and sacred. We worry more about the purity of dogma than about the integrity of love. We think of God in the past tense and refuse to realize that God is always present and never, never past; that God may be more intimately present in slums than in mansions, with those who are smarting under the abuse of the callous.
- There is no insight more disclosing: God is One, and humanity is one. There is no possibility more frightening: God’s name may be desecrated.
- God is every man’s pedigree. He is either the Father of all men or of no man. The image of God is either in every man or in no man.
- It is not enough for us to exhort the Government. What we must do is to set an example, not merely to acknowledge the Negro but to welcome him, not grudgingly but joyously, to take delight in enabling him to enjoy what is due to him. We are all Pharaohs or slaves of Pharaohs. It is sad to be a slave of Pharaoh. It is horrible to be a Pharaoh.
Daily we should take account and ask: What have I done today to alleviate the anguish, to mitigate the evil, to prevent humiliation?
Let there be a grain of prophet in every man!
- A mighty stream, expressive of the vehemence of a never-ending, surging, fighting movement -as if obstacles had to be washed away for justice to be done. No rock is so hard that water cannot pierce it. “But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place; the waters wear away the stones” (Job 14:18 f.). Justice is not a mere norm, but a fighting challenge, a restless drive.