On Performing the Indigenous Jewish Prophetic at the End of Jewish History: Further Notes on a Jewish Theology of Liberation

Abstract

On Performing the Indigenous Jewish Prophetic at the End of Jewish History: Further Notes on a Jewish Theology of Liberation Marc H. Ellis The Jewish prophetic, exploding in our time, stretches back to the biblical era. Though the law, rabbinic interpretations and life cycle events form the core of Judaism, at times highlighting but most often disciplining the prophetic, drawing close to and embodying (the fact that?) the prophetic is the essence of and only reason to be Jewish. Rather than the land or prayer, the prophetic is the indigenous of Jewish. Though having gone global through the spread of Christianity and Islam, viewing the prophetic in its Jewish roots and more universal sensibility offers a series of images that surround the primal Jewish prophetic. Here is my summation of the Jewish prophetic: Ancient Israel gave the prophetic to the world; it is the greatest gift in world history; without the prophetic, there is no meaning in history; there may be no meaning in history; the prophet embodies the possibility of meaning in history. The possibility of meaning in history, and thus in our communal and individual lives, is crucial here, as is embodiment. By embodying the prophetic, the prophet is a witness to the possibility of meaning. By embodying the possibility of meaning, the prophet also embodies the possibility of God. The possibility of meaning and God are connected in an intimate way in the prophetic, while religion's assertions about purpose and divinity are just that, assertions. Rather than definitive answers to the daunting questions of meaning and God, however, embodying the prophetic, individually and in community, witnesses to the possibility that these assertions may be true. At the same time, the treatment accorded the prophets and, indeed, the prophetic community that gathers around the prophets, is the ultimate test for the assertions of meaning and God. Judged by the various civil wars in faith communities around the world, embodying the prophetic is a trial by fire. At stake is everything worth fighting for, especially the possibility of justice, love, and compassion over against the forces of chaos and empire. In the contemporary Jewish community, there is an explosion of the indigenous prophetic that was unexpected and is being fought against by the Jewish establishments in Israel and America. Neither movement is surprising. Since biblical times, in every generation, the soul of Jewish is contested. Additionally, since the beginning, Jews have existed on both sides of the Empire Divide. The Empire Divide has two sides: Jews who embrace the indigenous Jewish prophetic as the essence of Jewish life and Jews who embrace empire as the only way to survive the prophetic demands, which are judged unrealistic. Today, the Jewish civil war revolves around the Holocaust and Israel or, better, what Jews should be about after the Holocaust and after Israel. Empire Jews assert that Jews come after the Holocaust, with Israel being the counterpoint, in many ways a salvific one. Prophetic Jews, or Jews of Conscience, believe that Jews come after the Holocaust and after Israel. “After Israel” means an understanding of Israel as the state that ethnically cleansed Palestinians in 1948 and beyond, with the intent and capability of permanently oppressing and occupying what is left of Palestine in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. In particular, after Israel's 2014 invasion of Gaza, the struggle between empire Jews, or in religious terminology, Constantinian Jews, and prophetic Jews of Conscience reached new levels. The explosion of the prophetic during and after the Gaza war may signal the final battle of the perennial Jewish civil war. Constantinian Judaism, with its overwhelming collective power, holds forth as the exemplar of (that which is?) Jewish in the world. Jews of Conscience, with only the prophetic as their guide, move deeper and deeper into exile. This exile appears to be without end. It may be the final exile in Jewish history. With the return to Israel fulfilling the biblical and modern dream of Jewish history, the exile, along with the prophetic and the Promised Land—together, the three basic themes of Jewish history—has taken on new forms. Instead of being forced from the land by God for Israel's transgressions...