The Politics of Power

And when you spread your palms, I avert My eyes from you.  Though you abundantly pray, I do not listen.  Your hands are full of blood.  Isaiah 1:15

Full of blood – If you read the context of this verse, you’ll discover that God rejects all the usual acts of worship.  Sacrifices mean nothing to Him.  Rituals and festivals are a burden.  Sabbath observance He despises.  Why?  Because the fundamental basis of responsible community is not in place.  As Alter notes, “ . . . Isaiah’s outrage . . . is not chiefly with cultic disloyalty, as it would be for the writers in the school of Deuteronomy, but with social injustice—indifference to the plight of the poor and the helpless, exploitation of the vulnerable, acts represented here as the moral equivalent of murder.”[1]  Isaiah’s reference to Sodom and Gomorrah make it clear that God’s concern is with the society’s lack of compassion.  What happened to these two cities is a stern warning to Israel.

Some Christian theologians have used these verses to claim that God isn’t interested in Jewish cultic observance.  They suggest that sacrifices, festivals, offerings, and ritual prayers are not only unnecessary but actually offensive.  God has moved past all those ancient practices.  The Church has replaced Israel’s outmoded religion.  But this isn’t Isaiah’s point at all.  There is no suggestion here that Torah obedience no longer matters.  What Isaiah is saying is that Torah obedience stands or falls on love for the neighbor.  All the religious observance in the world cannot whitewash social injustice.  As Yeshua made abundantly clear, love of the neighbor is the equivalent of loving God.  One does not exist without the other.  Accordingly, all the rest of the commandments hang on these two principles: love God and love the other.  Without care and concern for the other, no religious practice will be acceptable.

This should come as no surprise.  Luzzatto’s examination of the infinite human obligation for the other person only clarifies what is implicit in all Torah teaching.  Not only do we owe our very existence as a self-conscious being to the community of others, we have a moral obligation to measure ourselves according to our concern for the other person.  As Stone noted: “ . . . the question we ask ourselves in this meditative process is: ‘How did our success or failure to realize this middah affect the other person?’ not ‘How did this make me feel?’”[2]   Isaiah’s striking metaphor, “hands full of blood,” demonstrates just how serious this foundation really is.  Wherever and whenever your actions show indifference to others, you mimic the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah.  And their fate comes knocking.

Isaiah’s description should terrify us.  Take a measure of our social status.  Is there really any fundamental concern for the poor, the helpless, or the vulnerable?  Yes, of course, some people care, but as a society how do we stack up?  Capitalism is not anathema, but capitalism without compassion is moral murder.  The true mark of a man is not his beliefs but his benevolence.

Topical Index: moral murder, social injustice, Sodom, love, Isaiah 1:15

[1] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible Volume 2 Prophets, pp. 624-625, fn. 15.

[2] Ira F. Stone, “Introduction,” in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. xix.