{"id":78443,"date":"2020-08-04T14:38:39","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T11:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78443"},"modified":"2020-08-04T14:38:39","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T11:38:39","slug":"the-twin-pillars-of-forgiveness-and-loyalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-twin-pillars-of-forgiveness-and-loyalty\/","title":{"rendered":"The Twin Pillars Of Forgiveness And Loyalty"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Micah concludes by establishing the parameters of Israel’s new relationship with God. Verses 18 and 19 describe the first pillar of this relationship \u2013 God’s historical forgiveness of his people. Micah’s question there “Who is a God like You?” praises God for his uniqueness, but not in power or strength. Instead, Micah finds God’s uniqueness in His ability to forgive the sins of the “remnant of His people.” This concept of forgiveness appears in seven different forms in these final verses. The repetition reflects a need to reassure the people that despite all their failings and misdeeds, God will redeem them. These verses form the basis of the <\/span>Tashlich<\/em> <\/span>ceremony on Rosh Hashanah afternoon, when Jews symbolically separate themselves from their sins and petition God for forgiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah also alludes to the Jewish people’s first critical mistake \u2013 the creation of the Golden Calf (Ex. 32). People thought that due to the betrayal of the covenant forged at Sinai, the relationship between God and His people was irrevocably ruptured. Instead, God chose to present Moses with a new paradigm for their relationship \u2013 one based on forgiveness, as formulated in Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. These are the attributes alluded to by Micah: He will not stay angry forever (Ex. 34:6) but instead desires kindness (graciousness). By mentioning kindness, Micah engages in a clever ambiguity \u2013 he does not specify who is performing the kindness. The simple understanding of the verse is that God is the subject. Nevertheless, given that loving-kindness is one of the three fundamental demands God asks of humanity \u2013 we can understand Micah as meaning that God desires for us to be deserving by our performing acts of kindness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah concludes with the second pillar of the relationship, which is the basis of his confidence in the ultimate redemption. God will always remain loyal to His promises to Jacob and Abraham. To the forefathers, God promised the land of Israel in posterity to their descendants, and this promise and covenant remain active.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, Micah’s final chapter shares several parallels with the Song of the Sea (Ex. 15), including “who is like you, God?”, the performance of wonders, Israel being called God’s inheritance, and God’s sending the Jewish people’s enemies to the depths of the sea. Micah makes one significant shift \u2013 in Exodus 15, the Egyptians are Israel’s enemy that are cast aside. In Micah, Israel’s worst enemy are their own sins \u2013 in other words, themselves. Israel’s real enemies, the ones that have led to its downtrodden state, are their sins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The correspondence between internal failings and external enemies is an apt conclusion to the message that Micah has been preaching from the beginning. If Israel and Judah had built societies modeled on the moral principles outlined in the Torah, had its prosperous practiced compassion and not corruption, had is leadership acted from kindness and not avarice, then no country in the world, even a superpower as strong as Assyria, could have hurt Israel in any manner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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