{"id":77118,"date":"2018-07-09T17:48:27","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-523\/"},"modified":"2020-07-13T19:00:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T16:00:29","slug":"wall-523","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-523\/","title":{"rendered":"chapter-Prophets-Amos-5"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"chapter","wall_id":"523","date":"20270831","book":"Amos","chapter":"5","chapter_main_number":"523","books_group":"Prophets","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"76991","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"JPS Audio Bible - Amos Chapter 5 ","post_title":"JPS Audio Bible - Amos Chapter 5","slug":"jps-audio-bible-amos-chapter-5","old_id":"76991","type":"user","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34686,"post_title":"Soundcloud","slug":"soundcloud","old_id":"34686","first_name":"","last_name":"","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34656,"alt":"","title":"491","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","width":300,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium_large-width":300,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","large-width":300,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","1536x1536-width":300,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","2048x2048-width":300,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","post_full_size-width":300,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"523","type_929":"4","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"JPS Audio Bible","tile_main_caption":"Amos Chapter 5","tile_main_caption_size":"2","tile_sub_caption":"Hear the daily chapter","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-753876298\/jps_audio_bible_amos_chapter_5","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Amos","chapter":"5","chapter_main_number":"523","date":"20270831","wall_id":"523"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":2,"id":"77354","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"Let Justice Well Up!! ","post_title":"Let Justice Well Up!!","slug":"let-justice-well-up","old_id":"77354","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36277,"post_title":"Yedidya Sinclair","slug":"yedidya-sinclair","old_id":"36277","first_name":"Yedidya","last_name":"Sinclair","description":"Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair serves as Senior Rabbinic Scholar at Hazon, the leading US Jewish environmental organization. From 2011-16 he was Vice President for Research and Senior Economist at Energiya Global, a Jerusalem-based solar energy company focused on the developing world and he continues to consult on renewable energy and climate change preparedness. In 2014 he published together with Hazon, a translation of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook's great work on shmitta, the Sabbatical year, \"Introduction to Shabbat Ha'aretz.\" Yedidya holds a BA from Oxford University, an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and lives with his family in Jerusalem.","short_description":"Yedidya Sinclair is a Jerusalem-based rabbi and economist, and is Senior Rabbinic Scholar at Hazon. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36278,"alt":"","title":"yedidya sinclair","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","width":200,"height":200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","medium_large-width":200,"medium_large-height":200,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","large-width":200,"large-height":200,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","1536x1536-width":200,"1536x1536-height":200,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","2048x2048-width":200,"2048x2048-height":200,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","post_full_size-width":200,"post_full_size-height":200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","home_baner-width":200,"home_baner-height":200}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"523","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Not a blissful vision of the future - a pained cry to change the present\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Many have pointed out that the ringing call in Amos 5:24: \u201clet justice well up like water and, righteousness like an unfailing stream, was a favorite verse of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He cited it in all of his most famous civil rights orations, including \u201cI have a Dream,\u201d \u201cLetter from Birmingham Jail,\u201d \u201cBeyond Vietnam\u201d and his final speech \u201cI\u2019ve been to the Mountaintop.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In a recent book on Dr. King\u2019s religious rhetoric, Professor Keith Miller argues that in his repeated return to this particular verse, King was deliberately avoiding the context of Amos chapter 5 and of the book of Amos more broadly. Miller points out that much of the chapter has a grimmer tone. For example, \u201cThe day of the Lord, shall be not light but darkness, Blackest night without a glimmer\u201d (5:20) occurs just a few verses before the iconic 5:24, but was never quoted by King. According to Miller, King avoids Amos\u2019 darker excoriations of injustice and repeatedly cites 5:24, which Miller characterizes as a \u201cbiblical vision of bliss and promise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This seems to me a misunderstanding of both Amos and King. As the classic commentators read it, 5:24 is not a vision of future bliss, but an invocation that it may be so. Rashi, for example comments, \u201cif you do this, then the justice that you denied will be revealed, and pour out among you like flowing water.\u201d Similarly, Abarbanel adds, \u201cthe goal of his words was that the waters of justice should roll down.\u201d Amos is urging that justice well up, not prophesying that it would.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If you read the context of the speeches where King quotes this verse, you see that this was how he understood these words too. In \u201cI have a dream\u201d, King declares, \u201cwe cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until \"justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.\" The verse is not a blissful prophecy but a cry for change.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Likewise, in the Mountaintop speech, King declaimed, \u201cSomehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones. And whenever injustice is around he tells it. Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and saith, \"When God speaks who can but prophesy?\" Again with Amos, \"Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For both Amos and King, \u201cLet justice well up\u2026\u201d neither evokes the bitter denial of justice they both saw all around them, nor is it a prophecy of a beatific future. Rather these words are a call to a world that hangs in the balance, where we can choose, if we will, to let justice well up and where the prophet or preacher\u2019s words may make the difference.\u00a0 <\/span> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image: Wall at Civil Rights Memorial<\/a>, Montgomery, Alabama. Designer:\u00a0 Maya Lin, 1989 \/ wikimedia\u00a0<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":77355,"alt":"","title":"amos5-civil rights mem - mlk justice","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice.jpg","width":800,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Let Justice Well Up!!","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Not a blissful vision of the future - a pained cry to change the present","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":77355,"alt":"","title":"amos5-civil rights mem - mlk justice","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice.jpg","width":800,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/amos5-civil-rights-mem-mlk-justice-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Amos","chapter":"5","chapter_main_number":"523","date":"20270831","wall_id":"523"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":3,"id":"77357","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"Seek Me And Live! ","post_title":"Seek Me And Live!","slug":"seek-me-and-live","old_id":"77357","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":76938,"post_title":"Miriam Szafranski","slug":"miriam-szafranski","old_id":"76938","first_name":"Miriam ","last_name":"Szafranski ","description":"Miriam Szafranski teaches Tanakh at SAR High School and lives in Riverdale, and has never missed a day of 929 so far (bh) even insisting on completing the Perek when in labor with her son.\r\n","short_description":"Miriam Szafranski teaches Tanakh at SAR High School and lives in Riverdale. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":76939,"alt":"","title":"Miriam Khukhashvili","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Miriam-Khukhashvili.jpg","width":996,"height":1791,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Miriam-Khukhashvili-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Miriam-Khukhashvili-167x300.jpg","medium-width":167,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Miriam-Khukhashvili-569x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":569,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Miriam-Khukhashvili-569x1024.jpg","large-width":569,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Miriam-Khukhashvili.jpg","1536x1536-width":854,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Miriam-Khukhashvili.jpg","2048x2048-width":996,"2048x2048-height":1791,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Miriam-Khukhashvili-667x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":667,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Miriam-Khukhashvili-234x420.jpg","home_baner-width":234,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"523","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Because God is hiding - it becomes our duty to seek\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

 <\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

There is a beautiful story about Rebbe Barukh, a famous Rebbe who lived in Ukraine in the 1700s, and his grandson Yechiel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

One day Yechiel came running into his grandfather\u2019s room crying.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cYechiel, Yechiel, why are you crying?\u201d asked Rebbe Barukh.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

His sobbing grandson explained, \u201cI was playing hide and seek with my friend. But my friend stopped seeking and left me alone.\u201d Rebbe Barukh comforted Yechiel, and with tears welling up in his own eyes, he whispered softly to his grandson, \u201cYechiel, God is also crying. God has also been hiding and no one is seeking God\" (Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim I).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Seeking God is an important idea in Hasidic thought. Amos tells us in today\u2019s chapter \u201cFor so said the Lord to the house of Israel; Seek Me and live\u201d (verse 6). The moments in life where we don\u2019t feel alive, where we feel depressed, dark, stuck in routine, the solution is simple--- seek God and live. Become alive again. God is there.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Although God is \u201chiding\u201d (and the idea of <\/span>hester panim<\/span><\/em>, \u201cthe hiding of the divine face,\u201d is an idea in and of itself to be explored in Hasidic thought) He can be easily found by those who want to seek. And when they seek, they will find. And when they find, they will come alive.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

There are different venues available for seeking. Every commandment or fulfillment of one can be a form of seeking:<\/span><\/p>\r\n