What’s Good
When, if ever, did the Children of Israel follow God lovingly, like newlyweds to their homeland? “I lovingly recall the devotion of your youth” Jeremiah nostalgically remembers (Jer. 2:2). So, given their rebellious norms, when exactly do we find even a hint of such devotion in the Torah?
This week. In our second portion, the outsider prophet-for-hire Bilaam pronounces from a distance “How good are your dwellings, your resting places (Num 24:5). The Children of Israel appear to be orderly and reverential. According to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, this is the solitary instance in the Torah when Jeremiah’s romantic recollection is hinted at.
The description of our ancestors as, How Good (ma tovu) is a phrase that’s reclaimed by this week’s prophet Micah, when he sums-up, “You’ve been told, what’s good (ma tov): do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord your God (Mic. 6:8).
A week from this Shabbat, America will turn 250. And, interestingly, our first two Presidents saw fit to invoke Micah’s words.
John Adams summarized them in an 1820 letter to his granddaughter. “The longer I live… the less I seem to know. Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough.” And George Washington found Micah’s words worthy in his final official communication to our country in 1783 with a prayer that God might “dispose of us all to do justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves, with that charity, humility & pacific temper of mind” concluding they were essential to making us “a happy Nation.”
Echoes of Micah’s what’s good-formulation resonate for me personally. My beloved grandfather, Frank G. Marshall, whose influence on my life was vast, had his 33rd yahrzeit this week. He also used to busy himself with Micah’s words when he championed Jewish education. I once learned with him that Torah’s 33rd Hebrew word is good (tov). It signals the first time God proclaims “Behold it is good” in response to creating light (Gen 1:4).
May each of us, in the week ahead of our nation’s special birthday, prepare a gift that brings-to-life deeds that are just, affection for mercy, and humility in how we venture forth. So that we too may respond to Let there be light with Behold it is good.
