Are we viewing the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’?
Everyone loves a spectacle. “Step right up ladies and gentlemen! The most astounding, mysterious, exciting, terrifying, yet exhilarating event you’ve ever seen!”
Crowds gather. They ooh and ah! “Wow, did you see that? “Unbelievable!”
Last week’s haftara was just such a spectacle.
Eliyahu HaNavi, disgusted by the behavior of the evil king Achav, and his even more evil wife Jezebel, from the Northern kingdom of Israel, has had enough. He knows that most of the 10 tribes of the north (all the tribes, except Judah and Benjamin), while not as evil as their royal rulers, have been “straddling the fence,” on the one hand paying lip service in worshipping Hashem, but keeping their idols, especially those of the idol Baal, handy.
Eliyahu challenges them:
How long will you dance between two opinions? If Hashem is the G-d, follow Him! And if Baal, follow him! (Kings 1 18:21).
The people are silent, so Eliyahu tells them he will challenge Baal to a showdown. Let’s go up Mount Carmel, he says, and the 450 prophets of Baal will take a bull, put it on an altar of wood, and I will take another bull and put it on another wooden altar. Neither of us will apply any fire; instead, we will simply pray to our divinity and see which one responds with fire to consume the bull offering (ibid 18:22–24).
• • •
You can imagine the scene. It must have been a sellout crowd. The great challenge! Hordes of people — men, women, and children; young and old, gathering at the foot of the mountain. Probably all sorts of treats and foods for sale, magicians, jugglers, clowns, a feeling of excitement in the air! A festive, grand affair worthy of PT Barnum and Cecil B DeMille combined!
From morning till noon, the Baal prophets pray, shout, dance, and beat and cut themselves till they bleed. Eliyahu taunts them — maybe your god went out “to relieve himself or is sleeping” and that’s why he doesn’t respond (ibid18:27).
By afternoon, it is clear that Baal is not going to respond, and Eliyahu asks everyone to “gather ’round” (ibid18:30). Like the “Greatest Showman” he makes the event even more difficult.
He creates a trench around the wooden altar and fills it with water (to make it even more difficult for fire to appear). With real drama, he says, fill the trench once, twice, three times! Then he steps forward, and says “Hashem, G-d of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yisrael, today it will become known that You G-d, are with Israel, and I am Your servant, and at Your word, I’ve done all these things. Answer me, Hashem, answer me — and let this people know that You are Hashem, the G-d, and You will turn their hearts back“ (18:36–37).
Suddenly, Hashem’s fire descends from the heavens, consumes the wood, the stones and the earth, and certainly the bull offering, and it “even licks the water in the trench” (18:38).
The people fall on their faces and twice exclaim: “Hashem Hu HaElokim (Hashem, He is the G-d; Hashem, He is the G-d!).
Wow! What a story! Those of us who are looking for a sign that G-d is out there listening, this was the greatest, most visible sign of all! These Children of Israel finally get it, they believe!
Or do they?
• • •
The haftara ends there, but if we continue chapter 18 in Kings, we see that the very next day, nothing had changed — the people continued their two-faced behavior, Achav and Jezebel remained evil, and Eliyahu had to run for his life. The “grand spectacle” achieved nothing. Why?
As Eliyahu the Zealot ultimately realizes (after being personally schooled by G-d), Hashem is not found in the spectacle — not in the “powerful wind”, or the “earthquake” or the “fire” but in the Kol Demama Daka (the “still, small voice”) (ibid 19:11–12). The belief in Hashem does not develop by exposure to great flashes of wonder and excitement, but within us as that still, small voice in our souls, hearts and minds.
This is echoed in the words of the Torah, that we should not say “Kochi v’otzem yadi asa li et hachayil hazeh (my strength and might of my hand made me all this wealth)” but rather Hashem did this all for me (Devarim 8:17). It is echoed in the words of the prophet, Zechariah, “Lo b’chayil v’lo b’koach, Ki I’m b’ruchi amar Hashem (not through armies, and not through might, but through My Spirit says Hashem)”(4:6).
We all marveled with justified delight at the incredible beeper and walkie-talkie operations, the destruction of Hezbollah and Iran’s air defenses, the killings of Nasralla and Sinwar and the great military victories. But the source of our belief in Hashem comes from within us, quietly, without fanfare, and the source of all our success comes from Hashem.
It is time to stop our own “two-faced” behavior, relying on presidents or prime ministers or kings and armies, or even our own might. Yes, all these things are vital and important, but recognition that belief in G-d, Hashem is the source for all things must be primary.
As Tehillim admonishes us: “Al tivtichu bi’nedivim, b’ven adam sh’ein lo teshua (do not have faith in princes, for in the son of man there is no salvation)” (146:3). Let us seek out G-d with one face, one heart and as one united people.
Shabbat Shalom.
Dr. Alan A. Mazurek is a retired neurologist, living in Great Neck, Jerusalem and Florida. He is a former chairman of the ZOA. To reach him, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
