B'midbar
“And I will betroth you forever, I will betroth you with righteousness and justice, with goodness and mercy,. I will espouse you with faithfulness and you shall know the Lord.”
Every day that a Jew places tefillin on his or her arm, wrapping the straps over one’s fingers – these verse are recited. They are beautiful, they are moving and they are an affirmation of faith a Jew speaks every week-day, a covenantal bond between us and our creator
As many times as you may have recited these words, what you may not know, until you see the words in the context of this week’s haftorah is that these words appear in a bruising time for that covenant. The people have betrayed God, God has punished the people and covenantal relationship is going through a very hard time. Beautiful as the words may be, the chapter in which they appear is one of the roughest of our entire tradition.
And perhaps therein lies the lesson. A life of faith is not a straighforward proposition – we have good days and we have bad days – sometimes we let God down and sometimes God lets us down. But as with every relationship that means something to us, we get up everyday and find the spiritual wherewithal to recommit and renew – with righteousness and justice, with goodness and mercy.