16 Days: A Meditation on Hosea 2:19-20

artwork by Clare Obradovich, copyright 2014

There is a Jewish tradition that teaches that if a couple merits it, the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) dwells among them.  How does a couple warrant this heavenly blessing?  The moving words of the prophet Hosea (2:19-20) perhaps give the prescription.

I will betroth you to Me forever;

Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,

In lovingkindness and in compassion,

And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.

Then you will know the Lord.

A relationship which is built with the values of righteousness, justice, lovingkindness, compassion, and faithfulness directed inward towards each other, directed  outward to the community, and directed upward towards Heaven is a relationship which lives with the echoes of eternity and which enables its partners to appreciate true knowledge of God.

A partnership filled with disrespect, violence, intolerance, and abuse leaves no place for God; they destroy the godly fabric of shared lives and teach not the knowledge of God but the harshness and alienation of all that is ungodly.

Rabbi Mark Dratch is the Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America. He served as a congregational rabbi for 22 years. He was a Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America and was chairman of its Task Force on Rabbinic Improprieties. He was also a member of the Clergy Task Force on Abuse for Jewish Women International, a member of the Leadership Team and Jewish Advisory Committee of FaithTrust Institute, and a member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Religion and Abuse.  He is a speaker and consultant in matters of domestic violence and clergy abuse.