Valley of Dried Bones

God lifts up Ezekiel and carries him to the “Valley of the Dry Bones.” There, the prophet gazes about himself and sees a vast human graveyard. As far as the eye can see, remains of dried up bones cover the entire valley.  And God speaks:

"Can these bones live again?”

Ezekiel thinks and responds,

“Oh Lord God, only you know.”

Then, God commands Ezekiel to prophecy over the bones with these words: “Oh dry bones, hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. And I will lay sinew upon you, and cover you with skin and place breath in you and you shall live.  And you shall know that I am the Lord’.”

The prophet speaks these words and a tremendous noise is heard.  It rises from all around as the bones reassemble and flesh begins to cover the newly re-formed bodies.  Then, in a second command, the winds of the earth stir and flow in to the lifeless dead.  They come alive, an army of the resurrected.

In this remarkable episode, God, through Ezekiel speaks to the people in exile. These are the ones who lost their homes; these have lost their land. The blackened skies would not always be dark but would ultimately reveal hope. The exile would end and people would return to their ancestral home. There maybe sorrow but there must also be hope.

Awed into silence, Ezekiel hears the voice of God once more. His words are the message to mankind, not just to his community.

"Behold I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring you to the land of Israel. …And I will put my spirit into you and you shall live…”

Life must be full of hope. God gave Ezekiel the tools to teach this crucial lesson. Israel knew that eventually they would be returned to their homeland. Just as the bones knit together with flesh and sinew and fused with the breath of life, we are meant to understand the underlying message of hope.

The parable of Ezekiel is powerfully relevant.  It is this stirring message that we read every Passover.  We reaffirm the prophet’s words each year as we sit down to recite the narrative of the Haggadah. We are, as Yehudah HaLevi called us, “the people of hope.”  Time has tempted us to squash our will to live as free people, free Jews.  Throughout the long years of persecution and hatred we have survived with an almost burning fervor not to relinquish our heritage. Despite the long history of anti-Semitism we refuse to become pessimists; but instead we are the people of HaTikvah, “The hope.”  We end every service with the Aleynu prayer which contains the words, “Therefore we hope…”.

“Hell,” wrote A.J. Cronig, “is a place where one has ceased to hope.”

Pity those who have lost ability to help. In hope, lies life. Without it, we are but bones.