Apple Core

As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”  Psalm 42:10 NASB

Taunt – Do you bear insults to God?  Are you injured when His name is diminished?  According to the reading by Rabbi Shraga Freedman, David’s cry is in response to chillul Hashem.  What is that?  It is the profaning of God’s character.  Freedman writes:  “ . . . when a Jew hears people ask ‘Ayei Elokecha’ (‘Where is your G-d’), the diminution of Hashem’s honor should be as painful to him as if he had been stabbed with a sword.”[1]  He translates this Hebrew verse as:

“With a murderous dagger in my bones have my tormentors taunted me when they say to me all day long, ‘Where is your G-d?’”[2]

What does this “taunt” imply?  The Hebrew verb is ḥārap.  “Basically, the word means ‘to reproach,’ with the specific connotation of casting blame or scorn on someone.. . . In most instances the word is used in the sense of casting scorn. In Ps 74:10 the word occurs in parallelism with nāʾaṣ (scorn, condemn) and in Prov 14:31 it is the antithesis of kābēd(honor) and may be understood as disgrace or dishonor. In Jud 5:18 the people of Zebulon are described as scorning their lives even to death.” ^[3]

It’s unlikely today to hear someone directly insult YHVH.  Our cultural religious sensitivity eschews such speech, even if we have no connection to the God of Israel.  We call such verbalizations “swearing,” and mother probably taught us to avoid such “bad” words.  But chillul Hashem is a much bigger idea than simply inappropriate religious expletives.  It is any act that calls God’s character into question.  So, for example, my tendency to cut corners in business dealings reflects on God’s honesty.  My failure to keep a promise suggests God doesn’t care about truthfulness.  My gossip about my neighbor belittles God’s love for the other.  And so it goes.  You get the picture.  Whenever believers act in ways that could be interpreted as profaning God’s name, they commit chillul Hashem.  And what is the result?  Others turn away from God.  The greatest friend of evangelism is the life of the believer, and it is also evangelism’s greatest enemy.

I was riding in the car with an orthodox friend, eating an apple.  When I finished the apple, I opened the window to throw out the core.  “Please don’t do that,” he said.  “Why not?” I replied.  It’s only the core and it will rot and the birds will eat it.”  “True,” he said, “but the person behind us will see you throw something from the car and won’t know it’s an apple core, and he will assume that you don’t respect the environment, and his view of God will be diminished.”

Topical Index: ḥārap, chillul Hashem, profane, Psalm 42:10

[1] Rabbi Shraga Freedman, Living Kiddush Hashem, p. 23.

[2] Ibid.

^[3] Mccomiskey, T. E. (1999). 749 חָרַף. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 325). Chicago: Moody Press.