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Egocentricity, Indulging in the desires of the false ego, paying homage to the Egotist - Year 4 Day 217

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 217

“Purity of motivation is the goal; constancy of action is the way. It is useless endeavor to fight the ego in the open; like a wounded hydra, it produces two heads for every one cut off. We must not indulge in self-scrutinization; we must not concentrate upon the problem of egocentricity. The way to purify the self is to avoid dwelling upon the self and to concentrate upon the task.” (God in Search of Man pg. 404)

What I am hearing Rabbi Heschel say to us this morning, in the words above, is that the “ego” is the Yetzer HaRa, it is the ‘evil/earthly/animal’ inclination that every human being has. It is a “useless endeavor” to fight this inclination, our egos that are out of proper measure, that are false. The self protective shell around our egos, bolstered by the rational mind and its supreme ability to rationalize behaviors and/or blame another for their own shortcomings (this was happening before Goebbels, he only spoke about it out loud), will never allow itself to ‘lose’ a battle. Immersing ourselves in the teaching above allows us to see to “fight the ego”, to “indulge in self-scrutinization”, to “concentrate upon the problem of egocentricity”, “dwelling on the self” only strengthens the false “ego”, Look at how Trump and Bibi get more popular among their ‘base’ every time some one seeks to speak the truth about their false, outsized, evil “egocentricity”; isn’t it a wonder when their actions are subject to “scrutinization” they have a ready-made answer, someone else to blame and their people lap it up like trained seals! Sucking up to these assholes is the shame that We the People must own up to and bear during this month of Elul and do our TShuvah, change our ways and repair the damage we have wrought as well as the damage that has been wrought by their “ego” and our inability “to concentrate upon the task”!

The issue is not just our political chaos, it is the inner chaos that We the People are experiencing in this moment, as we have throughout history. When did the Israelites find moments that were not filled with inner chaos? After they crossed the Red Sea, after they received “the Word”, “the 10 Sayings” at Mount Sinai, when David was King for a minute or two, ie only after their encounters with something greater than themselves, with the Spirit of the Universe which is both within us and outside of us. While “purity of motivation is the goal”, what is more important, in my opinion and experience, is “constancy of action is the way”. Alcoholics Anonymous borrowed “act your way into right thinking” from the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible are our feelings of utmost importance, nowhere in the Bible is the inner motivation demanded, only “constancy of action”, only “concentrate upon the task” is stressed over and over again. Yet, We the People continue to fall prey to the snake-oil salesmen/women who are preaching ‘the holy gospel’ according to their “wounded hydra”, according to the “two heads” the “ego” produces within each of us. In the words of Pete Seeger: “When will we ever learn?”

The sycophants on display at Trumps Cabinet Meeting are despicable! The grifters, the liars, the ‘personalities’ at FOX UNNEWS are desecrators of God’s Name, the lap dogs/trained seals of the Republican Party in Congress are the soldiers of Satan, the ‘good christian preachers’ who propagate the lies of the ‘prosperity gospel’, who call Trump the messiah, sent by Jesus, are the Money-Changers in the Temple, the spreaders of Senseless Hatred. Yet, We the People, or at least enough of us, continue to watch and listen to their “egocentricity”, their “dwelling upon the self” with awe, reverence and lining up to take up their guns, their knives and fight the Capital Police, the DC Metro Police, the citizens of these United States in direct violation of the Constitution while John Roberts and his Court of Jesters applaud and back up the tearing up of the very Constitution that all of them FALSELY SWORE TO PROTECT!

We the People are being called to do the task whether our motivation is pure, whether we will do it ‘perfectly’ or not, whether we have our own agenda in mind, DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING! We are in the month of retrospection and repair precisely because we failed to in some cases “concentrate on the task”. Many of We the People have failed to engage in “constancy of action” because we adopt the societal lies and attitudes of ‘if it isn’t perfect, it isn’t worth anything’, ‘if my motives aren’t pure, then it is bullshit’, ‘who am I to tell another person they are wrong’ and other such poppycock. In the Bible, we are told to “rebuke the people”  and “don’t carry sin because of him/her/them”. This is not a suggestion, it is a command found in Leviticus 19:17, meaning that every time we are “standing idly by the blood of our neighbor”, we are carrying the sin of our inaction. Every time we resist telling someone they are acting inappropriately, we are carrying the sin of our inaction. Every time we are afraid to speak truth to power, afraid of the retribution, we are carrying the sin of our inaction. Hence- “constancy of action”, “dwell upon the task” are the only pathways to wholeness, to holiness, to moving forward and to separating ourselves, L’Havdeel,(aka Havdalah), from the lethargy and the urge to “run after the majority to do evil” which is another prohibition.

I have been guilty of having my ego out of proper measure. I am guilty of staying silent at times. I am guilty of frustration at being powerless to effect change, being powerless at not having a platform to speak and teach from and being sad that I don’t. I also am continuing to write and publish, I am continuing to reach out to speak, preach, teach. I am continuing to fight the lethargy of institutional life and stand up for what is true, correct and right. I continue to “dwell upon the task” and life has meaning and purpose because I do. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you waiting to for inner motivation to do the next right action? Year 4 Day 216

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 216

“For the good, even if it is not done for its own sake, will teach us eventually how to act for the sake of God. We must continue to perform the sacred deeds even though we may be compelled to bribe the self with human incentives.” (God in Search of Man pg.404)

On this 4th day of Elul, in this moment/day/month of self-reflection, the words above are, I believe, imperative if We the People are to “be fearless and searching” in our process of TShuvah. We the People are being reminded to jettison the “purity” standard and see through clear eyes, whether what we have done is good or not good, no matter our intentions. Rabbi Heschel’s words come to remind us all of the experience in the desert, the experience in Ancient Israel, “take the next right action and the thinking/motivation/desire will follow”. This is the path of living Jewishly as I understand it-not some dogmatic lapdog, not some mitsvah checklist bullshit, trying to live in 15th Century Poland instead of being here now-as Stephen Levine teaches. We the People do not have to wait until we are ‘motivated’ to do the next right thing, We the People just have to take the action, do the deed and realize the inner reward, at some point. Of course the goal is to have the motivation to do the next right thing, to learn to desire to do what is right and good in ‘the sight of God’. More importantly, however, is that we get into the habit of doing the next right thing, that we get into the habit of loving the stranger, of loving our neighbors as ourselves, of caring for the poor and the needy, of proclaiming freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein, etc.

Society, especially the autocrats, the fascists, the dictators and their wannabe imposters, do not want this way of being to take hold! They are totally invested in keeping We the People in the dark as to how they are acting only for the sake of themselves while purporting to “act for the sake of God”. Their lies about the “sacred deeds” they perform are abominable! They are the desecrators of God’s Name, they are the bastardizers of the Bible and the path of Jewish, Christian, Muslim goodness. And the PAGAN PRIESTS, CLERGY who go along with these false witness’ are even worse than the power-hungry, unholy dictators they are serving! The Rabbis, the Priest, the Ministers who support a Trump, a Netanyahu are the same Rabbis, Priests, Ministers who the prophets proclaim as not legitimate servants of the Ineffable One. Just as Levi and Simeon were not really serving their sister when they killed the men of Shechem, they were serving their egos and pride-‘who do you think you are to take my sister’- so too the current and former Rabbis, Priests, Ministers who serve Bibi, Donny, Vlad, et al are doing this to line their pockets, not “for the sake of God”. Do you really believe that God has wanted all of the wars that have been fought ‘in the name of god’?

What We the People are being called to do on this 4th day of Elul, is to let go of the need to be deceived by the reality show called 47, ie Trump Presidency. We the People have to stop watching this Fascist call for these outlandish things and get into action. We the People do not have the luxury of sitting around thinking about what strategy to follow. WE HAVE THE STRATEGY! It is all to be found in the Bible. When King Saul was no longer of his right mind, David was anointed, when Moses was no longer the right person for the job, Joshua was appointed, when David was dying Solomon was appointed, when the Kingdom of Israel was split in 2, the tribe of Judah was appointed. The lines of succession do not have to be familial, and they are supposed to be based on capability, on the desire to “act for the sake of God” or at least follow the dictates of the Bible, having NOTHING to do with dogma- only having to do with how we treat one another, the stranger, the poor, the animals and the earth that are in our care.

We the People have to demand of ourselves and of the current bullshitters, grifters, liars and fascists in power here, in Israel, that they cease and desist their actions, they have to be removed from office along with their sycophants for the sake of the Republic, for the sake of the State of Israel, “for the sake of God”. We the People are being called to resist and reject the actions of these Idolators who attempt every day “to bribe” us “with human incentives” and, unfortunately, too many of We the People are not resisting nor rejecting, rather they are buying, supporting, and kissing the rings, the asses, the d*&(k’s of these “other gods” and are whoring themselves after what their hearts and eyes desire and see. Each day we are told NOT to do this, yet these ‘good jews’, these ‘fine christian folk’ continue to lie to We the People and We the People continue to buy the lies!!  WTF? Just as Moses asks Pharaoh: “How long” will you continue to defy God, just as the Egyptians say to Pharaoh: “Howl long will you let this one be a snare to you.. don’t you realize Egypt is lost?” We the People have to ask ourselves these same questions-How long will we demand and accept false piety and purity from leaders? How long will we continue to be deceived and give in to our own self-deception? How long will we continue to bribe ourselves with ‘getting ahead’, with ‘taking care of selfish desires we now call needs’? HOW LONG until we see what the next right action to take is and do it, whether we want to or not?

This has been a major theme of mine since 1987. I was late to the party, I know, and I have been an active member of this party, the Party of living Jewishly, the Party of Living the Bible’s Path of how to be decent and live together since then. I know that each of the Commandments call for actions and every Mitsvah serves at least one of them. I have continue to grow along spiritual lines because I continue to take the next right action, continued to learn from my errors, continue to be stubborn and dedicated when rooting out the lies I tell myself, continue to shout out what is wrong and unjust, unkind and not loving. Fuck intention do the good anyway! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Taking the Next Right Action no matter how you think or feel Year 4 Day 215

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 215

“Even the finest intention is not strong enough to fill all the corners of the soul which at all sides is open to intrusions of the ego. Judged by the severe, uncompromising standard of total purity of intention, who could stand? It is, indeed, the voice of moderation that has generally prevailed. Thus we are taught to believe that “alien thoughts” or even improper motives do not vitiate the value of a sacred deed.” (God in Search of Man pg. 403)

Being a witness at the joy of some and the sorrow of some at what is happening in the ICE State called the USA, reading the words above, one can see how the “weaponization” of “purity”, of religion, of the Bible, of Christianity, Judaism, Islam has taken place and, unfortunately, taken hold. The “intrusions of the ego” by the liars and grifters, by the PAGANS and idolators, are bombarding We the People daily, hourly, moment by moment. Waiting for some “purity of intention” to take action will, as Nicolle Wallace said, be like the “frog in the boiling water metaphor-if you put the frog in the water when it is boiling, it will jump out, if you put it in when the water is tepid and slowly raise the temperature to a boil, it will not feel the need to react until it is too late”!! We the People, have to realize the “severe uncompromising standard” that the MAGA crowd puts on us is one they do not even attempt to reach! The only “purity of intention” they have is their intention to and for cruelty, power, money, control. They are not living, practicing, even spouting true Christian Values-just ask Pope Leo. We the People cannot allow ourselves to be brow beaten by the far left nor the far right anymore because it is not just “Rome that is burning”, the founding vision, the very laws and culture that allows a Trump to fuck everyone to get to the top are being thrown away so that no one else can be free, the very culture that let the grandson of a PIMP, the son of a member of the KKK, a racist, misogynistic, scared cowardly bully become President is being crushed and dismantled by MAGA!

So, what are We the People to do? SIMPLE, folks, stop waiting for “purity of intention”, no longer allow ourselves to be questioned and bamboozled by the enemies of the Bible, by the foes of God, by the evil people purporting to be ‘good christian folk’ while, in fact, they are anti-christian, they took Goebbels play book and have put it on steroids, so We the People have to end our incessant need to show our “purity” as an antidote to their lying. We the People have to stop allowing someone other than God run the show, We the People have to end our need to prove something to people who are blind, people who turn a deaf ear to truth, to justice, to mercy, to love, to kindness.

This can only happen when We the People take this month of Elul seriously and look at what we have done well and where we have missed the mark. Seeing only our deeds not our intentions or thoughts. As stated above, “alien thoughts” will never leave us-they are impossible to stop. Allowing them to stop us from doing the next right thing, no matter how we feel or think is antithetical to Jewish living, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel this morning. We the People are given the gift of this period of time to “get right” with ourselves and with the people around us. We the People are in a period of time where forgiveness, compassion, truth, love, mercy are most prevalent and available to us so we can face the truth of our actions, the repairs we need to make, the enhancements we can make and having new responses where necessary and uplifting responses where we can. Even this inventory, even our repairs and our enhancements, our new responses and uplifting ones will not be free of ““alien thoughts” or improper motives” and these do not vitiate the value of a sacred deed.

We the People have to get off our high horse, we have to come down to the reality of our actions as well as the actions of another, of ‘those people’. We the People have to have compassion and empathy for those sick, cruel, self-seeking, narcissistic assholes who are trying to be the “new Pharaoh arose who did not know” Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, George Washington, Hamilton, Lincoln, et al. We the People are being called upon to take “a leap of action” without worrying about faith, about “purity”, or anything else. We the People are being reminded and cajoled into being soldiers in the war for freedom, leading ourselves and the troops to fight for “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth.” Nothing that moves this goal forward, no matter the “intrusion of the ego”, no matter the “alien thoughts”, the “improper motives” can “vitiate the value of a sacred deed”, the “sacred deed” being “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”, just as it says on the Liberty Bell!

I know that my “alien thoughts”, my “improper motives” will never leave me, they are a part of me as much as any organ in my body is. I have never experienced anything like “purity of intention”, even when I was stealing, drinking, being a ne’er do well, I could not put all of me into it. Until my recovery began, I couldn’t be totally into anything, not fatherhood, not marriage, not family,…in those days I couldn’t tell if the negative thoughts and scams were “alien thoughts” or the good, holy, kind ones were “alien thoughts”! I was judged by my motives when I did something good, people were looking for the angle, and by my actions when I did something wrong. Since 1987, I have judged myself by what my actions are and I know that I have to act my way into right thinking and feeling-not the other way around. This is why Living Jewishly is so important and why I continue to “spread the word” that a mitsvah redeems us, redeems the world and I do it not matter what I think or feel! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Wringing our hearts clean, No longer being controlled by the Rational Mind, false ego - Year 4 Day 214

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 214

“All we can do is to try to wring our hearts clean in contrition. Contrition begins with a feeling of shame at our being incapable of disentanglement from the self. To be contrite at our failures is holier than to be complacent in our perfection.” (God in Search of Man pg. 403)

“Contrition” is defined as “remorseful” and comes from the Latin meaning to “wear down”. Rabbi Heschel’s use of the word shame is not the toxin shame nor is it to ‘shame anyone’. It is an inner experience of “how could I do this”, “what was I thinking”, “I am so sorry for this action”, and other inner dialogues like this. These inner dialogues “wear down” the power of the false self, the false ego, the rational mind to deny our wrongdoings, blame another for what we have done, and/or be willfully blind to our actions. This “wear down” is the path to contrition and to change. It is the pathway to disentangle ourselves from the false self we have been living. It is the 3rd step in our journey towards repair, change and hope.

On this 2nd day of Elul, it is important for We the People to see what is happening around us, within us and the truth of the ways we are living. “To wring our hearts clean in contrition” takes great courage and a little/a lot of help. We begin with our inventory-looking at the past year from 10,000 feet above, letting go of our need to justify, instead, see where we were just, merciful, truthful, loving and kind and where we were not. Doing this without being judgmental, without needing to be right and good nor wrong and bad is crucial to our being able to “wring our hearts clean”. Once we have done this, we look at where we “missed the mark” and were not just, kind, truthful, loving, merciful to see who was harmed and how they were harmed, making a list we will tackle later. We also look at where we acted in these ways to see who was helped and how they were helped, making a list we will go through later. Having both lists, we begin “to wring our hearts clean in contrition” by going through the list of whom we have harmed and how they were harmed-those people and actions we have not already made our amends with/for- and sending letters, making phone calls, going to the graves to restore the dignity we stole from the human being we harmed by treating them as an object for our gain and not as a fellow divine soul. This action can only happen when we have engaged in the process to “wear down” our rational, justifying mind and our false sense of self/false ego. Once this has happened, we know we are in the state of contrition and we can move forward in the process of having “our hearts clean”. It is imperative for us to go back to our list of where we “hit the mark” to recognize how we can grow these ways of being and to see the whole picture of our living this past year(s). Engaging in this ‘work’, We the People can make better and clearer choices in the future because the same situations will arise again and again and, as Rabbi Heschel taught us yesterday-our job is to “rise again and again beyond the level of self”. We the People are being given another opportunity, a second chance to make the next right choice, no matter what choices we have made in the past. “To wring our hearts clean in contrition” is what gives us the opportunity to not be ruled by the past, to change the neural pathways of guilt, toxic shame, not knowing what to do next, the ‘fuck-its’, etc. Hence the importance of “contrition in our lives is immense.

We the People are being called to, once again, let go of the falseness of “perfection”, to stop being ruled and toxically shamed by society’s lie that ‘we can be perfect’ and the more insidious ‘you should be perfect’. Rather than lie to ourselves and one another about ‘aren’t I so smart’, ‘I got over on him/them’, ‘I am a stable genius’, ‘I can do anything I want’ ‘my grift is legal’, and other such bullshit, isn’t now the time for We the People to begin to live “in contrition”? Isn’t it past time for We the People to admit our failures, to end our incessant justifications so we can repair the damage We the People have wrought by electing a narcissistic autocrat, a no-account grifter, to the highest office in the land, bringing the worst of the worst of human behaviorists with him, proclaiming their fealty to Christ while doing everything Christ and the Prophets of Israel screamed against? We the People have to engage in the “wear down” of our justifying bad behaviors, We the People have to grow our ability to see the damage and the bridges we have created, being responsible for both, repairing the damage so we build more and newer bridges for our innate holiness to shine through, to win the day over our false egos, false sense of self. For many of We the People fear of admitting we were wrong to ourselves and to another is so hard for fear of being vulnerable and having our vulnerabilities used against us. Yet, truth, justice, love, kindness and mercy will help us take the blows, if they come and the knowing of doing the right thing will prevail.

I know how important contrition is to the health, welfare and growth of my authentic self. I am so aware of how I make the same errors over and over, it is only when I “wring my heart clean in contrition” that I can change. I see this clearly in my bridge game-when I make a mistake, I am able to know it immediately and, hopefully, I will not do it again and when I do, I will learn a little more about me and the game. The same is true for all my “missing the marks”, I use them to learn and grow. I know that my vulnerabilities are being used against me by another(s) and, what I am engaging in is me not using them against me! As I go through this month and do my inventory, I know I have made the amends I needed to and I am searching for those places where my false ego, my rational mind is still tricking me. This is an ongoing task, it is a never-ending journey that continues to bring me closer and closer with the whole me, the holy me! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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One Grain of Sand better each day is the Goal for We the People - Year 4 Day 213

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 213

“Should we, then, despair because of our being unable to retain perfect purity? We should, if perfection were our goal. However, we are not obliged to be perfect once and for all, but only to rise again and again beyond the level of the self. (God in Search of Man pg. 402)

On this first day of Elul, the month prior to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as we begin our preparation for these High Holy Days, this teaching is crucial for We the People to be able to engage in “a searching and fearless inventory” as the 4th step of all 12-step programs teach us and which T’Shuvah is all about. As I have written, ad nauseam, we are supposed to engage in this work every day and yet, the Rabbis give us this month to clean up the errors and harms we have been oblivious to, ignored, afraid to make, and look at the myriad of actions that we have done well, see where we have moved forward as well as where we have moved backwards, etc. Yet, most people, don’t really do this deep spiritual, emotional work because society tells us we are “obliged to be perfect once and for all” and as long as We the People buy this bullshit, we are doomed to be stuck in the quicksand of “despair” and never rise to the very attainable goal to be human!

Society uses the “perfection” myth to control us, to make us feel less than and/or greater than, it is the same as ‘the master race’ bullshit of MAGA, the Nazis, the ancient Romans and Greeks, etc. The question that We the People have to ask is WTF, why are we buying their lies and what is it that pulls us to be controlled by “only I can save you”, “I will be your retribution”? How can We the People read the Bible, hear what Jesus did, stood for and died for and equate retribution with justice? They are incompatible! Yet, ‘good christian folk, good jewish folk, good muslim folk’ have bought and sold the idea that they are one and the same. THIS IS TRAGIC!! This is one of the actions and thinking that We the People have to do T’Shuvah for and demand our elected officials cease and desist these behaviors. We the People have allowed society to replace the Pharaoh in Egypt, giving in to the power structure, the rich and famous, the puppeteers who want to pull our strings. We the People are NOT marionettes, we are not meant to be puppets on a string, we are human beings, we are partners with God in making our corner of the world better and to allow society to rule us with their mind-control lies and bullshit, to allow society/another human being to deny our truths and blindly follow them/it, is the major sin We the People have to repent for, in this month of Elul, it’s where we have to return to our spiritual core, spiritual truths from, and it is what we have to have a plan to guard against falling back into this ‘honey trap’ that society and people lay for We the People!

How to do this? Simple and not easy. Each day for the next 40 days, and hopefully beyond, We the People take stock of our self, looking for our talents, our ‘victories’, our spiritual truths and vision, seeing our imperfections and errors in judgement and action, knowing our susceptibility and how to not fall into old traps. Each day, we commit “to rise again and again beyond the level of self” and take action towards this goal, knowing we are not going to be perfect, realizing the imperfections we have are God-given and allow for us to ask for help from another human being. Knowing we are not ‘self-sufficient’, realizing no one is ‘self-made’, gives We the People the strength, the courage, to listen to our intuitive mind and relegate our rational mind to its proper place, as a servant-not a leader. We the People are in desperate need to admit to ourselves, inform another(s) and shout from the rooftops that the rational mind lies to us, the rational mind allows us to buy the mendacity of societal norms. Only the intuitive mind, only the soul, our spiritual intelligence allows us to see and hear truth, gives us the strength to “rise again and again beyond the level of self”.

The rational mind is the “self”, the “heart and eyes which we whore after” is the “self” IMO and it is way past time for We the People to “rise again and again beyond the level” of societal norms. It is way past time for We the People to stand up for our authentic self, for truth, justice, kindness, love, mercy. It is way past time for We the People to stand against the horrific self-serving cruelty and retribution that is running the world in this moment. Psalm 118:24 says “this is the day Adonai has made, let us rejoice and be joyous in it”; to do this, We the People must end our dependence on lies, our co-dependence on someone else ‘fixing us’, ‘fixing it’ and our indulgence in evil, cruelty, idol worship of self, of ‘der fuhrer’, etc. This is the only path to “rise again and again beyond the level of self” and We the People are more than capable, this is our birthright, this is implanted in each one of us and doing this reminds us and everyone around us of the infinite dignity and worth of every human being!

I keep letting go of the need to be perfect/right and it is a daily spiritual workout. Each day, I rise in the morning, middle of the night, and know I have to let go and let my higher consciousness run the show, I have to look at the errors I made the day before, have a plan to repair them and do it. In this month, I have already written to people close to me and to people I have missed, people whom I was close to and we just fell away. I pray there is a path to reconnecting and am good if there isn’t-sad and good. I am not going to make amends to those I have already made them to and who could not/have not been able to own their part, only blame me-to those people I can only offer compassion and mercy at their being so stuck in needing to be right, in their fear of seeing their own imperfections and mendacity. Prayer, Tzedakah, T’Shuvah our best responses to our imperfections and this is the path I choose. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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The Myth of Perfection - A Societal Lie, a Controlling Myth- Year 4 Day 212

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 212

“Should we, then, despair because of our being unable to retain perfect purity? We should, if perfection were our goal. However, we are not obliged to be perfect once and for all, but only to rise again and asian beyond the level of the self. (God in Search of Man pg. 402)

Since today is the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul, it seems fitting and proper to think about, write about and engage in the work of cleaning our souls of the schmutz we have laden them with and the lies, self-deceptions we have allowed to enter, grow and flourish in our minds. This is the month the Rabbis dedicated to getting ready for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the month to prepare ourselves for the gift and grace of forgiveness, and begin the new year ‘clean’ for at least 30 seconds:)

“Despair” is not a feeling/emotion/state of being that is congruent with living Jewishly. Certainly feeling dejected, upset, at “being unable to retain perfect purity” is “normal”, “despair, however is not a part of the covenant we made at Sinai, it is not an address for anyone who recognizes and lives into their spiritual self, their mature self to live at. “Despair” is defined as “the complete loss of hope” and comes from the Latin meaning “down from hope”. As a descendant of  Adam, as a descendant of Abraham, as a descendant of Judah, of the prophets, of King David, there is way for any of us to rationally nor spiritually live in “a complete loss of hope”. Hence the phrase: “hope springs eternal” because as long as there is breath in We the People, we have the opportunity to do T’Shuvah, to repair, to amend, and to have a new plan moving forward.

We cannot do this as long as we buy society’s lie about “perfection”! There is no such thing, because as human beings, we continue to grow and learn as we see in the Bible. Because we are human, not divine, we, sometimes, have to learn and re-learn the same lessons over and over again. Isn’t it time for We the People to stop buying into this lie? Isn’t it time for We the People to cease our relentless and futile ‘race to the top’, our insane obsession with “perfection”? Yet, we seem incapable of living in “radical amazement”, we seem to prefer “adjustment to societal notions and ideas” rather than see the world through “a new pair of glasses” each day. No two moments are the same, no experience in the Bible is repeated exactly the same, isn’t it time for We the People to live into the newness and the beauty, the challenge and demand of this moment rather than continue to try and re-capture some euphoric recall of ‘the way it used to be’? Isn’t it time for We the People to end our obsession with “Make America Great Again” and admit that while America has done great things, We the People still have a ways to go in our maturity, our growth as individuals and as a nation?

What is being shown to us, in this moment both in Israel and in America, is when “perfection” is “our goal”, leaders, autocrats, fascists will continue to seek to deceive us, to make We the People believe that “only I can save you”, “I am your retribution”, “those foreigners are poisoning the blood of our people” and other such lies and mendacities. When leaders continue to bellow out their “perfect” actions, their “beautiful bills”, their “I can solve this conflict”, etc. What We the People have to recognize and realize is the true nature and consequences of the myth of “perfection”.

As We the People begin this month of Elul, let us begin with letting go of the myth of “perfection”. Let’s look in the Bible and acknowledge-no matter what the Rabbis and commentators mendacious comments are- that NO ONE IS PERFECT, none of the ‘heroes’, none of the people in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, etc approach “perfection”. Since the Bible is a guidebook, a road map for how to live well, maybe We the People should follow the examples of King David who, upon being told of his errors and/or recognizing them himself, did T’Shuvah, made amends, changed his way, his thinking, maybe We the People should see ourselves as descendants of Judah who could not only admit his guilt and error, he could proclaim that a woman is “more righteous than me”! Yet, We the People buy into the lie of the Greeks and the Romans, the Rabbis and the Priests, that somehow, we are ‘supposed to be pure and perfect’. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we are, this is a man-made myth so “the leader” could control the people, so that Pharaoh could sit on his throne without worry because he is “the son of Ra”, that Christian Nationalism is the proper way to govern because “Christ ordained it” even though the proponents of this way of being do nothing that Christ did and they are only using the Name of the Lord in Vain. We the People must stand up against this bullshit, this idolatry, these PAGANS right here, right now!

Only through doing the “work” of Elul, doing the inventory of my life, can I get clean enough to truly experience the joy and relief of Yom Kippur. I have to go back and see the things I have forgotten, the people I did not realize I harmed and make my amends, see the changes I need to make and those I have already made. I am engaged in this work this year as much as any other year because my imperfections are relentless and never ending. I make the amends I need to whether there is any acknowledgment by the other person of their part-this is not my business and I have no expectation that anyone else will reciprocate with their own TShuvah. When they do, it is pure joy and re-connection. I continue to let go of the myth of “perfection” and it is hard when I am playing bridge, golf, etc. This year, I commit to be less harsh with myself and with you re: our imperfections and more loving of them, of you and of myself. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you hiding from the "envy, pride" that "continue to prowl in the dark? Year 4 Day 211

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 211

“After all our efforts and attempts to purify the self, we discover that envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark…Should we, then, despair because of our being unable to retain perfect purity? We should, if perfection were our goal. However we are not obliged to be perfect once and for all, but only to rise agains and again beyond the level of the self.” (God in Search of Man pg. 402)

This first sentence above is so crucial to our well-being and our being human! Too many of We the People continue to deny the “envy, pride” that continues to “prowl in the dark”. I do love this phrase because it captures the experience of most of We the People. It doesn’t matter how many times one goes to church to pray and to confess, it doesn’t matter how many times one goes to Temple for the daily Minyan and does TShuvah one day before one dies, which means everyday, it doesn’t matter how many 10th steps one does as part of their recovery program, “envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark.”

It is precisely because this statement is universally and consistently true and part of every human being that “society” has demanded purity.Christianity demands “perfect faith” because we are ‘born in sin’. Orthodox Judaism demands an adherence to dogma and doing the mitzvahs as a ‘to-do list’ rather than as an act of love, kindness, truth, compassion and justice. Islam demands the same perfection going as far as making heroes out of murderers like suicide bombers! While these ‘practitioners of the various faiths make the case for how to get rid of envy and pride, We the People know that it is impossible to do this. As the Maggid of Mezritch is said to have told his disciples when they asked how to choose a new Rebbe upon his death; if someone tells you they know how to eradicate the “evil inclination” he is a liar and a fraud.

Herein lies our issue. We the People are so stuck in our despair, in our neediness, in our self-deception that we have chosen leaders(?) who are only interested in their own welfare. In the United States and in Israel, the majority parties/coalitions are hellbent on serving their false selves and damn the cost to anyone else. “Proclaim freedom throughout the land” has been co-opted and changed to Proclaim fealty to the MAGA, to the ‘re-taking of all of the land Israel is supposed to occupy’ and hell with democracy, to hell with justice, to hell with love, to hell with loving the stranger, to hell with mercy, kindness and TRUTH! I ask you and me WTF???

How did We the People drink the juice after knowing about Jonestown? How did We the People elect liars and cheats, grifters and fascist autocrats knowingly and, evidently, lovingly? How is this in keeping with any spiritual discipline? How is this being a good Christian when the people in charge deny, defame another human being because they are not ‘like us’? How is this being a good Jew when the stranger is starved and bombed because “those people” are not ‘like us’? How is it being a good human being when the MAGA cheers the inhumanity shown towards any human being and/or group of people for no reason other than “I am in power so I can do anything”?

It all is possible and defendable when, like the elite and powerful people in Ancient Israel, We the People would rather worship at the altar of greed and avarice than see the Divine Image in every human being. We the People have made a conscious decision to “do unto others” what we would never want done to us. We the People are engaging in actions that are “hateful to us” so we do them to another human being! Both go against the teachings of the Bible, the actions of Christ, the railings of the prophets and We the People, like those who have come before us and done the same thing, truly believe we are going to be exempt from the logical consequences of our behaviors.

Living like this is possible because “envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark” recesses of our memory, of our inner life and they, not our souls, not our higher consciousness, are in charge of our actions. We the People are joining with ‘der fuhrer’ to justify these horrific ways of living in the name of ‘christian nationalism’, in the name of ‘it is good for the jews, good for Israel’! We the People have made a decision to ignore the gifts of confession, TShuvah, Daily Inventory for the ‘joy’ of being part of the in-crowd. Howard Lutnick, a man who did not die on 9/11 while most of his company did, is part of the team who promote, extol and engage in the cruelty we see happening. This man, who profited greatly from democracy, who’s ancestors fled someplace so he could grow up in freedom, is gleefully taking part in denying the same to anyone else. DU BIST A YID? You are a Jew?? OY! Yet, this is what happens when “envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark.”

I know this place and I still see how “envy, pride” do push-ups and try to get me to buy into their bullshit. I get angry at injustice, at betrayal, at forgetting those who we owe debts of gratitude to, at mendacity, at cruelty, etc. I just don’t allow myself to indulge in and be overwhelmed by the negative thoughts and ideas that “continue to prowl in the dark.”. It takes a daily spiritual program, daily growing one grain of sand better, connections to the people who love me and letting go of those who don’t. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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"Grandeur of Cosmic Reality" or "self-centered Ego, Speciousness of Rewards" -Which do you follow? Year 4 Day 210

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 210

“There are moments when we are all awake to the grandeur of cosmic reality, in the face of which the unworthiness of self-centered thinking, the speciousness of rewards, and the eagerness of vanity fill us with shame…Shame, shocked at the misery of an overloaded ego, we seek to break out of the circle of the ego.” (God in Search of Man pg. 402)

It is evident that Rabbi Heschel is an optimist! After being in Nazi Germany during the rise of Hitler and his gang of thugs, seeing what was happening in the Soviet Union, witnessing the Anti-Semitism, Racist way of being in America, he still believed in the words, the experiences, the teaching above! It is also evident that he believed greatly in the power of We the People to “break out of the circle of the ego”! Maybe because he witnessed the remorse and repentance of the German nation, maybe because he knew of the resilience of the survivors, maybe because he believed in the goodness of being that is to be found in every human, he was able to know and believe that “there are moments when we are all awake to the grandeur of cosmic reality”.

This first sentence above is the experience that every recovering person knows well and is incapable of truly describing. Becoming “awake to the grandeur of cosmic reality” is the moment when we no longer need to use anything to escape, when all our escapes, money, power, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, prestige, fame, etc don’t help us anymore. It is the moment when we are overcome with both “the unworthiness of self-centered thinking” and the awe, power and beauty of ‘seeing’ the source of “cosmic reality” face to face. Be it Moses, or Jacob, King David or the Prophets, Jesus, Mohammed, and/or  any one of We the People coming face to face with the “cosmic reality” is a cause for consternation and elation-the truest and most exquisite  both/and experience! Yet, too many of We the People make the fatal decision to ignore this “grandeur” to buy into the societal lies and mendacity that the “cosmic reality” isn’t true in the ‘real world’ because of the fear of the people in power losing their control, much like Pharaoh in the Bible, much like King Saul, and all of the Kings the prophets railed against. For many of We the People coming face to face with our own “unworthiness”, with our own “speciousness”, with our own “vanity” is too hard a pill to swallow, so, like Bibi and Donny, Vlad and Viktor, we blame everyone and anyone else for what is happening, we “accuse others of what we are guilty of” just like Josef Goebbels taught and did. Forgetting where this way of being led the Nazis and Germany to, forgetting that the BIG LIE is a paper tiger and will eventually fail.

It is up to us, We the People to end the reign of terror that people who are unwilling to have the experience of “the grandeur of cosmic reality” affect them. It is up to us, We the People to look in the mirrors, to come face to face with, admit, and change our own “unworthiness of self-centered thinking” and remember the ways of the Bible which teach kindness and love for the stranger, the widow, the orphan, which teach care and compassion for the hungry and the poor, which teach justice for all, which teach that freedom, holiness, connection are the basics for living well and all of us are endowed with “unalienable rights” and none of us are meant to be slaves to another! It is up to us, We the People to let go of the false rewards being dangled before our eyes by society. We the People have learned throughout history that these rewards are both fleeting when we ‘receive’ them and, usually, are only dangled and never given to us lowly servants of the powerful.

When We the People “awake to the grandeur of cosmic reality”, it is imperative to build on these moments, not have them continuously as that is just not reality. The goal is to build upon these moments, as Rabbi Heschel teaches, loyalty to the experience of “cosmic reality” and loyalty to our response to this experience are what makes up faithfulness. We all are faithful to some experience, most of us are faithful to the lower experiences of self-centeredness, rewards, vanities, power, hate, fear rather than being faithful to the experience of “the grandeur of cosmic reality”. It is hard to stay in this game because of the pulls of the ego, the pulls of society, the fear of looking stupid, the reality of being alone, the disdain thrown at one who is loyal to the prophets vision and actions, to the ones who stand out and above the people wanting power and prestige, fame and fortune, who are not willing to “break out of the circle of the ego”. Each of us falls prey to these ways of being and it takes a spiritual discipline to help us return to “the place our soul was meant to be” as Thomas Merton says.

I know both of these experiences well. In looking back, I can say that I stayed loyal to my own experience of “cosmic reality”, not perfectly and I never allowed it to fade into the ether. I have an ego/drive that I have used for good most of the time, sometimes falling prey to “vanity”, “unworthiness”, and “speciousness”. Each time I have fallen prey, however, because of my own spiritual work or the love of someone telling me I have erred, I have been able to return to the the ways of being able to “break out of the circle of the ego” that work for me-study, writing and other forms of action-which always entail helping another human being. It is a lonely road at times for me, I know I am not an easy person to be with or be around because I hear a call and am unable to ‘tone it down’ so I am loud, abrasive and, to many obnoxious. To me, I am just living my soul’s calling out loud. I walk this road not because I ‘want to’, but because I am “awake to the grandeur of cosmic reality” and this is the road that has my name on it. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Enchained to your drives, out of proper measure in your actions? Year 4 Day 209

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 209

“The less willing we are to resign ourselves to our being enchained to the ego and the more deeply we understand that ultimate meaning is found in deeds composed on the margin of the self, the greater is the chance of release at least for a moment. And it is the moment that counts most.” (God in Search of Man pg. 402)

While I am not a proponent of Freud, within each human being is a drive; call it ego, call it good inclination, call it evil inclination, call it higher consciousness/lower consciousness, whatever one wants to call it; it is imperative that we all acknowledge this drive. This is the drive that makes vaccines possible, that cures polio, that allows us to be loving, welcoming, kind, caring. AND it is the drive that allows us to be cruel, self-centered, narcissistic, deceptive, make war, and enslave another for our benefit and their detriment. This drive, whatever one calls it, is the drive of a Martin Luther King and a Donald Trump. Hence, “the less willing we are to resign ourselves to our being enchained to the ego” is reminding us to get the fuck out of the Egypt of narcissism, get up out of the burden of self-deception, leave the “sin” of believing someone can save us, and take the next right action.

We are, once again, witnessing the extremes of “our being enchained to the ego” and, for at least half of We the People, we are not participating, we are ‘innocent bystanders’ watching our freedoms fall, seeing the enslavement of people around us, and believe we are powerless to stop it from happening in this moment! The truth is, we are powerless to end it, we are powerless to stop it right here, right now AND this doesn’t mean we stop trying, this doesn't mean we stop fighting. Just as we are told in the Talmud that if we are planting a tree and someone says the Messiah is here, finish the planting before going to see if it is true, so too, do We the People have to keep fighting this autocracy for our children and children’s children. We the People were given a country that believed in, fought for, died for and promoted freedom, democracy, goodness across the globe, even when we couldn’t achieve it completely here. Now, we are the country that promotes lies, deceptions, chaos, cruelty, and slavery across this land and the world. All because enough of We the People elected a group of people who are so “enchained to the ego” they cannot see truth, they cannot care about another human being, they are immune to the suffering around them and these are “the good god-fearing people’ who are proclaiming Jesus is their Lord and Savior, Moses is their teacher, etc. I am enraged at the lies, at the bastardizations, at being at the whim of someone “enchained to the ego” and enslaving us! When We the People are unwilling “to resign ourselves to our being enchained” the awareness of our understanding of “ultimate meaning”. The greater our uprising against the chains of “the ego”, the greater the likelihood we will take the next right action, experience relief from the enslavement by the ‘drive’ that is killing our spirit and taking our freedom of choice away from us. This is exactly what happens in addiction, we make a choice, become enslaved by our choices and find we don’t have the power, on our own, to make any different choices and we are walking around like a robot, answering to the call of our enslaver, our Pharaoh, be it drugs, alcohol, gambling, Trumpism, Fascism, Bibi’s ways, etc. This is the root of our issue today, yesterday and tomorrow. The drive is implanted within us, it is ours to transform or be transformed by it, this is our daily choice, this is our daily task.

As Rabbi Heschel is teaching above, it is in “the deed” that “release” comes, if only “for a moment”. Yet it is more than “release” and relief for the moment that we experience, it is strengthening our ‘other drive’, the one that helps tame the worst of the ego, yetzer HaRa, narcissism, etc. “The deed” that is “composed on the margin of the self” is “the deed” that goes beyond the letter of the law, it exposes and brings to light, to the forefront for all to see, the spirit of the deed as well. This is where and when “release” leads to relief and to change, to redemption. Too many of We the People read the Bible for ways to validate their cruelty and, as my friend and teacher Rabbi Hazan Danny Maseng is teaching me, these parts are inserted by people 1000’s of years ago who had an agenda that is in line with “the enchained ego”, the drive that wants to promote cruelty, hatred, slavery, etc. As Rabbi Harold Shulweis, who’s memory and teachings are a blessing to us all, teaches, there are times to obey and times to disobey! What is most important, in studying the Bible is to immerse oneself in the words, in the experiences, see oneself in each chapter, each ‘character’ of the Bible. What is important in studying the Bible is to remember KINDNESS is more prevalent than cruelty, that cruelty is added and not “Godly”, that we are warned by the Ramban, that we can easily be “scoundrels within the boundaries of the way”, hence the message: “You shall be Holy because I the Lord am Holy” (Lev. 19:2). Since we are created in the Image of God, we can be holy, we can overcome, if only for a moment, the chains of any and all drives out of proper measure and return to our authentic way of being human.

It is a tall order, getting even, fighting fire with fire seems so natural and rational. Yet, it is more important that I break these chains,  I achieve “release at least for a moment”. I have been doing this more and more and I am still a work in progress. I know I am not “enchained to my ego” anymore, I give into it at times, I just am not a slave to it anymore. I still get angry/hurt/upset when people are unkind to those who have helped them and to the stranger, etc. I will never stop railing about this and I don’t have to “get even” anymore-I can give Divine Pathos to them because it is so sad they forget the people who helped them live. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Optics or Truth, "Getting ahead or living with conscience which is a greater influence in your daily living? Year 4 Day 208

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 208

“There is great merit in knowing our subtle hypocrisies, in our having no absolute faith in our faith, in our sense of shame and contrition. The sting of shame is the only pain the ego cannot bear and the only blow that may cause its forces to shrink and to retreat, and contrition is the saving heart of our soul. Remorse stands higher than sacrifice.” (God in Search of Man pg.400)

I am finishing off this quote with the last sentence because of how important it is for We the People to remember and take action on this teaching.

From Amos (5:22-24) we learn: “Though you offer Me burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; nor will I regard the peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not listen to the melody of your lutes. Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Who cares about sacrifices that have no meaning for the one bringing them? Who cares about attendance at High Holiday Services for those who come late and leave early, for those who are adamant in their refusal to be moved not to tears, but to ACTION? Justice and Righteousness are not feelings, they are not thoughts, they are actions that need human beings to fulfill. So, Paula White-Cain, John Hagee, Joel Osteen, if you want to know what a true Pastor in Christ looks like, look at Bishop William Barber. So, Ben G’Vir, Smotrich, all you ‘good jewish orthodox folk’ if you want to know what a real Rabbi does, look at Harold Shulweis, z”l, look at Sharon Brous, look at Shai Held, and leaders in both ‘religions’ need to stop lying to themselves about what is important to God, to humanity.

From Hosea (6:6) we learn: “I desire love and kindness and not sacrifices, the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Love and kindness are more important than anything except justice and righteousness-they are on a par with one another. Yet, rather than show that to one another we are, once again, in a time of senseless hatred towards one another. Sure, they pass the plate, they give their money, they get buildings named after themselves, or do it themselves as in Trump’s case, yet they do not have a spiritual practice of “love and kindness” towards another human being who is different from their crowd. In today’s world, Trump doesn’t show kindness and love towards anyone because everything is a transaction-nothing more, nothing less. One cannot fulfill God’s desire for “love and kindness” through transactional living.

Isaiah teaches us (1:13, 16): “Bring no more vain offerings… I cannot bear iniquity along with solemn meeting. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean stop your evil actions from before my eyes, cease to do evil.” The question for We the People from Isaiah is: when will we “cease to do evil”? When will We the People wash away the shmutz and the lies, the mendacity and the self-deceptions from our living and return to the Sinai moment, when we did have a knowing of God, a moment and experience of higher consciousness? When will We the People end our belief in idols, our willingness to buy the bullshit of another and listen to the truth that resides in our hearts, in our souls? Finally Micah comes to remind us (6:6,8): With what shall I come to before God and bow myself before God on High? Shall I come before God with burnt offerings, with one year old calves?… God has told you, what is good and what God requires of you, human; do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.”

The solution is simple, really; “remorse stands higher than sacrifice.” “Remorse”, unlike “sacrifice” cannot be mailed in, there is no way to fake it or go through the motions of “remorse”. Yes one can say “I’m sorry” a million times and not mean it, however, “remorse” entails making things right, repairing the damage, having a plan not to repeat the action, etc, ie TShuvah!  It isn’t easy as we say in AA, and it is simple. Justice is one of the greatest actions a human being can take and when we don’t do justly, we have to have “remorse.” To “love kindness” one has to be in truth with themselves and with another human being, again, one cannot fake it which is why just ‘giving money to clean me up’ is the worst sin any institution can do. In the Talmud, we are cautioned to not accept “money that is not kosher”, money that was gotten through any type of meanness, subterfuge, theft, etc. Yet, unfortunately, religious and non-profit institutions the world over accept and clean the reputation of scoundrels through accepting their donations as free-will offerings and rationalizing it by saying “it will allow/enable us to do the good work we do in the world” not understanding the taint they have put upon themselves and their institutions. Like the sycophants who follow Trump along, when we buy into the lie that “sacrifice is good” we are on the precipice of becoming the whores that Isaiah, Micah, Amos and Hosea are speaking to.

I know the pull of this type of idolatry, I made many ‘I’m sorry’s” throughout my early years. Only upon learning what TShuvah is, when I was in prison at 35, did I begin to be able to live into the actions the prophets charge all of us with. I am saddened that still today, most religious education is focused on ritual, on ‘sacrifices’, on dogma, on Israel, rather than on the inner life of the individual student, parent, congregant. I am proud that during my tenure at Beit T’Shuvah I was able to provide people with the tools to “love kindness”, “to do justly”, “to walk humbly with God”, to “let justice roll down like the waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”. I am honored to have been a shepherd for many and show them “the doorway to a richer and more meaningful life” and so grateful they all help me to live the same way. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Ego strength, Ego Weakness, Soul Strength, Soul immaturity- Year 4 Day 207

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 207

“There is great merit in knowing our subtle hypocrisies, in our having no absolute faith in our faith, in our sense of shame and contrition. The sting of shame is the only pain the ego cannot bear and the only blow that may cause its forces to shrink and to retreat, and contrition is the saving heart of our soul. Remorse stands higher than sacrifice.” (God in Search of Man pg.400)

In the sentence bolded above lies the great issue of our time and of all time. “The sting of shame is the only pain the ego cannot bear” is absolutely true. Our issue, the issue for all of human history, is “the sting of shame” usually results in anger, resentment and a ‘need’ to “get even”, hence the “I am your retribution” phrase that Trump spouted was so universally applauded by his sycophants, his loyalists and the rest of the unaware people who believed him! Unfortunately, in a society   where people refuse to reflect on their everyday actions, refuse to believe they can be wrong, absolutely believe with complete faith and reasoning (no matter how skewed it may be), only they are right, only they can save the rest of us, there is no place for self-reflection nor for a cultural reflection. There is only space for absolutism, for either/or, binary thinking. Binary thinking is my way or your way, or as is popular, my way or the highway if I am in power. This is the antithesis to being able to have “the sting of shames the only pain the ego cannot bear and the only blow that may cause its forces to shrink…” And this is the way of humanity forever!

Adam blamed Eve, Cain denied everything regarding Abel, Noah got drunk, Abraham listened to the wrong voice, Jacob was a conman, a liar, and one who could not truly form attachments of the soul,  Joseph and Judah grew into being human because of their experiences. The Israelites/slaves who were part of the exodus from Egypt kept screwing it up and blaming Moses, whomever. Samuel blames the people for not putting his grifting sons in charge after his death, Saul is beset by jealousy and fear, David is plagued by his sex addiction, Solomon by his ‘holier than thou’ attitude, etc. We see what happens when “the sting of shame” is put upon our President and his band of thieves - they sue the people speaking the Truth, they try to lock them up while extolling the people who attacked the Capitol and Police officers on Jan. 6th!! We are so upside down many of We the People wonder if we will ever be right-side up and right sized again.

Look at what Trump has done to Ukraine-they are the victims of Russian aggression and Trump, like a good Comrade, is blaming the victim-just as he blames the victims of hate and sexual abuse who come here illegally to save themselves, just as he blames the victims of Jeffery Epstein for making it uncomfortable to be a sexual abuser, like he is! His response: LASHING OUT, making it all about himself, blaming and persecuting the victims, using the military in ways that only autocrats do. What is the response from the Congress and the Courts=CRICKETS. These ‘fine christian folk’ don’t believe in “contrition”, they don’t believe that their “ego..forces (need) to shrink and retreat”. Only everyone who isn’t with them, only those who are ‘agin’ them need to be in “contrition” and need their “ego..forces to shrink and retreat” because everything they do is “Beautiful”, it is “right”, it is “their retribution”! Just ask anyone who cannot look at themselves and they will tell you-“ain’t my fault”!

What are We the People to do? Make our ego’s, our desires, our way of being right-sized! Our thoughts and our actions need to be monitored and guided into the ways of decency, truth, justice, mercy, love, compassion because, as we can see throughout history, these values, these traits are in very short supply at times and the autocrats, the monsters, the evil move in and make many of We the People believe their bullshit because of their “silver tongues”. That clergy of all faiths and disciplines endorse their lies and idolatry is the stuff the prophets railed against and, because We the People don’t read and immerse ourselves in the Bible, we let those LYING IDOLATROUS clergy tell us what it says, is criminal! Rather than learn ‘what to learn’ in religious school and in secular school, we should be teaching our children HOW to learn, how to discern truth from lies, fact from fiction, how to train our inner life to not continue to feed us lies and to stop hiding from our flaws, our imperfections. Understanding that our imperfections are what make us unique, knowing our infinite value and worth, realizing every human being has something to add to the world and our job is to find what only we, as an individual, can add and help the next person find and add their unique gift. This means no more ‘I am the best’, I am the ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE YOU, bullshit, no more buying the lies and deceptions of another nor the ones you tell yourself. This only happens when We the People allow “the sting of shame” to force our “ego” to shrink and retreat”, when we realize “contrition is the saving feature of our soul” and we live into our contrition so we can change our ways and change the world.

I have been living in contrition for 38+ years. It is hard, I fight it at times, I have fallen and still fall  prey to my deceptions and lies during these years and “the sting of shame” does bring me back to self-reflection, accountability, and TShuvah. I am saddened by the people who are unable to allow “shame” to bring them back to center, to make them whole and human again. I am blessed that it doesn’t take as much of a sting to wake me up anymore and I realize that the people who have resisted making their amends are so weak in their way of living that they cannot acknowledge “the sting of shame” nor can they allow their “ego” to “retreat”. I am so grateful I learned this lesson early on and keep learning it what I forget:) God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living in Truth and Awareness - Living in Mendacity and Obliviousness- Year 4 Day 206

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 206

“There is great merit in knowing our subtle hypocrisies, in our having no absolute faith in our faith, in our sense of shame and contrition. The sting of shame is the only pain the ego cannot bear and the only blow that may causes its forces to shrink and to retort, and contrition is the saving heart of our soul. Remorse stands higher than sacrifice.” (God in Search of Man pg.400)

The first sentence above is crucial if we are to find our authentic self and not continue on in the societal norm of hiding from one’s “acorn” as James Hillman writes. When we are engaged in the societal norms and cliches, in the “winning” that society “rewards”, we are living false scripts and not engaged in becoming “aware of our inner enslavements” nor are we willing to look at, much less, acknowledge “our subtle hypocrisies”. Listening to Trump and his cronies, Bibi and his gang of thugs, Putin and his sycophants, it would seem as if We the People have given up on “the great merit in knowing our subtle hypocrisies” and joined in the self-deception and mendacity that seems so prevalent in this moment. This way of being is anathema to all three Western Faiths as well as to the Eastern Spiritual disciplines as well. Yet, those ‘good christian, jewish, muslim folk’ who spout hatred and blame upon everyone else, never being responsible for their actions, seem to not have learned this truth and this practice in their churches, mosques, temples, synagogues!

They seem to be practitioners of the most “subtle of hypocrisies”; the inability to practice what one preaches, the bastardization of the basic spiritual principles, a denial of what Godliness/Holiness entails, and a deliberate decision to march to the beat of their Yetzer HaRa, their evil inclination. While Rabbi Heschel uses the word ego, he is speaking in the vernacular of his times and in a way most people can understand. The word “ego” is, I believe, meant to convey the parts of us that are more interested in self promotion than in promoting Godliness/Holiness; the parts of us that run to deceive another, that roll around in mendacity like pigs in shit, etc. When this is the determining factor of our living, one is blind to the “subtle hypocrisies” and defames anyone who points them out. Like the prophets, We the People who are standing up to the tyranny of Trump, the deceptions of Bibi, the lies of Putin, we are lambasted by their sycophantic followers, their cult guardians and it is not an easy way to live. Trump sues anyone and everyone who doesn’t ‘kiss the ring’, ‘bend the knee’ and suck his … These lawsuits, if the Courts are true to justice, are frivolous and still expensive to defend. Plus, Trump has convinced some Law Firms, including the one Doug Emhoff works at, to deny representation to ‘those people’ who seek to defy the autocrat, ‘der Fuhrer’, the Capo d’ Capo. That these cult followers, leaders, guardians include Jews, Muslims, Christians, Catholics, is an abomination!

While it is true to speak out and point out the lies and deceptions of the people in power, it is, after all, a very Jewish way of living when one reads the Prophets in the Bible, it is more important that We the People seek to know “our subtle hypocrisies” as well. Without seeing the ones we practice each and every day, without seeing how we can have solidarity with the Palestinian plight and not Condemn October 7, and Hamas’ terrorism is a “subtle hypocrisy”. When we are more interested in the rights of one group, ie, identity politics, than we are with another, “one law for the citizen and stranger alike” no longer applies. When we can call one group of people “not human” we deny the commandment: “love your neighbor like you love yourself”. When we seek to “rid the country of the vermin who are infecting the blood of our people” as Trump copied from Hitler, we are denying: “love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”. When we seek to enrich the rich at the expense of the poor, when we seek to criminalize the plight of people who are homeless, we are denying: “the infinite dignity and worth of every human being because we all come from Adam”(Rabbi Yitz Greenberg).  For those of We the People who are followers of ‘der Fuhrer’, I would ask you to look at your “subtle hypocrisies and those of your fellow people as well as the ones that Trump, Vought, Miller, Lutnick, Vance, et all have as well. For those of us who are in the “opposition”, I would ask us to look at “our subtle hypocrisies” as well and stop having the ‘holier than thou’ attitude of those “progressives” like AOC, Bernie, etc.

When the left and the right are in agreement as to their purity, when neither one can admit their flaws, their failures and seek to learn and grow, then we are witnessing “absolute faith in our faith” which is another fatal flaw! When neither the left nor the right can see the “shame”-which is defined as: “a feeling of distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior”-in their actions, they will never engage in “knowing the subtle hypocrisies” they engage in. When We the People deny our need for contrition-“the state of being remorseful” for the wrongs and foolish behaviors we have engaged in-we deny the truth of our actions, we are so deep in self-deception, we are so addicted to our mendacity, we are risking our future, the future of our children and the freedom so many of our ancestors died for. Isn’t it time for us to do our inventories, isn’t it time for us to let go of our armor and realize we are not so fragile that we are unable to admit our errors and repair them?

I have been in this process for the past 38 years, I was saved by being locked up and I spread the GOSPEL of “subtle hypocrisies” not being the answer and “contrition” being good for the soul, returning us to our natural state of grace and covenantal love between one another and God. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Awareness of the "taints in our virtues" and the "tinge of idolatry in our worship" Year 4 Day 205

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 205

This is how we must begin in our effort to purify the self; to become aware of our inner enslavements to the ego, to detect the taints in our virtues, the tinge of idolatry in our worship of God.” (God in Search of Man pg. 401)

One of the great teachings of Judaism, of the Rabbis-whom I have many arguments with:)- is the teaching of T’Shuvah. Most of us think about this or hear about this only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Yet, Rabbi Eliezer teaches in the Talmud, tractate Shabbat 153a, that we should do T’Shuvah one day before we die and since no one knows the day of their death, we should do it every day. Without this practice, the period of Elul, which we will enter in 8 days, this month of preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is meaningless and these “Days of Awe” lose their importance and the strength they imbue us with to have the courage to do the next right thing.

In Proverbs 1:7 we are taught: “The awe of God is the beginning of knowledge and fools despise wisdom and knowledge” and the words in bold above remind me of this truth and the folly we are living in today. Rather than “detect the taints in our virtues”, people today point out the “taints” in another person so they do not ‘have’ to look at themselves. In this culture of ‘perfection is the standard’ not the goal, the standard, any “taint” is viewed as a defect which then leads to being vulnerable to attacks by “them”. The old adage “the best defense is a good offense” is alive and well, used and abused by the idolators who pose as ‘religious’, the PAGANS who proclaim their allegiance to Christ, to Adonai, to Allah.

We the People are suffering through a Pandemic that is a greater threat than Covid-19, in my opinion. This pandemic is called “christian nationalism” and is led by people like Doug Wilson, who is Pete Hegseth’s pastor and thought leader. This brand of “christian nationalism” believes women should not have the right to vote, that only ‘christians’ should hold office, that the United States should jettison the Constitution in favor of a Christian Theocracy that he devises, probably alongside of people like Paula White-Cain, Joel Osteen, John Hagee, etc. We the People have to stop listening to and giving any credence to these charlatans who constantly and consistently bastardize the words of Christ, the words of Moses, and refuse to “detect the taints in” their “virtues”, only accuse the rest of us, Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, LGBTQ+ non-people of having “taints”. These assholes along with the ‘real jew’ Rabbis and their followers are infecting this country, Israel, and the world with a way of being that has to lead to destruction because it always has. These “fools despise wisdom and knowledge” and We the People who are following them, who are nodding our heads to their vile speech, their idolatrous ways, to their desecration of God’s name, are responsible for “the taints in our virtues” that we are unwilling to detect. We the People have to engage in the practice of T’Shuvah that Rabbi Eliezer teaches right here, right now, because we are circling the drain of what it means to be human, we are not so slowly losing our humanity, our commitment “to do justly, love mercy and walk in the ways of God”(Micah 6:8). We the People are being reminded of this way of being by the words above, by Rabbi Heschel’s teachings.

While I am not so concerned with how we got to this point, usually, I do realize that many people need to know the path that led us here so we don’t go down it again and there is great “virtue” in this. It is simple, really, just as the people in Ancient Israel and Judea reached the pinnacle of inhumanity to humanity, We the People are closing in on it quickly and, very possibly, surpassing it because of “the tinge of idolatry in our worship of God”. The prophets kept telling the people, the priests, the wealthy and ruling class that God was not interested in their rituals, in their sacrifices as long as their hearts were uncircumcised, as long as their actions towards one another showed disdain for another human being, as long as they continued to believe their own bullshit that they were ‘better’ than those who were ‘lower’ than them, that they were the ‘entitled ones’ who could lie with impunity and, like the “men of renown” found in Genesis, they could fuck anyone and everyone without any consequences.

These people that we read about in the books of the Prophets are alive and well today! They are living next door to us, they are elected to office and are governing us, they are sitting around laughing at the idiocy of We the People who bought their lies, who are so into our own self-deception that we could not perceive their deception of us, and how they are getting rich off the backs of the poor, the stranger, the needy and then calling themselves “Good Christians”, “the Real Jews”, “True Muslims”!!! WHAT THE FUCK!! We the People have to do  our own work to “purify the self”, to remove the “tinge of idolatry in our worship of God”, to “detect the taints in our virtues” and, most of all, end our self-deception, stand up for Godliness, live into our innate Holiness, act as a reminder of God, as a divine need, and see the Image of God in everyone else, honoring it, and speaking to it so there is a change someone else will do their T’Shvuah and then We the People can change the world.

I have fought against the Doug Wilson’s of the world forever, I have been a grifter and hated myself for it. I have refused to “detect the taint in my virtues” and suffered for it in my soul. These 38+years of living in the light bring me to this moment with joy and fear, with hope and worry, with “awe of God”, “wisdom and knowledge”. I can’t abide by the Doug Wilsons, the Hegseths, the PAGANS and Idolators, the grifters and fascists of today so I continue to clean my side of the street and mourn for those who are unable to clean theirs. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Inner Enslavements, Purify the Self, do these mean anything anymore? Year 4 Day 204

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 204

This is how we must begin in our effort to purify the self; to become aware of our inner enslavements to the ego, to detect the taints in our virtues, the tinge of idolatry in our worship of God.” (God in Search of Man pg. 401)

The first phrase above assumes a way of being that does not seem to be in vogue these days with Clergy nor with We the People! Who is truly putting forth an “effort to purify the self” in our world? Certainly not the President of the U.S nor of Russia, absolutely not the President of Hungary nor his ‘good friend’ the Prime Minister of Israel. Nor is most of the Clergy we hear about interested in engaging in the “effort to purify the self” because they are gaining so much power, prestige, money from staying in their “inner enslavements to the ego”! This is the war we are in and, unfortunately, it seems as if we are losing one battle after another. While it looks bleak, we have to remember the Union Army wasn’t always doing so good in the Civil War and they made a comeback. The descendants of Jacob were in a wee bit of tsuris(trouble) before they were redeemed, Christ was crucified and on and on. Because of these ‘victories’, We the People of authentic faith in God, in the Ineffable One, in the God of Moses, of Jesus, of Mohammed, cannot fall into despair and debilitating depression.

Today’s ‘leaders’ in social media, in government, in business, in our courts, in law firms, in universities all give us a wide-open look at what happens when “our inner enslavements to the ego” take over our lives. We the People become whores, prostitutes, we kiss the big fat ass of Trump, et al and then we go home and brag about how smart we are because we ‘got a deal’ from Trump that he will never honor just as he has never honored any deal he makes when it doesn’t suit him anymore. We the People are living under the terror of Roy Cohn, Trump’s mentor. The man who electrocuted Ethel Rosenberg while knowing she was completely innocent, the man who helped Joe McCarthy in his reign of terror and intimidation, the man who denied being a homosexual and publicly shamed gay people while privately being gay, this is who taught the Grifter In Chief, the Liar in the White House, the scared asshole who hides behind the National Guard and the Army to show how strong he is, everything he knows! And, We the People voted an insurrectionist into office, We the People gave him and his cronies who never think about making an “effort to purify the self”, who never think about their “inner enslavements” because their egos are so false and so large all they care about is feeding them!

We the People have to stop being led around by the nose by these PAGANS, be it the clergy who support these assholes or the assholes themselves, be it the elected officials who pledged loyalty to the Constitution and are only loyal to Trump and getting re-elected or to John Roberts and his court of ‘constitutionalists’ who are giving away the country, democracy, and freedom to an autocratic wannabe dictator! We the People have “to become aware of our inner enslavements to the ego”, to money, to power, to the lies we tell ourselves, to our self-deceptions and to the deceptions of another(s). We the People are being called upon to stand up and redeem ourselves and our neighbors from the horrors that Trump and his partners are putting us through; be it what is going on in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Los Angeles and Washington DC with sending the National Guard and Army to be police?! WTF!!

We the People have to demand of ourselves an authentic accounting of the Soul, a “fearless and searching inventory” of “inner enslavements” so we can do our T’Shuvah, make a new plan, renew our covenant with God, with our higher consciousness, and have new responses to these Domestic and Foreign Terrorists running various governments. YES, Trump, Miller, Vought, Vance, Lutnick, Netanyahu, Ben G’Vir, Orban, Putin, and their cronies are TERRORISTS! We the People, because of our obliviousness to our “inner enslavements to the ego” are supporting Terrorists, Law firms who kiss the ring, Universities who kiss the Ass, and Bimbos who are running the very institutions meant to preserve our democracy which they are trying to annihilate! Bondi, Patel, McMahon, etc don’t believe in the agencies they are running, RFK Jr., a disgrace to his father’s name and memory, wants to deny the science that has saved 100’s of millions of lives over the years and this is who We the People put in charge!! They are in charge because We the People have been unwilling to do the work to “become aware of our inner enslavements to the ego”!

I have spent the past 38+ years peeling away the layers of “inner enslavements” which caused me to live in terrorizing ways. As a drunk and a criminal, I was a terrorist, just as all people who are not in recovery are. Rabbi Heschel’s words hit home with me in very personal ways and they hit home for everyone who is willing to “become aware of our inner enslavements to the ego”, to everyone who is willing to search out the Chametz, the bread that has leavening in it, the puffed up parts of our egos which we do every year at Passover. With Yom Kippur only 48 days away, the beginning of Elul only 7 days away, it is time for us to begin to look at the actions which impede our “effort to purify the self” and take these next 48 days to do exactly this-“purify the self”. This is the work I do every year at this time and every day as well. I am enraged at the state of the world and the loss of democracy-while I am not directly effected yet, as I said to someone yesterday; I am a person of faith, when you are being targeted, I am effected, when you are in fear, I am here to stand with you and help you. This is what being a person of faith means, this is what the Bible directs us to do. This is the gift of being human. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you engaging in Redemption or are you retarding your redemption and the world's? Year 4 Day 203

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 203

“The world is in need of redemption, but the redemption must not be expected to happen as an act of sheer grace. Man’s task is to make the world worthy of redemption. His faith and his works are preparations for ultimate redemption. (God in Search of Man pg. 380)

“Redemption” is an overarching theme in the Bible. It comes from the Latin meaning “to buy back”. We call God the “redeemer of Israel” in our prayers and in immersing ourselves in the Bible, we experience the “redemption” of so many, beginning with Cain. Cain ‘kills’ his brother Abel (Abel in Hebrew means mist) and then complains to God about his consequences and God guarantees he will not be killed, even though it is supposed to be “a life for a life”. Cain is redeemed by God. Cain’s soul, his very life force is “bought back” by God. We see this often in the Bible, someone screws up, cries out to God and God “buys back” their soul and restores them to life, a life, hopefully, of mitzvahs, of doing the next right thing. As is said above, however, this act of redemption is not done out of “sheer grace”, rather it only happens when the person(s) needing redemption participate in their own redeeming either by crying out like Cain did, admitting their errors as Judah does, and/or doing both and bringing their offerings to the priests in the Bible and now, doing T’Shuvah so we can return and be nearer to God who redeems.

What is most striking is the time in which these words were written, early 1950’s. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, after bringing an end to the pinnacle of man’s inhumanity to man, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that our redemption is not complete, it is not an entitlement. Redemption, having our souls “bought back” is a partner ship between God and us, that begins with us. This is the crux of our issue, Rabbi Heschel knew that human beings are loath to admit their errors, We the People are more like Jacob than Judah, We the People are more like Korach than King David; admitting our errors is like drinking poison because doing this acknowledges our imperfections and We the People so desperately believe we should be and must be perfect. What a lie we are telling ourselves and what a lie being perpetrated by societal norms and cliches. This lie is killing the freedom that leaving Egypt and accepting the Torah at Sinai promises, this lie is killing the spirit of the individual, it is a denial of “all men are created equal”, that no one soul is inherently worth more than another, We the People all have “certain unalienable rights” no matter the color of our skin, the religion we adhere to, the political party we affiliate with. This is the only way “redemption” can even begin.

Alas, what we have going on now is none of these prerequisites for “redemption”. These ‘good christian folk’, these ‘saviors of Judaism’, these ‘real muslims’ have done more to bastardize “redemption” than any non-believer. These PAGANS keep supporting the worst of the worst for political offices so they can manipulate them, ‘own’ them, get their agendas through and crush the spirit of freedom, bastardize the 10 Sayings we received at Mount Sinai, crush the spirit of Christ. Instead of hastening “redemption”, these charlatans are retarding “redemption”. Instead of “being a light unto the nations” as Isaiah tells us to be, these assholes are darkening the world, shutting out the Or HaGanuz, the hidden light of God/the first days of creation, so we walk around in darkness and, instead of raising one another up, instead of doing what will “make the world worthy of redemption”, these so-called ‘people of god’, are crushing goodness, truth, justice, mercy, and love.

We the People are being called upon each and every day to “make the world worthy of redemption”. We the People are asked to do one act of T’Shuvah each day, one act of redemption for ourselves and one act to redeem another. The Bible teaches us to “love the stranger”, “love your neighbor”, “righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue”, “do justly”, “redeem your kinsman”, “don’t stand idly by the blood of your neighbor”, etc. The Bible is not asking for perfection! On the contrary, it is asking us to be one grain of sand better each day, to do our amends, to repair the damage to another and to our soul, to learn from our errors and the errors of another, to not repeat our same mistakes over and over again. We the People are able to bring about “redemption”! We the People are capable of repairing our corners of the world so the Messiah doesn’t have any work to do when she/he arrives and the Messiah will only congratulate We the People on the wonderfully imperfect job we have done to bring about “redemption”. When We the People commit and follow through on our covenant with God, when We the People take the next right action, when We the People practice our authentic faith(s) out loud, when the Bible (or whatever spiritual text you engage with) becomes our road map to living well, We the People have done our part to bring about “ultimate redemption”!

I have been living in the world of T’Shuvah for 38 years, it is a hard world to live in and it is the most freeing world to live in. Not needing to be right, knowing when I am and when I am wrong, gives me a freedom that I sought for the first 36 years of life. My life’s work is dedicated to “redemption” of both my self/soul and the souls of those I encounter. I am not soft-spoken, I am loud, I am abrasive, because I know what is at stake: the life of the individual, the family, and the community that becomes infected with the lies that “a leopard doesn’t change its spots”, and the writing off of people who make mistakes as ‘lost souls’. I believe in the possibility of “redemption”, I work hard to help people redeem themselves with the help of God and the people around them. I am GRATEFUL for my mission and love my purpose. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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The Problems of Evil -breaking the law and the "radical problem of "the evil drive" - Year 4 Day 202

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 202

There are two problems: the particular sins, the examples of breaking the law, and the general and radical problem of “the evil drive” in man. The law deals with the first problem; obedience to the law prevents evil deeds. Yet, the problem of the evil drive is not solved by observance. The prophets’ answer was eschatological. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel…not like the covenant I made with their fathers…I will put my law within them and I will write it upon their hearts.”(Jeremiah 31:31-34)

I keep wondering at Rabbi Heschel’s insight and prescience in awe and amazement. In the early 50’s, when it seemed like life was good, baby boomers were being born, WWII had ended in our victory, the UN was functioning, Israel was a new country, and here he is railing on and on about “the evil drive” and “the particular sins”. I say it seemed like ‘good times’ because he writes “the law deals with the first problem; obedience to the law prevents evil deeds”. We the People know that even then-if one was black or Jewish the law was different for ‘our kind’. We the People know that the law has been overtaken by Trump, his lies, his liars that stand with him, and now, the military is being used in cities across the nation because he wants to be dictator. Instead of the Courts standing up to this autocrat, John Roberts and his pussy-whipped friends on the Supreme Court are acting like slaves to Trump saying “yes massa, yes massa, whatever you want massa” instead of standing up for the Constitution, instead of standing up for truth, instead of being truly Good Christians and caring for the poor, the needy, the stranger as Christ did!

We the People are fucked! Rather than having any solution to “the first problem” or “the problem of the evil drive”, in today’s world, in Israel, in Russia, in America, there is no “problem of the evil drive” because it is celebrated, it is on full display and people are bowing down to Trump, Bibi, Vlad because they have given them permission to no longer sublimate their “evil drive”, instead they are being urged to “let it all hang out” and be as cruel as possible. Rather than live in the covenant made at Mount Sinai, Jew and non-Jew alike are worshiping at the altar of the modern day version of Baal. Rather than follow One God, the Ineffable One, the clergy of today and their flocks, their patrons are following the gods of money, power, cruelty, evil, hatred, injustice, etc. This is what ‘religious observance’ has become, this is the reason people young and old have rejected ‘religion’ and, along with this rejection, they are rejecting morality, humanity and holiness. People are not ‘happier’ living this way, they are just no longer struggling to do the next right thing because doing the next right thing leaves one open to ridicule and the cruelty of “the evil drive” that is running rampant in the world. We the People are being called to serve a higher calling than the “evil drive”, a higher standard of living than “the examples of breaking the law” which we and so many others are engaging in.

The question that the words above pose: Are We the People willing to act on the “new covenant”, to live the morality that has been written “upon our hearts”, to live up to and into “my law within them”? All of this has happened, the “new covenant” is no different than the old one, really, it is what Moses says in “The word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart that you will do it”(Deut. 30:14)! The issue is not if “the new covenant” has happened, the issue is not ‘it will come to pass when the Messiah arrives’, the issue is not ‘how will I know what to do’. The issue for We the People is are we willing to take the next right action based on what we know in our hearts, in our souls, in our bones to be true, right and moral? Are We the People going to act as if the Messiah has already arrived and is just awaiting some human kindness to reveal itself? Are We the People going to stop wring our hands, talking out of both sides of our mouths, stop worrying about optics, end our nauseating need to ‘look good’, ‘be right’, ‘follow the party line of the extremes on both ends of the spectrum’? Are We the People going to stand up, rise up and live into the words that God “writes on our hearts”, “puts in our mouth”, honor and cherish “the law within them”? This is what We the People are being called to do, this is how We the People avoid walking into a slaves existence as we did in Egypt, as they did in Russia, as they are doing in Hungary, as Netanyahu wants to happen in Israel, as happened in Nazi Germany? We the People have to use our prophetic voices, insight and wisdom to call out these “evil drive” experts who are using ‘the law’ like Hitler used the Nuremberg Laws. We the People have been given the Bible, have been gifted with “the new covenant” and now is the time to use them to live better and to make our world better.

I keep thinking about the Liberty Bell and Leviticus telling us to “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”(Lev.25”10). I keep wondering what has happened to “the land that I love”, what happened to “stand beside her and guide her”? What happened to being “the home of the brave”? I know the power of “the evil drive”, I know how to “break the law” and get away with it, I did this for over 20 years, I did it when it didn’t serve me because the urge was so strong. Once I let the “evil drive” dominate me, it was tough putting that Genie back in the bottle. Yet I did and I have-through living into “the new covenant”, through living the what is “written upon my heart” and speaking, doing “the law within me”. It ain’t easy, it doesn’t make me popular, the phone ringing much at all anymore and I will not change, I will not whore myself for any reason, not fame, fortune or being liked-I did this before and it almost cost me my soul. I pray that We the People will stop giving into the lies of today and ground themselves in the TRUTH of the Bible! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are your Daily actions based on what you 'can do' or what you are commanded to do? Year 4 Day 201

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 201

“Judaism would reject the Kantian axiom, “I ought, therefore I can”; it would claim instead, “Thou art commanded, therefore thou canst.” Judaism, as we have said, claims that man has the resources to fulfill what God commands, at least to some degree. On the other hand, we are continually warned lest we rely on man’s own power and the belief that man, by his power alone, is capable of redeeming the world. Good deeds alone will not redeem history; it is the obedience to God that will make us worthy of being redeemed by God.”

“God helps those who help themselves” is an old saying and in light of the teaching above, I believe has some relevance to how we live. While Kant’s theory is wonderful and better than Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am”, Judaism’s claim as said above by Rabbi Heschel, is better for society. “I ought” is too easily bastardized into narcissistic desires and inauthentic needs, I believe. Being “commanded” is more difficult to bastardize and there are too many ways to point out the lies and subterfuge of those who twist being “commanded”. It is an unbelievable idea, in many ways, that We the People have “the resources to fulfill what God commands”! It is even more unbelievable how often and with how much might we twist these commandments into our own pretzels so we can do what we want, when we want, how we want, and to whom we want.

When the Clergy, when the ‘religious’ do everything in their power to cover up their evil, their cruelty by saying ‘this is what the Bible tells me’ we are in danger of using “the resources to fulfill what God commands” to satisfy only our false ego, our surge for power, and our desire to sublimate many groups and aspects of We the People so it no longer is God whom we are serving, rather it is only our false selves, our inauthentic egos, our puffed up Pharaoh within. This is the reason “we are continually warned lest we rely on man’s own power and the belief that man, by his power alone, is capable of redeeming the world.” We see this over and over again, our desire ‘to be saved’ has stretched from baptism and Mikvah, from circumcision and the Eucharist, to believing the lies of ‘der Fuhrer, of the autocrat, of the despot, of the Pharaoh. When history and the Bible, the New Testament and the Korah warn us all of the pitfalls of following the leader blindly, when we read the prophet Nathan telling King David how he has sinned, when we immerse ourselves in the words of the prophets who are constantly telling the people and the leadership TRUTH, how is it possible for We the People to continue to buy this same old bullshit that has led to ruin for thousands of years?

It is possible because we are suffering from an epidemic called: Spiritual Bankruptcy. Worse than the Great Depression, worse than the financial collapse of 2008, the Spiritual Bankruptcy that has overtaken We the People threatens our very freedoms, our way of life, the seat of democracy. And too many of us, like Nero, seem to be fiddling while the Republic burns! We are so spiritually sick that at least one-third of We the People still believe the lies of Trump and welcome Project 2025, cheer at ICE raids and believe they have the ‘right’ to own, shoot, and, if they want to, kill people with AK-47’s! We the People are so spiritually bankrupt that 1/3rd of us still cheer at the cruelty, applaud the Grifter in Chief and his cronies who are raping and robbing all of us! We the People are so spiritually off-kilter that 1/3rd of us believe that Trump, Miller, Lutnick, Vought, Vance, et al, are the messengers of Christ, with Trump being the Messiah! While I don’t think many Jews think he is the Messiah, there are many Jews who believe his lies, his arrogance, his lust for power is ‘good for the Jews’ while he surrounds himself with anti-semites who love Israel and hate Jews! We the People are so spiritually bankrupt that we have replaced the will of God with the will of self. We the People buy the lies and deceive ourselves daily that what we are doing is good, even if the poor, the needy, the stranger, the widow, the orphan suffer-they are doing this for the greater good! Christ did not believe this, Moses did not believe this, God doesn’t believe this, the Bible tells us to do the opposite and too many of We the People are buying the lies and deceiving ourselves because, of course, it is only happening to ‘those people’ and ‘they deserve it’!

Our Spiritual Bankruptcy, our Spiritual illness’ can only be healed by us with the help of God, with the help of spiritual healers, not shrinks. This is not a ‘thinking’ problem, it is not an ‘emotional’ problem, it is not because of some ‘trauma’ that has happened to us. This spiritual bankruptcy, our spiritual illness’ are the result of not being in TRUTH with ourselves and one another. They are the result of our unwillingness to “fulfill what God commands” and instead fulfill what our false self commands. We the People have become addicted to our own power, our own lies and we give power to our Pharaoh within. Rather than find ways to reach one another, we decide what is and we do the best we can to ram it down the throats of those around us so we have the power instead of joining with God, doing the next right thing, replenishing our spiritual bank accounts and using God’s power to redeem ourselves and another(s). Rather than give rise and power to the Moses within us, we have bought the lies and notions of societal norms, which has, in turn, bankrupted us so completely that we cheer Netanyahu’s and Trump’s cruelty, we abandon the Ukrainians who fight for their freedom against a more powerful enemy, which, as Jews dishonors the memory of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters. It is way past time for We the People to repent, to return, to have new responses to these PAGANS-to respond with the Redeeming Power of God.

I have made many deposits and, with all my withdrawals I still have a positive balance in my spiritual bank account. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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Learning to be One Grain of Sand better each day, not denying our frailty and weakness’ - Year 4 Day 200

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 200

“It is true that the commandment to be holy is exorbitant, and that our constant failures and transgressions fill us with contrition and grief. Yet we are never lost. We are sons of Abraham. Despite all faults, failures, and sins, we remain parts of the Covenant. His compassion is greater than His justice. He will accept us in all our frailty and weakness.” (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

These words above lay out the challenge and the hope, the reason that “despair is alien to the Jewish faith”, and the learning of what unconditional love is. Unconditional love, as I hear Rabbi Heschel this morning is not allowing us to do what ever we want and say ‘I’m sorry’ only to do the same things over and over again. It is not, as I am processing this concept today, whitewashing the errors of self nor of another. It is holding ourselves responsible “to be holy”, exorbitant as it may seem. It is to acknowledge our “constant failures and transgressions” so our “contrition and grief” bring us to a new understanding of how to be human and improve our actions. Unconditional love, as practiced by God is to be found in the last two sentences above; when our “compassion” for ourselves and another(s) “is greater than our justice” and when we can accept “our frailty and weakness” and those of the people around us, we are living unconditional love.

This is the challenge for all of humanity since the beginning of time, of our evolution/creation. Yet we seemed to have stopped evolving, we seem to enjoy returning over and over again to our animal instincts, to relish in the fact that “our thoughts are evil from our youth”. Rather than take on “the commandment to be holy”, knowing we will not be perfect and we are on a continuum, We the People seem to have jettisoned any feeble attempts and keep rolling around in the mud of autocracy, the quicksand of cruelty, and we dive headfirst into the deceptions of people telling us good is evil, evil is good, truth is fake and fake is truth, etc. REALLY?! Seeing the world through the eyes of the autocrat, the grifter, it is easy to pick the pockets of We the People because we would rather be deceived, we would rather have someone else to blame than be responsible for our “constant failures and transgressions”. So when Trump blames “the democrats”, when Bibi calls us to hate the Palestinians because they all want us dead, people of little sophistication, people who give lip service to “the commandment to be holy” rather than engage in the depth of what it takes to be in the holiness arena, believe and follow. This is the part of We the People that spurns the unconditional love of God, that is not filled with “contrition and grief” over what they have done, what they have wrought. Au contraire, they rejoice in their cruelty, they throw a party for their transgressions of “the commandments” and their actions totally deny: “we are never lost” because their actions deny the Abrahamic creed, their actions deny Jesus’ teachings, Moses’ exhortations to “CHOOSE LIFE”.

Humanity has learned nothing, it seems, from our experiences up until now. We do not “love the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt”. We do not “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”. We have failed to “have one law for the stranger and citizen alike”. We continue to proclaim “America the Beautiful” and “The People Israel Live”, while our actions deny both statements. The People Israel cannot live when the People Israel go against the teachings, the lessons, the paths of holiness and goodness, the ways of “contrition and grief”, the commandments to be holy and to do T’Shuvah. America is not beautiful when it practices cruelty-be it towards the Native Americans, the Chinese, the Irish, the Italians, the Blacks, the Jews, the Hispanics-cruelty is never beautiful and Trump and the part of We the People that follow him like lap dogs are telling us that cruelty is beautiful and holy!  We have so-called religious leaders praising cruelty as commanded by God both here in America and in Israel-is it any wonder why some of We the People believe destruction is once again upon us because of our own actions. It is the “enemy within” that is destroying us-both the internal evil inclination gone riot of the individual and the external evil being lauded by our elected officials.

The greatest cruelty and the height of denial of God comes from our unwillingness to be in “contrition and grief” over our failures to “be holy”, over our insistence on denying our “sins and transgressions” by justifying them, by proclaiming that ‘our justice’ is greater than our compassion and that we have ‘a new covenant’ that enshrines white people to be the top of the food chain. Rather than engage in T’Shuvah, in repentance, in amends, in seeing the truth, these PAGANS are reveling in their evil by saying “Jesus told me to do this”, “This is the will of God” otherwise it would not be happening, and other such bullshit. We have lost the moral high-ground of our ancestors, we are pointing our internal moral compass in the wrong direction, and the rest of We the People have to get off our asses and not “fiddle while Rome is burning”. We the People are being called, hell we are being commanded to stand up, to speak up, to shut down the evil that is running rampant in our streets, to tell ICE to end these Gestapo tactics, to tell Miller that he has to go to Alligator Alcatraz because his ancestors were not born here, tell Vought he has to face a Religious Court for his Sins against Christ, tell Lutnick that he has to face a Rabbinic Court for his sins against Adonai, tell the rest of We the People that we are not going to take their lies and bullshit anymore. We the People have to demand “contrition and grief” from Bibi, Donny, and the rest of their thugs, We the People have to teach our children unconditional love, how to do T’Shuvah, how to strive towards holiness, how to fail and get back up(resilience), and how to have “compassion be greater than justice” and “accept our frailty and weakness”.

This is the daily task I engage in and I continue to work to “be holy”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Life is precious because of what we can do, not because what we can get. Year 4 Day 199

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 199

The idea with which Judaism starts is not the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man but rather the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do the will of God. There is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah, and precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will. This is why despair is alien to Jewish faith. (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

The first sentence in bold above is unquestionably true, everyone knows “there is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah”, yet everyone is not always willing to do the one needed for this moment and this is the problem that has faced humanity since the times of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. Most of us are unaware that “precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will” and this leads us to seek out the preciousness of life through artificial means, through deceptions, through power-seeking, through enslaving another group/individual, through misogyny, through privilege, through autocracy, etc. Isn’t it sad that the only thing that makes life “precious” to so many is how much money they have, how much power they have, how much they can amass and control? Isn’t it tragic that democracy, the very instrument through which Trump, Vought, Vance, Wytkoff, Bibi, et al gained power is the very thing they are seeking to destroy, the very institution they are seeking to dismantle so they can be in absolute power and crush anyone who says anything negative to them or about them?

How did this come to be? There are a myriad of reasons and a few stand out to me. 1) Since the beginning, humanity has rejected the necessity of looking for “an opportunity to do a mitsvah”, and embraced the false ego-driven lie of ‘look for an opportunity to get mine”, Cain and Abel is the first example, the King of Sodom is another after Abraham returned his wealth and his people to him because Abraham’s nephew Lot had been taken captive. There are many more throughout the Bible and they are there not to point out God’s impotency, they show us directly and unequivocally the results of embracing the false-ego lie of “where’s mine”. Abraham begins with the mitsvah of “making souls”, helping people find their spiritual home, ensuring they live the lives they were meant to and, along with Sarah build community where people belong. Isaac shows us what it means to love someone completely, even if they betray you and lie to you, your love is unwavering as his was for Rebecca. Jacob and Esau represent the two inclinations within us. While Jacob is the ancestor of the People Israel, Esau is the one who shows us what passion, what kindness, what forgiveness is all about. While Jacob needs God to guide him, to show him the way, Esau is the part of us that just knows in his bones what the kind, loving, truthful, next right action to take is. Of course he is passionate and some would say ‘dumb’, I would suggest that he takes every opportunity to do a mitsvah, just as Abraham and Isaac do, just as Moses does, just as Judah does after his encounter with Tamar. The Bible is replete with times and places to do a mitsvah and there are so many people and examples of people seeking to “do His will” and experiencing “precious is life” because they “run to do a mitsvah”.

2) We have been taught what to think, not how to think, as my wife, Harriet Rossetto said to me the other day. We are not being taught to seek our “acorn” as James Hillman writes in “The Soul’s Code”, we are not being given the keys to the kingdom because the Rabbis, the Priests, the Ministers, the Kings, the rulers, the elected officials refuse to trust We the People with power to overrule them, with the power to take charge of our lives and the power to say NO. They are afraid of us, just like Pharaoh was afraid to accept and face God for an accounting of his deeds. Most people are afraid to do a “fearless and thorough inventory” as the 12-Steps call for because they would have to face themselves in truth and “Hell NO, I am not seeking truth, I am seeking validation for my lies and my grift”! We are not taught the how of the Bible’s message, we are taught ritual and dogma, not how to discern which commandments to obey and which to disobey, which verses are inserted and which are divinely inspired. We are not being taught how to discern truth from lies, fact from fiction because then We the People will be able to flex our muscles, argue with the Idolators and the PAGANS, call out the leadership for their Bullshit, and stand for the Ineffable One because so many of the people that said they would, our Clergy, have abdicated their calling so they can gain favor with ‘der Fuhrer’-Trump, Bibi, et al.

There is plenty of shit happening today that can lead anyone to despair and I refuse to go there. Because I know that there is a “mitsvah” to be done, because I know through experience and in my gut that “precious is life” and I seek to find the “mitsvah” that this time and this place is affording me. Because I can always find an “opportunity to do a mitsvah”, because I know the myriad of times the Psalmist felt like giving in to his despair and, instead, he reached up to God and down into his soul to find a path out, to find the pony in the horseshit, to see the beauty and the gift of the moment we are in. I, like you, am the Psalmist, I, like you am the writer of Proverbs, I, like you, am given the Torah and hear the Voice that has never stopped speaking from the top of Mount Sinai to know how to trust what we know to be true and right, take the action that the situation in front of us is calling for without letting fear of ‘what will they think of me’ get in the way. I have spent the past 38 years to do “His will” and because I have been seeking, I am always finding the ways and being found as well. The “opportunity to do a mitsvah” is the path of finding ourselves, finding the truth of another human being and the openness we are afraid of so we can also be found and known. This is the why despair is alien and “precious is life”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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Focusing our attention and actions of "the wonder of creation and doing the will of God - Year 4 Day 198

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 198

The idea with which Judaism starts is not the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man but rather the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do the will of God. There is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah, and precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will. This is why despair is alien to Jewish faith. (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

The first sentence above is true and most of us do not learn this truth about what Judaism is at its core, This is the terrible state of religious education in the Jewish world, the entire Jewish world. While the Orthodox claim “to do the will of God”, it is, when they are actually fulfilling it, a item to check off a list for most, just go to an Orthodox early morning minyan where the men are talking business instead of listening to God, or a Shabbat morning service where the men are more concerned about their ‘kiddish club’ where they drink instead of being in the service. For the other denominations, they teach pap, they go with ‘social justice/tikkun olam, with Am Yisrael Chai/the Jewish People live denoting a togetherness that never was and is not now, and they are not even convinced that God exists so “the will of God” doesn’t always have a strong hold on them.

The fact that Jewish education doesn’t teach the beauty of wonder, the power of radical amazement, the resilience of living a life compatible with being a partner of God’s is criminal. It is, I believe, the real reason that the current younger generation sees no real value in being Jewish, unless there is anti-semitism to make them remember. They want to be ‘citizens of the world’ because there is no compelling reason for them to carry on this beautiful and important way of living. In fact, relegating Judaism to being a “religion” waters down its beauty, its power and its mission!

As we speak “to do the will of God”, we also have to take a critical look at the “will of God” we are choosing. In the Bible, it is evident that Ezra or someone of his time and persuasion inserted xenophobic and racist statements into the text because, as I am learning from my friend and teacher, Rabbi Hazan Danny Maseng, they are in direct conflict with statements that we know come from a source much higher than human rational, self-centered thinking. 36 times we are told to be kind, to love, to embrace the stranger and then, when good for Ezra, et al, we are being told to kill them? WTF! Yet, Netanyahu, Smotrich, Ben G’Vir, et al are using the few ‘kill them all’ texts to validate their greed, their need to kill, their need to show their power and strength! When we are told  about seeing our enemy’s ass wandering we have to take it back to him/her, when we are told one law for the citizen and the stranger alike, when treat the stranger well because your were strangers in the land of Egypt, when “love your neighbor” is the watchword, it is proof that this is “the will of God” and not of some asshole who wants to be God, these statements, the stories of both our rising above our narcissism and failing to rise above it, are proof that the Bible is divinely inspired that the people writing these passages had an experience of higher consciousness that can only be ‘explained’ as an experience of God/higher power.

So, what are We the People to do since we don’t live in Biblical times, since we are so ignorant of the spiritual life we need to live, so deficient in knowing and experiencing “wonder” and radical amazement, so jaded regarding mitzvot and the need to engage in them? We the People are being given an opportunity to “teach ourselves” as the Talmud suggests we do when our parents, when the previous generations fail in their duty to live the V’Ahavta prayer to “teach your children” or as Neil Young sings: “teach your children well”. We the People have to take it upon ourselves to immerse ourselves in the Bible, decide which “will of God” we are going to follow, and find the path of “wonder of creation and the ability of man to do God’s will”. We the People have to take Judaism back from the lazy, power-hungry, sometimes corrupt clergy and lay people including parents, who have reduced this great path for living well to a memorization of one’s Torah Portion and an okay to leave your spiritual education at age 13 when you need it most! We the People are being called to stand on the street corner, to go into the Temples and Synagogues, the Jewish Federations and Community Centers and PREACH THE GOSPEL OF “the wonder of creation and the ability of man to fulfill God’s will”! We the People are being given the permission and the power to help people find “the will of God” that is truthful and not tainted with a human agenda, to lead people to their rightful place as partners with God, to achieve the pinnacle of success; doing the next right thing no matter what or how I feel. In other words, We the People are being called to serve God, to serve truth, to serve with and in love, kindness and pathos.

In my recovery, I have always said: “Fuck your feelings and take the next right action”. I say this because my feelings are not facts and they have, at times before and since my recovery, taken me down a very wrong path. I am pissed off, as you can see, at the ways I was ‘taught’ Judaism and I stayed in Jewish education through my high school years! I did not opt out at 13 and I still did not learn “the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do God’s will”! I did learn the beauty of davening and the fallacy of ‘let us pray’. My rabbinate is all about teaching “wonder”, “the will of God”, radical amazement and truth. It isn’t popular with “mainstream Judaism”, I am not a sought-after speaker, and I do what I am called to do because this is my path of fulfilling God’s will for me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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