Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 28
“In every soul there lives incognito a coercion to love, to forget oneself, to be independent of vested interests. (Man is Not Alone pg.140).
Rabbi Heschel is teaching us a truth that many of us try and hide from, run away from, imprison, deny, deceive ourselves about! Each one of us has within us the desire, the need, the calling to love, to lose oneself in the concern and care for another, to serve higher purpose than self and higher goals than money, power and prestige. Yet, this desire, this drive, this coercive power is unknown to most of us, as he teaches above, it is incognito. How can something unknown be so forceful as to be coercive? Herein lies the root of our religious/spiritual experience: our souls are the arbiter between spirit and matter. Our souls are the arbiter of what is the next right thing to do, the arbiter of our living because our souls know more than our brains ever could. Our brains can only amass facts, data, wisdom, maybe even understanding; our souls put all of our experiences, all of our facts, data, wisdom, and understanding together and add in what is impossible to express and define, the spiritual wisdom of the universe, a eureka experience. Putting everything together happens in our souls and this is what forces us to love, to care for and to serve more than our vested interests, our selfish interests.
Rabbi Heschel is writing this in the shadow of the Holocaust, where most of his immediate family died. He is writing this after witnessing and being subjected to the anti-semitism of Germany in the 1930’s. Yet, he believes so deeply in our spiritual nature, he believes so strongly in our ability to rise above our selves, to forget ourselves in service of another(s), in service of God, in service of humanity. I am struck by his belief because we are in similar situations now. It is not just anti-semitism that we are witnessing, it is racism, senseless hatred between people, it is ME ME ME, it is a lack of concern and care for the poor, the needy, the stranger among us. We see this every day, we see the utter disdain of truth in favor of “alternative facts” by 68 +/- million Americans. We see that communism did not have to conquer us militarily, they have sown enough disinformation and we have become so polarized as a people that each soul’s incognito coercion to love has become so quiet, many of us cannot hear it. People at each end of the opposing poles are unable to, unwilling to hear and follow this deep call and coercion of our souls.
Two friends of mine, Pastor John Pavlovitz and Dr. Lisa Miller, have written books about love, about our desperate need for connection, about God’s need for us to connect. In each of them, from different points of view, one religious, one scientific, they come to the same conclusion: spiritual care, spiritual growth leads to spiritual, physical, emotional health as well as care and concern for another(s). Yet, the majority of people work hard to drown our their message, the call of their own souls and the call of the needy, poor and stranger among us. How is this possible, one might ask if Rabbi Heschel’s words are true?
It is possible because there are many people who, for the sake of their power and prestige, are willing to kill the voices of their souls. They have developed a path of self-deception that is so strong they are able to bastardize the words of God, of Jesus, of Buddha, Mohammed, etc. The Jews were strangers in the Land of Egypt so we are told not to hate the Egyptians because they took us in, Jesus preaches against the money-changers that these ‘good christians’ who preach prosperity gospel have become. Islam means submit to God and God is love, hatred is never love. It is time for all of us to surrender to the coercive power of our souls to do good, to go beyond our vested interests, to forget ourselves in order to serve God, to serve another, and, ultimately to truly serve our souls. In Chapter 2 of Genesis, we are taught: “It is not good for Adam to be alone, I will make him an Ezer K’negdo”. Ezer K’negdo being a helper when we are doing well/right/good and someone to grind against us when we are straying from the path. Rabbi Heschel is teaching us that we have within us the ability to hear that person and act on their suggestions with power, courage and passion because of this unknown forceful drive within our souls.
In recovery, we learn to access this unknown forceful drive and, some of us call this drive God. For many of us, this unknown coercive force is the force that brought us to recovery in the first place. We work each and every day to clear out the selfishness, the prejudices, the hatred and resentments that stand in the way of hearing, following and reveling in this coercion to love ourselves and all of humanity. In recovery, we know when we begin to drown out truth, when we give in to our self-deceptions, when we imprison the call of our soul, we are on the path to relapse and self-destruction.
I know this incognito drive, this coercion to love and in me it is loud, passionate and messy. Yet, it is here for all to see, I don’t have to hide, I don’t have to make myself more or less than I am. I let go of the “con” and I hold on to my soul, growing more and more aware of it each day. I have compassionate pity for the people who still are hiding from their soul’s coercive power and need to control another rather than love and be in truth with us all. God Bless and Stay Safe, Rabbi Mark