Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 14
“Indifference to the sublime wonder of living is the root of sin.” (God In Search of Man pg. 43).
Indifference to most people is defined as apathetic, not caring, etc. The dictionary (according to Google) defines indifference as: lack of caring, concern, sympathy and unimportant. Yet, the origin of the word from the latin means: non-differing/non-deferring. If we use the Latin as the definition the sentence can be read in a few different ways:
Not differentiating/ Not recognizing the sublime wonder of living is the root of sin. OMG, how true this is for all of us! We go about our daily lives and we take so much for granted that we fail to recognize, to discern, to appreciate and to relish in the sublime wonder of living. We are so tied up in and of ourselves that we cannot see the unparalleled grandeur of life, of living. We are unable to raise our eyes, our ears, our minds and our thinking up to the threshold that wonder allows us to be when we do not recognize that there is even unparalleled grandeur right in front of us. We have stopped recognizing the wonder of science, the wonder of connection, the wonder of truth, kindness, love, mercy, compassion, justice. We have stopped all of this because we are only interested in amassing and gaining, winning and crushing, power and flexing our power.
We have become so engaged with, married to and dependent upon power for its own sake, power for our own sake that we cannot recognize the enhanced gift that life is, the enhanced beauty that another human being is, the unparalleled nature of being alive and called upon by God to fulfill a mission, a mitzvah. We have forgotten this in our drive to be right all the time, to live the lie/myth of perfection. The sublime wonder of living has become unrecognizable because we can only see what is good for ourselves. Watching the war between the ‘right’ and the ‘left’; the ‘fundamentalists’ and the ‘liberals’ in religious life, the ‘democracies’ and the ‘authoritarians’ is a joke! They all say they are working to uphold and make transparent the sublime wonder of living and they all lie! They are no more interested in recognizing the elevated status of another human life if that human life disagrees with them, embarrasses them, etc than the man in the moon. This is true for all the extremes, progressive and conservative.
It is impossible to recognize the grandeur of another human life when one is so busy blaming them for the ills of their lives, the errors the other person has made, and unable to own one’s own part in the situation. It is impossible to recognize the grandeur of living when one thinks they are their own Higher Power, even though they give lip-service to God.
Indifferent is not a passive state of being, either. It is an active state to me, as we have to purposely and thoughtfully put on the blinders, cover our eyes, fog up our glasses, keep the cataracts on our lens’ in order to not recognize the sublime wonder of living. From this active state, one can commit all sorts of crimes against humanity, against God, against themselves even. We all have witnessed people sue/take advantage of the very people who helped them when they were in need to get money/power. We all have witnessed what happens when there is a ‘new sheriff in town’ and how they tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We have all witnessed the rewriting of history and the present so one can justify their immorality and power grabbing. We all have witnessed the exiling of someone for an error because it is in vogue. We all have witnessed ourselves committing these same actions! This is the reason that Rabbi Heschel’s words resonate for so many of us, because we are guilty and yet, we refuse to be responsible for our guilt.
In recovery, we have not only recognized the grandeur of life, we celebrate it every day through our actions. Not that we are always right, we make many mistakes and we do our amends, our T’Shuvah for our error. We are constantly taking the time to be aware of our actions during a day/week/month/year. In recovery, we seek to improve our conscious contact with God so we can recognize the grandeur of our lives and honor the beautiful, unparalleled wonder of another(s) life.
I have been guilty of being indifferent. There are instances where I did not recognize the grandeur of living, the grandeur and beauty of another human being. I have not recognized the negativity of some people as well which has led me astray and I am responsible for my inability to look, much less see. I am guilty of putting on blinders because it was expedient and served the purpose that I was aiming for. I know now that not seeing who is in front of me, leads to sin/destruction and great sadness. I am also aware of the many times when I have recognized/differentiated between the good and the not so good of another person and helped them and me to give more power to their goodness of being and help them recognize when they were putting on the blinders. I have taken responsibility for my errors and, as Rabbi Heschel is telling me, I can’t hold on to another person not being responsible for theirs as it hampers my ability to live in and recognize the sublime wonder of life. More tomorrow. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark