Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 50
“While man’s concern for others is often tainted with concern for his own self and characterized as a lack of self-sufficiency and a requirement for the perpetuation of his own existence, God’s care for His creatures is a pure concern.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 143)
Immersing ourselves in these words and this experience brings both joy and anguish to me. Joy in that God is concerned for me, you, all of humanity-without any prejudice or bias! Anguish in how often my concern for you and your concern for me is self-serving and seen as something lacking in me and/or you. Yet, there is great hope and solace in this teaching as well, Rabbi Heschel uses the words “often tainted” nor always tainted.
How is it often tainted? Let me count the ways! In speaking with someone explaining to me the “anti-vaxxer” way of thinking, the person said: “when someone mandates something to/for me, I immediately say No and exercise my right to say No. It is not fair that I am not allowed in the restaurant to eat with my other non-vaccinated friends.” I asked this person about their religious practice and they replied they are devoted to their faith and carry out the principles and tenets as well as observe the rituals exactly as told. I asked this person, who told you? The answer was: “God”. I engaged in a lengthy discussion and came away understanding that if a principle/law they want to follow or are told to follow by whomever is their Guru/Leader(spiritual, societal, etc) at the time is written in a form that people want to believe, then it is a higher power/God/Divine instruction so they can follow it. If it is a principle/law that they are told is bad by this same Guru/Leader, then they believe themselves exempt. The issue, as I understand it is not the divinity of a law/principle, it is the polarization of people so authoritarianism can prevail and replace our democracy.
The taint often comes in the form of seeking power, riches, fame and prestige. We will blindly support an AOC because it is ‘woke’ to do and then when she supports anti-semitism in the form of anti- zionism/anti-Israel, we don’t know what to do. We will blindly support the right-wing policies of a Josh Hawley and then when he is standing for racism, hatred, tearing down the democratic norms America is built on, we are at a loss. For the devoted followers, they are never at a loss because they are following them off a cliff because they believe they lack something that these types of charismatic leaders can give them. They have bought the mendacity they need them for the “perpetuation” of their existence.
This way of being is true in the workplace, on social media, and in families. “My way or the Highway” is the binary choice we are given. People who don’t want to follow science, faith, laws, etc are free to do so, they just have to experience the consequences and here is the problem. People on the left pole do not want to be called out on their incongruence just as people on the right pole . Neither do any of the “polar people” want to experience any consequences for their behaviors, like the people who are going to benefit because of the 13 Republican Representatives voting for the infrastructure bill, yet they want to threaten their lives and think it is just fine for them to do this. The people, like Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, who decide to lie to Congress, the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, all think they can do this and not experience any consequences, except for being called heroes of course! The “squad” is proud of voting against compromise to defend their ‘purity’ while harming the rest of us. Families sometimes buy into the lie “father as all-knowing” (for those of us who watched the TV progam, “Father knows best) and we know this to be a lie, yet people still believe it and follow it. Families make up their own rules for themselves and live incongruent lives (as we all do) and yet defend to the death their congruency and their rightness. We see this in workplace, in the Hulu series Dopesick self-concern is on stage and on trial, yet even the good guys miss the Divine Concern for their spouses, their co-workers, their kids, etc.
In recovery, it is okay to be concerned with our self as it is in the Bible. To “love thy neighbor as thyself”, as we learned earlier from Rabbi Heschel, we have to love our self. The difference for those of us in recovery is that the “self” we are talking about is the “self”/soul/spirit that is connected to our Higher Power, Higher Consciousness, God, Buddha, etc. It is not a self-centered egotistical self, rather it is a transparent, bright, maturing spirit that is unafraid and needs to serve another person because they “get to” rather than for selfish reasons. In recovery, we are attuned to service with an attachment to our soul and to the Ineffable.
I find this passage disturbing, for a change. I know that I have changed “often tainted” to occasionally tainted and at times, my service is tainted. My commitment is to lessen the taint one grain of sand each day! I also know that I am an enigma to many people because I am loud, I am brash, I am on fire most of the time. I realize I am so sensitive to the “taint” Rabbi Heschel is teaching us about, that I come off angry, loud, bombastic, etc when I am reaching out to another(s) in order to bring them back to living authentically and covenantally. I am disturbed at how I have failed to be clear about concerns and how others have betrayed what I thought was an authentic knowing of me. More tomorrow, God Bless and Stay Safe, Rabbi Mark