Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 53
According to Cicero:”The gods are careful about great things and neglect small ones.” (De Natura Deorum. Book ii ch.66, 167). According to the prophets of Israel, from Moses to Malachi, God is concerned with small matters. What the prophets tried to convey to man was not a conception of an eternal harmony, of an unchangeable rhythm of wisdom, but the perception of God’s concern with concrete situations. Disclosing the pattern of history, in which the human is interwoven with the divine, they breathed a divine earnestness into the world of man. In mythology the deities are thought of as self-seeking, as concerned with their own selves.” (Man is Not Alone pg. 143).
Continuing yesterday’s theme of Greco-Roman society and Jewish/faith society, we can see how in God’s world, in a faith society, humanity and the divine are “interwoven” not separate as they are in the Greco-Roman society. I am understanding Rabbi Heschel to be reminding us that nothing is separate from the divine, not even evil I would add, and in the Greco-Roman society, everything is separate from the gods except when they want to ‘mess’ with the women, the men, the world itself.
Greco-Roman mythology was, I believe, a description of how the society was being run with ‘gods’ as a metaphor for the ruling class at the time. It was/is a literary device to condemn what the rulers were doing without calling undo notice and death to the authors. I believe this mythology was/could have been, in actuality, a protest gatherings, a march against what was happening in the seat of power and it became an accepted way of ‘religious behavior’ when the powers that be co-opted the writing. Today and throughout history we have seen how people have co-opted good for their own purposes, we have seen how people have pointed to the Greco-Roman society as one of progress and innovation, of perfection and beauty, to be envied, admired, copied and continued. Hence, the reasons, in my opinion, for the problems of today: greed, bastardization, authoritarianism, power-seeking, finding scapegoats and inability to put the interests of another(s) ahead of personal ones, etc.
I hear Rabbi Heschel’s words here as a condemnation of what is happening today and what was happening at the time he wrote this some 70 years ago. In the shadow of the Shoah, in the shadow of Nazi Germany and Europe of the 1930’s, in the light of what was going on in the world at the time of his writing; Korea, the Rosenberg sham trial, the senseless hatred between Jews, the discrimination towards Jews and Blacks, etc; I hear Rabbi Heschel’s condemnation of these travesties of justice, travesties of spirit and the myriad of ways we were/are turning our backs on the Ineffable One. While the subtitle of Man is Not Alone is “A Philosophy of Religion”, I am experiencing it as a call to action to redeem our humanity and our connection to the Ineffable One, to our communal responsibility and to justice, kindness, compassion, care, truth and love.
In an authentic faith community, in Judaism, as I read Rabbi Heschel today; we are drawn away from the selfish and self-seeking because we are “interwoven with the divine”. I am taking this to mean that the divine energy is within us, the call for and to justice is within us, the need to be part of something greater than our smallness is within us, the need to love unconditionally is within us, the need to receive love is within us. I am reminded of what the S’fat Emet, a famous Hasidic Rebbe says about the commandments, each one is hear to unlock all of what is within us interwoven with divine service so these energies can uplift our self, our neighbor and our world. There is nothing selfish/self-centered/self-seeking about living life “interwoven with the divine”.
In recovery, we are imbued with a “divine earnestness”, we know that without being aware of this ‘fact’, we will sink into the abyss that we were in prior to our recovery, the absolute demoralization, depression, anxiety ridden state where escape is the only option or so it seems while we are in the above states. In recovery, our “divine earnestness” is the oxygen mask we put on and wear throughout the day, realizing when we take this ‘mask’ off, we are susceptible to old ideas, patterns and this is the road to living hell.
Hearing, experiencing, reading and writing today is liberating and guilt-producing. I am guilty of some of the ways of being I mentioned about Greco-Roman living. Realizing this and knowing this allows me to change, it also reminds me of the subtleness of the Greco-Roman societal ways. I am so sorry for the times, granted much fewer as my recovery has progressed than prior to my recovery, when I fell into the societal trap of Greco-Roman ways. I am at a newfound liberty/freedom in experiencing Rabbi Heschel and in experiencing life. Looking at events through this lens, Greco-Roman vis a vis divine concern, I realize most harms and hurts are not as personal as I usually take them, they are actually societal norms and people are not even aware of the harm they are bringing. This is true personally and globally, it is easier to let go of and not harbor any resentments when I realize, it wasn’t personal and the person was just going along. It saddens me more to realize how much people conform to conventional Greco-Roman ‘wisdom’ and sad is better than mad/resentful. I am liberated and freer because Rabbi Heschel has, once again, shown me how to be a rebel spirit and how to call out truth and hear it as well. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark