Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 58
“Divine Concern means His taking interest in the fate of man; it means that the moral and spiritual state of man engages His attention.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 144).
The more I am living with Rabbi Heschel, the more his brilliance and depth, poetry and prose permeates my soul, my heart and my intellect. Today’s continuation of his writing from the chapter called The Divine Concern, moves me to tears, to fears, to awe, to trembling and to love and embrace. God is taking an interest in the fate of man, God cares! While there are some who believe there is no God so this is just poppycock, there are others who believe God left the building and it is up to us, and, there are people like me who believe God is here, God continues to speak to us, call to us, and we get to respond to God’s call. Unfortunately, not too many of us are truly responding to God’s call in a positive manner, in an affirmative manner, hence the need for God to “take an interest in the fate of man.” The Torah is a story about God and humanity, how we began our relationship, the ways to treat/love God, love another(s) human beings, love ourselves. In Genesis, God saying: “it is not good from human to be alone” proves how interested God is in the fate of humanity. Yet, we are not as interested in our own fate as God is and therein lies the challenge, the problem and the solution.
The challenge, problem and solution the sentence by Rabbi Heschel is what moves me to tears and fears. I am fearful in the healthiest sense of me not hearing God’s call and not paying attention to God’s path and direct communication with me through my soul’s intuition, etc. I am fearful of the path humanity is taking in hearing the call of our desires, our greed, our need for power louder than God’s call for morality and decency. I am so sad in the moments of reflection when I realize how I did not care as much about my fate as God does, I did not engage my moral and spiritual status as much as God was engaging in it. I am moved to tears and wailing, not as “poor me”, not as “ a victim” rather as a lover who missed the call of his loved one.
The challenge of living by taking the same interest in our fate, in our moral and spiritual state, by engaging our attention to these matters as God does is enormous and seemingly impossible. We are overcome with our desires rather than our fate, we move any and every mountain in front of us to satisfy these desires, whether they are appropriate, healthy, unhealthy, kind, evil, truthful or deceptions. In doing this, we lose sight of the morality of our actions, of our moral compass being moved towards self, entitlement, status, etc., which goes against the hope/direction of God as to what our fate is. God cannot control the choices we make without our agreement and our participation. We are not ‘fated’ by God, we are given certain traits, certain gifts and these are to be used by us to fulfill the Divine Need we are tasked with, according to Rabbi Heschel, and God cannot make us do things, we have to be decent and moral from our own choice.
This truth, that God doesn’t choose our fate, we do is what makes possible T’Shuvah, redemption, ‘rags to riches’ stories, etc. This truth is antithetical to the words of the charlatans who preach and pray about poor people not being loved by God as much as rich people, etc. As Rabbi Heschel said yesterday: “The God of Israel is passionately interested in widows and orphans”. This is not the description of the idol these charlatans worship. I am in trembling and awe of this truth. I tremble with healthy fear, with an infusion of spirit and energy as well as questioning my resolve and ability to fulfill this awesome responsibility God has placed on me/us. We have to choose our water, our fate is the result of our choices. When we are as interested in our spiritual and moral state as God is, when we pay as much attention to our spiritual and moral state as God does, we will enjoy life, with all its hardships. We will see life as an opportunity for connection, a journey of service and love, awe and joy. This is the challenge I am hearing Rabbi Heschel give us.
In recovery, until we realized the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s words above, we were unable to be in recovery. We were stuck in ‘fate’, entitlement, poor me, victim, where’s mine, etc. We kept defending bad behavior, our unhealthy way of living, our soul’s sickness as neither our fault nor anything we could fix. For many, we blamed God or, as my mother used to do, call out to God wondering what we did to deserve this fate. In recovery, realizing our responsibility in our fate, in our spiritual and moral states, in the help God sends to us through our spirits/souls, we now enjoy a different experience, a different fate.
I experience these words and the actions of God and another(s) as love and embracing me as a whole person. Engaged in my spiritual and moral state, interested in the authentic, real, me is the greatest expression of love there is-it is Godly love. I am so grateful for those who show this love to me daily, weekly, whenever. I realize my addiction, my criminality was my way of escaping the loss of this love when my father died. I realize my worst behaviors appear when the person/people I am dealing with speak the words of this love while their actions are so different. I am also realizing from this teaching, I have to stop seeking this love from another and relish, appreciate and reciprocate this love that I am getting from those around me. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark