Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 60
“Divine concern means His taking interest in the fate of man; it means that the moral and spiritual state of man engages His attention. It is true that His concern, is to most of us, one of the most baffling mysteries, but it is just as true that to those whose life is open to God His care and love are a constant experience.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 144)
On this Thanksgiving Day, after parsing this paragraph in sentences, seeing it as a whole and in its wonder causes me to pause in awe, gratitude and humility. Divine concern is for and towards everyone. No one has more nor less Divine concern paid to them because of race, color, religion, practice, etc. No has more nor less Divine concern paid to them because of the way they ‘understand’, pay heed to or ignore, connect to or reject God/the Ineffable One. Divine concern is, period!! We all need to get off of our ‘high horse’ and recognize this truth, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel, and live in awe and respect rather than disdain and ‘better than’.
I am thinking about the people I disagree with, the ones I call charlatans, they have as much concern paid to them by the Divine as I have paid to me. This equality causes me/we to reach out, to “rebuke my neighbor and bear no guilt because of them”. Yet, I know that no one can stand on the mountain top and say: “I know all and I am the one God loves more than anyone else”. I know that no one can preach loudly that: “I know God’s intent, God’s Will”. I know that God speaks to us both through our Holy texts and listening to the call of our soul/inner life. I know that God is calling to us to ‘do the next right thing’, find ways to connect, be a Divine reminder as Rabbi Heschel teaches, be interested in the concerns of another human being as deeply and dearly as one is interested in the concerns of ourselves.
Think of all the ways we separate ourselves from each other. “God loves me better because I am ____(fill-in the blank) is a popular refrain among some religious people, because they believe a fundamentalist/non-fundamentalist way of being is what God has ordained. Yet, we are being told that this is not true by Rabbi Heschel; what is true is that every human being is a concern and an interest to and of God. What an awesome and trembling concept this is, in fact, I believe only through wonder and radical amazement can we apprehend this idea. God’s concern and interest do not give us entitlement, do not give us special status, do not give us the right to say: ‘everyone else has to follow our dictates’. God’s concern and interest give us the opportunity to serve and protect ourselves and another(s) from immoral actions, gives us the responsibility to be inclusive, gives us the obligation to care for and build one another up, rather than tear each other down. God’s concern and interest in us calls us to partner with one another to make this world more whole, more connected, more kinder, more loving, more compassionate, more truthful.
Yet, we still are trying to be the “ONE” and only that God is really interested in and concerned about. We are still excluding people because they don’t ‘practice’ the way we do, etc. We exclude people from country clubs because of the money charged to be a member, by the blackballing system that is used. We exclude people from getting an equal education because of the cost of a private school, because we don’t provide quality public education anymore, not enough books, telling what can be taught, some people want to go back to burning books, etc. We exclude people because of race, because of creed, because of religious beliefs and/or non-beliefs, because of their family history, because they have made mistakes in the past and, even though they have done their T’Shuvah/their amends, we still exclude them from jobs, from housing, from our group, etc. Exclusion denies the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above and it is time to rethink our actions.
In recovery, we know we will differ about the meanings of the spiritual texts we read, we know we will differ over ideas and ways of living well. AND we also know that our unity is so important to our recovery, we know that we do not have all the answers and are in search of the right questions as well. We know that separation leads to isolation and isolation leads to living poorly again. In recovery, we are dedicated to the whole, to the we so that the me can truly flourish.
I have been excluded from many groups because I don’t meditate, I don’t do this, I don’t do that, etc. I have been used and abused because of my natural way of being, passionate, interested, concerned and loud, abrasive, transparent and committed. Re-reading this paragraph has helped me understand me, better. I am deeply concerned and interested in the well-being of another human being. I am constantly motivated by God’s love and care for me to reach out and help another human being, hence how Harriet and I, along with a cast of 100’s, built Beit T’Shuvah. I realize that my way is not for everyone, just as another person’s way isn’t always for me, and this teaching is giving me more compassion for another person’s way when it is authentic and it is in keeping with God’s interest, concern, love and care for humanity. I cannot and will not abide with people who are only interested in, concerned for, care for and love themselves and “their people” to the exclusion of everyone/anyone else. This behavior will always engender my passionate (some say angry) response. God Bless and stay safe, Happy Thanksgiving, Rabbi Mark