Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 65
“When we say that He is a present within all beings, we do not mean that He inheres in them as component or ingredient of their physical structure. God in the universe is a spirit of concern for life.”(Man is Not Alone, pg. 145).
Living in today’s world makes some people yearn for God to “inhere in them as component or ingredient of their physical structure”. Yet, God’s presence, the presence of the universe, that we are all created in the Image of according to the Bible, is not part of our physical structure, just as God is not a physical/corporeal being. Rabbi Heschel is not saying that God isn’t inherent in our beingness, just that God is not inherent in our physical structure, which makes it easy for people to not believe, to blow off the ‘voice of God’ that is calling to them from their inner life/gut instinct/soul.
There are people who try to say that God is inherent in our physical being by anthropomorphising God. By giving God human attributes, the Rabbis of old were, I believe, trying to speak to people in ways we could understand about an infinite being that is beyond our comprehension. Unfortunately this has been bastardized so much that people would worship kings as descendants of God, empires as God ordained (The Holy Roman Empire) even though they treated people within their empire with such hatred, disdain, harsh labors, etc. This anthropomorphic description of God has gotten so bastardized that there are “people of faith” who say that rich people are more loved by God and that is why they are rich, poor people are less loved by God so it is their fault they are poor and who are we to go against God’s love and help the poor and the needy! What poppycock! What a bastardization of God’s teachings to us, God’s directions to us and the depiction of God crying because God’s children are dying in the Red Sea! These “people of faith” are actually wolves in sheep’s clothing, they are power-hungry, boundary skirting/pushing, prejudiced, self-seeking, self-centered, selfish people parading as ‘God-Fearing’ and God-Loving’ people. We, God’s people, have to stop these mendacious menaces now!
How do we stop them, you might ask? Immersing ourselves in the second sentence above is the beginning. Acknowledging the “spirit of concern for life” in us and appreciating it, maturing it and growing it is the key to stopping the bastardization of the ‘good people of faith’ the ‘prosperity gospel deceivers’. God is always concerned for life, as we read throughout the Bible, Jewish and Christian; the Koran; in all spiritual disciplines “a spirit of concern for life” is present first and foremost. Yet, humanity, which has this spirit inherent in us, blocks this spirit from guiding us for fear of not getting ours, not having enough, not being seen as ____, etc. Not appreciating, maturing and growing this Ineffable Spirit that is in all of us allows for an inner war that is constantly happening within us, whether we are actively aware of it or not.
This inner war manifests in so many ways, most of all in the split ways we live. How often have we celebrated the (usually) man who is ruthless in business and so kind and gentle at home, only to find out later that his wife and kids suffered more than they ever let on out of fear of rage, punishment, etc from this ‘nice guy’. Watching the series “Dopesick” showed us how many people bought into the Purdue Pharma deceptions, all the while knowing somewhere inside of them that it wasn’t right to believe. We celebrate the rich, the powerful and feel bad that we are not “those people”. This inner war manifests in our seeking distractions without knowing why, having a “drink to take the edge off” without being an alcoholic, our anxiety is a sign of the inner war between what we are doing, what we think we should do and what our spirit is telling us to do. Another manifestation is when we consciously buy into our own self-deception because we think it is easier to do and better for our self, our Ineffable Spirit gives us a tightening of the gut, an uneasiness that we tend to ignore and go forward anyway. More on how to win this war, to mature and grow this Ineffable Spirit tomorrow.
In recovery, we come face to face with our self-deceptions, our deceptions of another(s) and our mendacious paths. We become firmly rooted in our recovery through this confrontation with our selves and repairing the damage we have caused and finding a new way of responding to the situations that will come up that are similar to the ones we have found ourselves in before. In recovery, we make a decision to listen and follow this Ineffable Spirit as guide and director with veto power over ego and face-saving.
I am realizing more and more each day, through this experience with Rabbi Heschel, how mature my Ineffable Spirit is and how immature it is as well. I am realizing how I still get afraid of not being able to be me so I rebel and make myself into a caricature of who I am. I forget what I bring to the table and am ready to just take table scraps instead of sitting down to a proper meal. I also realize how I step into my authentic self and role more and more each day. I am aware of how no matter how my life changes, I am still me, I still possess and am guided by this Ineffable Spirit and am hopeful. I am also aware of the times I am trying to be accepted, liked by people that will never get me, people who are into transactional relationships/role-role(which are not bad), and portray our relationship as soul-soul. I am always aware of my inner conflict/war and I know that my Ineffable Spirit/concern for life wins out 85-90% of the time and I am proud of this. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark