Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 76
“The course in which human life moves is, like the orbit of heavenly bodies, an ellipse, not a circle. We are attached to two centers: to the focus of our self and to the focus of God. Driven by two forces, we have both the impulse to acquire, to enjoy, to possess and the urge to respond, to yield, to give.”(Man is Not Alone pg.146)
Immersing ourselves in Rabbi Heschel’s words and teachings above causes us to pause and look at our life as an individual, as a part of a community, society and as a part of God, I believe. Seeing one’s life move in an orbit rather than in a circle or continuum is a very fascinating viewpoint. I am experiencing this teaching as we are in a gravitational pull between these two centers, we are in a very delicate dance in between the ellipse that has self as the focus and the ellipse that has God as the focus.
Looking back at history, we see what has happened when this gravitational pull has been out of sync and stopped the orbit of one or the other ellipse. Men have made God into a vengeful, angry, entity and used God’s name to enslave another society, kill people and rain down war and destruction. They have also jettisoned God from daily living and made every decision about a calculation and/or ‘what’s in it for me’ type of thinking. We can see in our own lives when we have been pulled in one direction or the other too much and how our equilibrium has been shifted and we have fallen into one orbit or the other too much.
I don’t experience God wanting us to do nothing but contemplate God and meditate, pray, study, etc all day. God wants us to act, God wants us to be a partner in making our corner of the world better and we cannot do this if we don’t have a sense of self and stop our faux altruistic ways of being; most of the people who speak about their altruism do so to hide what they are doing for themselves- stealing, robbing, etc. Being attached to “the focus of God” gives us the direction, the path and the way to be able to engage in our “urge to respond, yield and give”. And, we cannot engage in our urges without the strength and resources to do so, hence our need to also be attached to “the focus of our self”.
Rabbi Heschel is telling us that we have to live in this tension, in this gravitational pull to truly be human, as I am understanding him this morning. Our problem is that rather than living attached to both centers, we are constantly seeking perfection and constantly believing, erroneously, that we have to live in one or the other. It is very difficult to live in the both/and of this orbital life. It is very difficult to surrender to the movement of human life in this manner because we want to have control over everything. We cause this weightless, rudderless, bumping into one another when we use our impulses solely for our self, solely to amass, to control, to enslave, etc. When we use God’s name and act in these ways, we are using deception and mendacity to persuade people to go against their self interests, to put us as the focus of both ellipses and this is blasphemy, this is treachery and this causes humanity to lose it’s gravitational pull to stay in the proper orbit and we experience chaos, destruction, hatred, etc.
Living in the gravitational pull doesn’t mean we have to float weightlessly, rudderless. Rather it means that we are using our impulses “to acquire, to enjoy, to possess” for the sake of ourselves and for the sake of God. We can acquire, enjoy, possess and still respond to the call of God to help another soul in the world, to yield to what is good and right according to a higher justice and give to another the opportunity to make a good life for themselves. Living in the proper orbit means we contribute what we can from what we acquire, we see helping another enjoy, possess and acquire not as competition rather as cooperation, as a way of fulfilling our urge to give, respond and yield. When we are in sync with the universe, when we are service both foci, attached to both centers, we are able to live a full human life and we deal with each situation with an equanimity and knowledge that we are moving in our proper course and proper place.
In recovery, we are continually striving to find/regain our proper orbit. We fell out of the sky long before we made a decision to recover, in fact, recovery itself is our acknowledgement that we need to live in the tension of the gravitational pull Rabbi Heschel is speaking about. We know we were in the center of the circle of self not to serve our self really, but to destroy our self-physically, mentally and spiritually. In recovery, we are constantly seeking to find the proper measure of serving our impulses and our urges as Rabbi Heschel teaches.
I am still working on not having these two orbits crash into each other, not focus on one or the other to the detriment of the equilibrium I need to move through life with gratitude, service, joy, possessions, giving, responding and yielding. I see where I have made a fool of myself through being too focused on one center and the other center. I see where I have been pulled to focus on either center more than the other at times by God and by ego. I also know that I am still in this heavenly orbit and I still have impulses and urges that God, another human being and my self/soul need to have met. I am in the orbit and keeping myself attuned to both centers! Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark