Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 81
“What is the hope of man with his faithfulness being so feeble, vague, unstable and confused? The world that we have long held in trust has exploded in our hands, and a stream of guilt and misery has been unloosed which leaves no man’s integrity unmixed. But man has become callous to catastrophes. What is our hope with our callousness standing like a wall between our conscience and God?”(Man is Not Alone pg.147)
We are engaged in a war for the soul of America, the soul of the world and the soul of each and every human being. The problem is that we have become callous and unaware of these forces that are attacking our very humanity. Rabbi Heschel is demanding we see the ways in which our integrity has become mixed up and our responsibility for the streams of guilt and misery that have become commonplace as well as engaging in the solution to these problems we, humans, have brought upon us.
How many catastrophes have we become callous to and what is the reason? We see unhoused people and get angry at them. Some, if not a majority, suffer from a mental illness and/or an addiction and we are calling the police to arrest these human beings who are suffering rather than find solutions to ease their suffering. It is a catastrophe that another human being suffers, suffers in silence and we get angry and afraid rather than helpful and compassionate. How low can we go? This is a catastrophe
We are angry at the Veterans who camp out near VA buildings/property while not being responsible for their unhousedness, for the mental anguish they suffer, for the torture serving in the military causes. Most veterans do not want to talk about what happened ‘over there’ because of the unspeakable acts they witnessed and, in many cases, participated in. How many WWII vets speak freely about the ugly side of what they experienced and this was a legitimate war for the actual safety of our country and the world. Our fear of lower home values, our fear of seeing the pain we have brought to another usually overrides the compassion we are called upon to experience and this is a catastrophe!
We ignore climate change, social uplifting, etc because we are worried about taxing corporations and the top 1%? We are more concerned about an entity that only cares about its shareholders and top executives than with the plight of our world and the people who live next to us and may need the uplifting? We are more concerned with making sure that a builder gets the zoning and ease of building(not always up to standards) than the environmental impact and the social impact of gentrification, of pushing people out of the homes they have lived in for their entire lives? This is a catastrophe!
We are engaged in trying to continually live our facades, to make people believe the outside while the inside is falling apart. We do this with products that make people look good on the outside (Spanx) while being fat and unhealthy on the inside. We do this because image has become more important than reality. There is a cottage industry of ‘image makers’, ‘reputation fixers’, ‘crisis pr people’, etc to make the ‘bad’ aka truth go away or at least get buried deep in the internet. Companies, not-for-profits, individuals nor longer are as concerned with what they are doing as they are for ‘how it looks’, also known as ‘optics’. Principles, morals can be fudged when it is for the “good” of the image, the “good” of the company, the “good” of the charity. This is a catastrophe!
While it is easy to blame ‘those’ people, we are all responsible for these catastrophes. We participate in them, we stand by and watch them happen. We engage in trying to control a woman’s body and choices and never are around to help bring up the child nor make sure their pay is equal to a man’s doing the same job. We have witnessed and participated in prejudices, racism, anti-semitism, islamaphobia, hatred of immigrants, disdain for the poor and the needy and call ourselves a ‘christian’ country of ‘god-fearing men and women? I use the small g for God because these behaviors and belief that Jesus would want this is idol worship, not worship of God nor following the words of Jesus. This is the greatest catastrophe because it leads to all the rest!
In recovery, we are constantly on guard for these catastrophes because we are constantly searching our self and our actions for the ways we did well today and the ways we missed the mark today. Our daily 10th step keeps us right-sized, caring and cleaning up the messes we created today much quicker than prior to our recovery.
I have participated in and witnessed these catastrophes. I have spoken up and done my part to remedy these catastrophes. I am aware of the ways I have used my bluster to hide and used it to send a message of hope to another human being. I am also deeply aware of the catastrophic nature of ignoring another human being and being ignored, thrown away and I am guilty of these catastrophes as well. My imperfections stop me from hating myself for these acts and help me realize I can and do improve each day. They help me recognize how much less I engage in catastrophic actions and how painful it is that people I trusted engaged in them with me. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark