Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 68
“All beings are replete with the divine word which only leaves when our viciousness profanes and overbears His silent, patient presence.”(Man is Not Alone pg.145)
This sentence, coming on the heels of Friday’s quote can and must disturb, concern and console us. When we are standing for a divine concern, we are displaying our individual repleteness of the divine word. Replete’s latin origin means to ‘fill again’ and the English meaning is ‘to be well-supplied’ with. Every human being is capable of refilling her/himself with the divine word(s) that is uniquely theirs and the universal divine word(s) that brings all of us together as humanity. We are the ones who allow our viciousness to profane and overbear the Ineffable One’s “silent, patient presence”.
Today’s disturbance is understanding that viciousness is not just deliberate cruelty, it comes from the latin meaning ‘vise’. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that when we put the divine word in a vise, when we use it for our benefit instead of the benefit of humanity, we are ignoring the divine word that fills us up. We are engaging in behaviors that are antithetical to the call of our souls, the divine word that wants to emerge and guide us. To stand for a divine concern is Rabbi Heschel’s description of being as we discussed on Friday; today he is teaching us that when we allow our cruelty, our tightening of the screws to be our modus operandi and our guiding principles, we are not only denying the presence of the Ineffable One within us, we are denying the presence of the Ineffable One in the world and, we deny our humanity.
One of the problems of today, and in the past of course, is that the people engaged in this type of vicious behavior are neither concerned nor disturbed. They are so lost, so stuck, so without guidance and without connection to their own inner life/soul that they can’t even be disturbed nor concerned about their abandonment of the divine word and the divine concerns! It is sad and disconcerting as well as enraging to those who see this viciousness in action and are powerless to stop it because of the obtuseness and the willful blindness of these lost, sad people who are following like sheep the cold, calculating, charlatans who hide behind a misread of scriptures and our constitution to hold power and enslave ‘those’ people, ie, ‘anyone who isn’t us’. It is also disturbing to people who are students of the prophets and learn to see the humanity and the Ineffable One together in one moment and in every moment, as Rabbi Heschel teaches us to do. We are able to see how the charlatans are seeking, maintaining and abusing the power they have. We are able to speak about this twisted, dangerous path that a person is taking and it falls on deaf ears. The problem with viciousness is that is like a drug, one needs more and more of it to be satisfied and there is never enough!
Another concerning and disturbing aspect to our world today is that profane comes from the latin ‘before the Temple/not sacred’ and as a verb means ‘treat something with irreverence, disdain’. When people put ideas, ways of being that they don’t agree with into the vise of viciousness, what is produced is disdain, irreverence as well as unholy behavior towards another human being, our planet and the Ineffable One! The ‘sin’ here isn’t just against our fellow human beings, we are harming the Ineffable One’s creation, the spirit that the Ineffable One placed in us and in the universe. We are ‘using this drug’ (vicious, profane behavior) and wrapping ourselves in different flags, Christ, God, Allah, Freedom, Woke, Victimized One, etc. What we are not aware of is that even in fighting the injustices of our times, when we use viciousness, when we profane the divine word that is within us and within another human being, we are no longer fighting the injustices, we are committing them!! This is the most disturbing and concerning thought this morning.
In recovery, we know what our viciousness brought to the people around us, to our own life-destruction, denial, disruption, discord, disarray, etc. We realize the reason people crossed the street to stay out of our paths. In recovery, we continue to improve our awareness of the divine word that fills us up, we continue to hear the call of the Ineffable One so we can live the divine word and not the viciousness that we are capable of.
In my life I have used profanity and been told how offensive it is to some. Yet, these same people are not offended by the profane ways they and another vitiate the divine word within them and within another human being. I realize today, while my ways are not everyone’s ways, I spoke/speak to people in ways they could hear, I exhibited my passionate belief in another human being, and I have been able to be an advocate for the soul of another. The viciousness that Rabbi Heschel is speaking about, I believe, is the bastardization of the divine word within each us and bastardizing the divine word in another thereby using the vulnerabilities of another against that person. While I have, of course, been guilty of this along with everyone else, I also know that I have been accused and convicted of these crimes much more than I have committed them. I see how I have made myself a scapegoat and an easy target for people to point at me rather than see themselves. I feel deep remorse in giving someone an out from self-reflection by pointing a finger at me. I commit to stay me, continue to speak the divine word(s) in my soul and, if I am a target, be a target for God and not have my ego get bruised. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark