Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 101
“Some of us blush, others wear a mask which veils spontaneous sensitivity to the holy ineffable dimension of reality. We all wear so much mental make-up, we have almost forfeited our face. But faith only comes when we stand face to face-the ineffable in us with the ineffable beyond us-suffer ourselves to be seen, to commune, to receive a ray and reflect. But to do that the soul must be alive in the mind.” (Man is Not Alone pg 91).
I am stuck on Rabbi Heschel’s phrase “when we stand face to face-the ineffable in us with the ineffable beyond us-“ because of the power it gives to each and every one of us as well as the faith Rabbi Heschel has in the human spirit. We all, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel today, have the power, the yearning, the drive to face the ineffable within us, to see the spark/image of the Divine we are created in and the Divine need we are created for. For most people, this yearning and drive is tamped down from the age of 2, when speech, rules, etc come into our consciousness from parents and society. While rules, speech, being taught morality, compassion, are important and necessary to living well, they can also be stifling, paralyzing and suffocating when they are used to control our drive to face the ineffable within us and live our uniqueness, our spark of the Divine out loud. Political correctness, go along to get along, comparisons, optics, fundamentalism, anarchy, etc enhances society and individual power to control ‘the masses’ and make good foot soldiers for the generals who want to deceive, wear their own “mental make-up” and never face the ineffable within themselves. We are bombarded by social media, cable TV, newspapers, neighbors, with their own need to hide behind their self-deceptions and the mendacity of another(s) to hide our own ineffable spark, to imprison our yearning and power to face our ineffable self and use our power to effect real change in our way of living and the way the world lives. We are capable of using our ineffable self to drive our lives and influence people towards living a life compatible with being a partner of the Ineffable One.
As we remove our “mental make-up” we are able to discern, nurture and grow the ineffable spark within us and connect with the ineffable spirit beyond us more and more each day. We do this through prayer, through meditation, through our actions, no longer performing actions rather being the actions we take. As Rabbi Heschel teaches, we learn how to be immersed in the Bible to learn the next right action to take and how to be immersed in our living, immersed in each day, living in wonder, awe, joy as well as experiencing sadness, heartache, loss, etc. Being connected to the “ineffable in us” as well as “the ineffable beyond us” changes our state of being. We live in wonder, awe, joy, connection, truth, confidence and we experience sadness, loss, heartache, never getting stuck in our experiences, only learning and returning home to “the ineffable in us “and “the ineffable beyond us”.
Society and the people in power are afraid of ‘us common folks’ tapping into the power of “the ineffable in us” because then their control is lost, they would have to face their own spark of the Divine and come face to face with their true selves and be responsible for the death of spirit they have caused within themselves and within another(s) human being. Since each of us are supposed to do T’Shuvah(daily inventory of how we hit the mark and how we missed the mark, making amends, etc.) one day before we die, and none of us know the day of our death so we need to do T’Shuvah every day, I believe it is imperative and incumbent upon each one of us to show compassion and empathy as well as make amends to our spark of the ineffable we have ignored, imprisoned and covered up. This is another of the challenges I hear Rabbi Heschel giving to us in these teachings.
In recovery, we are constantly seeking “to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand God” so we can better do God’s will. This daily action allows us to face “the ineffable in us” and use the light of our soul, the radiance of our divine spark to see and face “the ineffable beyond us”. This is how we can come together for the common good of our group, our family, our community, our world. The better “our conscious contact with God as we understand God”, the better our seeing another person(s) as deserving of respect, kindness, compassion, etc rather than seeing an enemy, a danger, a label. In recovery, we are engaged in seeing the divine spark in another person(s) so we can retain our own.
I am so aware of the ways I cover up “the ineffable in me” at times, it is painful as I am writing this today. I do it when I am afraid of not belonging. I wear my “mental make-up” from fear of not being accepted and not being ‘one of the gang’. I apologize to the people I have hidden from, it is wrong and harmful to them and to me. Recent experiences have shown me that living from “the ineffable in me” doesn’t necessarily make me acceptable to some, it can and has gotten me shunned and exiled, and as I thought I was alone on a deserted island, I realized that I was enveloped by “the ineffable beyond me” and found both my places of belonging and gratitude for the many people who embrace me. The “mental make-up” will always lie to me, the ineffable in me and beyond me always tells me the straight story, gives me power and yearning to be connected and shows me the light and the love of fellow human beings and of the ineffable one. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark