Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 112
“God is not an explanation of the world’s enigmas or a guarantee for our salvation. He is an eternal challenge, an urgent demand. He is not a problem to be solved but a question addressed to us and individuals, as nations, as mankind.” (Man is Not Alone pg. 92)
As I have been pondering these sentences for the last few days, I have been thinking; what are the questions that God is addressing to us? I know that God is a demanding God, something some people are upset/disquieted by. Yet, if we are not aware of God’s demands, if we are not aware of God’s questions for us as individuals, human beings, nations, then how can we be in an authentic relationship with God, with our self? This is the challenge, I believe, Rabbi Heschel is giving to us: ask our inner self what is the question we were created for and how do we meet and serve the demands of God?
God (or higher consciousness if this is more acceptable) is demanding certain ways of being in order to truly take our place as a partner with God in making the world a little better each and every day. God, through the Prophets, Torah, Rabbi Heschel, our Sages, et al, keep giving us a nudge, a call, disturbs our self-congratulatory celebrations at how wonderful we are for doing the bare minimum. Why do so many people want God to be just pure love with no demands, no obligations, etc? Because they are lazy, because they want to blame the believers of God who is ‘demanding and vengeful’/‘Old Testament God’ according to these people and that is why there is no peace-it is the fault of the Jews.
Yet, God of the ‘old testament’ is not vengeful, not angry, God in the Old Testament is demanding and engaging us in a covenantal relationship that is loving, caring, calling and truthful. God is always trying to get our attention and calls us to task because we keep trying to be the kid who gets away with doing the least, taking the most, and hiding our true self from everyone-even our self. Having a rich inner life is both joyous and painful. The pain is from our awareness of being deaf to God’s call, God’s question, God’s demand as well as being deaf to the calls, questions, demands of another human being to us. In fact, I would say they are one and the same. We cannot be people of faith, we cannot be people of God, we cannot even consider ourselves as being human unless we are willing to respond to God’s questions, calls and demands through the questions, demands and calls of another human being. Each and every day we get the opportunity to “enoble the common” as Rabbi Heschel teaches and being deaf to God’s questions, demands and calls causes us to miss an opportunity to serve, to care and to be human.
God’s questions, in addition to Ayecha, where are you, are many and differ with each of us for each of us has a different calling, upon each of us is a different demand to fulfill. And, God is questioning each one of us: How are we loving our neighbor as ourselves? How are we caring for the stranger and the poor, the widow, the orphan, the needy? How are we helping every human being achieve personal and national freedom? How are we feeding people, caring for the sick, redeeming the captive, living our covenant with God, acing in loving ways towards family, friends, etc? These questions are being asked at Mt. Sinai, in Jerusalem, in Mecca, in Rome, in Washington DC, in Moscow, in Ryiad, in New York, in Paris, in London, etc. They are being asked in our homes, our streets, our communities and in our souls. It is time for us to truly answer these questions, respond to the demands of God and see each person as a human being in need of some kindness, care, love and connection. This is how we live in a covenantal relationship with God, not through dogma-through connection.
In recovery, we are so aware of the demands and questions God is calling out to us. We want to continue to question God-“what would God have me do” is a constant question we ask. Yet this question is a way of answering the demands and questions of God because we are engaged in God/Higher consciousness rather than lower self-satisfaction and desire consciousness. In recovery, being of service for another human being is one of the ways we respond to God’s call and God’s demand.
I am struck by the bombardment of messages, thoughts and emotions I experience today and each day by writing this blog. I heard God demanding me to get back into life and give out my wisdom and learnings from Rabbi Heschel, the Prophets, and, of course, God to as many people as possible. I am hearing a demand to help people-all and any people-achieve a way of living that is compatible with their covenant with God. I am hearing God’s question to me-“whom have you touched with goodness, wisdom, kindness and My words today?” I am hearing the call of people clearer and clearer each and every day. I hear God’s demand that I stop worrying about the people I want to hear me and concentrate on the people who can/will hear me. Continue reaching out to the deaf, continue to help the blind see again, and speak into the ears of the people who are enslaved by their egos, their fears, their attention to the wrong details-optics, power, etc. I pray you open your ears, your hearts and your souls up to hear God’s call and the call of the people around you who need you as God’s call as well. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark