Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 98
“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).
What is the “mental make-up” we wear, as a religious community, as a secular community, as a Republican and/or Democrat, as citizen of a country, as an employee , employer, as a child, sibling, parent, lover? We take on many different roles within our lifetimes and, in light of Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above, I wonder if we change our make-up depending on the ‘role’ we are in? Is it possible to go ‘au natural’ in our living?
We have seen much bigotry, hatred, murder, etc in the name of one religion or another and because of this, many people have written religion off completely. The religious leaders who promote these ugly, ungodly behaviors are wearing the “mental make-up” of self righteousness and power-seeking/hungry. They use the tenets of their faith to control people and, because of the heavy use of make-up, they actually believe and/or or convince themselves to believe these terrible actions, these lies and bastardizations of both the letter and spirit of Scriptures are in service of God. All the while, they are lining their pockets, the pockets of their benefactors, the pockets of their faith to exert more and more power over individuals, communities, governments, countries to bend to their will, not the Will of God. This is, of course, the large scale, long term effects of what begins a long time before. The “mental make-up” religious leaders, clergy, etc wear is put on while in their youth. We learn it in our religious education how we have been persecuted for our beliefs, how we have to stand with our people who believe the same as we do and see anyone who doesn’t accept our way as an enemy, etc. Religious leaders, clergy then learn in Seminary how they have to project an image of complete allegiance to the tenets and principles of their faith and this leads to the myth of perfection which leads to “Symbolic Exemplar” as Rabbi Jack Bloom writes about tin his book of the same name. We have seem the false self of many of our religious leaders and clergy and come to venerate them and learn from them to put on make-up ourselves. Some religious leaders need to wash their faces, have their eyes checked, change their hearing aids, clean the wax out of their ears, face their own imperfections, celebrate them, approach God and one another with openness and transparency so they and we can repair the damage our “mental make-up” has caused. As religious leaders and clergy, the power we possess is the power to draw nearer to God through our actions and helping another human being through spiritual crisis’ and using this power to enslave people to our will, to our way or the highway of religious experiences and devotion is proof of our “mental make-up” of power covering up our deep-rooted fear of incompetence.
In our political realm, the “mental make-up” gets heavier and heavier. We are in an era where some of our elected officials are sounding more like King George than like Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and/or Ben Franklin. There actions are more like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee than Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and/or Harry Truman. What makes the make-up look even worse on these elected officials is they know the truth, they know better and are better than the lies they spout, the insurrection/civil war they are fomenting. When you listen to their earlier words, especially spoken when they were in power, and then the words spoken when they are not in power, it is easy to see the “mental make-up” of power over all, obstruction when not in power, lie and cheat to block anything meaningful and helpful to their own constituents! Yet, they pontificate and keep putting their make-up on with help from the media, social and traditional, the press and the people who themselves are engaged in their own self-deception, wearing their own layers of “mental make-up” who readily buy the deceptions of these elected officials.
In recovery, we are continually wiping off the old “mental make-up”, taking it off layer by layer. We have been so engaged in our putting this make-up on, like everyone else, we don’t even know where the real person is for a while because we are constantly peeling this make up off, even having to scrape it off like the barnacles on the bottom of the boat. In recovery, we know that the taking off of our “mental make-up” is a life long experience because we easily fall back into putting in on every day.
I have been wiping the make-up off and putting some on every day for the past 35 years. Rabbi Heschel has been such a disturbance in my life, giving me a bad conscious every day that I am constantly wiping the falseness, the self-deception off of me to the best of my ability each day. Some days are better than others! I realize my loudness and my passion break through when I have been wearing the make-up of ‘go along to get along’, sitting idly by the damage another person is doing because of optics, political correctness, fear of losing position, money, etc. and I can’t do it anymore. My wiping off of the make-up, many times, is a loud, painful affair for me and those around me. I am sorry to those I hurt in these moments. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark