Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 30
“The ultimate requirement is to act beyond the requirements of the law. Torah is not the same as law, as din. To fulfill one’s duties is not enough. One may be a scoundrel within the limits of the law. Why was Jerusalem destroyed? Because her people acted according to the law, and did not act beyond the requirements of the law.”(God in Search of Man pg.327)
One of the errors that many of us make when we read Rabbi Heschel, Eckhart Tolle, Dalai Lama, John Pavlovitz, the Bible, the Big Book of AA, and all other spiritual texts is just that, we read them, we analyze them, we become mindful from them, yet we don’t experience them. To read any of the people above, to read the St. Francis Prayer, the Serenity Prayer is only a half measure. We must experience the words, we must immerse our self, our spirits, our inner life, our higher consciousness in the words and go beyond the words. If all one does is rationally read the sentences above and ponder them, one will never be able to glean the brilliance and the wisdom of these sentences, one will never be able to have a light shine on them from Rabbi Heschel’s teachings, one will stay in a mode of pondering and thinking, arguing and agreeing, rather than “act beyond the requirements” of intellectual stimulation.
This is, I believe, how we become “a scoundrel within the limits of the law”. This is a quote from Ramban, the famous Jewish leader in Spain who participated in the Disputation and wrote these words as a commentary on the sentence: “You shall be holy because I, the Lord, am holy” from Chapter 19 of Leviticus. It was in response the question of why is this verse in here when we have accepted Torah? He went on to use sex as an example; a man has sex with his wife whenever he wants with no regard to her needs, her desires, her physical, emotional and spiritual state. This is permissible, and not holy! We can, if we look see these behaviors in our own lives as well. Whether it is sex, our race for success, our taxes, our interpersonal relationships, our business ethics, we can, if we search find the paths we take to “be a scoundrel within the limits of the law”.
Many of us are so aware and, at the same time, immune to this truth that we will change the rules to fit our needs, our particular situation and then deny this to another. We do and will lobby to change the rules of zoning, of welcoming new people into a neighborhood who are ‘different’ than us, etc. I have watched municipalities add extra police presence to shopping areas because ‘those people’ (usually black, brown) have come shopping here. While this is legal, the business owners requesting the extra police are doing it from fear and prejudice-scoundrels within the limits of the law. How often have you and/or I set a different standard for our self, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, than we do for another and berated another for not living up to our expectations? How often have we used our power of status, wealth, pen and tongue to win an argument, a lawsuit, a labor dispute by using isolated incidents and taking them out of context? How often have we used the vulnerabilities of another against them in order to ‘win’? How often have we rebuked someone else for the very things we do and then either excuse our same behaviors?
Most of us have, at one time or another, or will “be a scoundrel within the limits of the law”. Most of us have and will deny this, ignore this, and defend ourselves for doing it! Just a fact that is hard and necessary to face. Going “beyond the requirements of the law” means to accept our propensity to want to be right and immerse our self in the whole story. We have to continually experience the actions we are taking, we have to continually experience the wisdom and path of living well that our holy texts, our amazing interpreters of spiritual living give to us. We have to let go of our need to be right and see the nuances of our actions, our thinking and the ways we block off the voice of our higher consciousness/the voice of our soul. We move from wealth being power over to wealth being power to help, we move from berating another for our disowned parts to recognizing our self in another human being, we move from prejudice to seeing people of color, non-christian people as human beings as dignified and worthy as we are. It takes a constant awareness and commitment to change for this to happen, it takes a deep dive into our inner life and marriage with our soul’s knowledge to make this happen and we can do it. As we say in recovery, we have to “let go and let God”, we have to stop having “contempt prior to investigation”.
Immersing and experiencing these words cause me pause, I am well aware of when I did this in my distant past and examine the ways I still am “a scoundrel within the limits of the law”. I have found myself less a scoundrel and more engaged in going beyond the letter of the law. I know I go the extra mile for another, for a cause and for God. I also know that I am capable of fooling myself. Many times I claimed I was doing something for the ‘sake of heaven’ and it was for my sake. I have not, in these past 34 years, however, used the vulnerabilities of another against them so I could ‘win/succeed’. Of this I am proud. I am constantly immersing my self in the moment and staying present more and more each day. I experience what I read by writing about it, growing from this blog and rejoicing in my progress. I pray you rejoice in yours as well. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark