Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 46
“The terror and anguish that came upon the Psalmist were not caused by the calamities of nature but by the wickedness of man, by the evil in history.” (God in Search of Man pg 368)
We all have a choice and most people are unaware of this choice. Evil and wickedness is not natural, they are learned, as I wrote yesterday. Yet, so many people shrug their shoulders when they see it, are afraid to call it out and are unwilling to look inside themselves to root out the different ways all of us give into wickedness and evil. As Rabbi Heschel wrote to President Kennedy: “The hour calls for High Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity”. Grandeur, comes from grand which, in the Latin, means “full-grown”; audacity from the Latin means “bold”. The Hebrew for grandeur is “great/splendor/beauty” and for audacity is “nerve/extra spirit”. This hour and every hour of our lives calls for “high moral grandeur and spiritual audacity” and most of us are either afraid of being this way, unaware of the need to engage in this mode of living, or, even worse, believe we already are acting this way!
Humankind has always been in need of “high moral grandeur and spiritual audacity” and we have been blessed with people who have answered the call Rabbi Heschel asked President Kennedy to make. Beginning with Abraham and continuing to this day we have people who continue to call upon us to respond to “our better angels” rather than our lowest common denominator. Here again, the challenge is to be aware of what is happening inside of us, around us and engage in the holy work of “high moral grandeur and spiritual audacity.” We cannot do this as long as we stay unaware of our own tendencies towards evil and wickedness. We cannot do this as long as we stay indifferent to the evil and wickedness around us. We cannot do this as long as we believe the lies of our minds and the lies of those who purport to be ‘spiritual leaders’ while spewing hatred, intolerance, racism, control, etc all in the name of some false god they have set up for their own use, for their own power.
One of the most insidious ‘evils’ we practice is the ignoring of another human being by not saying hello, not acknowledging them as we walk down a street, as we enter a business, as we go about our ‘business’ thinking that someone else is not ‘worth our time’. Everyone is made in the Image of God and ignoring anyone is ignoring God because, as Rabbi Heschel teaches us, we are all reminders of God, we are all Divine needs. Yet, so many of us believe what we are doing is more important than what another is doing, so many of us believe we have the right to ignore the poor, the needy, the stranger because they don’t belong to our tribe, they are less worthy than we and our cronies are. We have bought into the lie of nationalism, the lie of tribalism, the lie of a pecking order that has us (usually white christian males) at the top and everyone else is supposed to serve us, our desires, believe our lies and be willing to go to war, civil and otherwise, for us. How evil is this? How wicked is this? Yet, so many people just nod their heads when these idolators speak and are ready to storm the Capital based on the lies and the spell under which their own inner evil, inner wickedness has them.
While it is easy to blame the leading idolators and I do, it is much more important to begin to take our responsibility for our own learned evil and learned wickedness. Once we heal these spiritual maladies, we are no longer subject to going along with the idolators, we are no longer willing to believe the Jerry Falwell Jr.’s, Jim Jordan’s, Ayatollah’s of Iran, the MBS’ of Saudi Arabia, the Putin’s of Russia, the Orban’s of Hungary and political differences boil down to how to implement strategies that improve the lot of the poor, the needy, the stranger; finding ways to embrace them and open our borders, our shores so we can honor and live the words of Emma Lazarus written on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore…I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” We can do this, we must do this if we are to be the country we purport to be, the people we are called to be and the servants we need to be.
In recovery, rooting out the inner evil and wickedness is a daily mission. We know we are in recovery one day at a time based on our spiritual condition. Each and every day we live the spiritual discipline we have chosen to follow so we can engage in letting go of our inner wickedness and our inner evil. We work hard each day to unlearn the lessons of our youth, the lessons of society that give cover to the subtle evils so many of us practice in our daily living without even noticing. To be in recovery, we have to be aware and alert to these subtle evils because we are living proof of the truth that these inner evils are cunning and baffling and no amount of willpower will save us from them.
I work diligently to stay aware of the ways my own inner evil and wickedness creeps up. It is hard, it is subtle and the more I grow spiritually, the more cunning and baffling they become. I am not a quiet person, I am not a polished person, I am me and I am loud, abrasive and passionate. While these are not bad qualities, I know that my inner wickedness and inner evil has caused me to use these qualities in not good ways and for those whom have been harmed by my inner evil and inner wickedness, I apologize and I keep working each day to be one grain of sand better. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark