Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 41
“The ancient Rabbis knew that excessive piety may endanger the fulfillment of the essence of the law. “There is nothing more important, according to the Torah, than to preserve human life … . Even when there is the slightest possibility that a life may be at stake one may disregard every prohibition of the law.” One must sacrifice mitsvot for the sake of man, rather than sacrifice man for the sake of mitsvot”. (God in Search of Man)
The more time I spend with these words, the more determined we all should be to stop the “excessive piety” of the charlatans who are preaching they know that God wants them to ignore the pleas of the downtrodden, stop listening to the demand to care for the stranger, the poor, the needy, buy into the lies and meanness that is so rampant as justifiable and necessary. We are living in momentous times, as each era has been, and we are blessed to have the teachings of Torah, of the Bible, the Koran, Buddha, and the wisdom of people like Eckhart Tolle, Dalai Lama, Rabbi Heschel, Martin Luther King Jr. and all of their true disciples on how to fulfill the teachings for the benefit of all people.
Yet, we still fall into the trap of believing that some lives are more important than others! We still buy into the mendacity of another(s) and we are willing to, as they did at the Tower of Babel, sacrifice humans for the sake of the goal, for the sake of themselves, for the sake of ‘the cause’. Immersing ourselves in the words and wisdom above cause us to look at our own actions and ask ourselves how important is optics, how important are these behaviors and ‘rules’ we have come to adopt so we can be ‘part of the pack of leaders’? It is amazing to me that lies and innuendos spread by Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr, Marjorie Taylor Greene, etc are given any breath when we immerse ourselves in the words above, yet they are being screamed out in some social media circles and taking a tragedy and making the victim at fault. This is a terrible denial of our own humanity as well as a denial of facts. We are falling into the abyss of deception which will bring down our freedom to choose, our freedom to speak, our freedom to practice faith or not. All of these are in danger when the goal, the deed becomes more important than a human being.
We have a cure for this situation, however. It is called taking off our blinders, calling B.S on the liars and seeing each and every person as an equal member of the human race. How much money one has, how smart one is, how much one gives to charity, how much work one does to better humanity does not mean they are a more worthy human being than anyone else. We are all endowed with “certain unalienable rights”; to be children of the Creator, to be given the dignity worthy of our heritage-children of the Sovereign-, to be treated with care and kindness, to “love our neighbor as we love our self” so we have to practice self-love and spread truth, justice, kindness and compassion to everyone.
Living the words above means letting go of our need to ‘have it our way’ and do it God’s way, live in accordance with morals and ethics, and, most importantly, put human life ahead of tribal rituals. We are being called to take sides in every moment, either stand for the principles of Torah, decency, kindness, truth, Justice, compassion, mercy and love or we stand against these principles. There are no alternative facts, alternative principles in the Spiritual world, in the world we were given to grow and nurture. “Nation shall not life up sword against nation, neither shall people learn war anymore” seems to have been forgotten as a prophecy, as a teaching, as an exhortation of the Prophets to the people to not give in to our lower desires, not give in to our immature feelings and understandings of what it means to Be Human! We have forgotten that God is calling to us to return, each day we are to do T’Shuvah, return and repent, repair and have new responses to life’s daily challenges. We do this when we take in the words above and make them alive in our souls, alive in our brains, alive in our actions!
In recovery, we are constantly laying down our weapons of mass destruction, our actions of selfishness, harshness, meanness, and picking up the tools to create goodness and service to further the goal of maintaining and saving human life. Doing this helps us regain our humanity and save our souls from the hell we were putting them in.
I have, at times, confused what is life saving and what is self-serving. The majority of my life has been involved in life-saving and not self-serving so I can stand in front of the mirror and not hide from “the man in the glass”. I also am unafraid to be responsible for my errors and my goodness. We are traveling with the Documentary: “the Jewish Jail Lady and the Holy Thief” and meeting new people whom we can serve, bringing hope and solutions to communities that have been decimated by the loss of one person to overdoses, incarcerations, etc. and then have the loss multiplied by the vast number of people who have succumbed to the disease of addiction. I have been able to speak truth to power and, at times, have them listen and heed and staying out of the result, being in the solution, has allowed me to continue to move forward in my way and not need to be right, not need to win. Rather, the ‘win’ is connection, friendship, love. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark