Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 67
“The great contest is not “between God-fearing believers and unrighteous believers.”(God in Search of Man pg. 370)
Herein lies the issue that we are facing today as we have throughout history. Societal norms dictate an either/or way of being. We are either “God-fearing believers” or “unrighteous believers” according to the lines that society has drawn. People use God as an excuse, an instrument for the validity of their actions and cruelty. As Bob Dylan wrote “With God on Our Side” we can make everything we do right and good, even killing 6 million, venerating the traitors of the Confederacy, massacring Native Americans, enslaving Black people, engaging in Anti-Semitism, etc. We have seen how “God-fearing believers” have bastardized the name of God, the Word of God, Biblical principles and morality for their own benefit, for their own gain with no regard to what is true, what is good. We wrap ourselves in the ‘cloak of Godliness’ all the while practicing evil and idolatry.
We are at another inflection point in our country, in the world right now. Yet, so many “God-fearing believers” are confusing good and evil without any awareness of the evil they are creating, the decency they are defeating, the humanity they are crushing. These ‘good’ people are screaming at the top of their lungs, shouting down anyone who has a differing point of view, another response to what is happening, all for the ‘sake of heaven’ according to them. Tucker Carlson and his ilk decry ‘drag queens’ and don’t realize that Shakespeare had men dressing as women in his plays! People are venerating Jesus as the hero who crushes people, who discards people, who marginalizes people and one wonders if they have ever read the Gospels. These “God-fearing believers” are touting their rights to assault weapons while denying the rights of women to control of their bodies, their minds, etc. We are seeing Ron DeSantis deny people and children their right to be who they are, wanting them instead to be who he wants them to be. When “God-fearing believers” deny the Godliness and Divine Image in another, they are engaging in evil for their own power, their own agenda, their own fears, their own denials, not for the God.
We are in a crisis that is reminiscent of the American Bund, the Klu Klux Klan heydays, and that is to use governing as a weapon of hatred and denial. When the Republicans cheer Marjorie Taylor Greene for her outlandish hate speech, for her desire to ‘make America a bastion of hatred and inequality’ again, when Jim Jordan is lauded for ‘investigating enemies of our good country’ in the name of God and conservative values, when Kevin McCarthy is selling his soul for the title of Speaker of the House, knowing he doesn’t have any real power because he gave it away to the Freedom Caucus, we are in desperate straits, we are in the throes of self-destruction. Yet, these “God-fearing believers” will keep spouting their lies in the name of God, they will continue to exert their power and control, their hatred, their anti-semitism in the name of God and their followers will support them because they are “god-fearing believers” too! How sad and how scary.
Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above is a call to action for all of us. People who are truly “God-fearing believers” are aware of the insidiousness of evil that permeates and/or tries to permeate all of our actions. We are aware that our good deeds are not devoid of evil, that there is some self-interest in everything we do. We know that we serve God and not our selves, yet we are acutely aware of the difficulty in separating our self-interest, our self-satisfaction with our service to God, to decency, to one another. We know we have to be continually on guard to not point our fingers at anyone else without realizing our own errors, our own evil. We wrestle within our being each and every day, just as Jacob wrestled with his competing claims prior to meeting with his twin brother Esau, whom he had screwed over. We have to stop allowing the charlatans, the liars, the practitioners of evil dressed in white robes (a la Klansmen) from overtaking the good, the holy and the Godly.
In recovery, we speak of spirituality as for those who have been to hell and returned. We know what our self-deception and the deception of another(s) has wrought; evil, destruction, spiritual violence, inner turmoil, hatred and enslavement. We are saddened by our actions, we are desperate to make amends and change our ways, we are aware of our inability to be perfect, we know we are incapable of being all good. We also use this knowledge to minimize the evil that is embedded in the good we do, we own our agendas in our actions and we continue to be of service to God, to another(s) and to our authentic self in our recovery.
I am constantly seeking the good and on guard against the evil contained in my actions. I know I am guilty of having evil in my actions and I do T’Shuvah upon my realizations of this truth, rather than compound the evil with my denials. I have learned that I cannot convince anyone of the truth of me, I cannot change the ‘rap sheet’ I have, some of earned and some unearned. I also cannot and do not deny my service to God, to people I meet, to people I love and I am unwilling to allow the evil that I experience to negate the good and the holy I have accomplished. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark