Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 127
“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might; but let him who glories glory in this: that he has a sense of ultimate embarrassment. How embarrassing for man to be the greatest miracle on earth and not understand it! (Who is Man pg 112)
We live in a society that believes the opposite of this teaching and the more we rely on our wisdom and our might, the more we sink in our ability to be human. We are seeing this across the globe and, truthfully, this has always been the case. We marvel at the muscles on the statues of Michelangelo, the fleetness of Mercury, the power of Zeus, the cruelty of Caesar, the terror of the Hordes, the beauty of Venus, the pathology of dictators and tyrants, the imagination of inventors and we do not even acknowledge our embarrassment! We are too ashamed to acknowledge it, I believe Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom is teaching us.
We are so weak that we cannot be embarrassed by our lack of understanding, we cannot be embarrassed by our inability to live up to our calling, our need for one another and the reality of our imperfections. We are a society that is afraid of being embarrassed, it began in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve hid because they realized they were naked and covered themselves up rather than marveling at the wondrous bodies God had created and the connection they had to one another. They hid because they were embarrassed and we have been hiding ever since. Cain tried to hide from the fact that he killed his brother as well as trying to hide from God that he killed Abel, to no avail, yet we keep trying to hide and cover up our errors and the ways we kill the spirits on one another through “we do it for one, we have to do it for everyone”, “what will the neighbors think”, “why can’t you just fit in and do it like everyone else”, etc. Abraham hid that Sarah was his wife for fear of being killed, after he was promised God’s protection. Noah got drunk after being saved by God from the flood, Jacob disguised himself as his brother in order to get the blessing, Joseph hid his true identity from his brothers so he could get even and so many more stories of not being embarrassed and God’s response of sadness, allowing the logical consequences of our behavior to happen are to be found throughout the Hebrew Bible.
These experiences have been used to show how the Jews have lost favor with God, etc and, I believe, Rabbi Heschel is teaching us the reason for the stories and the examples are for us to relate to the embarrassment of our ancestors so we can “glory in this”, our “sense of ultimate embarrassment.” Yet, we continue to worship our might, our cleverness, our wisdom, our one-upmanship, etc. Our heroes are sports figures, celebrities, businesspeople, not statesmen/women, not the great thinkers, not the clergy who spur us to rise above our pettiness and pride, our foibles and our lies. When you can join the Center for Addiction and Faith and save lives, listen to the Rev. Mark Whitlock of Reid Temple or Rev Najuma Smith-Pollard, when you can read John Pavlovitz and Rabbis Ed Feinstein and Harold Shulweis, when you can learn from Rabbi Heschel and his daughter Dr. Susannah Heschel and you sit on your couch, you work your body out, you sit in the bar shooting the breeze with strangers, etc-you are not engaging in a “sense of ultimate embarrassment”.
Rather than revel in our money and our might, living Rabbi Heschel’s teaching causes us to make sure we donate to the causes that are helping people on the ground, on the front lines. Causes like: The Center for Addiction and Faith, Beit T’Shuvah, T’Shuvah Center, Race to Erase MS, Juvenile Diabetes, the organizations helping Refugees settle in this country like HIAS. Rather than only sit on our couches and watch the Super Bowl, or partake in activities that serve our narcissistic needs, living Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom causes us to get out and support free and fair elections, one person-one vote, Voting Rights, Fair and equitable immigration policies, a pathway for the illegal immigrants here now to obtain citizenship, TRUTH in POLITICS-no more lying and ‘alternative facts’ like Hitler tried to and succeeded in promoting to the German, Austrian, Polish people.
In recovery, we are embarrassed by our prior actions and we slowly learn to have a “sense of ultimate embarrassment”. We spend a lot of time on our actions, both prior to our recovery and in our recovery every day-examining them and this is a good thing. Yet, we also need to allow this “ultimate embarrassment” to overwhelm us and transform us and this is the challenge of being in recovery.
I have been overwhelmed by this “sense of ultimate embarrassment” for my entire life. I didn’t realize it was a good thing until Rabbi Heschel taught me this lesson. I hid from it and I still hide from it occasionally even now. Yet, living with this sense has caused me to be more passionate for the causes I believe in, more serious in my teaching and understanding, more immersed in life, in text and in the brilliance of another human being. Living with this sense has given me the insight and vision to help many human beings find their light, their “sense of ultimate embarrassment” and live joyously. It is a joy and a relief to live this way! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark