Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 124
“Modern Man dwells upon the order and the power of nature; the prophets dwell upon the grandeur and creation of nature. The former directs his attention to the manageable and intelligible aspect of the universe; the later to its mystery and marvel.” (God in Search of Man pg 97)
Rabbi Heschel is giving us a lesson in choice, I believe. Earlier in the chapter this is found in, he is speaking about the differences between Greek philosophy and Biblical/Jewish Philosophy and these words sum it up for me. Modern humans have chosen to follow Greek philosophy even in the way they practice their religion; using order to give them power, using their power to manage people’s intellectual choices and using ‘reason’ to convince people to engage in activities which deny freedom, decency, kindness, justice, compassion, etc to another human being, another group(s).
While these words were written in the early 1950’s, when we thought everything was wonderful… they are even more frightening today. We are engaged in a war, in our individual life, in our communal life and in our national life-no matter where we live in the world. This war is between the Greek way of seeing and living life and the Jewish/Biblical way of seeing and living life. Are we going to let order and the power of our nature rule or are we going to allow the experience of grandeur and creation rule? These two different ways of living and experiencing life have been with us for all time and, now, we are faced with this stark choice again with the stakes being our individual freedom and the freedom of people other than those White Supremacists in power/wanting power.
Order and power are not, in and of themselves, bad. They become evil when put into the hands of those people who are not willing to “dwell upon the grandeur and creation of nature”. When order and power are used to manage our intellects and the intellects of another(s), we start down a slippery slope. The Serenity Prayer, written by Rabbi Heschel’s friend and mentor, Rev. Reinhold Niebuhr, begins with “God give us the grace to accept with serenity the things we cannot change”. Grace comes from the Latin “pleasing/thankful”, accept comes from the Latin “take something to oneself” and serenity means “clear” in the Latin. Rev Niebuhr is trying to get us to “take to our self” a basic truth that Rabbi Heschel is giving us in a different way-stop trying to put order and manage everything to your liking and for your power! It is time for all of us to acknowledge our unmanageability over life and even over our thoughts and feelings. Doing this will begin to stop us from needing to act on every thought and feeling, especially those that are in opposition to the beauty, grandeur, mystery and marvel of living in a world created not by us, rather by God.
Seeing what is happening in Washington DC, in our statehouses, in our local communities is watching the Greeks win. These so-called ‘people of faith’ have faith in themselves, the liars and deceivers such as Trump, Pence, DeSantis, Abbott, McConnell, et al-not in God and in God’s concerns. Their concerns are for themselves, no matter how they wrap themselves in the clothing of faith-they are phony, they are mendacious and they are leading the people with them and our country to ruination. When power becomes the goal, when order according to some human being is the path, faith in God is lost, living a life of grandeur, marvel and mystery is scoffed at and abused by these ‘Greeks’ and some are all left wringing our hands, bemoaning what is happening rather than following Rabbi Heschel’s example of getting involved to make the changes God wants us to. We need to live like the prophets, according to Biblical Philosophy; with wonder, marvel, mystery and appreciation of the grandeur we live in and the beauty of being alive and free.
In recovery, we celebrate the mystery and the marvel of living “life on life’s terms”. It is the change that keeps us in recovery rather than trying to manage life to be the way we want it to be. We are deeply attuned to the beauty of nature and we celebrate nature along with all creations of God, including our humanity and the humanity of all people. We realize the unmanageability of life when we are forcing order upon it and how much more manageable it is when we surrender to the order God has put into the world and our life. In recovery, we acknowledge the gift of unmanageability that God has given us by getting clearer and clearer regarding the things we cannot change.
I directed my attention to order and power for a lot of years and only in surrendering to the mystery and marvel of life have I found clarity, connection and control. I am overwhelmed with sadness at the times my surrender was misinterpreted as control and the connection and love I was putting out was seen as overpowering and suffocating. Immersing myself in these words of Rabbi Heschel I am aware of how I have found the both/and of Biblical living. The order and power of nature, of God, of my inner life has manifested itself to co-create a place of refuge for those in need and a place of rebirth for those who were willing to surrender. My appreciation of the grandeur, mystery of God and my marvel of God’s Ways manifests itself in these writings, in my connections with people and with my ability to be an advocate of the Soul for so many people, in my work and in my personal life. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark