Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 153
“I am afraid of people who are never embarrassed at their own pettiness, prejudices, envy and conceit, never embarrassed at the profanation of live. A world full of grandeur has been converted into a carnival.” (Who is Man pg 114)
Reading these two sentences over and over again, which is how I digest what Rabbi Heschel teaches us, is frightening for their simplicity, truth and our continuing to be unaware/blind to the damage people who are never embarrassed do, how they/we profane life and, as we see in our present day as well as in our history, how we have created a carnival that is not fun!
Witnessing the assault on the Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and understanding the fear of Nuclear War, I am grateful that President Biden and our Congress is willing to send arms, etc to the Ukrainian people who are heroic in their defense against a power greater than themselves. I am amazed at how long it has taken, given our experience with Hitler and Nazi Germany. There are so many parallels to draw between Putin and Hitler and the greatest is they both have made this world of grandeur, the grandeur of life into a carnival, into the carnival game of whack-a-mole, a carnival game of hitting barrel shooting, etc. Putin is accusing Ukraine of what he does, the old Goebbels technique, he is trying to take an independent nation and make it heel to his power and his whims, he is telling his people they are plotting against us, and he is using his weaponry to destroy centuries old buildings, hospitals, civilian targets with no provocation. We, people who appreciate the grandeur of life, must stand up for #Save Ukraine. We, people who are tired of and have learned from the carnivals put on by autocrats and dictators, have to stop Putin now or suffer devastation and destruction to our countries, our homes, our soldiers, ourselves unlike the world has ever seen. This profaner of life will not stop with the Ukraine any more than Hitler stopped with Czechoslovakia!
We, people who appreciate and are in awe of the grandeur of life, the grandeur of the world, have to stand up for its grandeur, we have to say NO to the forces that want to and are profaning freedom, truth, loyalty, with their prejudices, their pettiness, envies and conceits. We are facing now what should have been faced in 2014 and wasn’t. We should have faced Russia when they helped/encouraged Assad of Syria to use Chemical Weapons on his own people, and we didn’t. Now is the time and Ukraine is the place to honor this wisdom that Rabbi Heschel is giving us.
We begin with ourselves, of course. How are we turning our life and the lives of those around us into a carnival by not appreciating, being in awe of, and not tending to our corner of the world to enhance the grandeur of life, the grandeur of the world? We have allowed and participated in the rape of our forests, the drilling for oil in lands that should be sacred, the outsourcing of jobs we wanted to pay less for, the outsourcing of manufacturing so we could exploit workers in another country when workers here stood up for decent wages, decent working conditions, no more Triangle Shirtwaist tragedies. We have stood by and participated in the disintegration of the family unit making how things look more important than how they really are, our children are investments not people, they have to be okay for us to be okay, etc. We have made a carnival of life by not caring for the stranger, the poor, the needy, the widow, and the orphan. We have created an unhoused disaster through our inaction and our blaming of the victims. We have made money on the backs of those less fortunate and we have dealt with people in treacherous manners and called it ‘just business’. There are so many more ways we have turned the grandeur of life and the world into a carnival-what are the ways you have?
In recovery, we are constantly on guard for the ways we turn the grandeur of life into a carnival. We are do our inventory to see how we have done this in the past and, hopefully, we are hyper-aware of these tendencies we nip them in the bud when they rear their heads in the present. And we don’t always do this because they disguise themselves so well and ‘everyone else is acting this way’ mentality takes over. This is why we take stock of ourselves daily to minimize the damage of our carnival leanings and desires as well as make us aware and embarrassed by them.
I am guilty of doing this and, sitting here writing this blog, I realize the ways I made myself into a caricature was the most devious and destructive method I employed in converting the grandeur of living into a carnival. I was the ringmaster at times and, through deep introspection, I realize the positive methods of the carnival to get people to appreciate life and what they have, God and the healing power of T’Shuvah and living Jewishly as well as living Rabbi Heschel’s teachings. I also realize how the negative and profanation of life that comes with carnival life and participating in carnival activities is so harmful. For the negativity I brought/allowed by not appreciating and acting in accordance with the grandeur of living, I am deeply sorry. I also am deeply appreciative for Jewish prayer, which causes me to rejoice in and be aware of the grandeur of life, of the world and of one another. Prayer is my song and my chant to myself and God to see more of what is real, more of my inner life and repair the ‘broken’ parts and praise God for the strength and wisdom. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark