Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 158
“We are guilty of misunderstanding the meaning of existence; we are guilty of distorting our goals and misrepresenting our souls.” (Who is Man pg 114)
Rabbi Heschel, as usual, has put his wisdom and vision on the crux of our problems today, yesterday, tomorrow and forever, “we are guilty of misunderstanding our meaning of existence”. We do not exist to be served by another human being as our slave, our underling. In the face of the racism rampant here in the United States, the rise of authoritarianism across the globe, and Russia’s war with Ukraine to make them his serfs, we are seeing the greatest distortion of, misunderstanding of and crimes of our existence as human beings. While this goes all the way back to the ruling powers in Antiquity, we were given the Bible to help us come back to the meaning of our existence that God created us for. Yet, we continue to indulge in our self-centered, mendacious and self-serving lies and deceptions.
This sentence is so infuriating and disturbing. We are aware of our guilt, we are aware of our misunderstanding, distortions and misrepresentations we indulge in, some of us revel in; yet we have no desire to stop acting in these ways, all the while preaching the ‘love of god’ and the ‘gospel of jesus’ and ‘this is the path’ etc, I use small letters to denote the idolatry that these mendacious deceivers are engaged in. We see some of the leadership of this nation standing by the Russian leader, like Madison Cawthorn, Marjorie Taylor Greene-defending him and his stance towards an independent and sovereign nation. Others, like “lying Ted Cruz” as the leader of the Republican Party, Donald J Trump calls him, blame this war on President Biden-again craftily absolving Putin of any responsibility! How ridiculous and how deceptive, how misunderstanding of the meaning of their existence as representatives of and elected officials of the government of the United States of America! Patrick Henry is quoted as saying: “Give me liberty or give me death” understanding the need of all people to be free; some of our elected officials twist this quote to ‘give me money, Vlad and I will give you a pass’ and/or ‘how do I not be responsible and blame my enemies, not my opponents, my enemies?’ Mitt Romney, a person of faith that is real and something he does his best to live by, said: “Vladimir Putin is responsible for what is happening in Ukraine, not Mr. Biden”. Here is a man who, at least for now, seems to have regained his understanding of the meaning of his existence: TO SERVE.
The meaning of our existence is linked to our need for and being needed by God to make our corners of the world a little better than they were. The meaning of our existence is tied to our ability to engage with another human being(s) and honor their divine image, ask for their assistance and never take them for granted. Understanding the meaning of our existence is shown by the way we free the captive, treat the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger. Understanding the meaning of our existence is measured in the ways we let go of our eye disease of prejudice, our egotistical belief that only we are right, my way or the highway, our honed skill of blame and shame of another so we do not have to look at ourselves. Understanding the meaning of our existence is to live Rabbi Heschel’s words from Man is Not Alone, pg. 296 “the deepest wisdom man can attain is to know that his destiny is to aid, to serve.” When we live these words, we will truly understand the meaning of our existence, the meaning of the existence of all human beings, and treat one another with the dignity, kindness and love that God treats all of us with.
In recovery, we are constantly seeking to repair the damage from our misunderstanding of our existence and the harm this brought. At the same time, we seek a better understanding of what our task is, how do we best “aid, serve” today and with whom. In recovery, we reach out to people who are suffering, offer them a hand and a lifeline, attract them by the ways we are living and pray you all join us soon:) While we are still understanding, while we are still a work in progress, we know we can and must give aid and service to anyone who asks in sincerity. In recovery, the search for understanding is a daily adventure and one we revel in.
I am still understanding the meaning of my existence. I have done well to serve many people through my work as the Founding Rabbi of Beit T’Shuvah, I have done well to serve many as a human being in the world and, in this next chapter, I am once again having to reawaken to a new way to serve and to aid. This daily blog is part of my search for understanding. I speak with many people over the week and these conversations help me deepen my understanding of the meaning of my existence. The only way I can engage in this understanding, however, is through action. I have found my pain stopped me from being in action for a while and I am back in action. I also have found that going backwards doesn’t help me nor anyone else. I am not interested in going over and rehashing old experiences. I am committed to seeing fresh and new, living in radical amazement each day as this helps me to stay present with the meaning of my existence today. I am grateful for the past experiences which gave me understanding and I use them to engage in a more meaningful life today. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark