Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 163
“What is the truth of being human? The lack of pretension, the acknowledgement of opaqueness, shortsightedness, inadequacy. But truth also demands risings striving for the goal is both with within and beyond us. The truth of being human is gratitude; its secret is appreciation.” (Who is Man pg 114)
Facing the truth of our shortsightedness and inadequacy is not shameful nor demeaning, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom today. While we shame and blame people and ourselves for our shortsightedness/not seeing what was down the road and our not being equal to the task in front of us some days for a myriad of reasons, Rabbi Heschel’s words bring comfort and a mirror for all of us. As we all know, we cannot and must not use truth to deceive another and/or ourselves. Many people use another’s inadequacies as a weapon to take advantage of them, to use them, to abuse them and to gain power for themselves. We see this in the ways dictators convince people to go against their knowing, their truth and their best interests to support and maintain the authoritarian’s power grab and hold onto power. This is one of the reasons the Russian People have not risen up against Putin en masse, along with the way Putin deals with protestors.
We see this behavior in our politicians and media here in the US. The racism displayed at the confirmation hearings, the anti-semitic tropes used by Representatives and Senators alike are examples of using the inadequacies and vulnerabilities of people against them. This is the definition of evil, according to Dr. M. Scott Peck! Yet, these same people wave the flag showing their patriotism. I see flags being waved in support of a liar, a cheat, a fraud and a criminal and these flag wavers say they believe in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as taught to them by the liars, cheats, frauds and criminals who they elect to perpetrate evil upon them and the rest of us!
Rabbi Heschel is teaching us that being shortsighted and inadequate is not a crime, it is not a fatal flaw. Rather, it is part and parcel with being human. We are all shortsighted at times, we are all not equal to the task at times and some tasks just are not ours to tackle. We do not have to be ashamed, we do not have to beat ourselves up and cause ourselves mental and spiritual anguish over these truths. In fact, we have to learn to accept our foibles, our inadequacies and our poor vision at times. We have to begin to live in acceptance of our own humanity and the humanity of another. We get to deceive ourselves less and less when we are living in this acceptance. We stop trying to deceive another(s) when we live in this truth of being human as Rabbi Heschel is teaching us. We grow our skills and our talents, we find where we have the correct vision, long and short, for the goals we are uniquely adequate and needed for. We also engage in life differently, we ask for and accept help as a gift not a weakness. We give aid and comfort to people not as a ‘marker’ to be redeemed at another time of our choosing, rather as a gift and reciprocity of the generosity that has been given to us.
It is a truth that we are not ‘up to the task’ of perfection nor should we be, Rabbi Heschel teaches. To accept these truths that Rabbi Heschel teaches us in the second sentence above, we have to let go of our ideas that perfection is the goal, perfection is attainable and we are either perfect or horrible. We have to stop allowing our vulnerabilities to cripple us and to learn to be less and less affected when someone uses them against us. We have to remember to put on clearer glasses when making decisions and know we will not see the whole picture, we will go for quick ‘wins/fixes’ and miss the potholes down the road. We need to embrace our humanness and let go of the deceptions of self that cause us to believe the deception of liars, frauds, cheats and criminals. We need to remember that accepting the truth of being human as Rabbi Heschel teaches does not mean we are frauds, just that we are human.
In recovery, we learn acceptance is the answer to all our problems today as Dr. Paul teaches. We learn to accept what is, not stew over what might have been and stop our self-flagellation. In recovery, we know that our inadequacies and shortsightedness may serve a higher purpose, we also know it makes us humble enough to ask for help and take direction that we normally would not have. We pray for God to remove these inadequacies except when they are in service of another. In recovery, we learn to embrace our imperfections and not need to deceive ourselves regarding them nor do we feel shame because of them.
I know that God doesn’t remove my inadequacies totally because I need to remember to ask for help and not do things that another can do, ie stay in my lane. I have beaten myself up long enough for my shortsightedness, as Rabbi Heschel speaks to me. I am committing to leave my shame over not seeing the handwriting on the wall, people I trusted and those I did not use my vulnerabilities against me. I am letting go of my own need to be adequate in areas that I can’t be and to the hiding I have gone into during this period of the Pandemic and being exiled from ‘my place’. Rabbi Heschel is calling on me and you to end our evil ways of using our own vulnerabilities against ourselves and to end our sinking into despair and paralysis over another person doing the same to us. I commit to stand up to and embrace my inadequacies and shortsightedness rather than use them as an excuse to hide. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark