Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 167
“The source of insight is an awareness of being called upon to answer. Over and above personal problems, there is an objective challenge to overcome inequity, injustice, helplessness, suffering, carelessness, oppression.” (Who is Man pg. 107)
The word insight comes from the Dutch meaning ‘inner sight, wisdom’. Rabbi Heschel is teaching us, reminding us, of our gift of inner sight and inner wisdom that so often goes unnoticed and ignored. He is giving me the cause of our ignorance and blindness-we are “being called upon to answer”. The truth of this sentence is so apparent in our lives yet, as Rabbi Moshe Luzzatto teaches, precisely because a sentence, a way, an insight is true and we accept it as such, we tend to ignore it!
While many people have insight into another person’s ways, motives, skills, etc such as employers, shrinks, therapists, social workers, clergy, con people, parents, friends, etc, very few of us take the time and make the effort to see inside of ourselves in truth, discovery and eagerness. Most people deny their inner lives, their inner truths and run from the call to answer unless it makes them money, gives them power, helps them have fun and such. Rabbi Heschel’s first sentence is the key to living well, in my opinion. It is the root cause of most great discoveries, inventions, innovations. Only by having the insight, the awareness of “being called upon to answer” can one truly prosper and flourish.
I believe that music is an example of personal insight and awareness. While it is certainly an occupation and a way to make money, celebrity, etc. it also comes from a calling that one has to express oneself in ways that go beyond words. Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, etc all had patrons and the music they wrote came from a deep calling inside of them. The Black spirituals of the 19th century came from a deep calling and awareness to answer the question of how to express the indignity and pain of slavery. The blues and jazz, big band and rock and roll all express the answer to the call of bringing a wordless path to express the emotions, the inner struggles and the outer mess of life in that moment. Rap/HipHop music is another example, the early stars were just talking about life on the street and their words, while hard to hear, are real, raw and an answer to the inner pain of being black, young and harassed by cops, society and their own people. All of these forms of music speak to the inner life of the people who hear them and touch them in their soul, causing spiritual responses that are inexplicable and real and true.
We are all “being called upon to answer” a demand, a need, a question and most of us ignore this call in favor of another call-our ego demands, our personal desires take precedence over the call and demand of our own inner lives. We forgo our inner wisdom to satisfy our desires and wants, we lose sight of our authentic needs in favor of our need to be seen, thought of, celebrated in certain ways. We see this daily in our elected officials who are more interested in spouting lies and untruths (half-truths are untruths), being seen on National TV, accusing good hardworking people who want to serve of the actions that they themselves are taking. Many of our Senators and Representatives, Governors and Mayors, State Houses and City Councils are more interested in calling someone else out than answer the call, the demand of something greater than themselves. These charlatans are doing this because they have insight into what their constituents want to hear and how they can keep power so they play to their ‘base’ and accuse people of being ‘elites’ when they themselves graduated from Ivy League Schools! They accuse people of not caring and weighing in on their identity politics while denying the identity of another group.
In recovery, this “awareness of being called to answer” is, for most of us the doorway into our recovery. Our answer to the awareness of being called is to change the ways we have been living. Living life from the inside out rather than the outside in. We realize and admit that no amount of stuff has been able to satisfy the demand that is nagging at us, disturbing our conscience. In recovery, we begin to hear the true call of our inner life, we mature and engage with the inner wisdom we have blocked out and enjoy life anew each day.
I answered the call in December of 1986 with a YES and have spent the past 35+ years responding to the demand, the call and the awareness of how many layers there are to my response. I have grown and matured my insight, my inner wisdom and continued to engage with it. At times, I have not always listened to the insight and wisdom because I have, upon retrospect, been blind to it at times. I have allowed needs to override wisdom, I have allowed desires to override insight, I have denied what is in favor of what I wanted it to be. While these times have decreased immensely over time, in relearning this teaching of Rabbi Heschel, I see where I still commit these errors. I know what I know and I am committing to live more of what I know and not let my need to be liked, accepted, etc blind me to the insights I have nor my desires for a larger platform and/or to be relevant override my inner wisdom. While I know I won’t be perfect, my daily inventory, prayer, meditation will focus on this activity. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark