Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 147
“It is a protection against the outburst of the inner evils, against arrogance, hybris, self-deification. The end of embarrassment would be the end of humanity.” (Who is Man pg 113)
The last sentence above says it all and, unfortunately, I believe we are on the precipice of the end of humanity. Human beings may survive and exist for a long time, my concern is that we are ending the practice of humanity in our time. It is not a show of humanity to invade another country just because one nation wants to. It is not a show of humanity for the rest of the world to sit idly by with sanctions that are strong and not strong enough to stop a thug from killing innocent people, destroying cities, towns, a way of life the Ukrainians took years to build. People are worried about nuclear war, it destroys the thug as well, yet the world’s humanity is in serious jeopardy when we get scared by talk and the same talk as Adolf Hitler used at Munich with Neville Chamberlain-President Biden, learn the lesson of appeasement and of fear.
We are on the precipice of the end of humanity when our religious institutions and leaders when religion and religious leaders become “dull, oppressive, insipid” as Rabbi Heschel teaches us on page 3 in his book God in Search of Man. Religious leaders are shallow/lacking vigor as the dictionary defines insipid. And we often see that religious leaders want to be passionate about a political issue without connecting to the inhumanity of the issue and/or being so passionate about the immorality of an issue, they forget to see the humanity and how they are affected. We have all witnessed too often the oppressive ways religious leaders and the fundamentalists of their flock use religious teachings as a weapon and wield this weapon to provoke fear and obedience rather than using the teachings to promote more humanity, more justice, more love, more connection to one another! It is a travesty against God, against the Bible, against humanity; yet they promote themselves as the ‘only true believers’. I have been told how sorry they are for me as I am not going to be saved because I am not a Christian-and this passes as being human towards one another? As I write this, I wonder how different these fire and brimstone, fundamentalist religious leaders who need to control the body of a woman, who need to make sure people die in the Death Chamber for their sins, who need to impose Christian Law on American citizens, who need to stand up for excluding people of color from voting, who need to praise the ‘white’ race, who think it is fine to lock people seeking a better life up in cages, especially small children and separate them from their families and lose them in the system. This is what America stands for? This is what God stands for? No wonder our religion has declined!
When optics is more important than substance, we are losing sight of our humanity. When institutions lose their missionary spirit for the sake of ‘on advice of counsel’ we are losing sight of our humanity. When people have to serve the rules rather than the rules serve the people, we are losing sight of our humanity. On this past Shabbat, Chabad in Ukraine was on the phone all day trying to get people out of harms way and into safe territory even though their understanding of the day of rest is to not use a phone, saving a life was more important-which it is in Judaism. Religion becomes dull, from the Dutch meaning crazy, when “faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit;”(God in Search of Man pg 3). It is insane to bastardize God’s Name and make false images of God and religious teachings and pathways for the ‘protection’ of God and religion. It is crazy to see how many religious followers have lost their connection with their own families, communities and engage only with ‘their own kind’. We are all created in the Image of God, we are all Kin Under the Skin, as my brother Rev Mark Whitlock teaches, we are all commanded to care for the stranger, the poor and the needy in our midst and, I would add, inside of us. We have to return our religious leaders and our religious institutions to promote humanity, not political nor fundamental falsehoods! It is crazy to believe that finite humans can understand nor comprehend nor receive all that the Infinite One has to say, so fundamentalism, only one-way is an inhumane practice as well as anti-religious. We, the people, have to retake our religious institutions, our religious texts and restore the humanity to spiritual and religious practice.
In recovery, we are so aware of our own efforts to end humanity through our own actions. Not only were we acting inhumanely, we were forcing another human being to suffer their own actions of inhumanity towards us by not having us in their lives, by becoming afraid to trust people, experiencing the abuse we heaped upon them, the abandonment and message that there was something wrong with them, etc. We engage in living amends each and every day by restoring their humanity, their dignity and showing dignity and being human towards everyone we come in contact with-to the best of our ability.
I am guilty of some of the actions I describe above and I was guilty of many more prior to my recovery. I work hard to ensure that humanity continues, grows and flourishes within me and outside of me. This daily writing, hanging out with and learning from Rabbi Heschel helps me offend less often and I am continuing to search for ways to be of service and love. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark