Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 178
“Meaning is found in responding to the demand, meaning is found in sensing the demand.” (Who is Man pg.108)
To sense the demand means to be alive, to be aware and to be engaged. I heard stories of students who were upset with Rabbi Heschel because he would cancel a class to attend a rally, not understanding that if one is not engaged in life, if one is not engaged in caring for the poor, the needy, the stranger, than one can never sense the demand, one can never find real meaning in their living. Yet, like those students, so many of us are still complaining about caring for the poor, the needy and the stranger.
We have become so stone-faced and wear so much armor that many people don’t flinch when Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Kevin McCarthy, Moscow Mitch McConnell spew their false claims, swear fealty to a person whom they call a liar and reprehensible, Donald Trump. We are deaf to their lies, we go along with their treachery, we even go so far as to applaud their hatred of the poor, the needy, the stranger while they claim they are people of deep faith! How ridiculous, yet there are a lot of Evangelicals, Jews, Catholics, Hispanics, etc who bow down to them and to Trump, who support their efforts to ‘whiten up this country a little more’, agree that ‘white is right and might’, etc. It is so antithetical to Rabbi Heschel’s teachings above and I am at a loss to understand/explain this phenomenon, almost.
The explanation comes from our lack of engagement in our own inner life. It comes from our inability to see the neediness of our selves. It comes from a denial of the spiritual poverty we live in and a fear of facing the ways we are a stranger both to our self and to the world. Unlike Moses who “was a stranger in a strange land” and learned to live there and thrive with wife, family, job, etc; we are afraid to acknowledge that we are a stranger by design, we are a stranger because we are endowed with a demand from God that is like no one else’s. It is our fate to be a little lonely, knowing we are never alone. Yet, because we are still looking to fit in, looking to be rich, trying to seem self-contained and self-sufficient, we are getting more and more impoverished, more and more spiritually bankrupt, more and more of a stranger who experiences life as being on the outside looking in.
We are in desperate need of cleaning out the fears of being authentic, the fears of getting back to the core of our being, the fears of confronting the truth about ourselves, the truth of our being a slave to the whims of our own emotions/ego. It is a perfect time in the spiritual world to confront lies we have been telling ourselves, the deceptions of others that we have been buying into for fear of facing the truth, the destructive actions that have become natural and, seemingly, constructive. During this Holy Week, this period of Ramadan, the preparation and then the 8 days of Passover, we have to begin to say no to the mendacity that has ruled our living, we have to say no to the people who continually turn the stranger away, we have to say no the lie that we are not the poor and the needy, we have to say no to the people who refuse to care for them and make the rich and powerful into the poor and the needy!
We need to say yes to the rescuing of the captives, we need to say yes to the prophets of today, we need to say yes to ending the “eye disease/cancer of the soul” of prejudice in any and all forms. We need to say yes to seeing the Divine Image that is in every human being, we need to say yes to the caring for one another, we need to say yes to ensuring equal opportunity and yes to the individual equity that people build in themselves. We need to say yes to the call of our soul which is the only path to sensing the demand of God.
In recovery we are taught that service is a two-way street. We both need to ask for the help we need, maybe even ask what help we need, and offer the help we can give. Welcoming the stranger is something that recovery does very well, everyone is seen as a gift to the group, an asset that makes the whole better and a human being in need of kindness and love. We are aware of our own spiritual deficiencies, which is what brought us to recovery, and we embrace the imperfections of ourselves and one another with patience, kindness and we hold on!
I have been in the spiritual poverty of despair and sadness and, I realize, for no real nor good reason. I fell prey to the lies and deceptions of another(s) and began to believe them. Doing this prevented me from adding my wisdom, service and energy to the world, it prevented me from sensing the demand from God, it stole the meaning and joy of living from me, and I am sure I wasn’t so pleasant to be around. In the Talmud, we are asked if these sufferings are dear to us and, today, I realize that my soul said no and it was overridden by my mind and emotions because they said yes. I am shuddering at the subtlety of my experience. And, I am committed to stand up, with the help of the people who know me, love me, trust me and whom I know, love and trust, to the challenges of life today, the demands of God today and the service I can bring today. It is time for me to be liberated from the lies, the deceptions, the sufferings I have bought into and I hope you are liberated from yours. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark