Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 184
“The world is such that in its face one senses owingness rather than ownership. The world is such that in sensing its presence one must be responsive as well as responsible. (Who is Man pg.108)
We are to sense an owing to God for our life, I believe is inherent in Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above. We are under the mistaken impression that our lives are our own and we can do anything we want with them. While it is true we have free-will and we can, in fact, do whatever we want to; Rabbi Heschel’s reminding us that we are also accountable and held to the standard of being human. While we can walk by a homeless/unhoused encampment and not notice, there is a nagging inside of us to do something, even if it is only to feel empathy and compassion for the unhoused/homeless people and their plight. While we can see something terrible happening in our neighborhood and do nothing, we experience a knocking on our soul, a tugging in our inner life to help in some way. These are a few examples of why this teaching is so crucial to our humanity.
We are commanded to “Be Holy” in the 19th Chapter of Leviticus. What does holy mean, really? It is not for the ‘sainted ones’ or the ‘holy rollers’ it is for all of us to participate in holy actions. “Do not stand idly by the blood of your brothers” is one of the ways of holiness. Yet, look how often we, even the most vocal of religious, holy rollers, conservative, progressives among us, forfeit our holiness, forfeit our humanity by doing the opposite of this commandment. We stand idly by the blood of our brothers (and sisters) each and every day without even noticing it. We watch as good people are tarnished with lies, innuendos, and do nothing and/or join in on the mendacious gossip/slander. We stand by as MBS, Putin, Assad torture and gas their own people and the people they are trying to conquer because of fear, oil, money, etc. We stand by and do nothing as the politicians rant and rail about public safety and arrest the homeless, people of color, for no good reason. The John Lewis Civil Rights act is stuck in Congress because Republican Senators would rather “stand idly by the blood of their brothers and sisters” so they can get and retain power and control! These “good god-fearing, idol worshiping religious men and women” would rather see women denied control of their choices regarding abortion, men and women, especially Black men and women, not be able to freely vote because they are afraid of democracy. Yet, they will quote the Bible and do the opposite. They believe they should be able to own their own narratives, they believe they should be able to own another person(s), they believe they should own the power and control of 350 million people!
We, the people, have to remind our politicians, on the right and left as well as in the middle, Republican and Democrat, that they owe us and God. They owe God and us the equality that is inherent in each human life, they owe us and God their best and highest self and service not the lowest and basest self. They owe God and us the unvarnished truth rather than the spin and the lies/deceptions they are spewing. We owe ourselves and our fellow humans honesty and voting as if we owe one another rather than voting our pocketbook. We owe ourselves and one another opportunities to improve our standard of living, helping people not just get off the streets or out of jail or abstinent from their addictive cycles, we owe ourselves and one another real jobs, real mental and spiritual help, actual recovery techniques and places to recover-no matter how long it takes nor how much money one can afford. We owe God and one another our best effort in the moment we are in, not some mythical best nor the best of yesterday-the best we can be in this moment is all we owe and it seems like such a steep price to pay for so many and most of us refuse to pay what we owe.
In recovery, we know our recovery is dependent upon our spiritual condition. Each day, we are grateful for this day, we are aware that tomorrow is not guaranteed and we have to make the most of today by repaying the debt we owe. We owe God and the people around us a debt of decency, honesty, openmindedness, willingness to change, kindness, love and truth. Each day, in recovery, we pay at least the interest on our debt and are infused with more and more power and joy to begin to pay off the principle.
I come from a long line of people who did not “stand idly by” while injustice happened, who did not engage in mendacity and power grabs. My relatives taught me to respect every person I met because we are all created equal, we all have the same unalienable rights and no matter the color of one’s skin, we are judged by the content of our character. My grandfathers lived this way, my parents and aunts and uncles lived this way, and my daughter and nieces and nephews live this way. I cannot “stand idly by the blood of my brothers and sisters” and this gets me in trouble a lot! I rebuke someone when they are doing the wrong thing, going down the wrong path and, while I am not always ‘nice’ about it, I am vilified at times and loved at other times. I am at peace with being rebuked for my beliefs, I am okay at being rebuked fairly and unfairly, I am engaged in acceptance of people who use my rebukes against me and claim to be victims and/or hurt by the truths I speak. I have to pay my debt in my unique way because my debt, like my soul, is unlike anyone else’s. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark