Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 217
“The self is always in danger of being submerged in anonymity, of becoming a thing. To celebrate is to contemplate the singularity of the moment and to enhance the singularity of the self. What was shall not be again”. (Who is Man pg. 115)
“Celebrate” comes from the Latin meaning ‘frequented or honored’. Enhance comes from the Latin for “make high”. Using these two definitions, I hear Rabbi Heschel calling to us to honor and heighten the moments we have and the self we are. It is impossible to have what was because we are in a different time, a different era, a different moment. Yet we crave the certainty, the glory, the ‘way things used to be’. I hear Rabbi Heschel reminding us to put down these old ideas, stop our conventional notions and mental cliches from hindering our learning, our knowing, our seeing and stop making our self less than it is. Each and every moment is filled with the opportunity to honor and raise up our self, our world, our community, our way of life, our standard of living. Yet, we fail to do this because we want to keep the “status quo”, we want what we used to have, we are bereft at the loss of what was.
The White Replacement Theory is an example of wanting what was-white christian men ruling and controlling the lives of anyone not like them. Even the poorest white christian in rural areas felt superior as long as white people were in charge of their women, blacks, browns, Jews, Irish, Italians, etc. While Irish and Italians were eventually let in, people of color, Jews, were thought of as making the white race impure and they were/are inferior, etc. How many people have to be killed by these god-fearing white christians, how many souls have to be raped, persecuted, marginalized, not allowed to enter the country, etc to satisfy these god-fearing white christians? How long and how far will these god-fearing white christians be used and exploited by the good old boys who control them and the Senators, Congresspeople? How long and how far will these good old boys who claim to be doing god’s work go to keep power, control, and kill the democracy that made it possible for them to have their wealth and power? I use small letters for God and Christian because these charlatans are idolators, they are todays Pagan Priests willingly sacrificing our children and anyone not like them at the altar of power, the altar of Baal, the altar of Evil. Killing innocent children in Uvalde, in Sandy Hook, in Parkland, in the myriad of other school shootings, is not the way to honor the moment, not the way to raise up the self, it is the path to destruction, to defaming the Name of God!
A formula for honoring the moment and the self, heightening the experience of the oneness of one’s self is to begin each day with gratitude for awakening. Jewish Tradition tells us to thank God/Higher Power for returning our soul to us with compassion and acknowledge God’s faithfulness to us. Meditating on this prayer reminds one of God’s care, concern and need for one to be the one we are created to be. We are blessed by being alive, we are shown compassion for our imperfections, and God is with us all the time. A next part of a morning routine is to write, contemplate a gratitude list, writing down the gifts we are given by God, by other people, by nature, by the universe. Making sure to keep it fresh by realizing all the nuances of the day before that we might not have been aware of. All the people who impacted us by saying hello as we walked by, reached out and engaged us in conversation, the new learning we did yesterday that will make today one grain of sand better, the people we impacted by connecting with them. Awareness before and after eating is another way to honor the moment, heighten the self by making eating an intentional experience. Doing this makes us more aware of the moment, grateful for the opportunity and ability to eat, to pay for our food, to make our food, to share our food, to sit and eat with friends and foes alike, with strangers who become known and share themselves with us as we share ourselves with them, etc. It is an action that will make the moment heightened and honor our self and another self as well. The practice of praying before and after one eats plus 3 other times during the say and before we go to bed in the Jewish Tradition is mirrored by/mirrors the Muslim Tradition of praying 5 times a day, all for the sake of awareness, celebrating and enhancing the moment and the self.
In recovery, we are keenly aware that we have only this moment, this day, this experience. We know the dangers of ‘stinking thinking’, of taking things for granted, of staying stuck and stagnant. We know the pitfalls of self-sufficiency and self-aggrandizement, of euphoric recall and mourning the ‘good old days’; a spiritual and, possibly, physical ailment leading to death. Honoring the moment and raising up our self, our uniqueness, our oneness is the path of real recovery.
I do, for the most part, follow Rabbi Heschel’s teachings and have for 35+ years. It keeps me out of resentment, “where’s mine”, feeling used, and detaching from life. I forget this teaching and way of being at times AND I feel blessed to be able to return to it more and more. I use this writing to center me, to heighten (enhance) my soul through the insights I gain each day, I use my prayer routine, never being routine about it, and I continue throughout the day to recognize the blessings in life and the things I should be changing. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark