Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 218
“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)
We are all unique individuals and we are not created to be carbon copies of one another. We are not now, nor were we ever, called upon to be ‘like the Jones’ as in “keeping up with the Jones’”. This lie is society’s way of controlling our creativity and individuality. The ‘powers that be’ are afraid of our individuality and creativity because they know behind their facades is emptiness and they do not want to be found out. They do not want their power threatened, usurped, etc. This is true for governments, religious orders, business’, races, etc. Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above speaks to our responsibility to not buy into the lies we have been told, not succumb to the tyranny of sameness, and not miss this moment to take action.
In the Talmud, we are told we have infinite worth and dignity which is equal to everyone else’s and each of us has a unique worth, as I have written about before. The paradox of this teaching is the tension we need to live in; my unique worth is comparable to no one else’s and their unique worth is no less than mine. We share the dignity of being human and each of us are human in our own unique manners. No one is worth more than me, no one is worth less than me; an outrageous statement in today’s and yesterday’s world. Of course Mitch McConnell thinks he is worth more than me because he is a Senator with power and keeping power at all costs to human life is most important. AOC and her squad value their worth as greater than mine because they are willing to condone anti-semitism, anti-Israel sentiments without ever looking at the facts that the “poor” Palestinians left Israel in 1948, participated in all of the wars to “drive the Jews into the sea” and would not go along with the UN Mandate. We hear the words of equal worth and dignity from both poles of the spectrum, the actions…not so much. Basic background checks and limiting the sale of assault weapons is a denial of rights according to the Gun Enthusiasts. Yet, the 21 people killed in Uvalde and the over 220 school shootings between 2010 and 2019 are not denial of the basic human right of dignity and worth and safety? How do you explain that Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, Donald T Trump, et al?
We have to begin a new movement, not a civil rights movement, we did that before. We have to begin a movement of celebration of moments and celebration of our individual selves. We are being called upon each and every day to live up to our individual talents and gifts, to live into the moment we are in and own our authentic lives and our authentic souls, not the ones we are told we have, not the jobs we are told we should take. Rather, we need to begin a movement towards enhancing the moment we are in by being the truest self possible in this moment. We have to celebrate our humanity through being an ‘original’ self, unlike anyone else, respecting and needing everyone else to make our life whole and honoring their dignity and our own-never sacrificing the worth and dignity of anyone including our self. It is time for us to stand up and repair the error of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden-hiding!
When we are living as our individual self in our own unique creative manner and joining with other individual selves living in their own unique creative manner, we create the world that God envisions in the Torah-a world of caring for the stranger, the poor, the needy, a world of justice tempered with mercy, a world of decency and kindness, a world of truth and love. After all, isn’t this in everyone’s spiritual DNA? The only thing that stops us, is our succumbing to the lies and controls of another, of society. Lets break the yoke of these societal norms and live free, celebrate this moment and celebrate our individual self.
In recovery, we wrestle with this way of being everyday. We engage in a discipline which teaches us more about our self and how to celebrate and enhance our self, living in each moment and complying with certain societal norms. There are times, however, when our authenticity rubs up against the discipline we are following and those are the times when we put our individuality, our authenticity before the norm so we live truthfully and more whole.
I have found celebrating the moment easier than celebrating the self at times. I am, through this writing and immersion in Rabbi Heschel’s teachings these 218 days (as well as over the years) finding my path to celebrating both. I am no longer afraid of someone else’s judgements of me, I am no longer afraid of being laughed at nor being shunned. I am no longer in fear of the securities I used to count on because I am engaged in celebrating the moment I am in, enhancing my self and celebrating the enhanced selves of those around me. I am throwing off the more of the yokes I have been enslaved by and living with the Yoke of Heaven more rather than the yoke of society, of people who seek power only, of people who believe they can rewrite history so as to make themselves right, people who believe any human life that is different from their ‘group’ is not as important, not as worthy, not as dignified, hence they can ignore, defame and deny them as they and their ‘group’ sees fit. Let the movement of human dignity begin/continue. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark