Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 219
“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)
For this movement of Human Dignity to continue and flourish, we must heed the last sentence above. As Rabbi Heschel teaches, “the greatest hinderance to knowledge is our adjustment to conventional notions and mental cliches”(Man is Not Alone, pg 11). Our constant insistence on ‘recapturing’ the “good old days” is a path to “being submerged in anonymity, of becoming a thing” as the first sentence reminds us. We are so in need of certainty that we are constantly in danger of trying to make what was be again. It is impossible, there is only one moment like this moment, what I am writing today is for today, and while wisdom is eternal, it is only eternal because it can be applied in today’s moment, today’s situation and used differently today than it was yesterday, last week, when first spoken/written. Wisdom has to be dynamic to be wisdom, I hear Rabbi Heschel teaching, and it has to be dynamic to be eternal.
So many people are seeking to ‘regain what was’ when ‘our country was great’ when ‘our family stood for something’, when “religious behaviorism and spiritual plagiarism”were good for you and the norm. We are trying to recoup the money we have squandered/lost in the market and other investments, we are trying to regain our status and our __(fill in the blank). This is what tarnishes our Human Dignity Movement, it is what society, people in power or who want power use to stamp out this movement, they do not want us to be part of this Human Dignity Movement because they then lose their control and power, each person is encouraged and able to reclaim their “unalienable rights of life, liberty and happiness” not wait for the powers that be bestow them. Attempting to regain what was is a fool’s errand, it is a denial of God, a denial of truth, a denial of today and our task/demand from God to make our corner of the world better today, use what is and follow through on the call from God to us. “I coulda been a contender” “the one that got away”, euphoric recall, family get-togethers where the discussion focuses on what was, not what is all belie the teaching of Rabbi Heschel in the last sentence above.
It is our responsibility to use the gift of today, the newness of today, the possibility that today brings to the best of our ability. We are charged by the Universe, the Ineffable One to immerse ourselves in this day, this moment, see what is, how we can make it better, how we can help more people, how we can create something new from yesterday’s cast-offs, how we can, in the words of my friend, Jack Bender, make blessings out of Junk. He constantly sculpts out of old junk he finds and makes it new for today, he paints the world he sees and gives us the message that we have power to change what was in the now.
We get stuck in the past and, even though we believe we are hip, slick and cool, we copy what another person is doing, has done. We believe if we do today what we did yesterday, everything will be okay. These lies we tell ourselves hinder our Human Dignity Movement, they block our pathway out of anonymity, “of becoming a thing”. Only as we let go of the past and see today as new, exciting, challenging; only as we see today as dynamic and in need of our presence to repair what is and enhance what can be, can we truly live life authentically and without “becoming submerged in anonymity” and we can prevent our “becoming a thing”. Being alive is more than just breathing and ‘just getting through the day,’ being alive is dynamic, it is responsive and it is fresh. Reacting is old, it is boring and it is a path to anonymity. The Human Dignity Movement is letting go of the old stereotypes, the old lies, the old notions and cliches. The Human Dignity Movement is waking up and realizing today is new, it never was, never will be again and we are different, we will never be like this and we never were like we are right now. It is time for us to claim our birthright of “You Matter”, it is time we let go of resentments and old wounds that stop us from being here now as Ram Dass used say. We have the ability, do we have the surrender to God’s Will to make the Human Dignity Movement a daily practice, a reality and a worldwide movement?
In recovery, we know the pitfalls of being in yesterday and/or tomorrow. We know the lies of euphoric recall, we know the dangers of trying to recreate what was; leaving our recovery and going back to the way things were and they were not good! We know our resentments, our not being in the present will cause us pain and, in turn, cause pain to all of the people around us. We take great care to stay in the now, to stop our minds from running away from us and enjoying the newness of today, the wonder of today and the joy of being here, now.
I have been stuck in the past at times, I have wanted to be in ‘my glory days’ again and, I realize two things: 1) they were not as glorious as I remember and I was blessed to be able to serve the Ineffable One and a lot of human beings in my unique way. 2) I have to be in today in order to respond to what the Ineffable One is showing to me, what the calling of my soul is today and the path to fulfilling the call as much as I can. I don’t need to be yesterday’s Mark Borovitz, I need to be today’s. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark