Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 233
“Every moment is a new arrival, a new bestowal. How to welcome the moment? How to respond to the marvel?” (Who is Man pg. 116)
In welcoming the moment, we first have to realize the preciousness of each moment. As Rabbi Heschel teaches, every moment is new, different and will never happen again. All of us who have lost loved ones, friends, know the ache for one more conversation, the things we want to say to them that were not in our consciousness when they died, the exciting events we want them to be part of, etc. This is one of the ways we know that there is no other moment like this one and welcoming it, embracing it is crucial for our well-being and having little to no regrets or ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda’ thoughts. Welcoming the moment is the key to living well, it is the key to living in joy and harmony with the universe, it is the key to fulfilling the divine purpose we were created for. It is the key to living in truth, decency, kindness, justice, love, and compassion. Welcoming the moment is the gift that keeps on giving, it gives us new, refreshing ideas, it gives us the opportunity to repair the errors of the moments before and the sight to see the road ahead and navigate it with dignity and grace.
Welcoming the moment gives us allows us to be present, be alert, be aware, to celebrate what is and to acknowledge the preciousness, the glory, the beauty, the joy each moment is pregnant with. It also gives the strength to face the pain, heartache, sadness, betrayals, fears we may have from the previous moments/experiences. Welcoming the moment is the only path to wholeness and holiness because both are fleeting events that pass many people by through their ignorance of a moment’s “new arrival, a new bestowal”.
“How to welcome the moment” is the spiritual challenge that we all face each and every day. Some people believe and practice subterfuge, mendacity, deception of another human being as what moments are for and welcome each opportunity to practice their deceit, their con as we see from the Jan 6 hearings. The charlatans who are the true RINO’s like Trump and his minions, the elected officials like Kevin McCarthy who are standing by, with and alongside of Trump and his lies, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Sarah Palin, et al who are promoting the ‘BIG LIE” and trying to tear down the American Democratic System all welcome each moment as an opportunity to spread more lies and grab more power. While they seem to be ‘winning’ this is not what Rabbi Heschel means, in my understanding of this teaching.
We welcome the moment by being alert, being aware, staying fresh, not dwelling on past moments. Rather we use the knowledge we have gained, the inner insights we have added to from past moments and we immerse ourselves in this moment, knowing we are going to learn, experience and connect with people, places and things that can inspire us, awe us and bring us closer to the Ineffable One, the creative source of the universe and use the power, the insight and the energy we are given in this moment to propel us closer to one another, repel the racist, Anti-Semitic, senseless hatred that we face from other people and, overcome our own prejudices, our own “eye disease” and “cancer of our soul”.
We welcome the moment, I believe, through radical amazement, never taking anything for granted. Staying open to the newness and being able to let go of our old ideas, our being stuck in the interpretations of laws, ways to live, conventional notions and mental cliches that have been handed down. Instead, we see the moment as new with fresh eyes, with fresh intuition, with fresh spirit and respond to this moment in real time, not in past time. “We have always done it this way”, “it was good enough for me, so it is good enough for you”, etc are not the ways to welcome the moment, they are the paths to denying the newness, the preciousness and the gift of every moment. Welcoming the moment is achieved when we first realize our lives are a gift, we get to live in this moment and embracing this moment makes us aware of our surroundings, aware of the people we love and love us, aware of the beauty that God has filled the earth with and the joy of true covenantal connections.
In recovery, we all know how close we came to physical and/or spiritual death so each moment becomes precious, each moment is a gift and we want to make sure we are not blowing by the moments, the people we encounter and the wisdom of the moment we are in. In recovery, “one day at a time” sometimes becomes “one moment at a time” when we realize days are going by and we were not immersed in them, not fully aware of them.
I am thinking about the conversations I never had with my father since he died on Jan.12, 1966. While I loved and appreciated and adored and was known by my father, I wish I could have one more conversation, one more “I love you Dad” and “I love you Mark”, one more word of advice and wisdom. I welcome each moment with anticipation and excitement, with insight and acceptance. I welcome each moment as an opportunity to repair the damage I have caused and to plan for and envision what’s next. I welcome each moment by staying in truth, kindness, self-compassion, love and justice as much as I possibly can. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark