Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 235
“The cardinal sin is in our failure not to sense the grandeur of the moment, the marvel and mystery of being, the possibility of quiet exaltation.” (Who is Man pg.116)
Rabbi Heschel’s brilliance is in his prose, his poetry, his message and his love for all humanity. His use of the word “cardinal” above is so appropriate and powerful, so impactful and useful for all of us. “Cardinal” comes from the Latin meaning “hinge” and the dictionary defines it as meaning “fundamental, of greatest importance”. Everything we do hinges on our failure to sense the grandeur of the moment and/or our ability to sense the grandeur of the moment, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel today. I use the phrase “understanding Rabbi Heschel today” and a more apt description would be “as I experience Rabbi Heschel today”. Each day, each time I encounter and experience Rabbi Heschel, it is different and new, otherwise I am failing “to sense the grandeur of the moment”. We are living in a time, like many other times, where the majority of the world is unable, unwilling to sense the grandeur of the moment, where so many people are willfully blind to the grandeur of the moment and where so many people are having their lives hinge on desperation, despair, anger, ego, where’s mine attitude, disconnection from the human experience of community and camaraderie. So many people are unable to remember they too were immigrants, they too had ancestors who struggled to make it here in America, they too had people come in illegally or before the restrictive immigration laws were cemented in our legal system. They have forgotten, lost, thrown away the truth that their ability to live fully and wholly is dependent on their ability to “sense the grandeur of the moment”.
I am struck by the need of people in power, in charge to go along with both the “big lie” and the many little lies in order to hold, gain, exert power over their ‘enemies’. Our political system, like our legal system, was set up as a way to have all voices heard and truth sought and found. Instead, we have a legal system that is interested in pushing a political/religious agenda that does not represent all of the people and a government that “the Party of Lincoln” has decided should not be dedicated to a “government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth”. Rather government should be dedicated and dictated by the few, the rich and powerful and the rest of us should serve them. We are being held hostage by people who believe the poor and the middle class should pay a larger percentage of actual income in taxes than the rich and the mega-rich, the exact same “taxation without representation” that was at the heart of the Revolutionary War! Yet, because these charlatans, these mendacious authoritarians, are so hellbent on power we find ourselves in constant gridlock rather than smart compromises, constant war rather than seeking peaceful ways to work things out and constant hatred rather than seeking paths to common interests and dialogue.
The two wars mentioned above were for freedom for white people and then freedom for people of color. They happened because enough people could “sense the grandeur of the moment”, they knew their very existence, happiness, connection to a power greater than themselves, God, depended on their ability to ”sense the grandeur of the moment”, they knew their ability to ‘meet their maker’ without fear and shame depended on seeking freedom for all people and to remember that we are all created equal. Yet, so many people have decided their lives ‘hinge’ on their need to crush anyone not like them, anyone that doesn’t think like them, anyone that doesn’t vote like them, anyone that doesn’t lie like them, anyone that doesn’t engage in self-deception like them. Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom from some 59 years ago is so prescient and so needed right now. We need to have a new experience of Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom, the wisdom of the founding fathers, the wisdom of Lincoln, et al.
In recovery, we are acutely aware that our lives depend on sensing the grandeur of the moment. We wake up and pray each day in one form or another, we write gratitude lists, amends lists, to do lists. We make calls and attend meetings to connect with other people in recovery and to check in so we don’t stray too far from our sensing the grandeur of this moment and every moment. We don’t achieve this goal, usually, and we are never not in pursuit of making every moment count, immersing ourselves in the grandeur and beauty of the moment we are in. In recovery, we are committed to no longer committing this “cardinal sin”.
Once again, I am, like Jacob, made small by the kindness and truth of Rabbi Heschel and God. I know of so many instances of my inability to “sense the grandeur of the moment” and commit this “cardinal sin”. In reviewing these times, I also know how deeply sad, lonely, misunderstood, defeated I felt which led directly to my inability to “sense the grandeur of the moment”. I am excited and uplifted right now because I know the formula out of despair, sadness, feeling misunderstood, etc-sensing the “grandeur of the moment” I am in rather than staying stuck in the moments that are past. I see so clearly, as I have many times in the past without realizing the formula/path to achieving this state of connecting to/with the “grandeur of the moment”. Sunday I will discuss more ways to live in this grandeur, more ways to cease and desist from committing this “cardinal sin”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark