Daily Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 222
“The biblical words about the genesis of heaven and earth are not words of information but words of appreciation. The story of creation is not a description of how the world came into being but a song about the glory of the world’s having come into being. “And God saw it was good” (Genesis 1:25). This is the challenge: to reconcile God’s view with our experience.” (Who is Man pg.115)
“To reconcile God’s view with our experience” is the greatest challenge humanity has. The verse Rabbi Heschel quotes is after everything was created except humans. “God saw it was good” is a phrase that is written often in the first chapter of Genesis and we humans keep denying this truth, this view of God. We are so busy with our own sense of what is good and not good that we have forgotten, denied, jettisoned God’s view of what is good to our detriment and the detriment of the world we live in. Yet, we seem to be unable to even take on the challenge Rabbi Heschel is giving to us, we seem to be unable to reconcile God’s view with our experience in the ways we treat ourselves and the ways we treat everyone/everything else.
Leaning in/living into this way of being requires us to let go of our false images of our self, another self and God. It requires us to see the Image of God in everything, “beasts of the earth, cattle, everything that creeps on the earth”(Genesis 1:25), and, of course one another. While we are told that we are to “subdue it”(Genesis 1:28), the Hebrew could also mean to “occupy it”. Occupying it is not the same as conquering it, it is not the same as subduing it, it means we live in, we act as stewards, shepherds of the earth and care for it. We occupy this world that God created for the sake of God’s Will, not for our pleasure, not to satisfy our whims, not to have people cater to our needs. We are entrusted with the gift of life, the gift of reason, the gift of spiritual intelligence and connection for our self and for all other creatures and creations. Nowhere are we told use them for our sake, use them carelessly, use them wantonly, yet we continue to do all of these actions that are irreconcilable with God’s view.
Yesterday was another senseless shooting, this time in Tulsa, Ok. Nowhere in God’s view that I have come to understand is the need for senseless killing, the need for assault weapons to be in the hands of anyone but the military, for people who are psychologically, emotionally, spiritually challenged to own guns. Nowhere in God’s view that I understand is there a need to bully one another, seek power for its own sake, create us/them camps and engage in and promote senseless hatred of one another. Yet, we are doing this all the time. The need of a Tucker Carlson to lie to people and spread false rumors does not meet the challenge of reconciling God’s view with our experience, in fact it does the opposite.
In Genesis 1:28 we are told to “replenish/complete the earth” not destroy it, not destroy the creations of God. We are failing in this task/view from God. We can and must begin to see the truth of our actions, we must begin to see the truth of our souls, we must begin to see the truth of our need to engage in T’Shuvah, we must begin to change our vision, we must begin to change our decision making process. We have to move from a false ego view of living to an inner life/spiritual view of living. We must move from a ‘what’s in it for me’ way of living to a ‘what can I add to God’s view’ way of living. We must have move from seeing what we want to see to vision of life what is and what God wants vision of life. We do this through letting go of the lies we tell ourselves, letting go of our need to conquer everyone and everything, letting go of our need to hurt and resent, letting go of our need to punish, letting go of our need to use anything and everything for our good, and letting go of our need to engage in mendacity, self-deception and deception of another.
In recovery, we call ourselves trusted servants, we are here to serve instead of being served. Seeking and reconciling our experiences with God’s view is the path of our recovery. In recovery, we are seeking to recover/discover our own integrity, our own passions, our own purpose that has been placed in us by divine intention.
In writing today, I find new understandings of God’s view. The question I hear a lot in AA:”what would God have me do” has a new impact on me, after immersing myself in Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above. While I am aware of how many time my experiences met/meet Rabbi Heschel’s challenge, I am painfully aware of the times and incidents where they don’t. While my way of being is not for everyone, while my way of being, at times is a little out of control at times, I also know that my way of being is scary for many because I keep leaning into and living into the challenge of Rabbi Heschel. I am by no means perfect nor always correct, and I know I see and hear a different drummer, a different view than many. The times I have ‘been out of control’ are the times when people don’t, won’t, can’t hear me, see me, acknowledge me. This is not a clean up-it is just an observation. We are commanded from the beginning to see one another, complete our self and one another to the best of our ability, and engage in truth, kindness and love; this is God’s view as I understand it today. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark