Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 238
“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)
The last phrase of this sentence is another blast of cold air to wake us up and a gentle reminder of the love, grace, and joy we are enveloped in by the universe/God. It is a blast of cold air because it describes another way we commit a “cardinal sin”. Our life ‘hinges’ on our ability to “raise aloft” as the Latin root of this word means. We are being shaken out of our doldrums and our sleep by a call to engage in “the action of raising high” our standard of living!
We have come to bastardize the word exaltation to mean “a state of extreme happiness” which belies the intended meaning, a state of raising our standard of living up, a path of raising aloft our devotion to something greater than ourselves/God, raising up the dignity of one another and the beauty of creation. Immersing oneself in this phrase, in this sentence, we, hopefully, find ourselves understanding more deeply and more fully the call of Rev. Dr. King to work for the day when we are judged for the “content of our character, not the color of our skin”. We can commit to no longer feed the cancer of our soul, prejudice, with the lies and deceptions of self and/or another. Immersing ourselves in this phrase is a call to action, a call to praise one another rather than denigrate one another, a demand to raise aloft our humanity rather than push down someone else for our gain.
Immersing ourselves in this phrase also leads to engage in “raising high” our search for truth, our search for learning rather than our search for power, our search for the words that will convince you of the lies, the deceptions, the ‘alternative facts’ the ‘big lie’ that people spread for their gain of power, prestige, money and to alleviate their fears of ‘not being enough’. We all have front row seats to this circus through the Jan. 6th hearings, what a wonderful job the committee and their staff have done. They are not being hysterical, over the top because the facts are the facts and they speak for themselves. This phrase reminds us, forces us to stop our manipulation of truth and, au contraire, seek the truth, seek understanding of how to use these truths to enhance our living and the life of another(s). Yet, we are still too much in denial, too deep in our need to be deceived and our need to deceive ourselves and another(s) to allow this wisdom to permeate our beingness. How sad! Our life and the life of our planet, our neighbor “hinges” on our decision to let go of the old ideas, to be maladjusted to the conventional notions and mental cliches that have been running our lives for so long, running our lives into misery, prejudice, fear-based, anger, co-dependency, addictions of all sorts, mental/emotional health issues, and spiritual bankruptcy. We have the opportunity to follow Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and teaching of 59 years ago and engage in raising aloft our standard of living. We are being called to respond to the demand of universe/God/the Ineffable One with our higher selves rather than our lower self. We are now able to better hear the demand to choose life, to choose to engage in “raising high” our fellow human being, “raising high” their dignity, their value and their uniqueness, not at the cost of our own, rather in order to “raise aloft” our own dignity, value and uniqueness.
We begin to “hinge” our day on “raising aloft” and “the action of raising high” our day through prayer, which Rabbi Heschel defines as praise, chant, song. Our prayer becomes the song our soul sings in our daily living, not just for a set period of time during the day but the song and the inner fuel and compass for our entire existence. Prayer becomes not something we say/recite and/or experience in a moment of communion with God, rather it becomes the basis for our life, the path we follow and our daily actions reflect the call and demand of God, the call and need of the world, the demand to connect of those around us, those who love us and those whom we love. This new way of living the prayers, I believe, is the way I am understanding Rabbi Heschel’s teaching that “prayer may not save us, prayer will make us worthy of being saved”.
In recovery, we realize we were seeking exaltation in all the wrong places with all the wrong tools. Rather than have our exhalation and our connection come from within, we sought outside sources to “raise aloft” our attitude, our ability to deal with life and path of escape. In recovery, we use prayer to engage us in “the action of raising high” our standards of living, our way of living and our connection to one another.
I find myself realizing the ways I have fallen prey to this “cardinal sin”, failing to realize the “possibility of quiet exaltation”. The pandemic has forced me to engage more in this way of being, my recovery has helped me grown in the ways and frequency of living in “quiet exhalation” and, most of all my daily writing has forced me to see what truly is, to have “an authentic awareness of that which is” as Rabbi Heschel describes/defines “radical amazement”. It is and has been over the years the greatest experience to learn with so many people, to study Rabbi Heschel with a group for about 15+ years, to engage in living the prayers, the teachings, the wisdom of spiritual discipline and Judaism. I continue to feed my soul, my inner life, my mind with quiet exaltation and keep growing this way of truly being alive. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark