Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 239
“The secret of spiritual living is the power to praise. Praise is the harvest of love. Praise precedes faith. First we sing, then we believe. The fundamental issue is not faith but sensitivity and praise, being ready for faith.”(Who is Man pg. 116).
OMG, we are struck/given/gifted with the power to praise each and every day from the moment we open our eyes to the moment we close them. Yet, we have cataracts blocking our vision much of the time we are not sleeping physically. These ‘cataracts’ make it almost impossible to praise, to see the reasons to praise, to want what we have and to stop needing what we want to ‘be happy’.
Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above reverberates inside of all of us, yet we have made it a point to cut ourselves off from this way of being, from our spiritual life. The cataracts that society has suggested strongly we wear, the fear of being laughed at, the knowing that all of our praise is, in many ways, simply not adequate to express everything in our soul that we are grateful for and appreciative of, all contribute to the denial of praise we have come to engage in as human beings. We blame science, other people, etc, yet it is our own shame, our own beliefs that we are inadequate, not ‘good enough’, too poor/too rich, too independent/too dependent, there is no entity to praise, the world is a dangerous place and we have to be on guard always, etc; to sustain our praises, to believe life is worth praise, our life is worth praise.
The history of humanity is replete with stories of people who praise being laughed at, ridiculed, shunted aside, even killed for their belief in and practice of praise. The martyrs we read about in history, the martyrs of the Civil Rights movement of the ’60’s, the leaders of todays movement to recognize the “unalienable rights” of every person all are marginalized by the people in power, by the “People of the Lie” as M.Scott Peck writes about in his book of the same name. Most of us are more willing to believe the ones who don’t praise God, who don’t praise truth, who don’t praise kindness, who don’t praise love, who don’t praise compassion, who don’t praise welcoming the stranger, rather than the people who stand for praise, who stand with God, who are willing to admit their own imperfections and use them to help another person learn, use them to help themselves grow, instead of denying them like the majority of people do.
The issue that is being raised by Rabbi Heschel’s first sentence for me today: Are we willing to engage in spiritual living? The world, as history shows, has never fully embraced “spiritual living”, society has never adopted “spiritual living” as the basic modality of life, it is only the minority that does this and, almost always, the people in power (like the Church) use “spiritual living” to control the people who are not in power, ie, “your reward will come in heaven”. Yet, to engage in “spiritual living” means we have to engage in praise, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel today. This means we have to engage in living as worthy human beings, living life by being human a little more each day, living our purpose and passion no matter what anyone else thinks/says, cutting the ropes that bind us to the lies of the majority, the mendacity of society and the deception of ‘fitting in’.
We praise each day through prayer, of course and the words mean nothing and are not enough without the actions they implore us to take. Thanking God/universe for waking up today is wonderful and yet the prayer also reminds us that we are trusted servants of God and our gift of life today means to be compassionate, to be inflamed with passion and power to serve God, to repay the gift of arising today with faithfulness to our purpose, faithfulness to being one grain of sand better today than yesterday. Each prayer is to move us closer to living the spiritual life we were created to live, adding to our corner of the world our unique treasure of completeness, moving the needle and making life a little better for the next generation so they start at a higher level of praise than we did. Not to denigrate our parents, rather to acknowledge that “spiritual living” is constantly evolving and all of us, with our praise, raise the foundation for the next generation so they can raise the foundation of “spiritual living” for the next and so on.
In recovery, gratitude is one of the foundations of our ‘new’ way of living. We praise one another with connection, with gratitude for the wisdom they share and by embracing one another’s spirit, one another’s struggles, one another’s victories over the ‘evil inclination’. We praise God, we praise the people who assist us, we are aware of and focus on the gifts and beauty of life a little more than we focus on the negativity.
I have found praise to be the most important part of my recovery from negativity, my recovery from hurt, betrayal, loss, etc. Praise of God, praise of people, praise of nature, praise of friends, praise of enemies, praise of what has worked well and praise of what where/when/what hasn’t worked well, all praise helps me grow, all praise helps me see clearly the joy of life, the gift of spirit and the beauty of connection. I know I am not in praise/spiritual living all day long, I also know that I grow in extending my praise each day. Praise, “spiritual living” has been and is the best yardstick with which I measure my daily growth in being human. I know that each day I am more faithful than the day before, I am more inflamed with passion to serve each day and I am more faithful. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark