Daily Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 226
“We, however, live on borrowed notions, rely on past perceptions, thrive on inertia, delight in relaxation. Insight is a strain, we shun it frequently or even permanently. The demand, as understood in biblical religion, is to be alert and open to what is happening.” (Who is Man pg. 115-116)
Inertia is the killer of progress, the killer of spirit, the killer of connection and the killer of making our world a little better than how we found it. Inertia comes from the Latin meaning unskilled and/or inactive. When we are unskilled, which every one is in some areas of life, we either explore to learn more or we hire people who are craftspeople, skilled at what we need to have done to get the ‘job’ done. When we are inactive, we just don’t give a damn enough to call the people who can get it done and we just go along with the way things are. Being/staying inactive doesn’t work for physical repairs to buildings, property, merchandise, bodies nor does it our spiritual health, our moral engagement nor our stewardship of our governmental process’.
We are in a period of great inertia, unfortunately, I believe. We are witnessing people calling in ‘skilled liars’ as craftsmen to do their thinking for them. We are witnessing the inactivity of people to learn for themselves the facts of what is happening in their own world, the truth of their being used by authoritarians (both right and left) to be sheep following along down the primrose path of their destruction, their enslavement, the future of their children and grandchildren being mortgaged and leveraged so a few white men can enjoy their power for a little longer. We are witnessing the destruction of the democracy founded in 1776 and enshrined in 1789 with the ratification of the Constitution along with the Bill of Rights. Yet, like Nero in old Rome, people are fiddling around because of inertia while our democracy is burning up, people are either joining in wholeheartedly because someone else has done their thinking for them and they are guppies lapping up the lies and/or people are sitting back like Jews did in Nazi Germany saying ‘it is bad now and we have been through this before, it too will pass’ and we all know what happened there.
When we are thriving on inertia and seeking relaxation rather than being engaged in, aware of, and steering what is happening, we relinquish our power and our birthright. We are so intent to either ‘go along to get along’, so inactive as to not listen for nor search out truth, we just let our spiritual life, our mental acuity and, most of all, the truth go lax, we let them loose from our grasp and they are no longer the foundation of our living, mendacity and self-deception take over and we become pawns in the hands of the ‘grand Poobah leader’! We relinquish our Self to the control of another person/group and make false images of our self, another self and the ‘other’ (anyone not on my side). This is the way the Israelites went into slavery in Egypt when they were more numerous and mighty than the Egyptians, this is how the Russians came to be ruled by Stalin, Putin, et al, this is the path the Hungarians took to be ruled by Orban, this is the way MBS is ruling Saudi Arabia, etc.
We have a choice, each and every day, to continue down the path of broken promises, worship false idols, engage in mendacity and self-deception, thrive on inertia and delight in letting our moral and spiritual foundations go/rot and a choice to say NO to the lies of our minds, the lies of the charlatans and liars who are saying one thing to us-‘we care so deeply for our fellow human beings’ and stopping all attempts to make life better for those most vulnerable, to have common-sense gun control (who needs an assault weapon to hunt with) and to compromise. We have to say YES to the call of our soul, to “love God with all of our heart, all our soul and all of our everything” as the V’Ahavta prayer teaches, say YES to “guard and do” the teachings for today that will make our lives better and the lives of those around us better as we learn in Deuteronomy, say YES to living as children on the Sovereign of the earth and make sure we replenish and care for our planet, our country, our freedoms and those of everyone else.
In recovery, we know we cannot rest on our laurels. We are aware we are in recovery or not based on the nature of our spiritual condition. When we become too engaged in relaxation, when we become either stuck in our place, thinking we can do today what we did yesterday and everything will be ok, when we seek out the wrong people to listen to because they are the loudest and appeal to our lower self, we are in deep shit, we are in relapse mode and we will cause suffering to many and to our self. Staying the course of spiritual growth, spiritual progress keeps us on the path that we are meant to be on and we will recover our passion and discover our purpose.
I have, I realize, sought out the wrong craftspeople to help me. In hindsight, I realize their agenda and mine were not meshing, I realize that my arrogance and my inattention led me to believe that “you want what I want” and I found out, as the song says, “send in the clowns, don’t bother they’re here”. I have been the clown, the fool because I have given into inertia and sought relaxation. I have learned a hard lesson again! I am grateful that I keep learning, I am grateful that I can discern quicker the ways I thrive on inertia, the ways I no longer buy the lies of another person just to get along, that I can stand for and by myself in truth, in love, in connection to God. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark