Daily Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 227
“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)
Reading the news, listening to politicians, seeing the reversal of the humanness we fought for in the 1960’s leads us back to this wisdom of Rabbi Heschel’s. Being led by Dr King, Rabbi Heschel, the Berrigan Brothers, and so many more, we ushered in an era where we reconciled God’s view with our experience and now, there are a lot of people working hard to undo the humanness we fought so hard for.
The borrowed notions and past perceptions of immigrants is disgustingly ignorant since all of our ancestors were immigrants at some time, unless we are of Native American descent. This is a fact and there is no “alternative facts” that are valid in the face of this fact, yet there are people who have the misguided belief that America is theirs, America is the white man’s domain and those that let immigrants in for anything other than servitude are wrong. These people are led by liars and thieves, power-hungry and prestige seeking people who use them to get their way, to get their dirty money gains and the power to crush anyone who isn’t like them and doesn’t go along with them. Yet, we seem powerless to stop them, the people who believe in being human seem unable to communicate to their deceived followers any modicum of truth and reality. Here is the great challenge as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above in the real time of today: Never losing our humanness, never stop “loving thy neighbor” no matter how much we disagree with them, are frustrated by them, hated by them, outshouted by them. We cannot live on the past perceptions of “the man” and have disdain and hatred towards them, we can and must resist the lies, the deceptions, the actions of hatred they are perpetrating on our country, our neighbors, our women, our children, our selves and not become them. We cannot live in God’s view, live in God’s principles, want to win it all for God and act UnGodly, act with vengeance, malice and hatred, be mendacious and mean, ‘fight fire with fire’. Doing this brings us back to the borrowed notion that this is the only way to ‘win’ and ‘winning is everything’. It isn’t, it can be one of the most spiritually devastating and debilitating things to happen to us, when it comes at the cost of our dignity, our humanity, our souls.
Ron DeSantis and his bullying of the Special Olympics is an example of borrowed notions relying on past perceptions. DeSantis is playing on people’s fears and catering to knowledge of science that people have. He is not doing this to help the people he governs, he is not practicing any humanness, he is not reconciling God’s view with his/our experience, he is seeking power, he is seeking absolute power, he is using the vulnerabilities of the people who support him to cheer him on and using the most vulnerable people to exploit them, make them ‘kiss the ring’ and bow down to and succumb to his hatred, his authoritarianism, his mendacious way of being! DeSantis, the people who put on the National Prayer Breakfast, the people who groom lawyers to be conservative judges, the politicians who take their money, etc all live on borrowed notions and past perceptions, wanting to return to “the good old days” of white supremacy, anti-immigrant, anti-semitism, racism, etc.
We, people of faith, people who believe in the dynamic nature of the American experiment of democracy, who believe in the dynamic nature of spiritual paths, have to stand up and say NO! We have to use our inner sight, our inner wisdom, our connection to something greater than our pride and prejudice, our false ego and rise up, shake off the inertia that has been gripping us and holding us back. We know that not using our insight to reconcile our experiences with God’s view leads to ruin and death. It is time to vote, it is time to march, it is time to resist and it is time to plan our future by living each and every day differently. The message of the Exodus from Egypt is: Slavery will and must end. The message of standing at Mount Sinai is: You matter and God has made a covenant with each individual to help all of us live better and together. It is high time we move closer to fulfilling these messages.
In recovery, holding onto old ideas, engaging in euphoric recall never ends well for any of us. We have to be in this moment, we know we cannot have the experience this moment is calling for while being stuck in borrowed notions and past perceptions. In recovery, we keep recovering our insight, reconciling the opposing voices in our inner life and transforming our negativity into positive energy so we can move forward.
I have not always been human, even in my recovery. I see this through the teaching above, I have fallen prey to inertia, to relaxation, to borrowed notions and past perceptions which have led me to trust the wrong people and suspect the people who ‘had my back’. I realize that every time I am in this place, I am forfeiting my humanness and harming the humanness of those around me. I am deeply sorry for this. I also know that I have been more human today than I was yesterday, or 36 years ago! I am a work in progress and I, like you, have to celebrate the progress. “Judge me not for where I am, but for the distance I’ve travelled” is a quote from Henry Ward Beecher that we all need to appreciate and live by. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark