Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 266
“Man may forfeit his sense of the ineffable. To be alive is a commonplace; the sense of radical amazement is gone; the world is familiar, and familiarity does not breed exaltation or even appreciation.” (Who is Man pg.116)
The first sentence above is the root of all of our problems today, yesterday and will be tomorrow, I believe. We have forfeited our sense of the ineffable in our search for facts, in our search for power, in our search for certainty, in our search for protection against bad things happening. Yes, people pray to God for help, for health, their own and another’s, yet having a sense of the ineffable is a different experience. Sense, according to the Latin is to “have a feeling, meaning”. I believe Rabbi Heschel is teaching us that to have a sense of the ineffable is to feel the meaningfulness of our living, the importance of following a way of living that is “compatible with being a partner of God” as he says elsewhere and often. I also understand his angst and worry over this phenomenon, over this travesty and trauma to the human spirit, to our humanity and to the ineffable.
Our need for answers is part of the human inclination, it is probably the main catalyst for the Garden of Eden story, if Adam and Eve were not searching for answers as to their own existence, they probably would not have eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Yet, they did and since then we have been creatures who continue to seek answers to more and more questions, stemming from the main questions: “Who Am I” and “What Am I?” As I write this, I realize, once again, we are asking the wrong questions so the answers we get, while correct for these questions, are not going to feed our sense of the ineffable, they are going to help us forfeit the sense of the ineffable which, as I said above, leads to more and more problems: more angst; more hatred; more prejudice; more blame; less responsibility; more killing and more mendacity and many more.
We are witnessing the destruction of freedoms in our country by people who are claiming that they ‘know what god wants’, I don’t capitalize god here because the god they believe in and the altar they worship at is of their own making, not the ineffable spirit of the universe Rabbi Heschel is teaching us about, not the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, not the higher consciousness of Buddha. No, the god they believe in and the altar they worship at is one of narcissism, one of power, one of control, one of mendacity and one of deception. The charlatans of today all spew out the gospels of extremes in search of power for themselves, not the constituents they were elected to represent, not the constitution they swore to uphold, not the welcoming of the stranger they were taught by Emma Lazarus on the Statue of Liberty. They are intent on securing their power to tell the rest of us what we should be thinking and feeling, what to hate and what to love, etc. Rather than help us grow into the meaningfulness of our living, they want us to go along with their agenda so they can feel powerful and in control.
To sense the ineffable takes a lot of work on one’s part. We have to let go of our need for certainty, we have to let go of our desire to control, we have to let go of our need to be right. Instead, we have to embrace the wonder of the universe, we have to engage in and with the ineffable beauty, awe, and embrace this experience every morning upon waking, as well as throughout our day. We have to clear away the schmutz we have accumulated over the years that blocks our hearing the call of the ineffable through the wind, the trees, turning the dial of our inner radios to the correct megahertz to hear the demand and the call of the ineffable to each and every one of us. To sense the ineffable is to know that the call to each of us is different, the demand to each of us is different and each of us is needed for the world to make sense, for the world to work, for each of us to live out our sense of the ineffable as only we can without comparing, competing, denying and self-seeking.
In recovery, we know that without a sense of the ineffable we will be back where we were before, suffering from paralyzing demoralization, acute psychic pain, prejudice, jealousy and so much more. We continue to grow our sense of the ineffable so we can continue to grow our self into being human more and more each and every day.
I have used this writing to keep my sense of the ineffable. I have forfeited this sense whenever I go along with the lies I tell myself, when I go along with the lies you tell me so I can get along, when I have thought I was the smartest one in the room, etc. I regain my sense of the ineffable by seeing/experiencing my daughter, my grandson, my siblings, my friends, my family and, of course, Harriet. I regain my sense of the ineffable by immersing myself in Rabbi Heschel’s brilliance and the awe of life. I regain and grow my sense of the ineffable by connecting with people authentically and soulfully. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark