Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 267
“Man may forfeit his sense of the ineffable. To be alive is 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)
Reading the second sentence evokes in some people and, hopefully, more people a sense of divine pathos, a deep experience of pity and sympathy for people who are willfully blind to the truth about being alive. Treating being alive as commonplace is the greatest expression of entitlement that one can think of. Yet, we all do this and many are oblivious to this way of being that is all too commonplace in our world today, yesterday and, hopefully not, tomorrow.
Of course people get excited about things, I do not experience Rabbi Heschel denying this, and even in our excitement we react in commonplace ways, we have come to expect so much, we are so jaded by our pasts and imprisoned by the traumas we have experienced, we are unable to see the nuances, the beauty and “radical amazement” of being alive! How many people wake up to a new day with gratitude and joy, excitement to learn and have their eyes wide open to the many miracles, love, acts of service they can engage in, etc? We see on the news each day, this is not so welcomed, this is not newsworthy, yet, “to be alive is commonplace” is most of what we hear about.
Shootings, mass and individual, thefts, rape of public trust, enslaving people who are different than ‘the people in power’, power being wielded for personal agenda, mendacity and deception, these are commonplace occurrences that we take for granted and decide we can do nothing about, we are, after all, only one person. Rabbi Heschel is calling to us to stop this type of thinking, stop acting as if being alive is commonplace, is an entitlement, something we take for granted and are indifferent to.
I write about the political situation not as a ‘liberal’, a ‘democrat’, rather as an observer of what is happening and how unspiritual it is, how unGodly it is, and how Rabbi Heschel is calling us to raise our standard of living, raise the discourse going on, and raise the foundational principles of spirit to be the foundational principles we live by. Our elected officials swear an oath to our country, to the constitution, to God and they give it more lip service than actual service. They swear a greater oath, to them, to their party, to their need for power, to their prejudices, their self-deceptions, their false self. The Jan. 6th Committee is showing this in vivid detail. Yet, it is not the politicians who are totally at fault here, We, the People, are responsible for accepting being alive as so commonplace that we do not hold these elected officials responsible, we are supporting their desire and their ability to crush us, crush our spirits, and enslave us to do their bidding. We, the People, are so lost in the accepting the lies and deceptions of another because it speaks to our own fears, prejudices, desires we don’t realize that these NON-OATH KEEPERS, are killing our freedoms, our choices, our spirits, and our faith.
The disease of the commonplace permeates all we do, if we allow it. Rabbi Heschel’s solution was to be surprised, to take nothing for granted. To be aware and engaged in the daily actions of the world and of our self to keep cleaning out the schmutz that can easily accumulate in our thinking, our hearts, our spiritual arteries. Much like blocked arteries to our heart, we are in desperate need of spiritual angioplasties at least once a week, and our tradition says daily! Doing T’Shuvah everyday keeps us up to date on our subtle ways of making being alive commonplace rather than making being alive an event of magnificent proportions. We have a choice each morning and each evening to grow our sense of awe and wonder at being alive, doing something important, truthful, connecting and kind with our living not as a ‘one-off’’ rather as our true north star of living, being excited and aware of the opportunities each day gives us to live well, live free and live with our eyes wide open in wonder and awe.
In recovery, we strive to keep it real, keep it fresh through our “continued to take personal inventory” each and every day. We see what we have done well and where we have missed the mark, we are able to repair damage and enhance our goodness. We seek to grow each day in our being alive as a gift mentality not to be taken for granted as we did before.
Whenever I take being alive for granted, I find myself agitated and upset for no legitimate reason, nothing has happened, yet, I am irritable and discontent. I have learned these are the signals of not being engaged in the present with awe and wonder, with joy and gratitude, with service and connection to God, to another person. These moments, which sometime last a day or… allow me to reflect on what I am taking for granted, what I am treating as commonplace and what needs to be corrected inside of me, in my inner life so I can stop the lies of my false ego and the mendacity of my emotions from ruling me. I say mendacity of my emotions because emotions and soul experiences are different, one is false ego based and the other is authentic ego based. One is powerfully deceptive and the other is powerfully enhancing, unfortunately when the deceptive one is louder, it seems more convincing. This is where my gratitude of this day and my learning, writing, and connecting save me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark