Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 269
“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)
The second phrase in this second sentence above is the root of our issues today, yesterday and will be tomorrow, I believe. “Radical amazement is gone” is the number 1 problem we face as human beings in my understanding and envisioning today, our history and our future. Without radical amazement, being alive has to be commonplace, ‘where’s mine’ has to be a constant refrain, fear of anyone not like me has to overwhelm us, mendacity, believing the deceptions of another, using deceptions to manipulate another, and, our old favorite, self-deception is our modus operandi. Radical amazement, as Rabbi Heschel defines it is “maladjustment to conventional notions and mental cliches” and, unfortunately the people in charge are so interested in keeping the status quo, are so adept and successful at using the conventional notions and mental cliches to their advantage, we find ourselves in a world where being “alive is commonplace”, the “sense of radical amazement is gone” and we are more angry, less tolerant, more chained to a way of being that is not compatible with being a partner with God! Many people are wondering “how did we get to this state” which, in my opinion, is the wrong question. The correct question for all of us is “how do we regain our sense of radical amazement”? How can we recapture, experience for the first time, a sense of maladjustment to the notions and cliches that have run our lives for so long? How can we let go of our old ideas and see today and every day as fresh, new, pregnant with possibilities, etc? How can we relinquish our need to deceive, our desire to engage in self-deception and our belief in the falseness of another? These are the questions that this phrase, this wisdom of Rabbi Heschel are bringing up for me.
We can recapture and/or experience for the first time a sense of maladjustment to the notions and cliches we have allowed to run our lives by remembering that society is not the force that rules us. Society has been, for most of history, the force that enslaves us. Pharaoh and the Egyptians were society in Biblical times, Assyria and Babylon, Greece and Rome all were the dominant societies of their times in antiquity. All of them had their own myths, their own notions and cliches and their own form of slavery and enslavement of another. In the Bible, Pharaoh is afraid of the Israelites because they are not like the Egyptians, he has to be suspicious of them because they are more mighty and numerous, he perceives them as a threat and has to control them. This has been the despots playbook forever and it is the playbook that so many people willingly follow. We see this in the way the Republican Senators are afraid to go against Mitch McConnell’s need for power and control, we see this in the way Mike Pence is trying to placate Donald Trump, we see this in the way Liz Cheney is being treated for being a defender of the constitution, a person who keeps faith with her oath of office. I am in opposition to almost all of Liz Cheney’s policies, and I respect and admire her stand for the principles of our constitution, the principles of service and faithfulness to our democracy.
When one is more concerned with being elected, with the power they can wield for their own sake and for the sake of their benefactors, we are all in trouble. Especially the one who is being used by benefactors, this elected official, this underboss in the crime family, this employee, pawn of the board, will always be betrayed by their own self-deception of being needed and important. Just as Putin took over Russia, the Idolators took over Christianity here in the US, the charlatans instigated the National Prayer Breakfast, Fox News took over the Republican Party, the far left took over the Democratic Party through deception, mendacity and lies. We, The People, have allowed ourselves to be lulled into false beliefs through deceptive means to believe in the righteousness of the leaders, to the utter denial of what we see in front of us because of our need to hold on to and live by the conventional notions and mental cliches of societal norms.
In recovery, this is what we are both recovering from and moving towards. Our buy-in of societal norms and mental cliches drove us to places and actions that are abhorrent to us now and made so much sense prior to our recovery. In recovery, we are constantly challenging our belief in these notions and cliches, we are constantly seeking to be maladjusted to them and to see life in the mode of “the glass is half-full” rather than half-empty. We are engaged in being alive by being excited about the day and what we will experience and learn.
I have been maladjusted my entire life and it drove me to drink, steal and act out for the first half of my life. In this second half, my acting out is in service of my maladjustment, not always appropriate and done for my own survival. When I feel the mendacity and deceptions begin to get too close, to be being bought by another(s) and/or myself, I react violently because I am afraid of being caught in the old web again. Self-deception and mendacity are the primary addictions for me and I have such respect for their power, I have to ward them off with power, disdain and loudly enough for my mind to hear what my soul is saying. It isn’t always pretty and it is truth, it is survival and it is the way I thrive. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark