Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 250
“To be overtaken with awe of God is not to entertain a feeling but to share in a spirit that permeates all being…As an act of personal recognition our praise would be fatuous; it is meaningful only as an act of joining in the endless song.” (Who is Man pg.116)
Returning to Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom on how to celebrate rather than indulge a feeling is in direct contrast to the devastating news of yesterday. When America is supposed to celebrate the Declaration of Independence there are people who are working hard to make us come under the tyranny of MAGA, of idolatry, of mendacious people purporting to be people of faith, etc. White males who kill people at an Independence Day parade in Illinois, at a protest in Wisconsin are arrested, a Black male who runs from police for fear of death or arrest for driving while black, etc are shot 60 times? Yet some are praising the MAGA people, some are praising the Qanoners, some of our elected representatives are fawning over the treasonous Trump, the deceptive DeSantis, the bobblehead Pence, the Russian money grabbing McConnell, and call these actions ‘acts of faith’, acts of patriotism! How ridiculous and how have we sunk so deep into the quicksand of self-deception?
Rabbi Heschel is telling us in the second sentence above. We have come to use praise as personal recognition rather than recognizing the spiritual energy “that permeates all beings.” None of these so-called patriots are praising the Founding Fathers, none of these so-called conservative Supreme Court and lower Federal Court judges are interpreting the Constitution as the founding fathers meant it to be. They are trying to keep the status quo on a document that was created to be dynamic, to respond to new information, to continue to afford more freedom, not more restrictions. Yet, as we can see from the latest set of rulings, these judges are not about justice for all, they are not following the dictates of God. They are not recognizing nor joining in the endless song of justice, mercy, kindness, truth, love that God sings every day, that the Constitution offers to all of us when we are immersed in both the letter and spirit of it. They are recognizing their own political power, they are praising the money people who possibly gave them stipends in their earlier careers, to whom they are indebted to because of the ‘leg up’ they got from being associated with them (the Federalist group and others) and they prize the idolatry and mendacity of their patrons and themselves more than they prize serving something greater than themselves. Clarence Thomas spreading false rumors as good science says it all, he would rather praise and prize mendacity, he would rather praise and prize death for the people who choose to not be vaccinated and all those they come into contact with than to praise and prize life, than to praise and prize truth! I wonder if he will agree that the Loving decision is to be overturned as well?
We all have to look who and what are we praising and prizing. It is no longer enough to ‘be on the right side’ of an argument, it is no longer enough to ensure the optics of a situation look good, it is no longer enough to mouth the ‘right’ words be one a conservative or progressive. We have to join in the endless song that was begun when the world was created. We have to add our voices to the eternal song that praises life, that prizes truth, that joins as one of the voices in God’s song not having to rewrite God’s music to fit our own needs/wants/desires. It is time for us to move forward the promise God made at the Red Sea, it is time for us to move forward the Covenant God made with all people at Mount Sinai. It is time for us to move forward the words of the prophets, the gates of return and repentance our always open and the words of a central prayer in the Jewish faith, God desires our return. It is time to move forward the promise of the Constitution of the United States to stay as a ‘beacon on the hill’ for every other country to light their lights by the lamp of Lady Liberty. We only do this when we join the endless songs of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Henry, Franklin, Hamilton, Lincoln, et al. They may have been serving their own agendas at times, yet their main agendas were to move forward the freedom they and their contemporaries fought so hard to win. They continued to praise and prize a power greater than themselves, the spirit of freedom, and joined in “the endless song” that was begun at the time the world was created.
In recovery, we let go of our false needs to puff ourselves up and find our own personal ‘right size’ way of living. We no longer need to engage in the fatuousness of personal recognition, rather we know our service is the surest sign of our praise and we prize being part of the “endless song” and sing our melody loudly and proudly as one of God’s servants.
The prayer upon awakening that I immerse myself in each day has a word that usually means compassion and can also mean ‘inflamed’. I find myself more and more inflamed with praise for God, more and more recognizing my voice in the “endless song” both preretirement and, finally, post retirement. The soul sickness I experienced last week has been replaced with praise for God, praise for the good people who ran to help the victims of these mass shootings and those who help everyday without notice. I am, again, part of the “endless song” and singing it loudly and in my own key. I hope you are also. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark