Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 251
“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)
“Joining in the endless song” is the call and the demand we hear each and every day from the Universe, from God, from people next to us and people we have never met. The situation in the Ukraine is an example of the world “joining in the endless song” because we praise the Ineffable One through our actions which then change our inner life, our inner thoughts and reflect the essence of our spiritual living. It is so interesting that in times of conflict, we are all able to join together, when we have an outside enemy, we can join together, however when we have opportunities to make meaningful changes in the living conditions of people, when we have opportunities to have a peaceful transition of power, when we have opportunities to care for the stranger, the poor, the needy, the widow and orphan we fight with one another. We cease “joining in the endless song” whenever there is a call to give voice to the voiceless, power to the powerless and speak truth to power. There is always a pushback and a violent denial of the rights of the stranger as being the same as the citizen, although the Bible says so and the United States of America came into being because strangers were seeking a better life, seeking to be free of the power of a monarch/ruler who was a liar, who did not care about the people he was supposed to be serving, rather caring about only himself and “his people”.
Rabbi Heschel gave these lectures at a time in American History when there was great upheaval and change. John F. Kennedy was President, Bobby Kennedy was Attorney General, Martin Luther King Jr. was speaking out, marching, creating peaceful civil disobedience events, Rabbi Heschel joined with Rev. King in speaking out against the injustices of prejudice and inequality, the time was ripe for people to hear what they did not want to hear-we are all created with infinite dignity and worth, all people “are created equal with certain unalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Yet, just as today, some people back then did not want to acknowledge these truths in their churches nor in the town square, yet them called themselves ‘people of faith, faith leaders,’ they purported to believe in “the American Way”. Rather than work “to form a more perfect Union” the people of the 60’s worked to keep their being at the top of the power pyramid. They needed an outside enemy to keep ‘their’ people from turning on them because they were screwing the very people who supported their UnAmerican activities. Sound familiar? We are facing the same situation today, only the names have changed. Just as back in the 50’s and 60’s breathing while black is a crime to some, breathing while Jewish is a crime to some, voting for anything other than white supremacy is a crime to some, speaking truth is a crime to some today. The House Committee on the Jan. 6th Attack on the Capital is really investigating people who are actively engaged in UnAmerican activities: people who are trying desperately to overthrow our democratic norms, legislatures that are trying to limit the rights of citizens to vote, people who are treating strangers, the poor, the needy in ways that neither God nor the founders of this Republic ever intended.
While it may seem as if we are powerless, we are not. We have to acknowledge and enhance the ways we are “joining in the endless song”. We have to stop wringing our hands, mourning what was(which it never really was we only thought change had taken hold). We need to get to work and prize the ways God prizes and praises. We have to continue to imitate God and make new paths to goodness, wholeness, equality, dignity, love, kindness, mercy and justice every day as God does in the Heavenly Court. We have to and are able to effect the changes that God wants, that decency, freedom, and living together demand. We do this through demonstrating these ways of being in our everyday living. We do this by shouting at the top of our lungs our awe of God, we do this by praising and prizing truth, justice, mercy, kindness, love and compassion. We do this by reaching out to the people who are intoxicated with the mendacity of these people who engage in UnAmerican activities like Jim Jordan, J.D.Vance, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, these power-hungry war mongers like Giuliani, Meadows, Cruz, Hawley, DiSantis and these immoral and unGodly deceivers like Kushner, Trump, Eastman, Carlson, to help them see truth, to relate to their fears and pain while also bringing them out of the ether these people have put them in, assist them in being advocates for their true interests and find ways to reach compromises that ensure the dignity of all people.
In recovery, we are “joining in the endless song” because we know without joining this choir, we will surely die, spiritually, emotionally and, maybe even, physically. We were the people who, while looking good(or trying to/thinking we were) were practicing UnAmerican activities and unGodly activities. We took advantage of the vulnerabilities of people and we have been able to say NO to that way of living. We do this by saying YES to the awe of and call of God. We say YES by “joining in the endless song” with our authentic voice and living.
I am fighting for the voices of my grandson, my great nieces and nephews. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark