Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 283
“The man of our time is losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating, he seeks to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state-it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or spectacle.” (Who is Man pg.117)
The last sentence above is the world we find ourselves in today. People go to concerts to be entertained, as well we should. We are aware of what the exchange is: we pay money for a ticket and the band, orchestra, comedian, actors perform. We are being entertained by someone else, we are receiving pleasure from the actions of another and we all agree this is cool. The issue today is that too many people are being entertained by their wealth, their power and their ability to make change through subterfuge. The issue today is that too many people are being amused and entertained by elected officials who could care less about the welfare of the people who are paying with donations, with volunteering, with their entire being to elect/re-elect them.
We are seeing this spectacle play out throughout the country, throughout the world. Putin, Orban, Trump, Thiel, McConnell, Koch, et all believe they can act with impunity, without any responsibility, without any repercussions to their actions. Remember Donald Trump said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose a singe vote. He was correct!! We are watching a new form of the ‘Christian’s and the Lions at the Coliseum’ from the Roman days. Today it is watch the Far Right and the Far Left attack everyone else and get paid to do it, we the People are the Christians in today’s assault on truth, in today’s power grab, in today’s mendacity.
We, the People, however, are the problem! We are sitting “idly by the blood of our brothers/sisters” by being amused by these rallies, these rants on Fox News, Breitbart, etc. We, the people are participating in these amusing spectacles by cheering the liars on, by supporting them with donations and votes and we are unaware of the harm they are bringing, the ruining of our lives the lives of everyone “not like us”. We are so enamored with the spectacle, so believing in our own grievances, and so needing to “win at all costs” we are blind to our actions, to our participation in this passive state of being entertained. The people running this entertainment show are really good con-artists. They have us believing that we are celebrating truth, justice and the American Way while we are participating in the elevation of a plutocracy, the installation of authoritarianism, the election of people who will rape and plunder everyone, everything they can to consolidate power, to do what they want to enrich themselves, etc.
We can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to the entertaining aura of our times, we can no longer give in to the call to participate in the amusement of another, we can no longer turn a blind eye to all these and we can no longer call these demonstrations celebrations! Calling them celebrations is what keeps us in ‘the ether’, in willful blindness, in self-deception. It is time for all of us to wake up, to “circumcise the foreskin of our hearts”, to stop taking things and life for granted, to believe these assaults on celebration, assaults on freedom, assaults on humanity and assaults on the teachings of the Bible are no big deal. These assaults are killing us because we see them as entertainment, as amusing rather than the dangerous enslaving actions their perpetrators are using them for. Let us not be like the world was in the late 1930’s wondering how Hitler and the Nazi Party took over, let us not repeat the errors of the German people who laughed at Hitler and then were sent to the camps by his decree. Let us not be the like we were in 1968, so torn apart by Vietnam, so fearful of Freedom for All, that a liar like Richard Nixon and a “bagman” like Spiro Agnew were running the country!
In recovery, we guard the dignity of another and of ourselves zealously because we had trampled on it so often prior to our recovery. We are overly sensitive to never substitute entertainment for celebration. We are committed to not amuse ourselves at the expense of another, we are dedicated to helping everyone and anyone who desires recovery from all of the spiritual maladies that cause depression, anxiety, addiction, a general malaise. We celebrate the wonder and joy of life and we speak sincerely and truthfully to everyone we know.
I have been amusing to many people over my lifetime. I have made myself into a caricature at times and I regret this. I regret the times, prior to recovery, when I used people as entertainment by ‘celebrating’ with them while I was stealing from them at the same time. I regret the times I foolishly believed what I was doing was connecting and in reality the people were using me for their entertainment. I regret allowing myself to get ‘wound up’ without having all the facts and being the entertainment for these people as well as the harm to another that I brought. I regret the ‘bullets’ I put in another(s) gun which enabled them to entertain themselves while I was semi-publicly flogged. I am grateful for my ability to celebrate the joy of life, the love of God, the joy of Heather and Miles, the joy of friends, the joy of sharing life with a soulmate who gets me, loves me, and helps me grow. This is the celebration I believe Rabbi Heschel is speaking of. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark