Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 275
“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)
We crave familiarity because we crave certainty. This is what causes us to believe the lies and deceptions of another and our own self-deceptions. Familiarity allows us to take things for granted and not “worry” about or question anything that has been ‘decided’. Like the “stop the steal”, the lies of “not good enough”; “the deck is stacked against me”; “if only I was that lucky”; etc are all familiar refrains. Blaming our mothers, fathers, siblings, etc for our childhood traumas, while possibly true, doesn’t help us heal them. Our familiarity with blaming another, beating ourselves up, believing the lies of people who are trying to control us, accepting our “fate” makes us more susceptible to the Pharaoh within us and the Pharaoh outside of us.
We are taught that there are 70 ways to understand/interpret the Torah, there are numerous ‘arguments’ over 800 years in the Talmud and it is still being interpreted today, Rabbi Heschel’s words can be and need to be understood differently each time we read them if we are to live in radical amazement; science is constantly discovering new facts about the earth, space, pictures from the Webb telescope give us new understandings; given these circumstances how can we ever be “familiar” with the world? The only way to believe “the world is familiar” is to be lazy and dull. Rabbi Heschel, in his interview with Carl Stern described a person who had no problems and he called him an Idiot, because we always have problems/challenges and to see them the same way twice is to be dull, stupid, insipid. Yet, there are so many of us who crave consistency, sameness and ‘inner peace’. These are the people who will turn a blind eye to mendacity, who will willingly go along with the unethical actions of power-grabbing and participate in crushing the spirit of everyone and anyone who doesn’t ‘fall into line’ with the lies of the Pharaoh, the supreme leader, the Hitler, Putin, Orban, et al.
We, however, have the antidote, radical amazement, prayer, study, introspection and, of course, T’Shuvah. Making a conscious decision to live in radical amazement means giving our selves the gift of freshness, authenticity and excitement. We allow ourselves to be surprised, to immerse ourselves in the moment without knowing the outcome of our actions, embrace uncertainty with joy and curiosity, and finding contentment in our souls, in our core beingness that we will deal with whatever comes our way. Radical amazement is the state of being where nothing is boring except people who want to be boring, it is the state of noticing the things we take for granted and experiencing them anew and with fresh eyes. It is the pathway to a deeper, more robust knowing of self, another, nature, life, God, faith, joy, etc.
Prayer and study are integral parts of keeping it fresh. Immersing ourselves in the melody of prayer, in the melody of our study is allows the words, thoughts, commandments, enter us and become a part of our daily living, sometimes without our awareness. Our morning prayers awaken us to the day, to the miracle of life, to gratitude for this day, they inflame us with energy and intention to serve something greater than ourselves, to ensure that we are not engaging in self-serving activities and, instead, are using our talents and gifts to help another human being. Prayer and study are two of the pathways to saving our own souls and saving the souls of more human beings. Introspection and T’Shuvah are for tomorrow.
In recovery, we agree with Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. We are acutely aware of how often we used to take things for granted, how often we sought ‘inner peace’ through chaotic actions. We know the dangers of being familiar with our recovery, it leads to our destruction. We know we are not an island and can’t handle everything in life alone, we seek out partners, mentors, sponsors, family, intimate friends to share and learn from and with. We are open to new ideas, to new ways of seeing what is right in front of me because when we are familiar with a situation, we tend to repeat yesterday’s solution to today’s challenges and this never works out well.
For the past 35+ years I have been blessed to be in radical amazement for at least part of each day. I am continuing to see life anew each morning, I am continuing to believe in God’s grace, I am continuing to know that where I am to be of service next will present itself, I am continuing to accept that things happen in God’s time, not mine, that other people are not as concerned with my timeline as I am and everything will work out well as long as I don’t screw it up with my shit. I also know that I stay unfamiliar with people and with life in order to be surprised in both positive and negative ways. I realize I took it for granted that; “people had my back” when, in fact, they did not-they had their own. I am realizing my inability to be maladjusted to the notions and agreements that I thought I had with people meant that I was willfully blind to the changes in relationships and I became devastated by the surprise of betrayal. I have also been buoyed by the surprise of connection and being lifted up by so many people as well over the years. My goal is to stay unfamiliar with life, to not take anything for granted and to live in amazement and wonder! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark