Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 276
“The man of our time is losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating, he seeks to 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)
Can you believe this was written 59+ years ago? Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above is the perfect description of our current state of affairs. He was aghast at the cruelty we perpetrated during the Vietnam War on the Vietnamese and on our own soldiers, he could not understand how the “powers that be” would be ‘celebrating’ the destruction of cities, people, life and spirit, I believe. I can only imagine what he would be thinking in this moment, at this time.
We are witnessing the destruction of our democracy, the destruction of our morality, the destruction of our humanity for the sake of the few’s entertainment and amusement. Putin, Orban, Trump, Mendacious McConnell and McCarthy, who I am labeling the M&M boys, the far left and, of course the Koch’s and their cronies all are having a good laugh at the explosions they have detonated with their lies, their pitting one person against another employing fear, prejudice and anti-semitism. And, we are being the marionettes on the strings, their puppets going along with every twitch and tug they make. While it is customary and right to blame these charlatans for their deceptions and shameless grab for power, land, prestige and money, it is as correct to blame us for not saying NO!
When an accident occurs on the road and it is off to the side, have you ever noticed how traffic slows down so people can gawk? There is no reason to look upon the pain, the hurt of another person, especially when you are not going to render aid, except for one’s own entertainment. We are constantly seeking more and more ways of being amused and entertained. We are giving our kids tablets as babysitters, we are constantly looking for the next fad to keep up with, phones to elementary schoolers, etc. Before that there was the television as babysitter, it is still the place to be amused and veg out. Television was and is an education tool when one wants to be educated. Many of the streaming services are offering a glimpse inside the history of our current state of affairs and give us a road map to how we got here. I know of people who watch programs about WWII and still wonder why Hitler didn’t kill all the Jews, why he didn’t kill all the homosexuals, why the “America First” people couldn’t stop Roosevelt from entering the war. I watch as people at Trump rallies are exuberant every time he expressed hatred and contempt for someone. Trump who made his fortune because of the media(if he actually has a fortune) amuses himself and his ‘fans’ by bashing the media, telling the BIG lie, as well as a lot of big lies and everyone is amused, entertained and, to our horror, follow him, do his bidding and attack our democracy, our morality, our humanity.
We are not following the dictates of the Bible, Hebrew and/or Christian, no matter what the lying preachers say. These deceivers worship at the altar of idolatry, not Christianity, not Judaism, not Islam, not Buddhism, etc. They are leading their flock, like lambs to the slaughter; only they are leading them there to watch the slaughter of the basic tenets of the faiths they claim to be fighting for. They are only fighting for their own power, money, prestige not for God’s prestige, not the for the Glory of God, not for the sake of humanity nor morality. I say this often-God wants us to love mercy, do justly and walk in the ways of God-non of the ways of the M&M boys and their supporters who put on the National Prayer Breakfast are doing this. The leaders of this movement to control women’s bodies, control women’s right to make their own choices is not a religious movement-it is a movement of control, it is to amuse these perverted men with the power to do whatever they want to any women they want. A very sick game and this is what they call celebration of God’s will? This is what they call doing justly? This is what they call loving mercy? This is what they call “love your neighbor as you love yourself?” How sad and frightening!
In recovery, we know the difference between entertainment and celebration. Our past was a search for amusement, a need to be entertained. We did all sorts of immoral actions to be amused and entertained, we engaged in soul crushing activities for far too long and almost lost our opportunity to return to decency, to our own humanity and honor the dignity and humanity of people.
I am quite familiar with entertainment and amusement. I sought it for many years prior to recovery, prior to my spiritual awakening. While I can and do ‘shoot the sh**t” with people, I am not amused by my bouts with schadenfreude, my engaging in gossip and my need to defend myself whether I am being defensive because I was wrong or standing up because I wasn’t wrong. All of these behaviors, some of which I still engage just not as much, often or deeply, prevent me from truly celebrating, from loving mercy and doing justly, from walking in God’s ways and honoring the Divine Image in another. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark