Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 309
“To the sense of indebtedness, the meaning of existence lies in reciprocity. In receiving a pleasure, we must return a prayer; in attaining a success, we radiate compassion.” (Who is Man pg. 118)
We are afraid to engage in our spiritual/inner life sense of indebtedness because we are afraid of having to repay our debt. As we are in the middle of the month of Elul, looking at the fullness and brightness of the moon, we are reminded in 14 days, we will be welcoming a new year by reflecting on this past one and looking ahead to the new one. In 23 days, we will be asking for forgiveness from the Universe/God for ourselves and one another. Yet, during the rest of the year, most people run away from the sense of indebtedness that could propel us to living freer and richer lives.
We are afraid that the repayment terms are not going to be to our liking. We are afraid that someone is going to ask us to do something that is uncomfortable. We are afraid the Creative Force of the Universe is going to ask/demand we be more of who we are created to be. We are afraid to be called to be free, to be grateful, to be just, to be merciful, to be loving, to be truth in all of our actions, in all of our living. Rather than welcome this opportunity, we run from it; much like Jonah in the Bible who was so afraid of being embarrassed that his prophecy was not going to come true, that God would spare Nineveh, he ran away in the opposite direction. We all are guilty of being Jonah-like and, I believe, this is why we read from the Book of Jonah on Yom Kipper, the day of At-One-Ment.
Is it really to much for us to know we owe and pay the debt down as much as possible each day? Is it really too scary to find that we are being called to action in ways we are immensely capable of? Is it really to onerous to let go of our ideas of fame and fortune, black and white, either/or in favor of service, in favor of compassion towards self and another(s), in favor of kindness, in favor of humbleness? We have made these ways of being seem wrong in our society, in our conventional notions and mental cliches we constantly berate ourselves and one another for walking in God’s ways, rather than ‘the ways of the world’. We are bombarded with the lies of TikTok, Facebook, Newspapers, Cable News, Broadcast News, as we have since the times of Plato and before. We would rather lie to ourselves and one another, we would rather believe the lies of people we know are lying than to accept this truth of having spiritual senses and having one of which is indebtedness.
Letting go of the lies that have been with us for time immemorial is too daunting a task for most people. Even the lies of interpreters of religion who believed what they were saying, yet knew it was self-serving and using their lies to enslave people to their way of thinking and to serving their needs for power. Today, many people are believing the lie that religious teachings have nothing to tell us, that we know what is moral and what isn’t, we know right from wrong, etc. These same people justify their actions, make excuses and blame everyone else for what is happening, even go so far as to say God is punishing us for people living their truth by “coming out” as LGBTQ, people of color standing up and saying We Matter, Jews standing against the lies, the “Protocols of Zion” and other such Anti-Semitic rants, Muslims demanding a seat at the table. How asinine, how inane, how blasphemous! These same people say “God is Love” and then call on the God they deny, God of the Old Testament, to “smote their enemies”-what mendacity and what a load of BS that, unfortunately, a lot of people subscribe to. People go along with these lies because we have been hearing them forever, it seems. People buy into these deceptions because they are too lazy to develop their spiritual senses, too inexperienced to develop a richer and more meaningful inner life, too accepting of conventional notions and mental cliches.
We can, however change this way of being in ourselves. We are not stuck in stupidity forever, we are not stuck in spiritual immaturity as a punishment from above, we are being called every day to spiritual maturity, we are given inner sight and wisdom each and every hour. We have the technology, we have the tools, we just need the Willingness to be Honest and Open to truth. We need to remember the WHO of living, we have to cultivate a relationship with WHO, we need to take a look at our past year, this New Year season, with the eye on improvement, not shame or hiding. We need to look forward to next year not with resolutions, rather with knowledge of where not to go and chart our life journey with the maturity and wisdom gained from living this imperfect year. We need to rejoice in our indebtedness, not run from it.
In recovery, we are constantly seeking to repay our debt. We are painfully aware of how long we ran from our spiritual sense of indebtedness and how running didn’t work for us anymore than it did for Jonah. We are committed to spiritual progress and the difficult work this entails, the ups and downs, the two steps forward and one step backwards approach to life-which is the only truthful approach to living in truth.
I will write more on this tomorrow. I rejoice in my debt, I am grateful for God’s belief in me to keep my debt on the books and seek to repay with my actions each and every day. God Bless and Stay Safe, Rabbi Mark