Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2- Day 2
“The mystery of prayer on the days of Rosh HaShanah presents itself with characteristic familiarity: it reveals itself to those who want to fulfill it, and eludes those who only want to know it.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity)
Continuing with this sentence, we need to be amazed at our inability to think our way into right action and our incessant need to do the same things over and over again expecting different results, as Einstein defines insanity. Yet we are not! One reason, I believe is that we have become accustomed to our limited knowledge and believe it is all the knowledge we need. Another reason, may be that what we are doing has worked for us in the past and we see no need to change it. Both of these rational decisions lead us to becoming stagnant, familiar and enslaved to our old ideas.
Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above is a call to action, a call to our souls, a call to our divinity, our humanity and our desire to learn and grow. Yet, we see over and over again our resistance to immersing ourselves in the fulfillment of God’s needs, in the fulfillment of the needs of people who can not do anything for us, in the fulfillment of the desires of our souls over the inauthentic needs of our minds and emotions. When we are interested in the fulfillment of our power needs, of our need to be right, of our desire to conquer and control, we will never be able to have the mystery of prayer on Rosh HaShanah, the mystery of prayer in general, the mystery of service, the mystery of love, the mystery of the Ineffable One revealed to us, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel today.
This is the great challenge for all human beings, seek to fulfill the authentic needs of God, the authentic needs of our souls, the authentic needs of another human being, the authentic needs of nature, etc. We have become so enamored with our selves, with our stature and status, we forget that we are here to fulfill a Divine Need, as Rabbi Heschel teaches elsewhere. We are reminders of God, he explains to us, and we need to sharpen the ‘eyesight’ of our souls, wipe away the film from our spirits and “circumcise the foreskin of our hearts”. Yet, we are so focused on our selves, on our filling our ‘needs’, these mysteries of living well elude us. We are witnesses to this type of behavior in ‘identity politics’ one-issue politics, excluding one group or another from ‘our kind’ right now. We are engaging in behaviorisms, religious, progressive, conservative, and missing the spirit, missing the call of the Universe to fulfill the authentic needs of self, another(s), the world and God. This is the great conundrum of our time, as it has been of past eras. How do we let go of our self-deceptions, how do we reach for what is beyond us, when we will do the work of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur?
The work of these Holy Days is the introspection of this past year, the introspection into the lies we have been telling ourselves and everyone else. The work of these Holy Days are to use the spiritual forces of compassion, kindness, truth and love that overwhelm all other forces in the Universe to be aware of our inauthentic needs, to commit to fulfilling the authentic needs of self, another(s) and God. It is the work of uncovering our souls, recovering the path of our Intuitive Mind and using our rational mind to serve spirit and intuition. It is the work of reconnecting with and re-covenanting with God, with our families, our friends, our missions. It is the work of taking off the masks we have worn that hide our true nature from self and everyone else. It is the work of accepting our shortcomings and improving them each and every day. It is the work of being congruent, what is in our heart is on our lips as Maimonides teaches. It is the work of wrestling and struggling with our baser desires, transforming them into the energy that fulfills the prayers we say on Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur and every other day. It is the work of being grateful for what we have, being present in our daily activities and engaging with everyone we meet with a hello and a smile.
In recovery, we are constantly seeking to improve our self, use our traits in proper measure and be aware of what is revealed to us each day. We are hyper-aware of the minute drifting we have towards selfishness, harshness, pettiness and pride. We do the work of this time of the year each and every day.
I have been blessed with many revelations. I work hard each day to be present, to check in with my soul and with my inner life so I can be clear when I am with another human being. I listen for and seek to fulfill the call of God, the call of another(s). I am also on guard for how I lie to myself, how I worship my rational mind at times and how I forget my intuitive mind. I am on guard against complacency and laziness which prevents me from learning and growing. I am on guard to discern the true calling, the true voice of the Ineffable One from the voices of lower self, the voices of the charlatans and liars trying to convince me that up is down and good is bad. I am blessed to be able to learn each day from and with Rabbi Heschel and so many more people. I am blessed to know the experience and address of living with joy and gratitude. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark