Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2- Day 3
“The world has fallen away from God. The decision of each individual person and of the many stands in opposition to God. Through our dullness and obstinacy we, too, are antagonists. But still, sometimes we ache when we see God betrayed and abandoned.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity).
Continuing with Rabbi Heschel’s essay on The Meaning of Repentance that was published on the 16th of September in 1936, we experience the timelessness of his message and wisdom. Rabbi Heschel is speaking to the Jewish Community of Berlin and to the Jewish Community of the world at that time, at this time, at all times. His words echo the words of the prophets, echo the words of the Torah, echo the words and ways of the Talmud, echo the words of our hearts and souls. Yet, we are still acting with dullness and obstinacy, we are still standing in opposition to God, we are still denying this truth and so many more.
We have fallen away from God while preaching God’s word and using God’s words, God’s ways in false manners, practicing idolatry, taking the Name of The Lord in Vain, Creating False Images of God and wrapping ourselves in the texts of our Bibles, holy books. I believe this is one of Rabbi Heschel’s meanings with his brilliance above. We saw this in Nazi Germany where the Catholics, Protestants, supported Hitler, made excuses for hatred, for killing Jews, Gays, political enemies, etc. We saw this in the response of the Jewish Community, making lists, going along to get along. This is a prima facia case of falling away from God. We are taught never to trade one life even for the community because we all have infinite dignity and worth. Yet, the Jewish councils went along with the Nazi’s requests, they went along with making their lists, they fell away from God, they fell away from their roots, they did not engage in fulfilling God’s requests, they engaged in saving their lives and killing their souls and being responsible for the deaths of many. While this may seem harsh, it is a fact born out by the Eichmann Trial, by Hannah Arendt, by historians today.
We are seeing this today as well. When religious leaders go along with inhumane treatment of criminals, homeless people, our returning veterans, the stranger that is seeking refuge, the poor who is seeking help, the women who are seeking agency over their own bodies and lives, people who are exercising their freedoms and rights, they are falling away from God. When “good Christian men and women” believe that Jesus was the Lion, not the Lamb; when they believe that Jesus did not care for the poor and downtrodden; when they believe that Jesus did not embrace the prostitute, the criminal, the infinite dignity and worth of every human being; they are falling away from God. When “the good Jews who keep Judaism alive” believe the prophets were not talking to them when they railed about empty rituals; when they believe all is okay to save my life and I can cheat people who are not like me; when they forget the myriad of stories in Talmud and elsewhere about Elijah the Prophet being found in the gates of the cities, dirty, poor, begging and waiting for some human kindness; they are falling away from God. This is true for every Spiritual Discipline, the later practitioners forget God and serve themselves and/or their masters.
This time of year is for us to take an inventory of our selves, our actions, our behaviors, our prejudices and our strengths, our kindness’, our character traits we have used in proper measure, etc. It is a benevolent time in the Cosmos for us to look at our self with truth and compassion, with kindness and reality, with love and sorrow and it is imperative we take advantage of this time, it is imperative we see how we fall away from God and how we embrace God. It is imperative for us to drop our mental gymnastic routine to make it okay to fall away from God, it is imperative for us to stop using the rational mind to rationalize putting people in concentration camps okay, to make lists sending our friends and neighbors to certain death in order to save our own necks okay. It is imperative for us to make expiation for our ‘missing the marks’ and for the ‘missing the marks’ of our ancestors and relatives.
In recovery, we have to make a searching and fearless inventory because we know what will keep us dull, keep us falling away from God, from decency, from connection is dishonesty, is hiding and keeping secrets from another(s) and from our self! We search our inner life for the trauma’s we have experienced, the ones we cause, the lies we have told ourselves and the ways we act in truth, the ways we heal our own traumas and help another(s) heal theirs. We write all of this down and we go over it with another person so we can get perspective on our inventory and then we go about the business of making amends where possible and doing more good. This is how we prevent our self from falling away from God for an extended period again.
I wrestle every day to not fall away from God. I know life when I have fallen from God and it is not good-it may have been ‘fun’, it was not good. I am doing my inventory now and have been through this daily writing, I am I afraid to meet God this year as I have been unafraid to meet God for these past 35 years because I am unafraid to meet ‘the man in the glass’, I am not nor have been in need of lame excuses and blaming another since my recovery. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark