Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2- Day 4
“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).
Rabbi Heschel’s words above should give us all pause as we are entering these Holy Days of self-searching and seeking the truth about one’s self and the people around them. “The decision of each individual person and of the many stands in opposition to God”, written in 1936 describes our history and, as it turns out, our destiny. Rather than learn from the destruction of the Temples for, as the Rabbis point out, not caring for the stranger and the widow, the poor and the needy, and for senseless hatred, we continue to promote these affronts to God all the while praising God with our words. This is happening on an individual level and on a communal level-there is no place that is safe for a person of faith, for a person who is not, does not want to stand in opposition to God.
Just as in Nazi Germany, religious leaders today are promoting these paths that are in opposition to God and extolling their paths as “the one true path to God” while practicing UnGodliness! We have to stop going along to get along. We have to say NO to these charlatans who promote Donald Trump as being “sent here by Jesus” to redeem us. We have to start to oppose the people who want to make this country and this world a plutocracy like Peter Thiel and his minions Blake Masters, J.D. Vance, et al. We have to stand in opposition to the lies about immigrants, after all we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants-except Native Americans who we have regulated to “the reservation”. We have to stand in opposition to the lies of prejudice, the lies of racism, the lies of anti-semitism, the lies of Islamaphobia, the lies about the rich and the poor alike. We have to call on the 1% to pay their fair share of taxes, not more nor less, we have to have a safety net for those who become impoverished as The Torah teaches us to redeem our kinsman and loan money to our people without interest so they can get ‘back on their feet’. We have to stand in opposition to the mendacity of the extremes of either end of the spectrum remembering Maimonidies’ admonition to seek the middle path. We have to stand in opposition to the treatment of our veterans who put their lives on the line to serve our country and our response is homelessness, red tape at the VA, etc. We have to stand in opposition to the UnGodly ways LGBTQ are treated, the UnGodly ways women are treated as Chattel, the UnGodly ways of blaming the victim as these religious leaders are apt to do in their zest for power, for currying favor with Trump, Thiel, McCarthy, McConnell, et al. We have to stand in opposition to these deceptions for our own souls, for our own well-being and, most importantly for the sake of God. We have to do this so we can be in communication with God through prayer and community and not have to hide, we can say we did our best to stand with God this past year and we commit to stand with God a little more this coming year.
There are 15 days to Yom Kippur, 15 days to get our houses in order before a new year begins, 15 days to make a different decision than we have in the past, possibly, 15 days to stop fighting our innate urge to merge with the Godliness inside of us, 15 days to surrender to our ‘better angels’, 15 days to turn and return to a state of being that is, as Rabbi Heschel says, “compatible with being a partner with God”. We have to stand up against the religious leaders of all faiths that are standing “in opposition to God”. We have to take back our religious traditions so they serve God by serving people. The commandments were/are to serve us, to help us grow as human beings, to enable us to overcome our baser instincts and serve something higher than our own physical, mental and emotional needs, to assist us in letting go of the self-deceptions and the mendacity that we have been living and to engage us in a passion and purpose that serves our souls, the souls of people and God.
In recovery, we engage in this self-reflection daily. We have learned through our actions, through being ostracized for our UnGodly ways of living, as we needed to be so we could become aware of them, to not take anything for granted. We know we are not able to live on autopilot and everything will be okay because “we have seen the light”. Rather, because we have seen the light, we need to keep it on, keep it bright and keep walking towards it in a deliberate manner. Else, we will go astray again and lose our way.
In these next 15 days, I am reflecting on when I stood in opposition to God in this past year and I know these experiences have been less this year than in past years. I am not free of this way of being and it doesn’t dominate me as it once did. I also am reflecting on my use of Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and brilliance to point out where we are today, how we can use his teachings to enhance our daily living and our world. I know I have been more aware of these pathways this past year and commit to continue to grow in his wisdom and paths to make life better for another and for me. I am using these 15 days to become more grounded in God’s Path. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark