Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 - Day 12
“Godliness is an absolute reality which exists through itself. It existed prior to the creation of the world and will survive the world in eternity. Sovereignty can exist only in a relationship. Without subordinates this honor is abstract. God desired kingship and from that will creation emerged. But now the kingly dignity of God depends on us.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity)
Reading these words anytime can be a shock to our laziness and our egotism. At this time of year, when the forces of the spiritual world bend towards compassion, forgiveness and kindness, they, hopefully, hit us like a cold bucket of water when we are asleep, waking us up and sputtering about how much we did not realize what the time is. Godliness is not just the awareness of God, it is not just the awareness of a creative force, not just the awareness of a power greater than humankind, it is an awareness of the proper way of being in our everyday life, it is an awareness that fulfilling our egos, our desires, our inauthentic needs is not what life is really about.
Godliness is not a realm relegated to the clergy and the ‘pious’, it is a way of being that all humans are capable of and a path to wholeness and oneness of mind, body and spirit as well as oneness with community. Godliness doesn’t mean being okay with what is wrong, evil, broken in our personal, familial, communal, worldly lives. It means fighting for what is right, fighting to redeem our kin and we are all “kin under the skin” as my friend and teacher Pastor Mark Whitlock preaches. Godliness is a commitment to repair our corner of the world by adding our unique gifts and talents to raise up our standard of living and the standard of living of those around us. Godliness is not just an action, it is a state of being, it is a level of existence that is within our grasp, an address we can live in and at, a way of living that we will err in and return to; once we make Godliness our home.
Herein is the challenge of the first sentence above. Are we willing to move to the community of Godliness? It is a community that has always existed and will exist long after we and the world are gone and we have to choose to be a part of this community, we have to choose to move back to this development. It is a larger development than the world itself and there are a lot of vacant homes in it. These vacancies are caused by our leaving this community, they are caused by our hubris, our egotism, our need for recognition, our need to be scientifically based and sound, our need for power, prestige, money and … Many of the people who proclaim their adherence to god’s will and god’s laws are idolators and charlatans. They have deceived themselves and the rest of us into believing they are the epitome of Godliness all the while denying the compassion, acceptance, T’Shuvah, love, truth, kindness and concern that God expresses in the Bible.
We, the people, have seats waiting for us in the world of Godliness, there are chairs and homes that have our names on them-waiting for us to claim our rightful place. We cannot do this when we are stuck in ego, hurt, identity, anger, self-importance. While all of these have their usefulness, in proper measure, when we get stuck in any of these and many more traits, we lose our way and home seems too far away to ever reach. Hence, comes Yom Kippur in 6 days to remind us that home is available, home is waiting and home is calling to us and we have to do the heavy lifting of clearing out the mendacity and deceptions that have been getting in the way of our finding our way back home. We have to stop listening to the conventional wisdom, the TikTok videos, the Facebook likes, the Instagram pics and listen to our inner voices, listen to and for the call of our souls and follow the road back home to Godliness, to union with our higher self, our higher consciousness, God, the Ineffable One, and, with all humans who also have a home in the Community of Godliness.
Recovery is a space to regain our Godliness. It is a roadmap back home to our inner goodness, our inner spirit, our inner joy, our inner connections to a Higher Power and one another. A lot of people believe that recovery is only for alcoholics and addicts and it isn’t. It is another spiritual discipline that helps people find their way back home, back to living humanely rather than transactionally, loving rather than selfishly, kindly rather than greedily. In recovery, we are recovering our integrity, our dignity and our truthfulness.
I returned to the community of Godliness many years ago, when I was in prison in 1987. I haven’t always acted in the ways of Godliness and I know this state of being is where I have the best life. I make mistakes, I do the best I can to repair them. I know I get bombastic when I perceive injustice towards myself, towards the people closest to me and in the world. I get a “fire in the belly” and speak loudly and forcefully. I really can’t help myself, I believe I inherited this from my father, z”l. And, I don’t want to lose this because when I did before, I lost my way home to Godliness for over 20 years, I harmed the people I loved the most and I was bereft. I do make my amends for the errors I make, the ways I forget to live in a way that is compatible with Godliness and I never apologize for my “fire in the belly” that God has placed in me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.