Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 305
“The mind is in search of rational coherence, the soul in quest for celebration. Knowledge is celebration. Truth is more than equation of thing and thought. Truth is transcendence, its comprehension is loyalty.” (Who is Man pg 117)
Because we have to “climb across” all of the lies we tell ourselves, the deceptions of another(s), the conventional notions from history, etc in order to discover, uncover, recover truth, it is imperative that we are open and mature to comprehend truth. Immersing myself in Rabbi Heschel’s teachings and wisdom has me seeing the truth that there is no THE TRUTH, except for God/Higher Consciousness/Higher Power, etc. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us to not get too far ahead of our self and believe the subtlest of lies, we know THE TRUTH! Isn’t this what causes war and anger, splits friendships and family, causes civil wars and wounds the souls of so many people? This subtle lie looms so large for so many that we are willing to buy into the deceptions of another because it makes us feel good, believe we are on the ‘right’ path and empowers us to be ‘in charge’ rather than a follower. The reality, of course, is feeling good is temporary and like any addict we need more and more which leads us to abuse people and our own souls more and more. Truth is we are going down the ‘wrong path’ farther and farther which could lead to our T’Shuvah, our return, and we are being manipulated like a puppet on a string. How does this happen? We are not in comprehension of truth, we are not loyal to truth and this is the root of our ‘irrational coherence’, our ‘wait for the other shoe to drop’ mentality, and our need to punish someone else for our inability to comprehend and be loyal to truth.
Comprehension comes from the Latin meaning “seize/comprise” and “grasp together” and the Hebrew is understanding. Loyalty comes from the Latin meaning “legal” and the Hebrew is faith. Rabbi Heschel’s brilliance above could be understood as grasping together/seizing and understanding truth is the path of a legally and faithfully led life. WOW, what a statement, what a mantra to meditate on, to pray on to use to recover our truth, to be open to the truth of another(s), to use as our foundation to live a “life compatible with being a partner of God” as Rabbi Heschel teaches elsewhere in his writings. Seizing lies, grasping together ‘alternative facts’, understanding how to manipulate is not truth, no matter how much a Judge in Florida who wants to protect poor little Donny Trump, the victimizer who is always crying wolf, always being mistreated, always the epitome of Untruth, wants it to be. No matter what Moscow Mitch, Mealy-mouthed McCarthy want to say, their actions are actions of untruth, their actions are actions of not being faithful to the “founding fathers and mothers”, not being grasping together both spirit and law, not understanding their mission from God, from the Constitution is to aid the poor, welcome the stranger, give to the needy. The same, of course is truth for all of us.
To climb across, to transcend our pettiness and pride, need for power over another(s), we need to surrender these wanton thoughts, become “maladjusted to conventional notions and mental cliches”, and mature our inner lives so we can hear the call of our souls and the demands of God. We do this by first accepting truth as truth, not as a battlefield rather as a safe landing space. Truth is neither good nor bad, harsh nor easy, simple nor complicated, it just is. While we will never grasp together everything in life, we will never be able to seize and understand all that is happening in our lives, we can be loyal to the foundations of communal living, to the laws of the Bible, the laws of nature. We can engage in being more understanding of our inner life, of our way of thinking in order to change what needs to be changed, mature our self, and grasp together a way of living that is uniquely and divinely ours. We have the power within us to do this, we have the moral and spiritual vision and roadmap to do this, we need to make this decision to turn away from the pettiness and pride, need for power, see today as new and express gratitude in words and deeds each day.
Recovery is the result of our awareness of spending much too much time in pettiness and pride, envy and enmity, living in immature inner lives, and having “stinking thinking”. Each day we surrender our negativity and our puffed up egos to a power greater than ourselves and seek to be right-sized and of service to another(s) at work, at home, on the street and everywhere we go. Business owners take pride that they are feeding people, their employees, and providing a service that is needed, employees feel a sense of inner worth by staying faithful to their employer and their work, knowing they have to be faithful to themselves and being faithful to their employer means putting in an honest day’s work for a day’s pay. Each and every day we are able to learn, embrace and engage in truth one grain of sand more.
I have been seeking truth for most of my life. I have had to and still have to, at times, climb across my own self-deception to seize truth, to grasp together what is and then understand the ‘lay of the land’ and engage with it. I have missed this mark at times, fewer in my recovery than prior to, and it has cost dearly. When I allowed pride and enmity to cover what was really going on, it has been a disaster. I am realizing the cause of the disaster was my inability to discern truth for reasons known and unknown. I am more aware of truth, not deception today and every day moving forward. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark