Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 362
“Religion begins as a breaking off, as a going away. It continues in acts of nonconformity to idolatry.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 67)
Rabbi Heschel in the paragraph preceding these sentences speaks of Abraham’s being told to leave Haran, , his familiar surroundings, even his father’s house, and take with him his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the souls they had ‘made’ in Haran, “to a land I will show you”. He goes on to say: “This is how the religion of Abraham begins.” Reading these sentences gives me the shudders, it gives me trembling awe, a sense of hope and a questioning of how often we all forget what “religion” is and how badly it has been bastardized.
What passes for ‘religion’ today is “a breaking off, a going away” from the basic tenets we find in the Bible, in the New Testament, in the Koran which may explain why so many people no longer want to identify with any religion! We are witnesses and, in many cases, perpetrators of making “religion” into idolatry! Instead of “nonconformity to idolatry”, “religion” has made itself into idolatry and clergy have become the idol makers, much like Abraham’s father-according to the Midrash about him. The clergy who extol people who want to unwelcome the stranger, who want to strip citizenship from naturalized citizens, who want to subject any people to be 2nd class citizens/people, are idolators and idol makers. They have lost their calling and their compass. While Hebrew National products claim they “answer to a higher authority”, these clergy, of all faiths, who engage in being idol/king makers are answering to their lower authority, to their self-interest and power-hungry selves. The exact opposite of Rabbi Heschel’s definition of “religion’!
Christ taught about being humble and generous, not hoarding wealth or tooting one’s own horn, treating others, even enemies, with kindness and refusing to engage in conflict with others. When we look at the riches of the Catholic Church, which could feed the entire world on what it has in its vaults, when we hear and watch the evangelical preachers like Joel Osteen speak about wealth being so good, when we watch the kissing up of Jews to those who have wealth and power, we are seeing, hearing and watching the exact opposite of what “religion” is, as Rabbi Heschel’s words define it. Yet, people are like animals lapping up the lies and the bastardization of Christ’s words and teachings, Moses’ words and teachings, Mohammed’s words and teaching because we have raised people to be ignorant of the real teachings, unaware of how to immerse themselves in the texts of these great people and see how books of the Bible are relevant to our way of being in this moment, like the Book of Samuel on power, politics and corruption by both Saul and David. Yet, these False Prophets who call themselves ‘keepers of the faith’ extol the arrogance of David, the duplicity of both Saul and David, the lies that keep them in power and promote hatred against their ‘enemies’ who are anyone that challenges them with truth, faith, spiritual audacity. When will we end our “breaking off, going away” from what true “religion” is?
We cannot return to “religion” as long as we refuse to engage “in acts of nonconformity to idolatry”. We have become so accustomed to conformity that we are afraid, we ostracize, we decry, we deny, anyone who goes against conforming to ‘proper societal conduct’ be it in business, religious, sexual, governing realms. If we want to run a business with the consumer being more important than the shareholders, we will soon be out of a job. If we call out people for spouting beautiful Bible quotes and not living them, we will no longer be the spiritual leader of that community and get a reputation of someone that ‘no one can work with’. If people are in same-sex relationships, the ‘religious zealots’, who are actually bigots, want to imprison, deny and make illegal these relationships-although we are supposed to “love our neighbor as we love ourselves”. If someone wants government to be “of the people, by the people and for the people”, they are called subversive, they are called UnAmerican because we know America was founded by rich, religious people who wanted it to be a ‘christian nation’, although there is no basis for this lie, our current elected officials in office and about to take office spout this bullshit all the time. They want everyone to bow down to their Idols, assisted by some Clergy of all faiths they want conformity to idolatry and this is what they call “religion”!
We the People have to stand up! We are being called to end our own conformity to idolatry through our inaction all this time to the idolatry that has been taught for a long time. We have not arrived at the ‘christian nationalism’ of Project 2025 or the insanity of Ben G’vir, Smotrich, and Netanyahu overnight, these ways of being; their idolatry and those who worship them and their idols; have been brewing and incubating for a long time, they have worked the long con, they are grifters par excellence and using what they call ‘religion’ as cover has been successful and brilliant. Hence, We the People must take a stand against them and every form of “idolatry”. We, the People have to examine ourselves for any “idolatry” that we are engaged in, we have to call out the people around us who are practicing conformity to “idolatry”, we have to hold our Rabbis and Priests, Ministers and Imams accountable for their promotion of idolatry and we have to hold business leaders, government officials, and the Boards of our Institutions-academic, religious, non-profit- accountable for their need to be right, their need to be smarter than “religion” and their need to be worshipped by the people they are supposed to be serving. It is time for We, the People, to return to “nonconformity to idolatry” once and for all.
I am a believer and practitioner of “religion” as Rabbi Heschel defines it. I read these words with trembling awe. I tremble for the times I engaged in conformity to idolatry by not hearing the call of another, by being too stubborn to learn, consider a different way. For the times when I did not listen to the call of my soul and instead went along with what was expedient, which never worked out well for me and those around me. I am in awe of the multitude of experiences of “nonconformity to idolatry” that I engaged in with my people, my teachers, lighting this path for me. I find comfort in this “nonconformity” while also experiencing being on the outside, being a little lonely while never alone. As one who knows the cost of conformity on my soul, being on the outside and a little lonely at times, is worth the price of being at home and at one with my “nonconformity to idolatry”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark