Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 157
“Our task is to open our souls to Him, to let Him again enter our deeds. We have been taught the grammar of contact with God; we have been taught by the Baal Shem that His remoteness is an illusion capable of being dispelled by our faith. There are many doors through we have to pass to enter the palace, and none of them are locked.” (Essential Writings pg. 92)
I am beginning a new format today, the phrase/sentence I write about will be bolded so everyone is aware of the topic.
Illusion comes from the Latin meaning “to mock” and faith comes from the Latin meaning “trust, loyalty”. The Baal Shem, who is the originator of Hasidism, is teaching us that “His remoteness” is actually a mockery of God, a mockery of what it means to be human, what it means to be a partner of God in moving creation forward. Immersing ourselves in this thought, this teaching, gives a moment to consider who we are, how we have been, where we are and where we are going.
Rabbi Heschel is gently, or not so gently, rebuking us for the myriad of ways we have mocked God, which is idolatry at it’s height, I believe. In our search for certainty, in our drive to be right, in our need to not be responsible to the truth of God’s will and precepts, some of us have made a mockery of the Bible in our deceptive ways of interpreting it for our needs, to make our cruelty justified, to make our hatred ‘holy’, to discriminate by wrapping ourselves in the misuse, misinterpretations of Biblical verses. We are so stuck in our self-image, we are not even aware of how blind we are, how distorted our vision is, how adjusted our thinking has become to societal norms, how imprisoned our souls, our seat of truth are. How sad for those who are suffering from their illusions and how sad and infuriating it is for those of us who suffer these idolators, who have to deal with the fallout of their mockery.
We have come to believe that God is remote because we are afraid to answer the call of the Ineffable One, we are too selfish to give of what we have to ensure that no one goes without, too xenophobic to allow ‘another’, ‘those people’ to enter, to gain citizenship, to vote, etc for fear we will lose control. We continue to mock God, to mock the Bible all the while proclaiming our fidelity to it, we use our faith as bona fides, we use our ‘loyalty’ to be disloyal to the principle: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”, we use our ability to deceive people into believing we are trustworthy so we can lead them down ‘the primrose path’ to serve our needs, rather than what is the best interest of God and humanity. When someone calls us out for our idolatry, for our making a mockery of what is holy and true, what is Godly and good, we continue to make a mockery of Godliness by using bastardized versions, false interpretations, false testimony to vilify the truth sayer, making a joke of the prophet who is speaking truth to power, even going so far as to ex-communicate the Navi, the prophet, from our midst or, at the very least, find ways to marginalize him/her/them.
How remote can God be when God hears the cries of the poor, the stranger, when God hears the cries of those who are discriminated against by the rich and powerful, when God sends Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, the prophets, the Baal Shem, Reb Nachman, Thomas Merton, the Desert Fathers, Rev. King, Rabbi Heschel, and those of us today who are calling out the powerful and the wealthy, the ‘holier than thou’ idolatrous ways of fundamentalism. God is not remote when we exhibit and live loyally to the words and deeds of our ancestors, when we accept the truth of the Bible, the wisdom of the prophets from Moses to today, when our bona fide is our adherence to the Covenant made at Mount Sinai.
It is so crucial in all times, and especially in these times, to remain loyal and trust our souls to direct us to be closer to God rather than our hearts, eyes, rationalizations that make us more remote from God. Remoteness and closeness are not God’s doing, it is ours. We blame God for being remote with “God, where are You” questions when God’s question has not changed and is ever resounding to humanity from the time of Adam and Eve, “Ayecha” “Where are you”. Because we don’t want to answer this question we turn it around on God. Because staying loyal to principles means we have to let go of our own selfishness and self-aggrandizement, we shame and blame the prophets in our midst, the truth tellers in our society.
We need to recover our loyalty to God, we need to recover our trust in Godliness and God’s principles, we need to end our adherence to the mockery that ‘the good people’, those on ‘the right side’ of any issue, the ‘progressives’ who are discriminatory as well as the ‘conservatives’ who spread the same lies and hatred as their far left counterparts! We have to encounter the Bible new each time we read/study it, using it as a guide and a record of the missing the marks and the hitting the marks of our ancestors. We have to end our mockery of God’s will and stop blaming everyone but ourselves for our current situation. We have to call out the people who want to tear down our freedoms, our democratic institutions, who want to end the questioning and discussions of the Talmud, who want to be authorities instead of learners. We have to return to the loyalty of the Israelites when they crossed the Red Sea and proclaim “This is my God” knowing our experience of God is different, our purpose and passion is different and being unique is by God’s design so we all can live together in a beautiful mosaic called community. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark