Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 252
“The world is full of iniquity, injustice, idolatry. The people offer animals; the priests offer incense. But God needs mercy, righteousness; His needs cannot be satisfied in Temples, in space…” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 47)
THANK GOD ALL THE LIVING HOSTAGES ARE FREE!!
While some, maybe even many, people think Rabbi Heschel is railing against human beings, I believe, in the way of the prophet, Rabbi Heschel is demonstrating his deep belief in and love for human beings. Much like it says ‘in the good book’: “You shall rebuke your people(neighbor) and not put on yourself ‘missing the mark’”, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us of what it is we are doing and how much we can rise above our worst impulses and actions, that we do not have to be defined by our greatest “iniquity”, there is more to us than our sin, our injustices, our practices of idolatry and he is trying, again in the way of the prophet, to wake We the People up.
Of course “the world is full of iniquity, injustice and idolatry”, we see it all around us, we engage in it ourselves-especially when we believe we can gain from these ways of being. We the People are born with two opposing forces; the ‘good’ inclination and the ‘evil’ inclination and our job for our entire time here is to transform the ‘evil’ inclination into a force for ‘good’, not annihilate it, not allow it to run rampant, to bring it to serve the ‘good’ inclination much like our rational mind is supposed to serve our intuitive one. Unfortunately, as Rabbi Heschel is pointing out, We the People have done a terrible job at raising our souls, at educating our children and ourselves of the ‘how to’ transform the ‘evil’ inclination’s energy to serve the good, to use our competitive nature to give us an edge and insight rather than the need to “win at any and all costs”. This way of being could be the root of our “idolatry”, our “injustice”, and the source of our greatest “iniquity”.
What are We the People doing? What is the need for the ‘good religious folk’, those ‘bible thumping’ ‘everything I do serves god/idol’ to continue to abuse their souls and the souls of so many of We the People with their lies, their deceptions, both of self and another(s)? How do we end our practice of offering animals-which today takes the form of AK-47’s as hunting rifles, using the vulnerabilities of another to make oneself look and feel better, stepping on the backs of people to ‘climb the ladder of success’, etc. How do we tell the priests to stop with their offerings of “incense” and admit their own foibles and iniquities, their own idolatry and practicing of injustices? Rather than just opt out, which is what many of We the People have done and, for many of those who haven’t opted out all together, we don’t pay attention and are there only for show or because we go on holy days. As I am immersing myself more and more in the words above, I am heartbroken at the numerous opportunities We the People have had to tell the priests to start living the principles of our faith(whatever one it is), to teach our children about how to grow and mature their souls, and to be the physician of the soul they are called to be.
We the People also have to speak to one another, We the People have to remind one another of our purpose, of our calling, of the demand put upon us: fulfilling God’s need for mercy, for righteousness. These actions, ways of being, along with many others, cannot be fulfilled in the ‘sacred space’ of our Temples, our Churches, Mosques. They can only be fulfilled when We the People live the principles of “mercy, righteousness” in our daily actions, when We the People acknowledge our inner need to treat another with righteousness, to extend mercy to another who has fallen and engaged in “iniquity” even against us and has asked for forgiveness, has done TShuvah. We the People have to be merciful towards ourselves as well. We the People are being called to end our incessant need to rationalize our bad behaviors, make false accusations against ourselves and treat ourselves with righteousness also.
To combat “iniquity, injustice, idolatry”, We the People get to look at ourselves, look at the outside world and deny the lies we have been telling ourselves, call out the ridiculous “adjustment to societal norms and mental cliches” that have been ruling us and the world for far too long. To live into “mercy, righteousness” We the People have to stay “maladjusted” to these norms, to these cliches so we can be present in this moment. We the People can change the “iniquity, injustice, idolatry” into holiness, justice and service with a small almost unperceptive change of the way we live: do the next right thing, treat our selves and our neighbors with love, with rebuke, with kindness, with truth, with mercy and in righteousness. We the People do this at least once a day with at least one person in our lives-the call of the words above is to expand this action into more of our affairs with the goal of living these principles in all our affairs!
I have been combating these deadly sins for my entire life, taking a hiatus for about 20 years and even then I fought some injustice and had no use for Judaism because of the idolatry I saw from the so-called people in charge, the ‘pious ones’. I cannot stand to see injustice, idolatry, iniquity abound in the world and in our homes as it is happening today. I am at a loss and all I can do is look inside myself, see my frustrations and how I take them out on the wrong people, how I become obsessed with things I cannot control and have to win because I am so enraged in my inner life with the happenings of today, the loss of freedom, decency, the grift that is beyond the beyond, the lies and deceptions that are rampant and that the left and the right are both practitioners of these ways. It is sad and we will weather this storm, I pray. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark