Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 254
“People think that to be just is a virtue, deserving honor and rewards; that in doing righteousness one confers a favor on society. No one expects to receive a reward for the habit of breathing. Justice is as much a necessity as breathing is, and a constant occupation.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.47-48)
Reading this for the first time in today’s context I immediately think of all the ‘rewards’ given to kids in schools today for not anything extraordinary, unless one believes kindness, service, decency is extraordinary! I have to say the far left which wants everyone to feel special (except maybe those who oppose them) did us no favors because, while each of us is special and unique as the Talmud teaches, feeling special for doing the next right thing is a slippery and dangerous slope-as we have come to experience. It also points out the terrible binary thinking that Mark Edmundson points out in a NYTimes op-ed piece from October 13. The far right is no better, conveying sainthood status on Charlie Kirk who was anti-semitic while supporting Israel, anti-LGBTQ+, he was a White ‘Christian’ Nationalist (I put Christian in quotes because the people who use both Christian and Nationalist in the same sentence are neither-in my opinion). What Rabbi Heschel is saying in the first sentence is not revelatory, it is not some new idea in Jewish thinking, it is a restatement of an old Jewish way of being: “Do Justly, love mercy, walk in the ways of Adonai” we are told by Moses in Deuteronomy and in giving the way of living to the people who left Egypt, and Micah, the prophet, so maybe We the People need to stop patting ourselves on the back for our supposed “virtue” and ask ourselves if we are truly doing justly, truly being righteous in our daily affairs!
Justice and righteousness are commandments, not optional. They are two of the ways we pay it forward, we make a dent on the principle of our debt to God for being alive, the path to fulfilling the divine need we are created/born to fill and two of the greatest expressions of “love your neighbor as you love yourself”. Being just and righteous in all our affairs doesn’t mean we are not held responsible for our errors nor does it mean we don’t hold another(s) responsible for theirs. It means, in my opinion, that we are not judgmental, we let go of the prejudices we have when we meet this moment, not forgetting the past, not being naive, rather, we are open to a new experience and by being just, we are discerning and distinguishing-much like God did in the first chapter of Genesis: L’Havdil in Hebrew means “to distinguish” not to separate. What is happening in the world now is very threatening to those of We the People who believe in the truth of the Biblical wisdom tradition, it is a time when good people are hailing the deaths of 1000’s of innocent Gazans, praising Putin’s destruction of Ukraine, blaming the Jews for all sorts of things, hating people of color and not distinguishing between good and evil, truth and fiction, and following the charismatic leadership of assholes who believe in neither justice nor righteousness! When circumcision is being blamed for autism by the Federal Government, we Jews are in trouble no matter how much we think Trump loves us, no matter that Donny has Jewish grandchildren, so hailing him as the savior of the Jews, the savior of Israel is another dangerous and slippery slope because of his bastardization of justice and righteousness.
The last two sentences are the solution to all of our problems today! Not seeking a reward for breathing is a challenge today, however. Trump thinks the fact he woke up he deserves a medal, as does Vance, Vought, Miller, Noem, Bondi, Lutnick et al. Yet, the words of Rabbi Heschel above put everything into perspective for We the People. An unjust world is not worth living in, justice being on the same level as breathing comes to tell us this. It is our responsibility to pursue righteousness, to put guards at all our gates, and to not take bribes in re: justice because bribes blind the eyes of the wise. We the People are being called to STAND UP and DO JUSTLY in this moment and in every moment, We the People are witnessing the destruction of decency, of Godliness, of holiness, of truth, of righteousness, of justice precisely because enough of We the People did not STAND UP against the lies, the injustices of Trump’s first term. We the People are being called by both the words above and the situation on the ground today to demand Justice, to live Righteously, and to rebuke the people who are not, put those deceivers and criminals(I call anyone who revels in injustice and hates righteousness criminals) in the Camp outside the Camp. They are sick people, their souls are in deep crisis and they hide behind their so-called christianity to make themselves feel good, while doing the opposite of what Christ did!
The words above are the best way to distinguish my years as a criminal and drunk and my years in recovery. My sense of justice and injustice is so critical to my recovery and, because I know the power of injustice and the power of the lies I told myself, when I see injustice it fans the fire within me like a bellows fans a fire for a blacksmith! I burn at a temperature than could melt steel and, much to the chagrin of many people, I am loud, in your face and unrelenting. While I have been wrong at times, most of the time I have uncovered deep incongruence in another person and they are not happy about it, especially if they don’t want to have ‘their covers pulled’. Justice and breathing are necessities for me, I can’t do one without the other, I don’t understand the people who can-except to know they are as sick as I used to be and this is sad. I don’t hate the people who are unable to know injustice when they see it, who are not willing to admit their own foibles and acts of injustice, who need to blame me for my obnoxious way of calling shit out, I have compassion for them because this is how I practice righteousness in all my affairs. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark