Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 259
“Tranquility is unknown to the soul of a prophet. The miseries of the world give him no rest. While others are callous, and even callous to their callousness and unaware of their insensitivity, the prophets remain examples of supreme impatience with evil, distracted by neither might nor applause, by neither success nor beauty. Their intense sensitivity to right and wrong is due to their intense sensitivity to God’s concern for right and wrong. They feel fiercely because they hear deeply.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 49)
This is a lot to take in and I am going to digest this in 2 days. “Tranquility” is defined as “the state of being tranquil” and tranquil is defined as “free from disturbance”. Callous comes from the Latin meaning “hard-skinned”. “The soul of a prophet” can never be “free from disturbance” and, as descendants of the prophets, the question for We the People is: how can we seek “tranquility” in a world full of so much misery and evil? How can We the People stay silent in the face of so much hatred, racism, anti-semitism, homophobia, etc? How can We the People be undisturbed by the treatment of the widow, the orphan, the needy, the poor and the stranger that is happening in countries across the globe and especially here in America and in Israel? The definition of all people who are freed from whatever enslavement they have been in is in Exodus, 19:6: “And you shall be for me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation/people”. SO, FOLKS- WTF??
How is it possible for us to seek “tranquility” in a world full of misery, hatred, cruelty? If we are in truth with ourselves, when We the People get honest with the person staring back at us in the mirror; there can be no rest for any of us while the hatred, bigotry, xenophobia, is so rampant in our world. When the President of the United States releases an AI video of him shitting on 7 million people who are living into the freedoms promised by our founding fathers, the freedoms embedded in the Constitution and the rest of the Republican Party applauds, when Mike Johnson refuses to seat a duly elected Congressperson and calls the lawful protest marches of last Saturday ‘hate America’ gatherings, when Karoline Leavitt, the Press Secretary for the President, calls Democrats “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals” how can We the People not be enraged at the “callousness” and “insensitivity” that is the norm for this country’s leadership today? Rather than being President for all the people, Trump and his money-grabbing, back-stabbing, sycophants are in it for themselves only and We the People have to accept the inheritance from the prophets, we have to guard and do the work of “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation/people”. The time is at hand, the work is hard and We the People have the examples of the prophets to work from, the success, no matter how fleeting, of Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Berrigan Brothers, Bobby Kennedy, et al to buoy us, to hold us and to inspire us. This is the call of the moment: stop seeking “tranquility” equanimity, political maneuvering and posturing so as to keep donors and people who can ‘help’ us placated. STAND UP and FIGHT for what is right and good, STAND UP and FIGHT the cruelty, callousness, insensitivity, the misery that is the norm these days.
We the People have been shown that the current regime is not “unaware of their insensitivity”, they are fully aware and rejoice in it! We the People have to confront ourselves and ask when and where are we “insensitive” to what is going on around us, when and for what reason are we hiding our heads in the sand? We the People need to see the “miseries of the world” as our own, We are being called to see our own inner miseries, the desire for “tranquility”, the fatigue of fighting the fight for freedom, living into being one of the priests of this moment, honoring our place as a holy person in a holy nation. It is hard, it seems impossible and, as we learn from the prophets, the result is not what matters, we have no control over what another human being does if we are to live freely. Yet, we have the ability to change an individual’s thinking, their actions through conversations, through our protests, through our speaking truth to power, helping the needy, poor, orphan, widow and loving the stranger. By living into the example of our founding fathers who sought refuge here in the “new world” from persecution for their religious beliefs, who revolted when “taxation without representation” became their motto, who fought a far greater and stronger force than they were and won because they believed they were fighting a holy fight, they wanted us to become a place of holiness and, with what is happening now, We the People are being called to continue the fight, to know we will win and lose battles in this fight AND we are must carry on with it because the horrors of the “callousness” and “insensitivity” are too great!
I have always been enraged at cruelty and callousness, when I was the instrument of both, I had to keep drinking so I could bridge the gap between what I knew to be right and the wrong I was doing. My split was so great, I couldn’t stop and I couldn’t completely commit to being a good criminal. Int he past 38+ years I have learned how to bring my parts together, to not live as a callous human being, to not be insensitive to the cruelty and horrific actions that are happening around me. I write this blog to help people see themselves in their entirety- the good and the not so good, to help people use the examples of people around us and those who have fought these fights in prior generations. I am committed to not being tranquil, to not accepting these “miseries” as just the way the world works. I commit to be a little more holy today, a little more sensitive. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark