Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 261
“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)
While I try hard to not repeat/use the same quotes more than two days in a row, the one above has so much in it, I have to take a third day with it.
In this time of self-described ‘people of faith’ enjoying perpetrating cruelty onto their fellow human beings, in this moment of these ‘good christian, jewish, muslim folk’ supporting autocracy, mendacity, grifting, coveting, dishonoring the dignity afforded each human being, whoring themselves to be ‘in’ with der fuhrer, the bolded words above come to remind We the People, including and especially these self-identified ‘people of faith’ of what is truly important and what we need to do to change our inner lives and restore dignity, freedom, truth, justice and mercy as the foundational pillars of our country and our individual way of being.
One of the reasons it is so important to read and immerse ourselves in the prophets words and actions is to remember the gifts and the burdens they have bequeathed us: truth, justice, standing up for what is Godly, what is holy and not standing idly by the blood of our brothers and sisters who are committing adultery, serving other gods like ego, greed, power. Each day a new affront to God, a new affront to the freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights comes out of this administration. Their inability/unwillingness to read the Bible, to hear the words of Jesus, of Moses, of what is truly God’s will makes it imperative for the prophets of our time, the inheritors of the prophetic “intense sensitivity to right and wrong” speak out and We the People support and broadcast their words and follow their deeds. This is NOT the time for We the People to give into the fear that the current idolators are attempting to put into us. Now is NOT the moment to put cotton in our ears, to rationalize irrational behaviors, and to believe it is “every man for himself” because as Ben Franklin says: “we must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Now is the moment for each of us to go into our inner life, to reach down to our souls, listen for the “intense sensitivity” of “God’s concern for right and wrong” and take the next indicated action. We the People are being called, not tested, to take the actions necessary to ensure that We the People do not return to Egypt, that we stop the backward march to living under Pharaoh’s rule and We the People not subject ourselves and our children to a life of slavery and misery. We the People are the ones who have to make God’s promises of freedom from bondage, freedom from our inner slaveries, acceptance of a higher, transcendent power, our being redeemed, and the unique place each of We the People fill.
It is a tremendous burden to “hear deeply”. It is an even more tremendous burden to “feel fiercely”. When one does both, life is almost unbearable, like it is in this moment. When the United States is backing dictators over democracy, when our Congressional leaders are more interested in hiding than in legislating, when the abuse of our Federal workers is seen as a ‘ho-hum’ experience, when Air Traffic is becoming more and more dangerous because of the incompetence at the FAA, when ICE is more cruel each day because of the intense cruelty of Kristi Noem, when the Justice Department under Trump’s BIMBO BONDI practices injustice, we are witnessing the exact opposite of what the prophets bequeathed We the People! What is being played out by these ‘good christian, jewish, muslim folk’ is blasphemy, is a Hillul HaShem, the desecration of God’s Name-the ultimate sin in Judaism as it is seen as idolatry. We the People have to take the fucking cotton out of our ears so we “hear deeply” once again and find our way back to the covenant we made at Sinai, to remember to hear the cry of the poor, the call of the needy and to love the stranger, care for the widow and orphan, to remember “you shall be holy” so we stop being “a scoundrel in the boundary of Torah”. Because we have within us, the ability to “hear deeply” and the call to “feel fiercely”, We the People can respond to the ways of these “scoundrels” and refute their supposed ‘biblical ways’ that validate their cruelties. This is the path for each of We the People to find and follow: how can I redeem myself and another(s) from the slavery of the Pharaoh, the harsh burdens of the Pharaoh’s taskmasters, and hear the call of the Redeemer-God?
This is the my story- I was deaf, dumb and blind or at least pretended to be for 20 years and then I experience “hear deeply” the voice that called out to me that I have to learn what God is saying to me and live into it. That was in December of 1986 and I still “hear deeply” and because I do, I also “feel fiercely”. I am not a quiet person, I am not someone who can ‘hold his mud’ when I see injustice, cruelty, mendacity, etc. I speak out and I speak loudly-I am not coy nor do I hide my agenda. I learned the lessons of the prophets in prison and I am too afraid of the lure of mendacity and idol-worship to be more ‘political’ and/or ‘demure’. I do scream from the rooftop, I have ringing in my ears, tinnitus, which is a result of “hear deeply” and then translating this hearing into “feel fiercely” and take the actions that both of these sensitivities to “God’s concern” lead me to. It is a tough job, to look inside me and see where I have been a redeemer and a slave, a champion of Freedom and an unwitting ally to the taskmasters of Pharaoh. I find it, however, the most freeing activity. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark