Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 264
“The problem of living begins, in fact, in relation to our own selves, in the handling of our emotional functions, in the way we deal with envy, greed, and pride. What is at sake in the life of man is not the fact of sin, of the wrong and corrupt, but the neutral acts, the needs.” (Thunder in the Soul pgs. 50-51)
In the words above, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us of the need to look beyond the material state of our living, not that it is not important, rather I hear, believe these words remind us of the true nature of the challenge that faces us: how do we be more human, how do we let go of the binary thinking, either/or mentality? Without a truthful, open relationship “to our own selves”, we will never be able to fulfill the demands of the Bible: “do justly, love mercy, walk in God’s ways” or “be a light unto the nations”, or “love your neighbor (who is) like yourself”. Yet, it seems as if our “relation to our own selves” is the last thing we cultivate, it only happens when one hits a ‘bottom’, a ‘brick wall’, when there is no where else to turn/blame, lash out at, etc.
Given the current state of affairs in the world, it is evident how poorly we, as a society, are dealing with “the problem of living”! One might say we are rapidly running to the worst of human behaviors, we are gleefully not dealing well with our “emotional functions”, we are giving in to the worst of our parts and running away from “our own selves” by hating another(s) just because “those people” are not white christian nationalists. While right now, it is only the ‘illegal’ aliens, which we know American Citizens are being caught up because of the color of their skin, how long until it is ___ fill in the blank?
“Envy” is fueling this current administration, the current President of the United States. He is envious of President Obama, of Joe Biden because they achieved more than he ever could, because Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize. Envy is running the hatred of Stephen Miller, Howard Lutnick, because they are not ‘in the club’ of the Christian Nationalists like Russel Vought because they are Jews and they, like Jews before them, are trying to bridge the gap between them and the Christian Nationalists by being more ruthless, more greedy, more cruel than their counterparts! The envy of men at the wisdom, the grit, leadership, and the kindness of women in Congress and in business drives these misogynists crazy so they have to put them down constantly and, if those women are women of color, if they are Muslim, Jewish, the Vought’s of the world go totally apeshit! Their pride cannot handle the success of another, they are so emotionally immature they don’t know how to be joyous for the achievements of another, sometimes even their families, their children, if it overshadows them.
Pride and envy go hand in hand, of course and both are served, promoted and have a reciprocal relationship to “greed”! We are witnessing some of the greediest leaders the world has seen since the Middle Ages, they are putting the Nazis like Goring, Hitler, et al to shame with their greed and their grift! AND they are so proud of themselves, they flaunt their lawlessness, they laugh at those who call them out, they send the army to stop citizens from exercising their freedoms and they indict those who are unafraid to stand up and say BULLSHIT on them. The words above were a cautionary tale at a time when We the People thought the tide was turning, and it did for a minute, and Rabbi Heschel saw the darkness in the souls of Americans when Nixon was elected, warning us and We the People, once again failed to heed the warnings, the demands, the calls of the prophets, of their descendants, of people who serve something higher than themselves!
We the People, are being called to action, to getting our own emotional and spiritual house in order. We the People cannot respond to the avalanche of “envy, greed, and pride” being foisted upon us without having a true core of spirituality within us. We the People have shown ourselves to be so inept at dealing with our “emotional functions”, with our “envy, greed, and pride”, with our spiritual immaturity and spiritual bankruptcy. We know this because we have raised one-two generations of children who believe the lies, who embrace the grift and the con, who are entitled, selfish, narcissistic blaming binary thinkers and doers! This was not learned just at school, online, they saw it in their homes, they heard it at family dinners, they watched their parents ‘keep up with the jones’ while their spiritual hunger and needs were unmet, laughed at, told to ‘grow up and face the real world’. Well, We the People, they have done that and now we have King Baby in the White House stealing from everything he can from the American People, up to and including our freedoms! We the People have to DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW to stem this tide, to preserve our freedoms and it begins with maturing our spiritual and emotional lives so we can have a good relationship with our “envy, greed, and pride” and stop believing the lies of those who need to hate and grift like a baby needs it’s mother’s milk!
I know what happens when one is not able to handle “our emotional functions” and it was not, is not pretty! I also know it is hard to stand up to the bullies who sound ‘reasonable’, who stay calm while I get bombastic because I know the lie and see everyone else buy into it. I know not wanting another rejection, another time being laughed at. I know all of this because I experience them to this day. I also know that I cannot allow these ‘results’ stop me from doing what is in front of me, from doing the next indicated action and, at times I have. My commitment is to deal with the fears, the sadness at being rejected and the lies of the people who spread them better each day and not let anything stop me from being in the solution! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark