Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 248
“Righteousness is not just a value; it is God’s part of human life, God’s stake in human history. Perhaps it is because the suffering of man is a blot upon God’s conscience; because it is in relations between man and man that God is at stake.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 46)
What an outrageous statement: “righteousness is God’s part of human life, God’s stake in human history”! And how this changes what religion is really all about! Rather than God-centered, it is human-centered, rather than rituals to ‘please the gods’, religion, certainly Judaism according to the Bible, is about taking actions that honor the dignity and humanity of each individual, that recognizes the Tzelem, the divine image, in everyone, including oneself! Oh Shit! I can’t get away with just checking the Mitzvah Boxes? I can’t be considered good because I went to services today, I am sleeping in the Sukkah tonight? I have to be righteous?!?!!
This idea, this teaching gives, or should give, We the People pause, it stops, needs to stop, We the People from having allies and enemies, from seeking power for the sake of power, from lying about ‘being anointed’, from practicing cruelty just because we can and covering it up with subterfuge and mendacity, from hating another human being in our heart and using their vulnerabilities against them! YET IT DOESN’T!!
Because religion has been used and abused for xenophobic superiority, because it is used and abused by cruel autocrats and their servants-clergy who have no idea of what a relationship with God is- religion has been rejected by so many people, almost 30% of Americans, and those who do identify, a majority have no idea what their Holy Texts actually say-they get their information from the ‘spiritual leader’ of their Church, Mosque, Synagogue; investing so much power and control into people who are spiritually and morally suspect in many cases, for whom power corrupts them, they are merely puppets of their teachers from their respective seminaries, etc. We the People have allowed ourselves to become dependent upon people who are doing a job rather than demand our clergy, our spiritual leaders and teachers know they are called to service, to serve the individual and the group as a way of serving God. Not the anthropomorphic vision that people use and believe that their is ‘a guy in the sky’ who decides stuff. Rather, as Judaism knows, God is incorporeal, no shape, no image and any reference to “hands, eyes” etc is used to speak to humanity in ways they can understand. The truth is God in the Hebrew Bible is more concerned with how we treat one another than how many times we stand up, sit down, how many times we pray each day, etc. These rituals are to bring us more in touch with “righteousness” so we honor and welcome “God’s stake in human life”, so we live Godliness in our everyday actions by being righteous, by being kind, by being truthful, by Choosing LIFE!
We the People are being reminded that the suffering of a human being causes God to suffer, the suffering of another person causes, or needs to cause, within each of us a nagging of our conscience and bring us to the God-consciousness/Higher consciousness called for by the Bible, by Jesus, by Mohammed, by the Eastern traditions. We the People are being called to account for the suffering we cause and proclaim this is what ‘god’ wants! When “righteousness” is “God’s part of human life” to say that God wants ‘those people’ who ‘are not like us’ to suffer is utter and complete BULLSHIT! Yet, We the People, at least some of us, almost 40%, believe/believed the mendacity of the Clergy who supported Trump and Project 2025, who supported Bibi and his inordinate bombing of Gaza, who want the US to own Greenland and Canada, who want Israel to own Gaza and the West Bank. We the People, rather than remember our humble beginnings, rather than use the Holy Days of Sukkot to get back in touch with the “righteousness” that is our birthright, renew the covenant with God by welcoming and caring for the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the poor and the needy; seem to be heading for the crash of both the stock market and our morality!
Paraphrasing a thought of Rabbi Heschel’s regarding the Vietnam War; How can I pray being co-responsible for the death of 1000’s of innocent Vietnamese-is a question We the People need to be asking ourselves: How can any of us pray, live a conscious, authentic life when we are co-responsible for the suffering of so many innocent people around the globe? How can we sit on our hands while people are being kidnapped by masked ‘agents’ of the government, when “God’s stake in human history” is being abused and usurped by the liars and idolators in the White House, in our neighbors’ houses, in the streets and in our houses of worship? WE THE PEOPLE MUST STAND UP AGAINST THESE LIES!! We the People are being called to stand with God, to practice Godliness in all our affairs, to not cause more suffering and to heal/stop the suffering that is currently occurring. There is no freedom for all when the freedom of the stranger, the welfare of the poor and needy are being restricted and denied!!
I know the “blot upon God’s conscience” that suffering brings because I was a cause of suffering to many in the days prior to my recovery and even since-after all none of us are perfect. The difference is I know any suffering I cause restricts me from prayer, from learning, from connecting and the suffering I cause rebounds back to me and I become bereft until I do my T’Shuvah and repair the damage. This is what I am hearing from Rabbi Heschel today-we will all cause suffering, it is a human trait, the difference between being a person of faith or not is whether one does T’Shuvah, takes responsibility, repairs the damage or not. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark