Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 276
“That equality is a good thing, a fine goal, may be generally accepted. What is lacking is a sense of the monstrosity of inequality. Seen from the perspective of prophetic faith, the predicament of justice is the predicament of God.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 54)
8 Democratic Senators caved into the whims of Donald Trump and proved his message; “the Democrats are weak” to be true. While it is also true that playing “chicken” with a group who want to crash the car, the system is a losing game, these 8 Senators got nothing in return except some bullshit promise they could get a vote on renewing the ACA subsidies sometime and maybe the House of Representatives will take it up. These 8 Senators are the proof-text of what is written above: they lack “a sense of the monstrosity of inequality”! The current administration revels in “the monstrosity of inequality” and We the People voted them in!!! WTF???
What is it in our upbringing, in our faith traditions, in our schooling that gives rise to this seemingly robust love affair with “inequality”? I believe it begins at home and at our synagogues, churches, mosques, temples. When young people hear about the ways we have been victimized because of our skin color, our religion, our socio-economic status, etc they usually decide either: “why bother” or “I am gonna get mine”. What is missing is the dinner table discussions about the rule of law, the mitzvot that teach us how to be more human each day, the 365 actions we are taught not to take and the 248 actions we are taught to take. Rather than speak about the need for Justice, the need for Righteousness, the need for seeking to live the Holy, dinner table discussions are about how someone screwed me over, or how I ‘jewed’ them down, or they will get theirs, and other such thoughts. Rather than seek out Truth, we are fed ‘alternative facts’, rather than believe what we are seeing, we believe the words of the “leader”, “der fuhrer”. Rather than accept that we are all responsible and, in this case, guilty of accepting “the monstrosity of inequality” as normal and okay.
The fact that more of We the People are not outraged at “the monstrosity of inequality” being perpetrated upon all of us, bewilders me, upsets me, and I wonder where the Clergy who have pulpits, who have congregants, who have followers are and what they are doing to call this situation out, to stand up and say NO to this evil, to stop being indifferent to “the monstrosity of inequality” that we are seeing every single day of this current administration, and, in full disclosure, that has been present since the founding of our Country. This moment, this administration is making “the monstrosity of inequality” their goal, their modus operandi and reveling in it. This is the difference and some 30+% of We the People are applauding and going along with it, not realizing we are the ones who will experience “the monstrosity of inequality” next and, maybe, harder than those whom this part of We the People call our enemies.
Plaques commemorating African American soldiers fighting against Nazi Germany in Europe have been removed from a U.S. military cemetery in the Netherlands is the latest headline to validate the war on equality being waged by Trump et al. Worse is that these are “good god-fearing christians” just like the Klan were and they bastardize Christ, Moses, the entire Biblical narrative and teachings to carry out their “monstrosity of inequality”, not accepting that the righteous justice is a command from God, that justice denied to one is justice denied to all, to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr. We the People can no longer claim our commitment to freedom, our belief in God, our faithfulness to a higher power, our following our higher consciousness and allow for “the monstrosity of inequality” to continue to grow and flourish. We the People are being called not just by the words above, rather we are being called to STAND THE FUCK UP for Godliness, for Holiness, for Decency, for Freedom, for the Souls of ourselves and another(s). Isn’t it time for We the People to finally STAND WITH GOD rather than with the autocrat, STAND WITH JUSTICE rather than reveling in injustice, STAND with TRUTH rather than continue to live in mendacity?!?
I believe this is the moment for “all good people to come to the aid of their country”, otherwise we will not have a country that is a little better to leave to our children. We will be leaving them a country and a way of living that they will have to rebel against, that they will have to break the yoke of slavery and hatred, inequality and mendacity, they will have to do TShuvah for our wanton display of whoring ourselves after the newest, shiniest, god. This is not the legacy my father’s generation left to me, they left me with a lot of shit and they left me with the legacy of fighting injustice in Germany and Poland, in Mississippi and in Cleveland, Ohio. While my father saw “the monstrosity of inequality” first hand when he was in the Army and growing up a proud Jew, he fought against it when he made sure the pay of the Black men of the business he had just bought was equal to the pay of the white men-which when he took over it wasn’t! The white men quit and no white man would work for the N——-lover! My father stood up against “the monstrosity of inequality” and raised his boys to see the content of character that a person possessed, not their skin color. This was the way he treated not only people of color, this is the way he did business, always in a ‘kosher way’. This is the legacy he left for us, his sons and his daughter. My siblings have continue to live this way, and, while I was late to this party, I live fighting against “the monstrosity of inequality” each and every day. I stand in solidarity with the “predicament of God”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark