Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 284
“God’s role is not spectatorship but involvement. He and man meet mysteriously in the human deed. The prophet cannot say Man without thinking God.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 35)
“So, where was God in the Holocaust” people continually ask as a way of denying the Presence. While it is, in my opinion, an inane question, a response can be found in the words above; God was in the “human deed”, the deed of kindness of the people who risked everything to save a Jew, a homosexual, a Gypsy, etc; God was in the “human deed” of the prisoners who could continue to show kindness and mercy to their fellow prisoners and, in many cases, even their tormentors. God was in “the human deed”, the deed of the Allies who went to stop the dictatorial reign of Hitler and his friends, God was in “the human deed” of the American(and other) servicemen who risked everything to fight against evil, many of them giving their last full measure to save democracy and fight autocracy. God is engaged whenever human beings choose to rise above themselves, whenever a human being can see beyond his/her own selfish desires and take the next right action, God is engaged in the Bible because the authors and editors knew that to have a free society, a fair society, the poorest and the people with the smallest voices and the least power had to be cared for, had to be respected, had to have their inherent dignity respected, otherwise chaos will reign. This truth is to be found in the Magna Carta, in the Declaration of Independence of both the USA and Israel, in the Constitution as well. Which is what makes what is happening in both countries so sad, so antithetical to the foundational underpinnings of both countries and provokes such frustration, sadness that is mistaken for anger when in reality we are arguing for the sake of Heaven.
The prophet is calling to us, not in anger, rather in the same frustration that the Black people in America felt and still feel because they are still being judged by the color of their skin and not the content of their character. The prophet is calling to us to wake up, drink the coffee, smell the roses and realize the STINK we have put on everything because many of We the People have deserted the foundational underpinnings of democracy, of freedom; because so many of We the People have abandoned God’s word, God’s call, God’s gift of how to live well that is found in the Bible; because so many of We the People have chosen to “follow our heart and eyes and WHORE after them, because of the prostitution of our elected officials at the feet (and other parts) of Donald Trump, Russell Vought, Stephen Miller, Howard Lutnick, et al. I hear the prophet asking Lutnick, Wytkoff, Kushner, Miller: “Du bist a Yid, You are a Jew”? Because to a person who knows the prophets, who reveres the prophets, who learns from the prophets, who lives into the inheritance left to her/him by the prophets, to be a whore to these assholes, these Pharaoh wannabes, these hateful, power-loving, freedom taking humans is anathema to being Jewish, cannot be validated when seen through the lens of history, the lens of the Bible. These ‘good christian nationalists’ do not want anything to do with the actual teachings of Christ nor the Hebrew Bible, these ‘good jewish folk’ don’t want to be confronted by the teachings of Torah nor the prophets because in both cases to do so would mean having to admit their mendacity, admit their crimes, do T’Shuvah and experience the logical consequences of their behaviors. These assholes can’t do this because they are afraid to experience any consequences of their behaviors unless it means they get richer, they get away with their lies, etc. AND We the People have allowed them to achieve their goals!
It is imperative for We the People to find our way back to the prophets’, accept the spiritual awakenings that are all around us, each morning realizing and acknowledging the miracle of waking up, the beauty of the sunrise, the joy of connecting with nature, with our animals, with our significant people. Upon acceptance of our spiritual awakening, we then GET to make a plan to capitalize on it, to grow our spiritual awareness, to find our purpose and passion, to live into being the person our souls want us to be. This journey changes our focus, it allows us, GIVES us the gift of connection, the joy of wholeness, the power of the original light of Genesis Chapter 1. Being on this journey gives us “a new pair of glasses” as Chuck C teaches and we are able to see God when speaking to one another.
This is the quest I have been on forever. I sought a spiritual awakening through booze for a while because of my issues with the people at my Temple. Looking back, I realize I allowed society and individual people to separate me from God, to separate me from me. I went to ‘liquid courage’ to make myself impervious to the onslaught of the assholes and in the process, lost my spirit, using my intuitive mind to find ways to screw over other people, when in reality I was screwing over myself as well. My recovery has been a return to living into the spiritual awakenings of my youth, the knowing and the doing I was raised to find. It is a return to honoring the trust my father had in me, the dreams of my youth, the connections that died when I was so young. Writing this today calls me to realize that the loss of connection to so many people of my youth was because of my shame at being a criminal, a con, and disappointing myself so I could not face the people I knew and knew me. While it is sad, I also realize that my life today is filled with people who care for me and for whom I care, I also know that I am still an acquired taste because the prophet in me continues to yell, to argue, to demand I do better and that you do as well. This is the quest, the challenge, to see God in you, to see God in me, and to live together with respect and arguing for the sake of heaven, not ourselves. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark