Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 286
“The style of legal, objective utterance is alien to the prophet. He dwells upon God’s inner motives, not only upon His historical decisions. He discloses a divine pathos, not just a divine judgement. The pages of the prophets are filled with echos of divine love and disappointment, mercy and indignation. The God of Israel is never impersonal.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 35)
The first sentence above gives us a possible insight as to why the prophets are not taught more by the Rabbis, rather the words of the prophets are quoted in pieces so as to prove a Rabbinical point, not to be immersed in their thoughts, their ideas, their understanding of “God’s inner motives”. In the Talmud, we have an argument between Rabbi Eliezer and the rest of the Rabbis-with Rabbi Yehoshua being the antagonist. Rather than hear the law as it was meant, the Rabbis were more interested in asserting their dominion over this world. They told God to butt out by saying: “the Torah is not in heaven”, meaning the Torah was given at Sinai, we don’t pay attention to a heavenly voice”(Baba Metzia 59b)!
Immersing ourselves in these words and the Rabbis responses to the prophets can illuminate how we find ourselves in the predicaments we are in today. While many of We the People are off to shop the black Friday deals, many of We the People don’t have the income to shop, are afraid of losing their jobs to AI, to governmental whims of Vought, Noem, Trump, et al, and many of We the People are just trying to survive the tsunami of hatred, greed, grift that emanates from Washington DC and spreads from “California to the New York Islands” as the song goes. The ‘good christian nationalist preachers’, the wonderful ‘good christian evangelical prosperity gospel promoting clergy’, the ‘amazing orthodox and ultra-orthodox jews promoting hatred of Palestinians, welfare promoting for themselves and no one else Rabbis’ all claim to know “God’s inner motives” while going against everything the prophets tell us to do. Rather than realize, promote and experience “a divine pathos” these idolators, these grifters, these LIARS IN CHIEF really, promote and experience ways to raise their stature up and lower the stature of God in the eyes, thoughts and spirits of too many of We the People.
What is passing as religion today is a sham, it is bullshit in so many Temples, Churches, Mosques. Pope Leo is trying to recapture the essence of Christ’s teachings and ways, Rabbi Heschel is promoting the ways of the prophets, MLK promotes the equality and freedom that “divine love” brings to us all. Today, we have Bishop William Barber, John Pavlovitz, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, Rabbi Sharon Brous, and many others who are STANDING FOR AND WITH GOD. These are the people, We the People have to hear, listen to, and understand-not the bullshit ‘good cross-wearing blondes’ who worship Trump and not God, or the lying ‘good christian nationalist males’ who believe all the power is with the White Man. Thinking about what Thanksgiving is about, the myth of co-existence between the white man and the native Americans, what is happening today is an extension of the belief that “white is right”, the “peckerwood” mentality that is prevalent in our prison system. This is not the message of the prophets, this is not the path of “divine pathos”!
Yet, We the People, seem unable to read and understand the prophets, We the People have relinquished our spiritual and religious power to the clergy rather than remember that We the People are a HOLY PEOPLE, as it says in Exodus 22:30. We the People are all priestly, we are all able to hear, discern the “divine love” shown to us each day as the sun rises, as we wake up from our near-death experience of sleep. Yet, We the People have taken so much for granted we don’t even realize the “divine love” we receive in the moment. We the People have become so blind and deaf to the ways and words of the prophets that we are oblivious to the “divine pathos” we are given freely. Rather than receive the “mercy” that is prevalent at all times, too many of We the People would rather live in the “indignation” and “disappointment” of not getting their own way.
It is WAY PAST TIME for We the People to return to the prophetic way of living. We the People are constantly being called to leave the confines of our thinking, our reasoning and, like the prophets of old and of today, join with the divine to ‘see’ what could be, to ‘see’ what is and the path to go from where we are to where we should be. It is an arduous journey, one that is fraught with landmines installed by the Rabbis, by St. Paul, etc and have been hidden and spread throughout the millennia. The journey from where we are to our proper place as partners with God has an army of people who want nothing more than to defeat We the People so these white supremacists men can continue to rule, to have the wealth and the control to enslave the rest of us. This is the fight that MLK and Rabbi Heschel engaged in, this is the fight that Bishop Barber, Rabbi Yanklowitz, Pope Leo are engaged in now and We the People are being called to support and be part of the Army that believes and lives the ways of the prophets.
I have been a yeller and a screamer for what is right and good, for the ways of the prophets for my entire recovery and before it as well. I gave up too soon as a teen-ager, hence my dissent into hell and I will not give up as an Adult! I am asking you to join the group in your area that is dedicated to “divine pathos”, divine love, divine mercy and fight like hell against the Trump/MAGA/white supremacy that is running rampant right now. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark