Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 303
“But the divine likeness is something all people share. This is a conception of far-reaching importance to biblical piety. What it implies can hardly be summarized. Reverence for God is shown in our reverence for man.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 42)
The tragedy of our time, of most eras in history is the denial of the first sentence above. This denial goes from the ‘secular’, ‘non-believer’ through the Clergy who preach ‘only our god is the true god’. We are in a time where, once again, many of We the People are engaging in the denial of their own “divine likeness” to worship the ‘anointed one’, be it Trump, Vought, Vance, Putin, Orban, etc. Listening to various clergy people of the different faiths preach hatred, preach fear of another human being, of another group; preach it is us against them; preach the lies of what their ‘god’ wants; should be responded to with NO! Since “the divine likeness is something all people share”, how can anyone say another person is not worthy of reverence? In Deuteronomy, 21:23, we are commanded to not let the body of a criminal, of a murderer who was condemned to death stay on the gallows overnight! In order to honor the “divine likeness” of every body, every soul, every person.
Yet, at every crossroad, at every intersection, society has sought to make one group, one person set above everyone else. Be it Pharaoh in Egypt, Balak in Moab, the King of Sodom, King Solomon and his progeny, up till Trump, Putin, et al, society and human beings clamor to and claim as their own the “one person who can save us”. What makes King David stand out as an example-as imperfect as he was-is that he knew to listen to women, to Nathan his prophet, to the voice of God, even when they were telling him NO. While he made plenty of errors, he always returned to hear the Voice, to listen to the people he trusted to bring him back to holiness, to connection with God. The leaders of today, as it has always been, believe the Priests, the Rabbis, the Ministers should be telling them what they want to hear, should be offering to ‘god’ the right bribes to get ‘god’ to go along with der fuhrer, and, unfortunately, these ‘people of god’ usually do! HOW DISGUSTING!
Rather than learn from the Bible that whoring after our hearts and eyes will lead to our downfall, will lead to our being conquered and taken away into captivity, will lead to the destruction of our Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, these people believe they are exempt, much like the Priests of Ancient Israel, Ancient Judah and we all know how that turned out. Yet, as I write this, 2 Jews, Wytkoff and Kushner are selling out Ukraine for a few shekels, for a real estate deal for themselves and Trump! As I write this, Netanyahu and his thugs are selling out Israel for money and more power. WTF?!
The disregard for the people of Ukraine, the the people of Gaza, the people of America, the people of Israel for their own gain, for their own self-aggrandizement is so blatant and unholy I do not understand why We the People allow this behavior, go along with this way of being, not see the 1930’s repeating themselves, not understand the hatred of any group comes back to hatred of Jews, that Israel is not the reason for the anti-semitism uptick, it is the fascist thinking and whenever We the People disregard the “divine likeness” that “all people share” to have a scapegoat, to have ‘someone’ to blame, Jews are next inline to be targeted, in today’s world after Hispanics, LGBTQ+, and neck and neck with Blacks-remember to be in the KKK, one had to hate Blacks and Jews. So I ask once again WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH WE THE PEOPLE??!!
We can disagree with one another and should so We can see more of the picture and discern more truth, We need to engage with one another from a place of learning and curiosity, much like the study of the Bible requires us to immerse ourselves in the text, ask ourselves “What is the question this verse, this chapter is the answer for in my life” so we can “lift up our eyes and see” as God tells Abraham and, by extension, We, the descendants of Abraham, the people who are blessed through Abraham, or the people who are cursed because we ignore Abraham’s legacy to us. “Reverence for God is shown in our reverence for man” makes me shudder and, hopefully, you shudder as well. Our reverence for one another is sorely lacking, our not throwing the bums out of Congress, out of Government, out of the White House is furthering the non-reverence for God, the disdain for human beings that is on full display and clapped for, that is being promoted by those ‘good christian nationalist folk, those ‘prosperity gospel peeps, those frumma(orthodox) yidden, those ‘the people Israel live’ crazies! We the People are not just watching a rerun of the 1930’s America, We are promoting the 586 BCE, 70AD, the destruction of both Temples! WTF?!
I am calling everyone to take the action of “reverence for God” by showing “reverence for man”! It is hard and for many years I did not do this, I know and for the past 37 years, my Recovery Birthday was yesterday, I have. While not perfectly, I also know that, like the prophets, when people thought I was being disrespectful, oftentimes I was trying to speak to them in ways they could hear because they were not showing “reverence” to their own “divine likeness”. This is the foundational ‘sin’, travesty of an addict in our/their disease(BTW, any addict to anything): not showing “reverence to their nor anyone else’s “divine likeness”. I am living into my “reverence” for both mine and your “divine likeness” one grain of sand more each day and I pray you will also. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark