Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 310
“There is happiness in the love of labor; there is misery in the love of gain. Many hearts and pitchers are broken at the fountain of profit. Selling himself into slavery to things, man becomes a utensil that is broken at the fountain.”
(Thunder in the Soul pg. 57)
Many of We the People doubt God’s existence, the existence of some “force of the Universe”, the existence of a fountain of spiritual wisdom, education and sustenance. The doubt begins with “how could God have allowed the Holocaust(if one is Jewish) and other tragedies, horrors”. I believe this is the wrong question; I know that this Universe was not man-made, I know that Nature is not man-made, I know that everything evolved over time, I know there is a spiritual connection that makes love knowable, justice perceivable, mercy available, and T’Shuvah (return, change, hope) redeemable. I believe We the People have to stop asking this wrong question and ask ourselves and one another: where are We the People in allowing, participating in, ignoring the tragedies we blame God for?
One of the societal norms and cliches is: “the one with the most toys wins” and this idiotic belief, this drive to ‘win’, the belief of Tevye, the milkman in Fiddler on the Roof, that “when your rich, they think you really know”, the abuse of people by those who are drinking and being sustained “at the fountain of profit”, all have contributed to the erroneous belief that God is dead when in truth it is We the People who have forfeited our spiritual natures, forfeited our morality, our sense of dignity, who have knowingly engaged in injustice, enthusiastically kiss the asses of people like Trump, like Putin, like MBS so we can “get more”, Jared Kushner, Howard Lutnick, Steve Wytkoff are great examples of this way of being. Of course, this way of being has been with us since the days of the Bible. We know this because the central theme of the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible, is the Pharaoh and Egypt. Evidently, the Israelites thought they could drink at “the fountain of profit” along with the Pharaoh and the Egyptians because of what Joseph did and, for the first time in their history and certainly not the last, they “were broken at the fountain of profit”. This has been the theme of the Jewish people since then-every time Jews turn and worship at “the fountain of profit” We the Jewish People wind up “selling himself into slavery to things” and We the People “become a utensil that is broken at the fountain”. Not a “utensil” for God, not a “utensil” in making the world a better place, rather “utensil that is broken at the fountain” of profit and serves the Pharaoh, the Autocrat, the fuhrer, etc.
After all of these years of our history repeating itself, after all of the times We the Jewish People have suffered through and experienced the same experience as we did in Egypt oh so long ago, after all the times We the People (all people) have witnessed and experienced the myriad ways of seeking profits, seeking to be with the “in crowd”, the “rich crowd”, the “powerful people” only to find ourselves enslaved to our roles, our jobs, “the man”, one would think that We the People would end our going to the “fountain of profit” where our “hearts are broken” time and time again. BUT WE DO NOT! We the People, in our returning over and over again to this place of abject despair and slavery, are living Einstein’s definition of insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results”. Knowing this doesn’t protect us, knowing this seems to make We the People more stubborn to prove Einstein, history, and our inner wisdom, our spiritual knowing wrong-in other words, We the People seem to be hellbent on denying Truth and welcoming mendacity.
We know this to be true because We the American People re-elected Trump, knowing his desire to enslave all of us-even and, in some cases, especially his MAGA crowd. What is really confusing to some of us is the conspiracy theories and the anti-semitism that is welcomed, embraced, and never denied by many in the MAGA camp. Kushner, Lutnick, Wytkoff seem to believe they are exempt, they believe their money, their ‘leadership’ at “the fountain of profit”, their connection to Trump will save them-HA HA. Ask any of the Jews of Egypt who were advisors to the Pharaoh, the Jews of Spain who were friends of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Jews of Germany who held governmental positions, who helped to build the economy, the culture prior to 1933! WTF WE THE PEOPLE? Isn’t it time to wake up, to take off the blinders that the “love of gain” shields our eyes from seeing truth, to cry out to God for help in being redeemed from the slavery We the People willingly walk into and in each day? Isn’t it time to ask ourselves the right questions, instead of blaming, denying, defying the Spiritual Truth of life?
I am so aware of the thread of outrage the prophets left us as an inheritance, I am sitting here, writing these words and want to scream, I want to be heard. Knowing the brokenness of worshiping at the “fountain of profit”, knowing the horrific(unjust, inhumane, me first, etc) actions that are taken in order to keep the “fountain of profit” pumping, I experience outrage for God, for the poor, the needy, the stranger. I am angry at the Jews who support Netanyahu and Ben G’Vir in their hatred, I am embarrassed by the Jews who are still proclaiming their loyalty and fealty to Trump and this bullshit conservatism that is actually hatred for anyone not a white christian nationalist. I believe We the People are better than this, I believe the founding fathers wanted “a more perfect union”, I believe my father, z”l, and all the others who fought against the Axis Powers in WWII, fought for the end to slavery, the end of racism, the end of power grabs, the end of senseless hatred and killing. I pray we will honor their sacrifice with our own by ending our thirst at “the fountain of profit”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark