Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 311
“Our age is one in which usefulness is thought to be the chief merit of nature; in which the attainment of power, the utilization of its resources is taken to be the chief purpose of man in God’s creation. Man has indeed become primarily a tool-making animal and the world is not a gigantic toolbox for the satisfaction of his needs.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 58)
These words, written over 50 years ago, are proof of Rabbi Heschel’s prophetic nature, to me. What is a prophet if not a person who has the ability to see what is, see the rot and ruin that is festering, growing with the human being and society and speak out about it with warnings, with solutions? Hence, one of the reasons I love Rabbi Heschel so much and one of the reasons I study him daily!
The idea of “usefulness” has only grown in “our age”, it is not just the world of nature where it has grown, “usefulness” is the “chief merit of human nature” is the end/all be/all of “our age”. I am overcome with a familiar realization that the “usefulness” which has “merit” is the antithesis to covenantal relationships. Humanity is not going to ever have a lack of “usefulness”, since the Caveman we have found the tools, the food, the ways to sustain our physical existence; humanity is, however, in a state of covenantal bankruptcy, our very existence is dependent on being needed and needing another human being for connection. We learn in the 2nd Chapter of Genesis that “it is not good that humans are alone” and ever since the first marriage, it seems as if humanity continues to ‘go it alone’. The war between societal bullshit and authentic human needs for connection is only growing greater and the chasm is getting larger and larger. With the advent of AI, who knows where we will be in another 50+ years.
There is nothing wrong with seeking out the “usefulness” of “nature”, the “usefulness” that a human being can provide as both help all of us live better. The “usefulness” of nature cannot be used at the expense of nature as humanity has done, putting holes in the Ozone is not “taking care of the earth” as we are commanded in Genesis Chapter 1. So too, the “usefulness” of a human being cannot kill the soul, the spirit of the person and this is the issue we face today, as we have in the past. Today, the issue seems to be on steroids and, maybe every generation felt that way-certainly the prophets did. Marriage is a covenantal relationship that seems to have lost its purpose, when one partner or the other is no longer “useful”, divorce happens (useful in the broadest sense of the word); when an employee no longer is “useful”, they get fired no matter their previous value, no matter that they are “useful” in another area-if they are no longer ‘serving the man’, fire them. When an employer, who has taught us our trade, given us numerous opportunities for growth, can’t/won’t pay us what we think we are worth, we go elsewhere because loyalty means nothing, previous assistance means even less, just look at the Free Agent markets in sports, the insanity in College Football today. In relationships, friendships, when it isn’t serving, it isn’t convenient to ‘be seen’ with this person-we lose them! This begins in grade school and begins to flourish in middle/high school.
We the People have lost our sense of covenantal relationships with one another, with truth, with justice, with God. This is the problem the prophets spoke about, it is the issue that Jesus railed about, this is the situation we find ourselves in throughout history bringing us to today. The MAGA movement, the far right ‘conservative’ movement does not want to ‘conserve’ anything except utilitarianism, they only want to ‘conserve’ the power of the white man, the only ‘right’ there is in their world is what their leader spouts (think Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany), and there are no rights for ‘those people’ like Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, Catholics who don’t join them, Asians, Muslims, etc.
What is the solution? Rabbi Heschel would say to re-awaken, re-learn how to have a sense of wonder. I believe he is correct and I believe the solution begins with spiritual education from a young age-no longer is learning the Aleph-Bet (the Hebrew alphabet) enough when children are young-their spiritual education, maturity has to begin at that moment as well. Young people have a sense of something greater and it is we adults who tell them “that’s not the way the world works” and we systematically begin to kill the sense of wonder, of awe, of spiritual audacity and moral grandeur within our children, our teens and then we wonder why they are going more and more inward, spending more and more time on their ‘devices’, being lured by faux connections. Just as it is impossible to remove the “evil drive” from a human being, so too is it impossible to remove the “spiritual longing” within a human being. Unfortunately, when the “evil drive” is attacked it gets stronger, when the “spiritual longing” is attacked it gets smaller and smaller as an act of protection.
I have wrestled with the issue of transactional and covenantal relationships all my life, even when I didn’t know it. I realize this was what I lost when my father died and I did not regain a sense of covenant for over 20 years. I was certainly part of the problem re: “usefulness” as the “chief purpose”, so in my recovery, my being of service is what I lead with-to the best of my ability- and I search out covenantal relationships and, at times, fooled by another, fooled by my need to be in covenant with another. What I know, what I keep learning over and over again, the #1 covenantal relationship in my life is with God, with me, and only when I am true and loving, just and merciful in my relationship with self and God can I really have the same with my family, with Harriet, with you. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark