Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 291
The prophet does not see the human situation in and of itself. The predicament of man is the predicament of God, who has a stake in the human situation. Sin, guilt, suffering cannot be separated from the divine situation.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 37)
What is Rabbi Heschel saying here, what meaning do these words have? I am having an experience of “trembling awe” “Yirat HaShem” immersing myself in these sentences (truthfully, in most sentences re: the prophets and so much more of Rabbi Heschel’s). “The prophet does not see the human situation in and of itself” because it is IMPOSSIBLE to separate the prophet from God, and it is RIDICULOUS to separate human beings from God-YET WE CONTINUE TO DO IT! Hence, my “trembling awe”.
Since we are created in the Image of God, of course God “has a stake in the human situation” and we human beings keep ignoring this truth, keep being willfully ignorant and blind to this truth and keep living as if God has no “stake in the human situation”, We the People even go so far as to use the Holocaust, the illness of babies, the shootings that occur on a regular basis here in America as ‘proof’ that God doesn’t care, that God is not involved in the world. BULLSHIT!
Isn’t it time, isn’t it WAY PAST TIME, for We the People to acknowledge the truth of our existence, the truth of the Bible, the wisdom of the Bible without having to say everything in it happened? Isn’t it WAY PAST TIME that We the People end our incessant need to bow down to the latest and shiniest idol in front of us? Isn’t it WAY PAST TIME to stop kissing the assholes of the rich and famous, of the liars and cheats, grifters and deceivers, fascists and autocrats grabbing power throughout the world today?? OF COURSE IT IS!
Yet, who will be our Moses today? We killed JFK 62 years ago, we killed MLK Jr. and RFK 57 years ago, we have bought into the lies of Trump and Vought, project 2025 and Peter Thiel, JD Vance, Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Howard Lutnick et al and some of us, still believe they ‘will delivers us from evil’ while they perpetrate EVIL, LIES, GRIFT, SLAVERY, HATRED with every word that comes out of their mouths and every action they take-believing they will be able to con and out scheme all the rest of the liars, dictators, grifters they are dealing with. WTF People??
Our Moses is within each of us, we have a Pharaoh and a Moses inside as they are archetypes, and it is up to each and every human being to decide which one they are going to feed, which one they are going to promote, which one they are going to tame. We the People are being called by the words above, by the words and actions of the prophets to stop waiting for ‘daddy to save us’ and take the “bull by the horns” and join together to throw off the yoke of idolatry, break the yoke of slavery to bullshit and certainty, get out from under the yoke of mendacity and self-deception. It is not easy to do this, society has a plan to keep us “under the thumb” of the fascist, of the scam artist and it has worked off and on for the millennia!
TODAY, knowing and finally acknowledging that God CARES, that God is involved and if we are willing to access the divine power and strength of our souls, we can bring about a new day, we can once again be on the journey to the “Promised Land” knowing we will never “get there” and we can move closer to the world of goodness, community, covenant, etc. Using the power that is within us to be Moses, using the connection within us to another divine image, another human being, all human beings, we can truly “Proclaim Freedom throughout the Land and to ALL its Inhabitants therein” regardless of status, race, religion, color, ethnicity! Do you hear this your ‘fine christian fellow’ Russell Vought, Donald Trump, J D Vance? Do your hear this you ‘fine jewish fellow Bibi Netanyahu, Howard Lutnick, Jared Kushner, Steve Wytkoff?
These assholes are disgraces to the Biblical traditions they claim to follow. They are the exact people who go against Adonai and cause the suffering , the pain, the sin of humankind and relish it. They role around in sin and guilt like pigs in the mud because they believe they are exempt from God’s judgement, because they do not believe in ADONAI- they worship BAAL instead. It is WAY PAST TIME for We the People to leave the warmth and comfort of our self-deceptions, of our need/desire to be deceived and stand for what is true and right, what is holy and needed, what is good and Godly.
I lived for almost 35 years in deception, denial, anger, self-pity, and kept asking God-WTF. Even as a kid, I knew I was different and my father knew it as well. He was torn, as I look back now, between supporting my uniqueness and wanting me not to suffer the same indignities he had. It was a real dilemma for him and, after he knew that he was going to die young because of his heart condition, he fully supported by uniqueness, kept giving me advice that I just did not comprehend at that age and he was desperate to impart it, hoping I would remember his support, his wisdom when I was older and he wasn’t around to go to. I think this is why I was and am comfortable going to the Cemetery to ‘visit’ him-telling him of his wisdom since my recovery rather than crying that he was dead, before my recovery. I am the prophet I need, I have joined with teachers, fellow learners, to create a community that saved lives from the scourge of addiction, I keep writing to sound the Shofar of alarm and the Shofar of solution. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark