Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 294
“To our mind, the terrible threats of castigation bespeak a lack of moderation. Is it not because we are only dimly aware of the full gravity of human failure, of the sufferings inflicted by those who revile God’s demand for justice? There is a cruelty which pardons, just as there is a pity that punishes. Severity must tame those whom love cannot win.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 39)
What is it about human beings that, with all of our ‘higher intellect’, we seem to be unable to learn from the past, to do T’Shuvah for “the full gravity of human failure”, for “the sufferings inflicted by those who revile God’s demand for justice”? I am filled with trembling at reading these words, while people don’t like to compare what is happening now with the 1930’s, is Putin any different than Hitler, is the Ukraine any different than Poland, is Trump any different than Chamberlain?? Is this moment that different than the time of the prophets calling to both Israel and Judea to “return to God”, are we still so deaf and dumb that we cannot believe, understand, hear that “God will heal our backsliding and return us in love”? It seems to be so, hence the words of the prophets, the predictions of the prophets are based in the truth that human failure is so grave, We the People are so stuck, so overwhelmed by our own self-deception and the deception by another(s), so fearful of FOMO, so needy for certainty, We the People seem incapable of doing T’Shuvah, of learning from our past, of changing the ways in which we live and act so we serve God instead of being part of those who revel in “the sufferings inflicted by those (of us) who revile God’s demand for justice”!
Rather than call out the BULLSHIT so-called christianity of Trump, Vought, and the myriad of ‘christian’ nationalists like the KKK was, rather than call BULLSHIT on the false ‘catholicism’ of Vance, et al, rather than call LIAR to Kushner, Lutnick, Wytkoff, et al, their followers among We the People revere them, worship them, defend them because those of We the People who are doing this are JEALOUS that they can’t be this cruel, they can’t stick it to ‘those’ people, they can’t be as mean, as powerful, as protected as the assholes running the country, the courts, the business’ today.
The inability of We the People to see the parallels between today and 100 years ago, between today and the times of the prophets, between today and the Bible’s account of what happened in Egypt, is astounding! Get your heads out of your ASS PEOPLE!! Stop making excuses for the cruelty, stop absolving these desecrations of God’s name, these “sufferings” as ‘just what the other side did/does’. Even if this is true-IS THIS THE WAY OF JESUS?? NO, NO, NO, a thousand times NO! Yet, listening to Hegseth, Bondi, Vought, Vance, Jesus loved cruelty, loved hating the stranger, loved killing “those people” because there is not proof that the boats being attacked are bringing drugs to the U.S. IS THIS THE WAY OF THE HEBREW BIBLE? NO, NO, NO, a thousand times NO! Yet, if you watch Jared Kushner, the guy who had to get permission to ride on Shabbat so he could attend the Inaugural Balls( of course his Rabbi believed this was more important than the ‘laws of Shabbat) one might believe that the prophets, that Moses, that God wants to repudiate what is said 36 times in the Torah-Love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt. One might think that autocracy and fascism is what Judaism is all about if you believe and watch Kushner, Lutnick, Bessent, Wytkoff while the Bible says: “Proclaim FREEDOM throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”!!
The cruelty that is coming, the experiences that We the People are going through right now are, hopefully, the precursors of a new day, a new way of being, a new recognition of the sanctity of human life, a renewed interest in and adherence to the words and deeds of the prophets, a renewed interest and explanation of what the Bible teaches us about how to live, a new understanding of how Judaism is not a ‘religion’, an ‘ethnicity’, Judaism is a way of being in this world that is compatible with our being a partner with God in its completion. The same is true of Christ’s teachings, of Mohammed’s wisdom, Buddha’s higher consciousness, the name, the path is immaterial because, as the Dalai Lama says: they all lead to justice, truth, kindness, love, mercy.
Unfortunately, the people in charge right now and their idiotic lapdogs will only understand “a power greater than themselves” in order to change, to surrender. Much like the Pharaoh in Egypt, We the People have yet to understand that “Israel is lost”, that “America is lost”, because We the People refuse, ignore, abstain from asking ourselves and the leaders “Until When (Ad Matai) will you refuse to humble yourself before God?, the words that Moses spoke to Pharaoh, the words that Pharaoh’s courtiers spoke to him and the words that fell on Pharaoh’s deaf ears, just as the words of the prophets, the words of Moses, Jesus, et al are falling on deaf ears today. WAKE THE FUCK UP PEOPLE!
Thinking of how stuck I was, how deaf I was, is excruciatingly painful to me. Not hearing my daughter, my sister, my family, my father’s words is something that I continue to regret-not morosely, rather the regret that keeps the memory close enough that I don’t repeat it again as badly. I know in my recovery, I have been deaf to the call of another, I have been deaf to the call of God, I know that it took catastrophic events to get my attention at times and I have resolved and followed through on being more aware, more attuned to what is happening around me, more aware of the “cards being played at the bridge table” literally and the ‘bridge table’ of life. I am grateful for the “severity” which “tames” me when “love” eludes me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark