Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 127
“The way we act, the way we fail to act is a disgrace which must not go on forever. This is not a white man’s world. This not a colored man’s world. It is God’s world. No man has a place in this world who tries to keep another man in his place.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 96)
In looking at our world in this moment, these words resonate within me, they assault my ears, they attack my conscience and they depict our plight right now. “The way we act” has been abysmal prior to and since this conference, prior to and since the founding of this country and we have been unable to change the hearts of white men who want to hold onto control. Just as in South Africa, white men are desperately afraid of what happens to them when/if they lose control, if/when their money is taxed at the same rate as everyone else, when/if they have to answer for their disgraces in public. This fear has stopped the progress of freedom every time it seems to get some momentum going. The need on the white man’s part for power and wealth drives them to “disgrace”.
What is the fear? I believe the white man fears that people of color will treat white people in the same ways as the white man has treated people of color. Just as with Jacob in the Bible who could not believe and trust that his brother Esau was genuinely elated to see him, that his brother whom he had fucked over more than once could actually want reconciliation and had forgiven him, the white man can not believe that people of color, Jews, Muslims would not “get even” with them in the same ways they have controlled the rest of us! How sad it is that the white man is so mistuned to the spirit and the faith of people of color, Jews, Muslims. How ridiculous it is that the white man is so afraid of his shadow that he can’t even vote for a white women to have power here in America!
How do we act? White men act with suspicion and greed, with hatred and from fear, from scarcity and hatred. We are witnessing the pinnacle of these ways in our country right now. Trump, Vought, Miller, et al keep doing more and more outrageous things to prove that the Constitution has no teeth in it, all the Republican and some Democrats in Congress are pussies, and the Courts have no power to enforce their rulings. The UnJustice Department is led by a blonde Lobbyist for Qatar, MBS who killed an American Journalist and dismembered him during Trump’s first term, is being hailed as his good friend, the Middle East is going to put up Trump Towers/Hotels so they are now “the favorites” and, this great ‘savior of the Jews and Christians’ is selling out Israel and Bibi, making peace with Iran, and insulting the Pope! What a wonderful way to act and to be a ‘man of the people’, to say ‘I am your retribution’, and so many other bullshit lines that his MAGA puppies swallowed up like candy!!
While it is true that I am singling out the white man, “the way we fail to act” applies to all of us, as does the “way we act” because there are people of color, Jews, Muslims who still buy the con and the grift of Trump, who still believe that Christ’s words are the words of radical liberals, who still think that this ‘whitey’ is going to be a friend to blacks, muslims, etc! Talk about oblivious, deaf, and blind!! Going along with the deception of another, being ‘nice’ and not wanting to “rock the boat” because we want to make a living, keep our position, not be a target, is one of the most disgraceful ways “we fail to act”. This is what the prophets railed against, it is what caused and causes the destruction of countries as it did in Ancient Israel, it is what gives power to the white man in charge. Our failure to stand for and with TRUTH, our failure to say NO to these PAGANS hiding behind the lies of the ‘prosperity gospels’, our failure to not call out their ‘fight’ against antisemitism which isn’t really a ‘fight’, because Trump, et al surround themselves with anti-semites who want ‘Christian nationalism’, always a good thing for Jews!!! Our failure to stop them from taking away of Medicaid from the people who need it most, our allowing them to dismantle the very agencies that help protect us from life-threatening diseases, civil rights, justice, mercy, aid to our fellow human beings around the globe, is atrocious!
We have a blueprint for “how we act” and “how we fail to act”, it is called the Bible, the New Testament and the Koran are also blueprints because they all lead to the same place, the dignity of the human being. We the People have failed and are failing to respect this dignity, we are failing and have failed to honor the infinite worth of every human being, we have failed and are failing to see the divine image in ourselves and in our neighbors, our friends, our enemies. We the People have allowed the white man to dishonor the words of the Declaration of Independence: “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”!! We the People have committed the worst of actions, our indifference to the suffering of another, our indifference to the bastardization of justice, our indifference to give the mercy to another that everyone deserves, our indifference to the evil being perpetrated by the ‘good jews, good christians, good muslims,’ who are running things in this country. These ‘good old boys’ are no better than the southerners who beat and thought they owned another human being, We the People are just as guilty because we have “fail to act” against these immoralities, these paths of evil, these desecrations of God’s name. When we fail to welcome and love the stranger, when we fail to love our neighbor as ourselves, when we fail to rebuke these assholes for the sins they are committing in our name as well as in theirs, We the People stand guilty and have to repent! Is it not time for We the People to say NO to ourselves in “the way we act” and in “the way we fail to act”?
I have wrestled with these two concepts forever, for the past 38 years I have been more afraid to “fail to act” than I have to take the next right action. I have been more terrified of the lie than the truth, I am more sensitive to the bullshit and will not allow it in my presence. I do my inventory each day to suss out the lies I tell myself and my own errors, do my T’Shuvah and reconnect where possible and accept where and with whom it is not possible. I live in truth and seek out people who will rebuke me when I am in error, who love me enough to speak truth and be kind, and do the same for all I meet. It doesn’t make me popular, as my friend and teacher Rabbi Ed Feinstein says, and it allows me to live with myself and have clarity as to my purpose and the meaning of my life. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark