Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 139
“Life is clay and righteousness the mold in which God wants history to be shaped. But human beings, instead of fashioning the clay, deform the shape. God needs mercy, righteousness; His needs cannot be satisfied in space, by sitting in pews, by visiting temples, but in history, in time.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 97)
There is a prayer we say on Yom Kippur called “Ki Hinei KaHomer”, we are but clay” and the words above remind me of this prayer. In the prayer we acknowledge and thank God for fashioning us like a potter fashions clay and here Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that we have to allow ourselves to stay in the mold of the clay. Working with clay as I have been for the past couple of years, I know that the clay has a mind of its own and without ensuring the mold is closed up, wrapped up tight, the clay will become misshapen and not at all like the design, idea I began with!
In the words above, we are being reminded of what our mission in life is: take life and make it righteous, ensure mercy and justice prevail and serve something larger than ourselves. Yet, as we see every day in our own actions, in the actions of those around us, and, with the current trend in governing, in the actions of the TRUMP CRIME FAMILY, both literally and the Crime Family he has fostered and created in his years of grifting and have joined him in raping the government, cheating his supporters, and stealing from governments across the globe, the deforming of the image of both human beings and God. This has to stop! We the People have to return to the words of the Bible, return to the morals that brought about the Declaration of Independence, return to the words “LET FREEDOM RING” as a call to action. Patrick Henry is credited with saying: “Give me liberty or give me death” and too many of us have chosen to die a little at a time, to give up the morality and the ethical way of living that brought such prosperity to America, that gave us the impetus to win the war against Fascism in 1945 and yet, 80 years later, in our own country, Lindbergh’s spirit, Father Coughlin’s caricature of Jesus is alive, well and fast-growing! WTF??
We are given one task, to make our corner of the world a little bit better. Reb Nachman teaches about the world being a garden and each of us has a small plot of the garden that we are to tend, grow, take out the weeds that always and continually grow, and be nourished by the fruits of our labor. Of course we need to share and barter our production so we can get the nutrients found in another’s plot. Reading the words above, immersing myself in them, ensures that I find the question they are the answer to and using the metaphor of Reb Nachman, I have to ask myself what weeds have I allowed to grow and overgrow my garden, my plot of the world? How have the weeds disguised themselves as fruits and vegetables so I don’t notice them? How is my self-deception causing my neighbors’ plots of land to become overgrown and disguised as well?
Trump and Project 2025 are the wake-up call for our nation, Bibi, Ben-G’Vir and the gang of thugs are the wake-up call for Israel, Putin, Orban, etc are the wake-up call for the world. Yet, until We the People demand of ourselves to return to “fashioning the clay” in the image and mold that God is providing; righteousness, mercy, kindness, justice, love; we will continue to go down the path that Hitler began 92 years ago. That the ‘bund’ is alive and well again is astounding on one level and ‘duh’ on another. We the People allowed “The Family” to run the National Prayer Breakfasts for years and they spread their anti-equality, no freedom for workers, bastardizing Christ’s words theology throughout the U.S. Government. We the People did nothing when Nixon was a crook in the 1950’s, elected him in 1968 knowing who he was, gave free rein to Gingrich in the 1990’s and then, the piece d’resistance, elected Trump in 2016 and 2024! What a great job the weeds We the People have allowed to overtake our garden have done at deceiving us and how great our own self-deception has been.
We the People must re-constitute the clay we have been misshaping! We the People are being called to action by our current situation, by the cries of those who are being harmed by these fascists, by the call of our own souls. We the People have to stop stuffing our ears with cotton so we don’t hear the cries of another, so we don’t hear the cries of our souls, the cotton has been in our ears far too long. For some of us, whose parents, grandparents are immigrants, what is happening to people seeking refuge should be abhorrent! When the St. Louis was turned away from America and Cuba, almost 1000 people’s lives were put in jeopardy and almost 1/2 of the 620 passengers who returned to the Continent were killed, 288 were taken in by Great Britain and were saved. Yet, America, “the land of the brave and the home of the free” denied freedom, life, liberty to those 900+ people seeking a “port in the storm” that was Hitler’s Germany. We the People have heard the rhetoric of cutting Medicaid, Medicare, privatizing Social Security, for years and now, faced with the reality of these things happening and hurting the poorest and the most needy being done ‘in the name of christ by those good christian folk’ We the People must demand an end to this nonsense. We the People must stand up to the weeds we have allowed to grow, the deceptions we have bought into and the lies we have been telling ourselves. Watching criminals be pardoned because they can pay to play, witnessing the rounding up of a child with cancer who is an American citizen, etc has to wake us the fuck up and RESPOND TO GOD’S CALL for righteousness, mercy, justice, love, compassion, etc. We the People have to answer to ‘the person in the glass’ each day and without taking action, without standing up and weeding our country of its poisonous growth, we will never be able to face ourselves nor our children/grandchildren when the question is asked: “what did you do when evil began to rule”.
I know how hard it is to get the clay back into the mold, the shape one wants both literally and figuratively. I have had to reshape my life more than once. One shape as a kid, another after the death of my father, another after the weeds became so overgrown, I couldn’t tell the difference between them and the fruits. Once again when I was in prison the 2nd time and I have continued to reshape my living given the different weeds I have allowed to grow. I know the self-deception that allows me to see the weeds as flowers and each day I take my weed killer out so I can cut down, unearth the ones I see today. This is a daily exercise and it helps me keep my garden growing and my clay in the proper mold. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark