Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 120
“Freedom is a burden that God has thrust upon man. Freedom is something we are responsible for. If we succeed, we will help in the redemption of the world; if we fail, we may be crushed by its abuse. Freedom as man’s unlimited lordship is the climax of absurdity, and the central issue we face is man’s false sense of sovereignty.”(Insecurity of Freedom pg. 21)
While Rabbi Heschel was not the only person to recognize the inherent dangers in what was going on in the late 1950’s, he is one of the few Jews to speak out so forcefully about what the government was doing, what the people were doing, what religion was doing to enhance and retard “freedom” in America and in the world. Because “freedom” has been treated as an entitlement by so many here, the idea of being responsible for it has not always been in our DNA as human beings. The stories of slavery, of bowing down to the King, the Autocrat, etc are far more numerous than those that depict serving God, serving “freedom”, which is what makes the Bible all the more a revolutionary document!
We are in a worse state than the late 1950’s today and, as we see everyday with the great CHAOS MACHINE called Trump and his lackeys, we are in grave danger of being “crushed by its abuse”. Being a witness to this “abuse” here in America and in Israel with the Ben G’vir, Smotrich, Netanyahu mendacious PAGANS living under the guise of ‘religious’, is enraging, heartbreaking, scary and We the People cannot stop fighting for our “freedom” and the “freedom” of our neighbors, the “stranger in our midst”, etc.
The main issue facing us and the root cause of the abuse of power is, as my friend and teacher Rabbi Danny Maseng puts it: “moral foundations”. Without living from a moral foundation, one is just evil and cruel. In fact, a lack of moral foundation is the prerequisite for being able to be cruel and evil. While many people, like Trump, Heinrich, Putin, Bibi, come off as nice, fun, charismatic, they are not moral and without a moral foundation, the people in power(elected or not) have to “abuse” “freedom” and are irresponsible with our rights, our minds, our spirits. For them, cruelty is the point so we are so focused on one area that is so outrageous we don’t notice the myriad of thefts, lies, abuses happening in every other area of our government and our living.
Having lived with these words for the past 3 days, it is embarrassing for me that I did not realize what Rabbi Heschel was saying the first few times I read this, I knew and I didn’t know how prescient he was in this instance. Witnessing “freedom” being considered “man’s unlimited lordship” on both ends of the continuum, far right and far left, is what has brought us to the doorstep of ending the democratic experiment of the past 240 years, of ending the cause and the spirit of Lexington and Concord some 250 years ago. It is not only “the climax of absurdity”, it is threatening the very underpinnings of Judaism; “proclaim freedom throughout the land..”, “love the stranger”, “love your neighbor”, “one law for the stranger and the citizen alike”, and all the rest of the morality that the Bible brought to the world which these ‘good christian folk’ like Trump, Cain-White, Osteen, Bondi, and the other cross-wearing hookers Trump has around him, ‘praise god’ for. The depth and breath of their hypocrisy is astounding and dangerous.
I keep wondering what it is that keeps their supporters so loyal to their own detriment and the only reason I can come up with is the age-old responses to an autocrat: fear and “drinking the kool-aid”. I have to believe that Lindsey Graham is afraid of something he doesn’t want people to know about him because one cannot be a loyal friend to John McCain, z”l, and to Donald Trump-it is impossible. There are many other elected officials who seem to be afraid to stand for “freedom” and, in their fear, are bringing the “absurdity” of Trump to bear on all of us. The people who have “drank the kool-aid” are going to have to experience a “dark night of the soul” and have an authentic “spiritual awakening” before they will see any light, hear and experience any truth and, come back to being responsible for their “freedom”.
Now is the time, America and Israel are the places for We the People to once again, as we did at Mount Sinai, pledge our allegiance to God, not human beings. Right here, right now is the time for We the People to be “responsible” to and for the moral foundations of the Bible, of democracy, of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and to fulfill the promises of the Declaration of Independence: “all people are created equal.. and endowed with certain unalienable rights; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. These promises, along with the ones in the Bible, are not in the minds nor actions of Osteen, Cain-White, Rubio, Hegseth, Vought, Lutnick, and the rest of the thugs around Trump. Their belief in their own sovereignty is so complete they mock the process to select a Pope-these ‘good christian folk’ and supported by the ‘best catholic of them all’ J D Vance! Who else but We the People can stop these mendacious, cruel, evil people. It is our responsibility to do everything we can to “redeem the captive”, to “ransom our kin, our people” from any and all forms of imprisonment and enslavement and NOW is the time. Be it Bibi or Donny, both of whom think they are Mafioso’s, We the People are being called to “take to the streets” in non-violent protests and to support Rev Barber and everyone else who wants to Pray in the Capitol Rotunda, especially since these assholes want prayers in school which, will not include Jewish nor Muslim prayers. Yet, these PAGANS arrest Rev Barber because he prayed for the same people God tells us to care for and Jesus hung out with-DUH!!
I am deeply committed to being responsible for freedom and know the how it helps to redeem an individual. This has been my life’s work for the past 37+ years and the gratification of being able to look in the mirror, with all my flaws, and know I have brought about the ransoming of the captive and the redeeming of a human soul fills me with humility and awe. The beauty of living the words above is that no one can take the experience away, no matter how they lie, obfuscate, and run from the truth, there is no erasing the experiences of responsibility to “freedom” and the knowing of a job well-done. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark