Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 149
“An act of violence is an act of desecration. To be arrogant toward man is to be blasphemous toward God.” ( Insecurity of Freedom pg. 98/99)
I wonder each and every day what makes someone like a Paula Cain-White, a Itamar Ben G’Vir, a Bin Laden, when we are reading the same texts and worshiping the same God, Allah, Jesus, whatever name one wants to use for the Ineffable One. Stephen Miller’s beliefs and tactics would have made it impossible for his grandparents to come to America! Trump’s grandfather was a PIMP, I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree:). The words above cause me, and hopefully you, to shake with a determination to end the desecration of God’s Name by these idolators and charlatans who wrap themselves in the Bible, who claim to be the ‘holy rollers’ and ‘inheritors’ of the different spiritual traditions when they are just grifting PAGANS! I like using the word Pagan to describe them because Pagans have no real spiritual corpus, no congruent spiritual philosophy only one that suits them as they make their shit up, as they bastardize the holiness of our rich spiritual traditions from Judaism to Buddhism and everything in between.
“An act of violence is an act of desecration” describes what is going on in both America and Israel, Russia and Gaza, where indiscriminate acts of violence are being perpetrated ‘in the name of the people’, ‘for the good of the country’ when in reality the ‘holy people’, the ‘good jews, christians, muslims’ are perpetrating them for their own power and greed. Trump’s ICE raids are meant to stir up protests and then, somehow miraculously, he predicts there will be violence-not that he and his MAGA’s, who believe George Floyd died from a tumor, would instigate the violence posing as protestors! That is as ridiculous as thinking that Jan. 6th 2021 was an insurrection done by supporters of Trump’s BIG LIE or that Mike Pence wasn’t threatened by these rioters with hanging and/or that the Capital Police were not attacked and injured-how rIdiculous of anyone to believe those patented untruths that those “libtartds” are spreading!
The greatest “act of violence” may be the assault that Trump and his MAGA THUGS, his MAGA PAGANS on TRUTH. In Judaism we say “Adonai Emet”, “God is Truth”. Ergo, any “act of violence” on the TRUTH is and “act of violence” towards God as well as towards humanity. Isn’t it time for We the People to stand up for and with TRUTH? Isn’t it time for people who are not PAGANS, who are not necessarily ‘religious’ in the way this word has come to be defined and who would want to be considered ‘religious’ according the Osteen who wants your money or Smotrich who wants you to heel under his orders? Rather I am speaking the the “religious” people who follow a moral code, imperfectly as it/they may be, the “religious” people who believe in decency, who act in loving ways towards another human being, who care for the poor and the needy, who welcome and love the stranger, who believe that our goal is to “love your neighbor as you” and want to “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all it’s inhabitants therein”. In other words, I am calling out to everyday people who want to improve their daily lives, live in harmony with what they know to be true and right and who will not be blinded by the lies and the bribes of Populism, of MAGA, of Autocracy, of Fascism. We the People I am speaking to can and must stand with TRUTH, stand with a “power greater than ourselves”, find, live, and stand with communities that share our values of morality and decency, reverence and awe, wonder and radical amazement. We the People are being called to end this “act of violence” by putting the perpetrators in jail, by taking the power away from the liars and deceivers and throwing out the weak, scared, mean-spirited people in Congress like Mike Johnson, Jim Jordan, et al who are willing to say any lie to get elected, willing to fuck over their very constituents to please ‘big daddy Trump’, and willing to end democracy for their greed and grift. Isn’t it time for We the People to protect and preserve, to defend and nurture our Constitution, our Freedoms, the Promise of what America can be?
Is there anyone more arrogant that Netanyahu, Trump, and the cast of characters that have aligned with? Listening to Hegseth, RFK Jr., makes one want to PUKE! These two and the rest of the ‘cabinet’ as well as Miller, Holman, Patel, etc are such ‘good christian/jewish folk’ that they continue “to be blasphemous toward God”. Their arrogance is on constant display and, unfortunately, is celebrated by the brain-dead, spiritually bankrupt, spiritually ill people who follow them and keep electing them. Their brand of fascism is so seductive, their hatred of anyone ‘not like me’ is so persuasive to a certain group of people who feel ‘left out’, who just want to ‘stick it to the libs’, who have been kept down by ‘those people’ in the stories they tell themselves that their core sycophants will never leave them. Of course these are the very people who are getting it up the ass by Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ and are being screwed over by Bibi’s deals with Qatar and his graft and grift. We the People are being called to speak TRUTH TO POWER, we are being called to HEAL THE SPIRITUAL MALADY of our fellow human beings, we are being called to HONOR GOD’S NAME and FOLLOW GOD’S WAYS so we can END the blasphemy towards humanity and God. This is the call for us today and every day, this is what the NO KINGS protests are all about, restoring the Glory to God’s Name and to God instead of glorifying the PAGANS, instead of glorifying the violence and arrogance of Trump and MAGA.
“It is not our obligation to finish the work nor are we free to walk away from it” as I interpret Rabbi Tarfon in Pirke Avot 2:16. I know the desecration and blasphemy that I have wrought when I was/am arrogant and/or violent. I also know how often my actions and ways have been called “arrogant and violent” when they were my way of standing for and with TRUTH, when they are my way of seeking clarity as to what is TRUTH and what is either my self-deception or the deception by another(s). I am well-aware of my tendency to go from 0-60 in 2 seconds when I am confronted with mendacity, with evil, with lies, I know it stems from my years of living in these realms and how much respect I have for the pull of these ways, just as I have the knowing that the people still believing the BIG LIES of Trump and MAGA, are spiritually ill as I was when I was engaging in the same types of behaviors. I also know the power of We the People, of community to heal the wounded and welcome the stranger as I have had this experience as well, hence my dedication to paying my good fortune forward, living in gratitude and obligation. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark