Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 150
“History has made us all neighbors. The age of moral mediocrity and complacency has run out. This is a time for radical commitment, for radical action.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 99)
If only these words had taken hold back in January of 1963! If only We the People would have demanded this way of being from our elected officials in any time since then, maybe we would not be where we are today. The words of prophets, great teachers, thinkers, of bold ideas don’t die with the people originating them, they have a life of their own and when they carry on, we know their veracity, their validity and they come from a source much greater than greed, power-seeking, injustice-they come from love, holiness, elevated thinking and living. Yet, even knowing this, knowing the words of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “dream” that people will be judged on the content of their character not the color of their skin are from God, We the People still ignore them, trample them and/or allow another to trample them.
In the Bible, Pharaoh is asked: “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before God”(Ex.10:3) by Moses and then his own courtiers, advisors, ask: “How long will this man be a snare for us…Do you not know that Egypt is destroyed?” (Ex. 10:7). We the People need to read and reread what happened, the plagues brought about because Pharaoh, the regular citizens of Egypt refused to realize the destruction that was happening, just as many of us refuse to today!! Unfortunately, “the age of moral mediocrity and complacency has” NOT “run out”. It is alive and well, seemingly thriving and growing if one watches FOX NOT-NEWS, if one listens to the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Israel, the Presidents of Russia, Hungary, India, etc. What is so unbelievable to people of faith-not the fakes and charlatans, not the idolators and PAGANS, is we know where this story ends, we know that Egypt is indeed lost, we know the Greek, the Roman, the Assyrian empires all fell because of “moral mediocrity”, hell, the Rabbis teach that both Temples were destroyed because of “moral mediocrity and complacency”, because the poor were used and abused, because there was senseless hatred amongst the people, because the stranger became unwelcome, etc. Sound familiar America? Sound familiar Israel where the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible is studied in every school??
How have we fallen so far in 60 years? How have the angry white men and passive white women taken over the country and brought back a new kind of “Jim Crow” which they will use to institute the old “Jim Crow” laws against people of color, Jews, Muslims, anyone ‘not like them’, anyone who is not a ‘good christian nationalist folk’. These ‘good christian folk’ like Vance and Trump, Bondi and Cain-White are at odds with the Pope who is calling for the words and deeds of Jesus to be their guide! They are at odds with the words of the Prophets, of the Torah, of the very words on the Liberty Bell! Yet, some of We the People are still worshiping them, reveling in the “moral mediocrity and complacency” that has taken hold here and in Israel. As we say, WTF?? We have reached this bottom once again, there are those of We the People who believe that this bottom is the warm blanket they use to wrap themselves in so they are safe, not realizing that America is already lost. The dream, the goals laid out in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the ways of being a beacon, the promise of Lady Liberty, the words “give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are dying, being kept on life-support by a few rather than the many. We are told “don’t run after the majority to do evil” so how much the more so should we not run after the minority to do evil? Yet, following Trump, Musk, Bibi, Smotrich, seems like a good thing to many people-enough to keep electing them even though they are telling us their plans and their cruelty. Again, WTF????
We the People have to make this moment, this “time for a radical commitment, for radical change”. We the People are being called upon to learn from our earlier mistakes, to do a proper T’Shuvah for the errors of our ancestors, to set a new course of action-one that takes seriously the prophets call, Moses’ call to: “do justly, love mercy, walk in the ways of God”. Not the god of vengeance, the god of killing everyone, because these verses are the ones we are to DISOBEY, as Rabbi Harold Shulweis, z”l, teaches in his book, “Conscience: The Duty to Obey and The Duty to Disobey(2008), rather walk in the ways of God who calls for us to “LOVE the stranger” 36 times in the first 5 Books of the Bible , to “proclaim FREEDOM…to ALL the inhabitants” in the land, to care for the poor, the needy, to redeem the captives, to know that our neighbor is to be loved like we love ourselves, etc. This is the God of the Bible, this is the thrust of what we are to do and what we are to obey. I say this in the face of much pushback from people like Jonathan Greenblatt who has decided the Anti-Defamation League can defame people who protest what Israel is doing in both Gaza and the West Bank, I say this because if doing the next right thing was not of utmost importance to God, to the humans who copied the Bible, who included Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs in the Bible, who did not take out these ways of living together in harmony, why would we be reading them each and every week? The challenge for We the People is to make a “radical commitment” to live in the ways of Godliness, as Rabbi Shulweis taught over and over again. The challenge of We the People is to make the “radical change” of living ethically, morally and spiritually rather than self-seeking, narcissistic, and with mendacity. I pray we are up to this challenge, otherwise, the words spoken to the Pharaoh will, once again, come true in our lifetime!
I am so saddened by what is happening, listening to Pam Bondi, RFK Jr. Trump, Miller, Holman, I am left to wonder what happened to the “country I love”? It is not really that strange to me because I lived a grifter’s life, I lived a drunk’s life, I was a criminal, and I knew better, I allowed “moral mediocrity” to make it okay to do things that were morally and ethically wrong, that were spiritual bastardizations of the principles I was taught. This is what my recovery has been all about, I continue to rail against the injustices being wrought in the world and I continue to ask We the People to change because the assholes like Trump, Bibi, Miller, derive their power from We the People and it is incumbent for We the People to take the power away from people who do not act in the best interests of We the People, justly, lovingly, kindly, compassionately, and truthfully. This is what I am recovering; integrity, wholeness, my purpose, my passion, my voice and my message. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark