Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 155
“Niebuhr reminds us that “there is a mystery of evil in human life to which modern culture has been completely oblivious”(Interpretation of Christian Ethics… “Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time”(Amos 5:13). But Niebuhr is not prudent. The road to disaster is paved with pleasant illusions, and the way to deal with evil is not to ignore it.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.128)
Having finished Rabbi Heschel’s talk on “Race and Religion”, I am turning to his writing on Reinhold Niebuhr’s views on evil. It seems appropriate as we head into the summer months, having received Torah and on our way to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with a stop at Tisha B’Av, the commemoration of the destructions we have caused by our inability to be aware of evil in our midst and in ourselves.
The words from Niebuhr make a mockery of Herbert Spencer’s belief that “evil perpetually tends to disappear” from “Evanescence of Evil”. His certainty in “redemption through progress” is another fallacy that Niebuhr’s words above and the actions of humankind has uncovered. While Spencer’s beliefs and thoughts had merit and, in a world where spiritual progress, moral progress and education is in the forefront of everyone’s being, they could come true. We the People, however have to deal with what is, not what we would like it to be, hence living into Reinhold Niebuhr’s words is crucial for We the People to combat the evil that is tearing at the fabric of our humanity, that is crushing the spirits of people in every walk of life, that is shitting on God’s Will and replacing it with the will of the evil, the will of the PAGANS, the will of ‘der fuhrer, il duce, the don’ whatever you want to call the assholes in the White House, in the Kremlin, in Hungary, in Riyadh, in Jerusalem, … they are evil, they practice evil, they promote evil and they love evil-all the sycophants around them, all of the people who pull their strings, their ‘allies’ are evil as well. They use the words of the Bible, they use common everyday language to accuse others of what they are guilty of, they use racism, Jew-hatred, Islamaphobia, fear of ‘the stranger’, ‘the alien’ to usurp the ethical and moral teachings of the Bible, of the Koran, of the New Testament. And, We the People have been oblivious to it, either unwittingly or willfully blind to it, with the latter probably the truth.
Let’s look at what happens when we are “completely oblivious” to the “mystery of evil in human life”. Bibi is elected again, Trump is elected again, with both being known for their grift and graft, their senseless hatreds and their hating the widow, the stranger, the poor and the needy! They both get elected again as ‘savior’ from ‘those people’. While the far left is no better, in my opinion because they go too far as well, finding the middle ground, electing people who are at least 10% away from both ends of the continuum, finding and following people who know what is right and good, who know how to respect the dignity of every human being while arguing with these same human beings as to what the next right action is indicated is crucial, if We the People are going to open up our eyes and see what is! The more I immerse myself in the words above, the more enraged I become with We the People and especially with myself!
“Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time” is spoken by Amos when he is lambasting the people of Israel for their unmitigated evil in the presence of God, of one another. Jesus’ words were spoken at the time of Rome being in charge of Judea, Moses stood up to Pharaoh, Nathan to King David, the prophets to the kings and wealthy, John Hancock to King George, Sharansky to Brezhnev, etc-so being “prudent” may be safe, it doesn’t help to stem the wave of evil that is washing over us from those of We the People who want power, control, wealth and to be Pharaoh. It is the job of the rest of We the People to end our obliviousness to the “mystery of evil” that resides “in human life”. To do this, we first have to find the “mystery of evil in” our life.
This is the most important aspect of fighting evil. It is the message of the prophets, it is the message of everyone who speaks of evil. Dr. Garrett O’Connor, of blessed memory, told a story of his residency at Johns Hopkins where an Austrian Psychiatrist was one of the supervisors and he spoke of his obsession with the Eichmann Trial. He said he had to watch it, no matter the time difference because it kept asking him the same question over and over again: “Where is the Eichmann in me?” Where is the ‘clerk’ in any of us that just goes along with evil for fear of rocking the boat, for fear of being ostracized, for fear of losing out, fear of missing out? To deny that this exists within us, within all human beings, is the root of our being “oblivious”. This denial, this unwillingness to look inside of ourselves, to do our T’Shuvah, our inventory, our amends and change our ways, is what paves “the road to disaster”, they are the “pleasant illusions” which allow us to “ignore” the evil within and the evil around us. We the People are witnessing this phenomenon again with Trump, Bibi, MBS, VLad, Viktor, etc. We the People are watching Miller, Noem, Holman, Sen. Mike Lee promote violence against their political opponents who they have cast as ‘enemies of the state’ rather than respecting them as human beings with different opinions as Sen. John McCain taught all of us to do. We the People are in desperate need of heeding Reinhold Niebuhr’s words, this is the same Reinhold Niebuhr who gave us the Serenity Prayer, only his version says “change the things which should be changed. Being “oblivious” to “the mystery of evil” is one of the things that We the People should be changing. As Hillel says in Pirke Avot: If not now, when?”
I have been searching my inner life for the evil within since I was a kid. I knew I was different, I couldn’t stand the lies and I made up lies for myself. I hated the bullshit of bowing down to the rich and I wanted to be rich so others would bow down to me. I found the “mystery of evil” that I was “oblivious” to was my incongruence, my two voices that I thought should be unified and I chose to follow the evil inclination more often than not. Then I was awakened, then I met Rabbi Silverman who introduced me to Rabbi Heschel and I could no longer be oblivious to my inner evil, to the lies I told myself. These past 38+ years have been a daily wrestling with my desire to be oblivious and my need to be aware. I know the “mystery of evil” in my life and I have, for the most part, found ways to transform the energy of my evil inclination into doing the next right thing, doing something good for another. In not having resentments, I am able to accept people for who they are as well as accepting me for who I am. I like the me I have come to know and that I am becoming. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark