Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 144
“Daily we should take account and ask: What have I done today to alleviate the anguish, to mitigate the evil, to prevent humiliation? Let there be a prophet in every man!” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 98)
I keep wondering how We the People allowed ourselves to fall back into self-serving and self-centeredness, the eye disease of racism and the curse of fear of another/different human being. We the People, at least a majority, came together in the 60’s and 70’s to bring about Civil Rights, the End of the Vietnam War, we toppled one of the best domestic Presidents, LBJ, because of the War in Vietnam and look where we are today. We the People, at least the majority that brought about Social Security, an end to the Depression(albeit through WWII), defeated fascism in Europe and here at home, have allowed the Nixon-Gingrich-Tea Party-MAGA/Trump MINORITY to revel in the “anguish, evil and humiliation” they bring about daily. WTF?? And where are Jeffries and Schumer? Who is going to be the Moses, Jesus to lead us out of the slavery We the People have willingly and without hesitation walked into? The parallels with the Exodus story are just too much, the harsh labor Black people, Brown people, have suffered through in this country is a foreshadow of what is to come because We the People allowed misogyny, prejudice, apathy, indifference, self-deception to rule us rather than “take account” and stand up for what is good, what is healing, what is uplifting, what is soothing.
Many people believe I am being political in my writings and I AM NOT! Not in the usual way, at least. I am being as political as the prophets are, as God is, as the great philosophers and thinkers are because the Bible tells us how to deal with one another. It teaches us to rebuke our neighbors when they are missing the mark and for us to be rebuked when we are missing the mark which expresses the faith the Bible has in humanity, that we will hear and correct our errant ways, that we will be remorseful for the harms we cause and we will experience one of the greatest attributes of being human, empathy. The Bible believes and teaches us, holds us accountable for our errors, not for punishment rather for our improvement, the alleviation of “the anguish” we have caused another and God by our missing the mark, and our plan “to mitigate the evil” our errors have brought about. “Evil” is not all-encompassing, it is not forever, and to not acknowledge the “evil” we bring about in the world is to deny the force of our actions, just as we bring goodness and holiness into the world, or uncover the holiness and goodness that is here waiting to be discovered, so too do uncover the “evil” that lurks in the world, that has been with us since human beings were created/evolved. Is it political to hold our elected officials accountable for their errant ways, is it political to rebuke them as the Bible tells us to do? Is it political to remind all of us of the importance of living the 10 sayings that we just received anew this past Sunday night/Monday morning? I think not, I believe these are spiritual and moral issues that we have left to the politicians and, as Rabbi Heschel says in his interview with Carl Stern, politicians lie!
As I sit in the words above, I keep thinking about the difference between what is happening in America, in Israel, across the globe and what we are being called to do above. “Take account” is anathema to Bibi, Trump, Lutnick, Orban, Wytkoff, Miller, Kushner, et al, unless it is to “take account” of their bank accounts and net worth! Paula Cain-White, Joni Ernst, Joel Osteen need to learn about Jesus and his life from Pastor Rick Warren, Bishop William Barber, from my friends Najuma Smith Pollard, Mark Whitlock, and John Pavlovitz. Bibi, Lutnick, Wytkoff, Miller, and Kushner need to learn about T’Shuvah from Rabbi Heschel, from Rabbi Abraham Twerski, from Maimonidies. The people I am rebuking so I “don’t bear guilt because of them” are in need of help, they need to “take account” a true Chesbon HaNefesh, an accounting of their souls and ask for forgiveness for the ways they have brought about “anguish, evil, humiliation”. These three ways of being inhuman, of being unholy, of desecrating God’s name are the way these people are living and calling it Good, calling it Holy, calling it the ‘most humane actions ever’, the “big beautiful bill” by the “beautiful people”.
BULLSHIT and We the People have to stand up and call it out. We the People have to “take account” and see how our silence is adding to “the anguish” promoting “the evil”, and celebrating “the humiliation” of humanity by these PAGANS! It is time for We the People to “take account” and do our T’Shuvah for allowing these idolators into the secular temple called the White House, the Capitol building. The Republicans and Democrats who are not stopping “the anguish, the evil, the humiliation” are desecrating God’s name, desecrating the Declaration of Independence, desecrating the Constitution they swore to uphold, desecrating each and every one of the 10 Commandments that they want displayed in schools for kids to see and live by while they create “the anguish” gin up “the evil”, and relish in “the humiliation” they are engaging in. Can you imagine Jesus, who said: “he who is without sin, cast the first stone” applauding the “humiliation” that the PAGANS in Israel and America spew to their ‘base’ and they lap it up like trained seals! Can you imagine the prophet Amos extolling the “evil” of hating the stranger that the PAGANS in America and Israel revel in? Can you imagine King David, after his T’Shuvah for Uriah’s murder, cheering on the “anguish” of people who are about to lose their Medicaid and Social Security? This is why We the People have to stand up on June 14th and proclaim NO KINGS DAY that day and every day in America, in Israel. We the People have to do the work necessary to “alleviate the anguish, mitigate the evil, to prevent the humiliation” that we have either engaged in, watched from the sidelines, deceived ourselves wasn’t really happening.
I promoted these three terrible sins often prior to recovery, I still have engaged in them in the past 38 years, I am sorry to say. I have made my amends and I stand proudly in my inability to follow “the script” of political correctness and ‘half-truths’ that people so glibly engage in. I am not political, ask anyone who knows me-I am a bull in the china shop, I cannot stand mendacity in myself, in another human being. I can’t stand what passes for religious education and prayer, I can’t stand what is happening in the “Land that I love”. I recommit to doing what I can to “alleviate anguish, mitigate evil, prevent humiliation” in all my affairs. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark