Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 146
“What we need is the involvement of every one of us as individuals. What we need is restlessness, a constant awareness of the monstrosity of injustice.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 98)
I have been thinking about what keeps me writing this blog, what We the People are getting from it and I know it strengthens my resolve to be more human, more humane in my daily living. I pray it does this for you, the reader and I hope these daily readings inspire you to living your best life as well as find more of Rabbi Heschel’s writings or the writings of anyone who moves you to mature, nurture and grow your spiritual life.
Today’s quote is one that speaks to all of us in our core. We are told in the Bible that “bribes blind the eyes of the just”, that we should appoint people as judges who are wise in knowledge and wise in spiritual wisdom, in other words, people who will not sell their souls for a piece of gold. People who will not allow themselves to dishonor the call to “Justice, Justice, Justice (righteousness can be substituted here) you will pursue. This acknowledges that we will never be able to achieve complete justice, we will never be able to accomplish the perfect justice of the Ineffable One, yet we have to be in pursuit of it and, this will never happen if we have whores and bribe takers as our judges, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts!!
The words above demand of us to get involved. We the People have to stop wringing our hands and moaning about what is and follow the dictate above: “what we need is the involvement of every one as individuals.” This is not a time for the faint-hearted, this is not a time to think that someone else will save you, this is not a time for believing that the Redeemer will come, we have tried these different modalities throughout history only to find out it takes US to make a difference, it takes US to revolt and rebel to and for the cause of Justice. Our Declaration of Independence says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Each and every person is responsible for these words, not just the people who wrote them, each and every one of us is called upon to live into these words, these ideas, these principles and, as we can see with our own eyes Trumpism is NOT, the “retribution” tour of Miller, Bannon, Trump, Vought is NOT living these principles, Bondi, Patel, RFK Jr., Lutnick, Wytkoff are NOT caring about justice nor righteousness, just what lines their pockets and keeps the “don” happy. Rather than speak truth to power, they speak lies to the public so they can keep power! It is very apparent that under these PAGANS, under this TREASONOUS regime, this “Form of Government” has become “destructive of these ends”!
We the People need to be more restless, not less. “Restlessness” has to become our way of being rather than apathy, rather than the root of negativity; Indifference. Each and every one of US has to let go of our not wanting to ‘rock the boat’, not wanting to get involved, deceiving ourselves with “it is those illegals” and not the good folk, etc. Each and every one of US has to look in the mirror and ask ourselves what religion, what spiritual tradition promotes the hatred, the brutality, the injustice of treating the stranger like an enemy? What have We the People become that we allow “the monstrosity of injustice” to be perpetrated in our name, in the name of ‘freedom’, in the name of democracy? Give me a break.
The words above apply to America, to Israel, to countries and people across the globe. Each and every human being is commanded: “Justice, Justice, you shall pursue”, each and every individual receives this as an individual, it is not in the plural form. Each and every one of us is reminded that without justice, we will not live and inherit the land. While our justice system has never been perfect, it has been abused and prostituted by the Roberts Court for the past 20 years! Staying silent, going along to get along, fearing the retribution of Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Trump, Miller, is not the way of the spiritual life. We the People have Abraham, Moses, the Daughters of Zelophad, King David, Tamar, Abigail, Deborah, Miriam, Nathan, Elijah, and the rest of the Prophets as our examples of people who did not, would not abide by the “the monstrosity of injustice”. We have our founding fathers, for all of their imperfections, and they had plenty, writing the Declaration and the Constitution enshrining justice, and the amendments that have followed which have enshrined justice and equality even more-women’s right to vote, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, etc. We the People know the power of “restlessness” and the good that comes from it. WE CANNOT STOP NOW! It doesn’t matter who is in charge, every leader has to be responsible to We the People, Bondi, Patel, Miller, Trump, Vought, all our responsible to us-not the other way around, Congress serves at our pleasure and when they are not upholding and defending the words of the Declaration, the laws of the Constitution, We the People have the right and the duty to “to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” The time is at hand and We the People are being called-will we answer?
I have railed against the “monstrosity of injustice” since I was a child because my father did and both my grandfathers did. I lost my way for 20 years and, even then, I was aggravated when I saw injustice happening. Since my spiritual awakening, lies, deceptions, injustices drive me CRAZY and, sometimes inappropriately, I cannot hold it in. I have fought for the dignity of human beings for all this time, with the people themselves who deny their inherent dignity and worth and with those who cannot see the reflection of the divine in themselves nor in another. I haven’t won popularity contests and, in the end, it does not matter because I am able to live with myself, I am able to live life with openness and love. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark