Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 174
“Does not goodness tend to turn impotent in the face of temptation? Crime, vice, sin offer us rewards; while virtue demands self-restraint, self-denial. Sin is thrilling and full of excitement. Is virtue thrilling? (God in Search of Man pg. 374)
I awoke earlier than usual this morning and my mind would not leave me alone. I was thinking about what is happening in the world, in my country, in Israel, in Ukraine and bewildered as to how this is happening less than 100 years since Nazi Germany. I cannot wrap my head around the idea that Israel is going to ‘set up an area’ for Palestinians who want to ‘stay in Gaza’ can live, those who do not want to self-deport to, I don’t know, South Sudan! I am enraged beyond, beyond that masked men are scooping up Latino men, women, and children under the assumption that they are “illegal criminals” and these goons, these storm-troopers (National Guard/Marines) believe have the right to come into any city they want, yet we don’t see them in Texas or in Florida-DUH!! And this is all being done in the name of god, because this is what ‘Jesus’ wants, because we didn’t do this October 7th happened as god’s punishment to the Jews for not having Gaza, West Bank!! What utter and complete BULLSHIT, this is the essence of Idolatry. It describes how “goodness tend(s) to turn impotent in the face of temptation”.
I know there are verses to point to in the Bible, in the New Testament, in the Koran that can validate these extremest views, I also know there are many more verses that INVALIDATE these idiotic, inhumane ways of being. Hillel the Elder says: “In a place where there is no humanity, be human.” We are living in a time where the criminals are running the show, be it Putin, Bibi, Orban, Trump, Vance, Smotrich, Vought, Miller, Ben G’Vir, Erdogan, MBS, Xi, etc. These criminals have convinced at least of plurality of their people that “crime, vice, sin” is actually goodness in disguise-‘cause, you see Mark, you just don’t understand and are not spiritually fit enough to realize the ‘hand of god’ in what we are doing’. AND too many people are still buying these lies, this bullshit, and giving these criminals free rein-Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Amy Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Alito!! Rather than exhibiting “self-restraint, self-denial” these criminals and their cohorts, their enablers and ass-kissers are running amok and wild in their pursuit of cruelty, money, power, control and We the People are not doing enough to stop them.
The Republican majority in Congress have violated the Oath they took upon the start of this Congress- to defend and protect the Constitution against enemies, foreign and domestic. Domestic enemies, domestic terrorists are running our country right now and I am ashamed, embarrassed and don’t know how to contain my outrage-not only at them, my outrage is overwhelmingly towards those of We the People who continue to support such “crime, vice, sin” and believe the “rewards” from these activities benefit ‘all of us’. To act in these ways and say the Bible tells me so-AVODAH ZARAH- IDOLATRY IN ACTION!!
My outrage towards Netanyahu and what is happening in Israel is no less and, possibly, more than towards Trump and what is happening in the U.S.A. We the Jews were given one mission by God-spread the word! “You shall be a blessing” Abraham is told (Gen.12:2) and, by extension, his descendants are to “be a blessing” also-that is us, my fellow Jews. No matter how much Ben G’Vir, Smotrich, and others of their ilk try to put a tuxedo on a pig-it is still a pig, just as their lies, no matter how they couch them in ‘text’, are still lies. That Jews would even think about displacing people is anathema to our very existence-that Jews, who have been displaced from every land we have lived on/in-remember the “land that I will show you”(Gen.12:1) threw us out because, according to the Rabbis that these ‘real jews’ follow, we defiled it, we turned our backs on the poor, the needy, we encouraged senseless hatred and we failed to be in truth with ourselves, with God, with one another. We the Jews, of that time, could not bring ourselves to admit our mistakes, We the Jews, of that time, would not do our T’Shuvah and, instead, railed against the prophets who came with a message from God to get our shit together or we would lose our place. Well, BIBI, well, Smotrich, well Settlers- the Prophets are screaming at you right now and, once again, true to your nature and the inheritance of those you proclaim to be ‘the real jews’, you ignore the call, the demand, the insistence to be human that is coming from Mount Sinai, that is in the words and deeds of so many Israelis and Jews around the globe!
Rabbi Heschel says in his interview with Carl Stern: “how can I pray when I am co-responsible for the deaths of 1000’s of innocent Vietnamese?”. I ask: how can we act as if everything is normal when we are co-responsible for the cruelty being perpetrated upon so many innocent strangers here in America; how can we act as if “crime, vice, sin” is good when perpetrated upon those “non-human Palestinians” as the Right-Wing in Israel believes? WTF!! As a former practitioner of evil, of knowing that crime pays more than virtue in the short run, knowing the “rush” of the score, the euphoria of the “win”, I can say with certainty that Trump, Bibi and their gangs(no matter who is pulling the strings), are criminals and gangsters. They are not ‘good christian folk’, good and real jews’. They are PAGANS who are hellbent on bastardizing what is good and virtuous. It is up to us to stop them and we must! Our grandchildren are counting on us! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark