Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 175
“If the nature of man were all we had, then surely the outlook would be dim. But we also have the aid of God, the commandment, the mitsvah. The central Biblical fact is Sinai, the covenant, the word of God. Sinai was superimposed on the failure of Adam.” (God in Search of Man pg. 374
Immersing ourselves in these words, in these thoughts as we begin our day with a prayer of gratitude to God for returning our souls to us, with a gratitude list for the people around us, for the goodness we experience, raises our consciousness above our immature egos, above our rational, selfish, self-centered minds to a higher consciousness, to our intuitive minds, to serving something greater than ourselves.
Unfortunately, most of the people in power today do not immerse themselves in “the mitsvah”, they bastardize “the commandments” and “take the name of God in vain” when they proclaim that “god told me to be cruel” or “god wants only white people to rule America”, and other such bullshit. When the people in power can delay help from FEMA for three days to a red State like Texas, waiting for Kristy Noem to get her photo-op on while children and adults are dying and missing, is it any wonder that in blue States they have the National Guard and Marines terrorizing the cities? Is it any wonder that we are in the situations we are in because these ‘good christian nationalist folk’ believe their nature is god’s will? Where is our outrage? Where is our resistance? Where is our demand to make America a “more perfect union”? Union being the key word here; it comes from the Latin meaning “one, unity”. This doesn’t mean we all agree all the time, rather, we have one goal, as stated in our Declaration Of Independence: “all people are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights…life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness”, that we have one path: Freedom as laid out in the Bill of Rights. Without using these documents as our guides and standards here in America, we are giving the control to “the nature of man”…and “the surely the outlook (is) dim”!
Just as the Jewish People have “Sinai”, we Americans have Bunker Hill, we have “the midnight ride of Paul Revere”, we have John Hancock signing the Declaration so large, “King George won’t need his spectacles to read it”! Both traditions have assistance that goes beyond our narcissistic egos, that help us rise from the selfish and greedy individuals we are/have become, the power-hungry, prejudicial, judgmental assholes we have the tendency to be. The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence were written by men of faith, they knew of “Sinai”, they had reverence for “the word of God” even though they did believe they had ‘the right’ to own slaves-which “Sinai” comes to say that slavery will, eventually, end. I watch in horror as these ‘good christian nationalist folks’ continue to proclaim their ‘love of Jesus’, their ‘devotion to the Bible’, and then act with cruelty, abandoning the stranger, pissing on the poor, imprisoning the needy and fucking over the widow and orphan. I watch in horror as ‘orthodox jews’ shout “death to the Palestinians”, as they “cheer the destruction in Gaza”, as they seek to dominate what is “jewish and what isn’t”, how they bastardize the Bible’s essence and constantly repeat the “failure of Adam” and deny the voice that blares from “Sinai”! Rather than hear and adhere to “the word of God”, these PAGANS in their Tzitzis, Yamulka’s and beards, like their counterparts, ‘those good christian nationalists folks’, do more to encourage people to never here nor adhere to the word of God!
It is way past time for We the People to retake our power. It is way past time for We the People to honor the prophetic inheritance we have received. It is way past time for We the People to repay the debt we owe our ancestors for coming to America so we could be born in a FREE COUNTRY, whether they came here ‘legally’ or ‘illegally’. The fact that, unlike in during WWII, people who serve in the military are not automatically granted citizenship is disgusting. The fact that people born here have to worry about CRUEL ASSHOLES like Kristy Noem, Pam Bondi, Stephen Miller, Donald DRUMPH, denying them the rights guaranteed by our Constitution is abhorrent. We the People have enjoyed the “certain unalienable rights” and if we are so foolish to believe that when these “unalienable rights” are taken from one person, one group they will not be take from us, then we will go down the path of Hungry, of Israel, and walk willingly into autocracy, fascism, and senseless hatred, which are the ingredients for the destruction of our way of living, as they have been throughout history. We the People are being called, there is a demand that comes through each and every day from “Sinai”, the call of God, the call of conscience, the call of higher consciousness, the call of our intuitive mind to RISE UP and do the next right thing. These voices are demanding we Love the Stranger, Love our Neighbor, that we DO NOT stand idly be the bloods of our neighbors, etc. They are calling us to acknowledge our fear of taking action and being subjected to the same cruelty that ‘those people’ are and then DO IT ANYWAY. This is the way of God, this is the path of the heroes of the Bible-not perfect beings in any way, shape or form and what makes them heroes is Judah standing up for his brother Benjamin after he didn’t for Joseph, Abraham standing up for Sodom even though he didn’t for Isaac, the prophets standing against the powers that be at the cost of life, liberty. This is the inheritance We the People must honor and use.
I use my inheritance every day and have since December of 1986, not always well, not always hearing “The Voice”, and listening for it to the best of my ability. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark