Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 167
“The power to make distinctions is a primary operation of intelligence. We distinguish between white and black, beautiful and ugly, pleasant and unpleasant, gain and loss, good and evil, right and wrong. The fate of mankind depends upon the realization that the distinction between good and evil, right and wrong is superior to all other distinctions. As long as such realization is lacking, pleasantness in alliance with evil will be preferred to unpleasantness in alliance with good. To teach humanity the primacy of that distinction is of the essence to the Biblical message.” (God in Search of Man pg. 372)
I am jumping out of my skin reading and rereading the words above and witnessing what is happening in our world today. “The power to make distinctions” has been usurped and co-opted by Trump, Bibi, Miller, Vought, Vance, et al. They have offered a ‘different’ set of distinctions to ‘their people’, calling evil ‘good’, projecting theft as ‘just’, promoting cruelty as ‘kindness’ etc. and We the People are buying it!!! INSANE and true. When a United States Senator, Lisa Murkowski, gives an interview where she calls the ‘big ugly bill’, she just voted for because she got concessions for ‘her people of Alaska’ while people in the other 49 States will suffer, we see the “fate of mankind” going down the drain because these ‘good christian folk’, these ‘lovers of Jesus’, are using their “power to make distinctions” for their own gain, for the purpose of cruelty, for the advancement of evil with their eyes wide open. Unlike people who are unaware, unsophisticated, just plain honest so they can’t imagine someone lying to them, people who follow the Golden Rule and do unto others so they can’t comprehend someone abusing their kindness, these Republican Senators and Congresspeople fucked We the People with their eyes wide open and with joy in their hearts! Just ask JD Vance.
We the People are in the throes of Tyranny and watching “Hannah Arendt-Facing Tyranny” on PBS last night shook both Harriet and me to our core. Substitute ‘illegal aliens’, ‘criminals’ ‘non-white’ ‘non-christian nationalist’ for Jews and the similarities are chilling! While many people are unwilling to speak truth to power, staying willfully blind to what is happening, refusing to say “history repeats itself”, the fact that we are in the throes of a fascist takeover, that Russell Vought is leading the charge to ‘remake’ America in the image of the early 19th Century, that he wants “Christianity” to influence government, just not the “Christianity” of Christ in the Gospels, instead he wants, as the ‘big ugly bill’ proves to pay homage to the “money-changers in the Temple”, the biggest one of course is Trump who keeps benefitting off of the Presidency, emoluments be damned! The fake and phony slight of hand is not even good! The grift is in the open, the hatred and cruelty are being praised by these ‘good christian, jewish, muslim’ folks as ‘light, spiritual, beautiful, pleasant, a gain for ‘god’, as well as being promoted as good and righteous! WTF!!?? How can We the People buy this bullshit? How can We the People go along with this cruelty and call ourselves a ‘christian nation’? How can We the People watch masked thugs beat people up in our cities and towns, be threatened with deportation even if we are citizens because we oppose DRUMPH, and not remember the history lesson of the 1930’s here with “America First”, “The Bund”, “Father Coughlin”, “The Protocols of Zion” as well as what happened in Europe?
We the People are being called to account and to take action by Rabbi Heschel’s words of 70 years ago and by the happenings in our Country today. Being against Bibi is not Anti-Israel just being against DRUMPH, Miller, Vought, Lutnick, Vance, et al is not being anti-United States! Being against both of these fascists regimes is being FOR GOD, being FOR FREEDOM, being FOR A SPIRITUAL SOLUTION to the ills of today. The time for changing the narrative is growing shorter and shorter, We the People cannot complain that no one is doing this because it is up to We the People to invoke our prophetic voice, our dedication to justice, to mercy, to kindness, to truth, to love right here and right now. We the People have to call out the lies of Osteen, Hagee, Cain-White, and promote the Truth of Bishop Barber, Father Greg Boyle, John Pavlovitz, Mark Whitlock and other Christian Faith leaders who follow Christ’s teachings. We the People have to promote the words of Pope Leo who welcomes the stranger, the poor, the needy. We the People have to take the “leap of action” that all Jews are commanded to do and follow the ways of Rabbi Heschel, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rabbi David Saperstein, Rabbi Harold Shulweis, z”l, Jihad Turk, et al. We the People have to take the blinders off, have to call out the liars and PAGANS, the spiritually ill people that Maimonidies describes in “the Eight Chapters”, people who think black is white, evil is good, wrong is right, ugly is beautiful, etc. The time is now, the place is here, this is how we repay our ancestors for coming here so we could be born in freedom, this is how we repay the dead who “gave their last full measure” in the various wars so we can enjoy freedom.
I am so enraged by the goings on and, while I can’t change anything on my own, I have to do my part. This blog is one action, showing up at the protests is another, donating to the causes that are dear to my heart is another. Being kind and loving towards even my enemies, as Proverbs teaches us, is another. Knowing what it is like to be scapegoated and hated keeps me from doing the same to anyone else. Calling out truth and lies, distinguishing between good and evil continue to be my daily task and the path to a richer and more meaningful life. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark