Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 186
“To the Jewish mind, evil is an instrument rather than an iron wall; a temptation, an occasion, rather than an ultimate power. The words of the Psalmist, Depart from evil and do good(34:15), contain the epitome of right living. Yet, it seems that Jewish tradition believes that the right way of departing from evil is to do good; putting the accent on the second half of the sentence.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)
The words in bold, the last sentence above, are crucial for our understanding of what We the People were told at Sinai and are being told every day by the Voice that still speaks to us. In today’s world, we are witnessing the bastardization of “DO GOOD” and we are all made smaller by not living what our soul, our higher consciousness call out to us to do. As Rabbi Heschel says: “virtue pays and crime pays more”. When our elected officials believe that they can do whatever they want, they can usurp the norms of “good”, and declare as Richard Nixon did: “if the President does it, then it must be legal”, we are in an autocratic, tyrannical state. When the clergy go along with these “evil” actions, the dictates of the Bible become nothing more than suggestions which are to be interpreted and twisted to fit their desire for power and wealth. When people of faith blindly go along with the PAGANS to do the bidding of the rich and powerful, we are in desperate times.
We the People are being called by the words above, by the Biblical norms to say NO to the societal bullshit we are witnessing, and by our silence, by our going along to get along, participating in. This is true of both the right and the left, it is true whenever we seek to ‘be right’, wrap ourselves in a ‘false purity’, and no matter how these actions are wrapped in ‘biblical dictates’, We the People have to stand up and follow the words and deeds of the prophets and speak truth to power and raise up the poor, the needy, the stranger. This is what the Bible calls for and this is the inheritance, the way of being we Jews have been chosen for!
Being chosen is not some ‘get out of jail free’ card. It is a mission and a purpose and the purpose and mission of being a Jew is to “do good”, no matter the cost, no matter the ridicule, no matter the prejudice, no matter how much we are hated. I would suggest that this is the foundational reason there has been, is, and will be so much Jew hatred in the world. Our ancestors demanded that the kings, the priests, the wealthy see their status as an obligation rather than a privilege, that the people never forget their inherent dignity and worth, and that We the People live the promise of God that each of us can use our unique talents and energy to make our corner of the world a little better each and every day.
“Do good” is not a bumper sticker, it is found in a dogma, it is a daily way of being the best human being we can be in the moment we are in. It is to make community a place for all people to gather, for all people to share ideas, argue with one another to figure out what the next right action is, it is a place where people belong rather than have to follow some dogmatic way of reading, seeing, living the Bible’s ways to “do good”. Leviticus chapter 19 is called the “Holiness Code”, it begins with “you shall be holy because I, Adonai, am holy. What an outrageous statement, it is calling upon every human being to be reminders and agents of God, not ourselves. It is calling upon We the People to see our divine image every morning in the mirror, to see the divine image of another in every interaction. “Do good” is to “love the stranger”, it is to “redeem our kinsfolk”, it is to “erase the margins” as Father Greg Boyle teaches. It is to care for the poor, it is to treat the ‘lowest’ of society as reminders of God. It is to stand up for the powerless and the voiceless, it is to not cheat our laborers, to not put our fingers on the scales.
We the People have to demand that society no longer puts “a stumbling block in front of the blind” nor “curses the deaf” anymore. To do this, We the People, have to ensure that each person has the same opportunities to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, it is not a purview of just the rich and powerful. We the People are being called upon to deny the whims and wishes of the extremes, to call bullshit on the constant swinging of the pendulum from one extreme to another and demand that everyone gets to be educated and trained, to find their particular niche in the world and live free. We the People are being given the gift of standing up and “do good” by rejecting the evil ways of ‘societal norms’, the degrading of any group of people so another group can gain, maintain power for themselves. We Jews have to lead the way because this is the birthright we are given, this is the gift given to us when we were “brought out of Egypt”, this is the mandate we received from Moses when he told us “Choose Life”!
I write this today from Philadelphia, the birthplace of the United States. I am taking my grandson, Miles, to see Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, etc. I will explain to him that my grandfather made the journey from oppression to this land so he and his descendants could be free. It is a gift that, for a while, I spat on and a gift that I have come to cherish, revere, and live into. I certainly missed the mark many times and I hit the bullseye so many more. I am not the worst of my actions, though society likes to make us think we are, my legacy is that I rose above them to “do good” no matter how I felt, no matter how my rational mind and ego wanted more, I have given more than I received and in doing so, I have received so much more than I ever thought possible. “The reward for a mitzvah is a mitzvah” has been the light and the truth I live by. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark