Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 189
“We do not wage war with evil in the name of an abstract concept of duty. We do the good not because it is a value or because of expediency, but because we owe it to God. God created man and what is good “in His eyes” is good for man.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376/7)
In the world in which we live, the ideas above seem absurd. They are laughed at by the MAGA, the Trump Circle, the Prosperity Gospel people, they are abused by the Ultra Religious parties in Israel and Bibi uses these ideas to wage war with “good” in every part of his Prime Ministership now and before. Yet, what is a person of faith to do? We cannot let the PAGANS determine our fate, we cannot allow the idolators set the parameters of observance, we cannot lay down in front of the moving train and allow what “we owe to God” to be ignored and plundered. It was never and is not now ‘okay’ to let the bastards win! We the People have to return our world to some sense of stability, some way of being that is constantly wrestling with “evil”, that is willing to stay on the battlefield of war between “the good” and “the evil”. It is imperative for We the People to remember this is not personal goal, it is not a personal win/lose situation, this is war for the soul of humankind, it is a war for the superiority of God, it is the war between Moses and Pharaoh and this war is both macro and micro.
“An abstract concept of duty”, “a value, because of expediency” are not long term solutions. The idea of “abstract” is that it can be changed, mis-interpreted, bastardized and turned into the exact opposite of what our duty is. “Values” seem to change on a dime and “expediency” only lasts a second. What we are left with, if we choose to acknowledge it, is what “we owe to God”. Herein lies the challenge, the rub, the ‘out’, the fertile soil of idolatry and mendacity. This is what we are facing today, as we have throughout the generations of humankind being on earth. We are witnessing a “duty” to get revenge, to ‘get even’, to humiliate another group of people based on their skin color, based on our fear of them gaining power and acting towards us as some of us have acted towards them. Expediency is what is being used to decimate the principle of justice that has been integral to the growth of this country and Israel. Rather than give people due process, both countries are putting people in jail and prison, with the U.S deporting them to other countries without the benefit of a judge, jury, checking on their status as legal or illegal, citizen or green card holder. It is more expedient for an autocrat, a fascist leader to make a scapegoat out of a group, in this case once again it is racial, as this group are Hispanics. In Israel the Ultra Orthodox and Likud far right-wing, led by the fascist opportunist Netanyahu, who are claiming that Palestinians (and by extension all Arabs) in the West Bank and Gaza are less than human! The idea that a Jew would scapegoat another people after millennia of being scapegoated is so disgusting, I want to throw up! Yet, we see it happening because they are not “waging war with evil” no matter what these Fascists in Israel and the United States say, they are waging war with Good, with the Holy, and, ultimately with God! Rather than acknowledge what “we owe to God”, the current trend in both Evangelical clergy and elected officials is to lead their flocks in the path of hatred and believe they are owed, that god is giving them their due and it is because of ‘those’ people that ‘our kind’ has suffered. This old saw is the same tone as what is used against Jews and it is tiresome, deadly and, unfortunately, effective.
WE THE PEOPLE are being reminded that we are debtors, not creditors, that we owe and we are not entitled, that there is an objective “good” and we learn what this is when we study, immerse ourselves in the Bible. When we accept the truth and wisdom of the Bible as eternal without worrying about the ‘factual basis’ of the stories. When we accept the teachings of how to live well and how we failed to live well with the consequences of both being on display. When we accept that we are like the prophets and the priests who the prophets railed against, when we live into the destruction that we wrought because of senseless hatred and mistreating the stranger, the widow, the orphan and the poor. When we realize we were liberated from Egypt and at Sinai we accepted the Covenant as our repayment for being liberated, that we accepted the yoke of freedom and learned to be free is hard work, then we rejoice in repaying our debt, we are ecstatic to learn and lean into “the good”. We have a new found serenity/clarity because we know what God wants from us, we let go of the false idols we have worshiped in the past, we realize the more we have, the more we get to give to help another, and we appreciate the talents and purpose of each person we meet rather than be in competition with them. This is the Jewish battle plan against “evil” and, one day, when we all live into it, “evil” will be defeated once and for all, until then, we have to battle it one day at a time with the resolve of the prophets, the hope of the Israelite slaves freed from Egypt and the strength of King David.
I know that I owe, I know how large my debt is and I know I can never repay all of it! I keep up with the interest most days and on really good ones, I lessen the principle a little. I keep my doing of “evil” to a minimum and continue to do my inventory daily. I keep working to be one grain of sand better each day and I have filled more than a few sandboxes over the years. I have made errors, I have caused pain and suffering and I have made my amends. I work hard to forgive those who have harmed me and are unable to make amends to me. Those who do, I am eager to re-establish connection. I pray for all the people who are stuck in their shit. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark