Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 191
“Values are not eternal ideas, existing independently of God and man. If not for the will of God, there would be no goodness; if not for the freedom of man, goodness would be out of place in history. Greek philosophy is concerned with values; Jewish thought dwells on mitzvot. (God in Search of Man pg. 377)
Rabbi Heschel is reminding us of a crucial life lesson: “values are not eternal ideas”, they come from God and are executed by human beings. It takes “the will of God” and “the freedom of man” to bring them into this world. I hear him reminding us that they are not subjective as well. Values, such as “goodness” are not open to question, as the Greek philosophers and other philosophers like to do, thereby rendering the action called for by a value impotent. There is, or should be, no debate, no discussion of how to fulfill the value: “Love the stranger”. This is not a subjective value that only applies to ‘certain’ people-it applies to all of us because, while not eternal, the “values” God has given us are universal.
While each and every one of us has a different experience of “God”, there is only ONE GOD, as we recite each day in the Shema which also tells us that we are part of the oneness of God, hence our need to “nullify our will before God’s will so God’s will becomes our will” as Pirke Avot teaches us. We the People have to surrender our need to be right, our need to define the undefinable, to explain the Ineffable, and accept that our experience of the Ineffable One is as valid as the next persons and, as we learned at the Red Sea crossing and at Mount Sinai, each being has a different experience of both God and the experience of ‘meeting’ God “face to face”. Again, the Oneness of God is not in question for the Jew, the message of God is not in question for the Jew, what the Jew questions, or should be questioning, is: how do I fulfill the message, how do I live the values, what do I do with my free will, etc.
The difference between “Greek philosophy” and “Jewish thought” as Rabbi Heschel delineates is the difference between witnessing trauma and evil and, as Martin Niemoller says so eloquently, saying “I was not a …” and I am my brother’s keeper, I cannot “stand idly by the blood of” any human being. The fulfilling of a mitzvah, however, is not a scorecard, it is not a check list, it is an engagement in the moment we are living in and seeing what the next right action is, even if that action is to sit on one’s hands. While not every fight is everyone’s the fight in front of me is mine to discern and either join or stop, it is not to be indifferent. “The will of God” is “for the freedom of man” to be used appropriately and at all times. It is not to be robots, it is not to be automatons, it is not to be animals and it is not to be angels, the “freedom of man” is to learn how to make the next right choice, to do the next right thing, the emphasis being on next. We are not capable of perfection and this Greek myth, along with their endless discussion of values, are just bullshit and ways to avoid the hard work of the “mitzvot” that “Jewish thought” calls for. We the People will never be perfect, We the People are not supposed to be perfect, We the People are not God. We the People are able to achieve wholeness, We the People are Godlike, made in the Image of God, partners with God in completing the creation, growing into “the soul we are created to be”, finding passion and purpose. We the People need the “mitzvot” to help us in all our endeavors remembering we have no fucking idea if we are ‘doing it right’ and there is no ‘there there’, we are on a journey and the destination is, as Abraham is told: “to a land(place) I will show you”.
We the People have been engaged in the Greek way of living for far too long, I believe. We the People have lost the ability to discern truth from lies, fact from fiction because we have freely chosen to listen to the mendacious ones, to go along with the grifters, to let go of our “intuitive minds” so we can be a servant to the worst, so we can twist ourselves into pretzels in order to “Be in the “IN Crowd” and ‘get ours’. Netanyahu, Smotrich, Vought, Miller, Trump, Vance are no more interested in what God has to say about “goodness” than the man in the moon. It is way past time for We the People to heed “the will of God” and use “the freedom of man” to serve God’s will instead of the will of the autocrat, the fascist. It is time for We the People to demand of our elected officials they fulfill their duty to “protect and defend the Constitution” rather than protect and defend their asses, their unjust, inhumane, enslaving actions because “the president wants it” as they are wont to whine. The Republicans in Congress have gone along with the fascists in the White House like good German Soldiers-bravo John Thune, Mike Johnson. The Supreme Court has gone along with the fascists as well rendering their oath to “follow the law” mute and their vow to “protect and defend the Constitution” toothless and meaningless. It is up to We the People to turn to the Bible and “proclaim freedom throughout the land”, to remove “the stumbling block before the blind” to end the cursing of the deaf that is happening, to “rebuke our neighbor and not bear guilt because of them”. We the People have to demand better from these PAGANS in Washington than Emil Bovee as a Federal Judge-a Jew who twists values rather than fulfill Mitzvot, like Lutnick, Miller and the rest of those ‘good jews’ who work with the fascists in power.
I have been obsessed with the difference between the “Greeks” and the Jews for a long time. I have written about it, I have preached about it, and I say again-Judaism is not concerned with my feelings, I don’t need to take a leap of faith to be a Jew, I do have to “take a leap of action” as Rabbi Heschel says in order to fulfill the myriad of “mitzvot” in front of me each day. This is my quest and my dream-to see them, to do them, to grow from them. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark