Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 192
“Evil is not only a threat, it is also a challenge. Neither the recognition of the peril nor faith in the redemptive power of God is sufficient to solve the tragic predicament of the world. We cannot stem the tide of evil by taking refuge in temples, by fervently imploring the restrained omnipotence of God.” (God in Search of Man pg. 377)
At first blush, the words above could be seen as a source of despair, how can We the People challenge “evil” to a duel? How can we be so arrogant as to believe we can meet and overcome the “threat…challenge” of evil? Yet, this is precisely what Rabbi Heschel is saying/hinting at in the words above. In fact, he is going so far as to say, and I am paraphrasing,: stop calling out to God and do something yourself! He is also, at a time in history that many people call ‘the good old days’-when white supremacy was flourishing, when making ‘those people’ the enemy (thank you Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy), when women ‘knew their place’ and so on! The MAGA movement is nothing more than returning to those days, to the hatred of Gingrich, the fascism of Lindbergh, Coughlin, et al, and the belief that “white makes right” and ‘vengeance is mine sayeth the Drumpf’.
That “the tragic predicament of the world” was not known, not spoken about during the early 1950’s is criminal, the “tragic predicament of the world” right now is spoken about, just not doing anything about it. The Congress has failed in their sworn duty, the Supreme Court has failed in it’s sworn duty, many in the media are surrendering and paying tribute to ‘the don’, Universities are bending the knee as our law firms and business’. It is a total collapse of checks, balances, freedom, obligations, belief in the democratic way of life. And, We the People sit around either cheering this debacle not realizing we are going to get fucked by ‘our people’ or wringing our hands and muttering to ourselves, sending money to candidates who, even if they win, will be bought and paid for by some ideology or lobbyist. Public Service is almost non-existent because our ‘public servants’ are serving their own agenda of getting re-elected, rising up in the hierarchy, serving the agenda of the people who send them money, clothe them so nicely, etc. AOC is no more trustworthy than Mitch McConnell as she has proved many times over-her ‘progressive’ agenda is anti-semitic and she is proud of her and her ‘squad’’s hatred of Israel and Jews! Yet, we are not allowed to say this because she is ‘on the right side’ of the continuum, holding these leftist values that are so near and dear to the far left and those of us in the middle, those of us who know that life is not black and white, are left standing out in the cold from both extremes.
Rabbi Heschel, of course, had deep “faith in the redemptive power of God”, so what I hear him saying to us today is stop sitting on your hands, stop standing on the sidelines, meet the “challenge”, stop the “threat” of “evil” because only we can. I also hear him in today’s context, telling not to take “refuge in temples” because, like the prophets before him, he saw the corruption, the desecration of God’s name in temples, churches, mosques just as we see it today. Our Church leaders like Paula Cain-White, other ‘prosperity gospel liars’, the ultra-orthodox, the rabbis and clergy who are preaching that Palestinians are ‘not human’, the Imams who exhort their followers to blow up buildings, bus stops, etc ARE THE EVIL we are facing in the world and We the People have to call them out.
We the People have to “cry out to God” as our ancestors did in Egypt. We the People have to immerse ourselves in the Bible until it becomes part of us, until we see ourselves in every chapter, finding the question that this text is the answer for in this moment. Rather than pick it all apart, be in the text, see yourself as all of the Biblical characters, redeem the captive that is being held inside of you. We the People have to meet the ‘evil inclination” we are born with and transform the energy to do good. We the People have to continue to do our T’Shuvah and see where we hit the mark and where we miss it-not to beat ourselves up, rather to improve. We the People have stop our misguided hope/belief that ‘someone will save us’, that “God will save us”. We the People have to return to our evil and good inclinations, putting them together with the evil serving the good, so we can meet the outside “threat”, through ‘winning’ the inner “challenge”. It ain’t easy! It is not linear! It is doable, it is guaranteed to work by the prophets of old and throughout history. Rather than ask “where is God, where was God”, we are being told to ask: “where are you”, where am I”? Only when We the People stand for our authentic self, only upon rising to the “challenge” of Torah, truth, kindness, justice, mercy, love will we be able to hold “evil” at bay and transform it.
I know this to be true as it is my story. I know the “threat of evil” because I lived in it. I am going to Florida next week and I will be officiating at the 50th Wedding Anniversary of my best friend from childhood. I introduced him to his wife and I am thinking of how much of their lives I missed because I succumbed to the “challenge” of evil instead of meeting it. I know how much I gave away by becoming the very thing I always knew was a “threat”, “evil”. I can’t dwell in the sadness, in the muck, I have to move forward and be in this moment. Today, as I have for the past 38+ years I meet the “challenge” of evil and, while not always overcoming the “evil”, it no longer is the address I live at and my T’Shuvah is ongoing. I am joyous each morning to meet the “threat” and the “challenge” of today, knowing I will encounter “evil” and have a new response that is one grain of sand better than yesterdays! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark