Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 172
“Justice has always appeared as obligatory, but for a long time it was an obligation like other obligations. It met, like the others, a social need; and it was the pressure of society on the individual which made justice obligatory. This being so, an injustice was neither more nor less shocking that any other breach of the rules.(Henri Bergson, The Two Sources of Morality and Religion) (God in Search of Man pg. 373)
“What does God want of you: only to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God”. These words of the prophet Micah as Abraham’s question to God: “Shall not the judge of all the earth do justly, portray the central theme of being Jewish, of having a relationship with God, with living into one’s higher consciousness. Far above “a social need”, “justice” is part of the fabric of the inner structure of the world and embedded in each and every human being. The prophets did everything they could to arise the inner sense of justice and mercy, kindness and truth in the powers that be, in the wealthy, in the priestly, in the people, to no avail, so we lost Israel, lost our homeland, lost our place in the world figuratively and literally, for almost 1900 years! And, as Netanyahu and his right-wing, ultra-religious governing partners keep showing us, they still haven’t learned the lesson of the prophets, of the Bible, of the exile. How sad and devastating the consequences may be, for Israel, for Jewish people, for the world.
To make “justice” “an obligation like other obligations” is like saying truth is malleable, reality is what I decide it should be, and the handiwork of the autocratic, narcissistic, psychopathic wannabe king who is in power at the moment. We have seen this scenario play out forever-be it King Saul and his injustice towards David, King David with Uriah and his subsequent being called on it by Nathan the prophet, the Greeks, the Romans, the Pharaoh, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea, England, France, Russia, China, Iran, Spain, Italy, Germany, etc; all of the nations have, at one time or another, committed the same folly as the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the people of antiquity-making “justice” and “obligation like other obligations” and were consumed, destroyed, overtaken and changed into a lessor power because of it! When “justice” is not revered and held as a Holy Action, as a Mitzvah, it becomes trite, it becomes a tool for the autocrat, for the fascist as we saw 100 years ago, as we see today. Listening to Pam Bondi and thinking about the great Attorneys General we have had makes one want to VOMIT! Elliot Richardson resigned rather than follow an immoral and unjust request from Nixon. Bobby Kennedy stood up to the racists and the bigots in Alabama and to the racketeering labor union chief Jimmy Hoffa. Up until recently, U.S. Attorneys General believed in the rule of law, believed in the sanctity of “justice” and the holiness of “justice”. Yet, today, under Pam Bondi’s leadership, everyone knows “justice” is not only not an obligation, not only is not “a social need”, “justice” is for sale, it is weaponized and it is trashed and bastardized by this bitch, her boss, and her cohorts. That people are going along with this bullshit, with this “injustice” reminds us of David’s words upon hearing of King Saul and Jonathan’s deaths: “Oh how the strong (the mighty, the heroes) have fallen”(2 Samuel:1:19).
We the People are being called by the words above, by the times we are in to STAND UP for Justice, to remember the words of Deuteronomy 16:20: “Justice, Justice (Righteousness, Righteousness) you shall pursue”, and to say NO to the lies and the deceptions that Trump, Netanyahu, their co-conspirators are perpetrating on us, We the People have to be the keepers of the flame of “justice”. We the People are descendants of the prophets to whom each ‘minor injustice, little white lie’ is a major catastrophe! We the People have to rekindle our outrage and channel it into making a change in the way things are. We the People have to stop being so afraid of the ‘bogeyman’ that we forget we are standing before God, that we have to deal with our own higher consciousness, and we have to face “the man in the glass”. “Know before whom you stand” is a teaching in the Talmud (Berakhot 28b), and while it is about when one is praying, since prayer is about an action-taking the action to respond to the call of the oppressed is one way to repay the debt we owe to our ancestors for giving us an opportunity to be free, to live in a ‘free’ country and to honor their journey from an oppressive government to a democratic one. We the People cannot go back on the inheritance of freedom that our ancestors left for us! We the People cannot see an “injustice” and not be “shocked” by it because we know and come from the prophetic tradition of faith! We the People have to do whatever is we can to add to freedom, to add to justice, to add to truth and stop buying the bullshit, the lies, the deceptions of these narcissistic, autocratic, unjust PAGANS!
Having been one who perpetrated “injustice” upon family, friends, strangers, I know of what Henri Bergson speaks. These writings, the current times have made me review my past, once again, and I see the power of “injustice”, the power of lies and deceptions. As a youth, I believed in calling out lies and injustice, while lying and stealing candy from the candy store, and I lost this desire to really be just, even though my father, my grandfathers, some Aunts and Uncles were honest to ‘a fault’. My father would not declare bankruptcy because he was embarrassed his business failed. I know that my spirit was crushed by the world I was in, by the loneliness I experienced and I allowed it to rule me. This is the difference today-“Justice” rules, Truth rules and the rest is bullshit. I am not interested in being politically correct nor have I been in my recovery. I only care about truth, justice, righteousness. God Bless and Stay safe, RabbI Mark