Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 193
“The mitsvah, the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self, is our way of dealing with the problem. We do not know how to solve the problem of evil, but we are not exempt from dealing with evils. (God in Search of Man pg.377)
WOW! What an amazing description of what a “mitsvah” is and what it does for each of us internally and the world externally. This definition reminds us that “the mitsvah” is not a burden, it is not to be checked off, it is not even a ‘religious’ act, as I am hearing Rabbi Heschel today. Rather, it is a deeply personal gift to oneself, to the people around us, and to the universe bringing healing, repair, goodness, kindness, truth, love, justice, mercy to a society that: is unforgiving, except for themselves-the powerful, the wealthy-, see’s weaponization of the “rule of law” as something that is within their purview, believes anything they do is legal, right, and beyond reproach while everything ‘their enemies’ do is illegal, fraudulent, and deserves scorn. They all believe in their sovereignty, their being above the law, above morals and ethics, and, ultimately, above God as God’s will is written in the Bible, in the Gospels, etc. Would they learn to do a “mitsvah” and have the experience delineated above!!
Rabbi Heschel’s first phrase above says so much: “the humble single act of serving God” reminds us and teaches us that we are not called to follow a systematic way of life, that the dogmatic path is just not what God wants. The prophets tell us this, it is apparent in the words of Moses in Deuteronomy most of the time, and the Rabbis themselves argued about what different sentences meant, how they could ignore dogma when it didn’t fit their moral sense of right and wrong. “Single” comes to remind us that what we have is this moment, this opportunity and there will never be another moment like this nor a time wherein this particular “mitsvah” is needed like it is right now. It takes great humbleness to perform a “single act of serving God” which one can only obtain and maintain when We the People stay “grounded” in what we are doing and in the service of something greater than ourselves(for those who just can’t believe in the word “God”). “Ground” is the Latin root of “humble” and it could change how we can be humble and not portray ourselves as “lowly, modest”, etc. Rather, I hear the demand from Sinai, the call from Rabbi Heschel, to stay “grounded” in our lives, in this moment, to act with dignity and grace, staying “grounded” in the love of doing the next right action, the love of God and our being able to “get to” fulfill the covenant with one another and God.
The ideas in the first sentence above are so simple, such ‘duh’ moments that they seem to elude We the People. When We the People allow Trump and his grifters, Netanyahu and his PAGANS, Putin and his thugs, etc to rule us, how can any of us say we are living into a “mitsvah”? When Smotrich and Ben G’Vir call for the extinction of the people of Gaza, for the exile of the Palestinians in the West Bank, how can they claim it is for the ‘love of god’ that they are acting? How can one believe that ‘Donald Trump is the anointed one of the lord jesus’ when he continually acts in direct opposition to Jesus’ words in the Gospels, when he is the one who is doing the crucifying rather than being the one crucified-no matter how much he whines and blames. Rather than “helping man”, these PAGANS and charlatans are helping only themselves, they are continually lying and deceiving We the People and we are allowing it-so We the People also are abandoning “serving God”! It is time for We the People to get our act together and stop buying the bullshit of liars, the mendacity of power-hungry white supremacists, the tearing down of democratic values, the annihilation of the rule of law, both secular and Biblical by the fascists in charge!
All of which brings us to the last path of the first sentence above: “cleansing the self”. We can only make right the lies and deceptions, the mendacity and harm we have wrought or stood idly by while it is happening by first “cleaning our side of the street”, as we say in AA. “The mitsvah” is the path to engaging in our own house cleansing, it is not something we can hire someone to do for us, oh you rich and powerful people, it is not something we can deny we have done without greater damage to one’s inner life which leads to drastic horrors in our outer life-just ask the Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. Ask Hitler’s accomplices and enablers, ask the people who have stood up and taken the blows and did it “God’s” way. When we engage in “the mitsvah” and allow it to cleanse our inner life, we get a new lease on being, we get to repair old damages internally and to those we have harmed. We the People get to return to our “acorn” as James Hillman writes; return to “the self we were created to be” as Thomas Merton teaches, turn/return to living in “radical amazement” as Rabbi Heschel lives for us to emulate. All of which is to say that only through “cleansing the self” can we return to being grounded in our purpose, in our passion, grounded in authenticity, responsibility, and love.
I know these ways of being as I have been on both sides of the coin, I know the terrible toll mendacity causes on the people around me and on me. I know the healing power of “cleansing the soul” through the “humble single act of serving God”, and the joy and uplift that comes to my soul, to my being when I am “helping man”. Even though the pay may be a lot less living in God’s world, the rewards are off the charts!. I know living into “a mitsvah” brings a healing and light that, to me is the “hidden light” of the first day of creation. This is the payoff from doing a “mitsvah”, even T’Shuvah cleanses us so every one impacts our being able to serve God and humanity. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.