Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 211
“After all our efforts and attempts to purify the self, we discover that envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark…Should we, then, despair because of our being unable to retain perfect purity? We should, if perfection were our goal. However we are not obliged to be perfect once and for all, but only to rise agains and again beyond the level of the self.” (God in Search of Man pg. 402)
This first sentence above is so crucial to our well-being and our being human! Too many of We the People continue to deny the “envy, pride” that continues to “prowl in the dark”. I do love this phrase because it captures the experience of most of We the People. It doesn’t matter how many times one goes to church to pray and to confess, it doesn’t matter how many times one goes to Temple for the daily Minyan and does TShuvah one day before one dies, which means everyday, it doesn’t matter how many 10th steps one does as part of their recovery program, “envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark.”
It is precisely because this statement is universally and consistently true and part of every human being that “society” has demanded purity.Christianity demands “perfect faith” because we are ‘born in sin’. Orthodox Judaism demands an adherence to dogma and doing the mitzvahs as a ‘to-do list’ rather than as an act of love, kindness, truth, compassion and justice. Islam demands the same perfection going as far as making heroes out of murderers like suicide bombers! While these ‘practitioners of the various faiths make the case for how to get rid of envy and pride, We the People know that it is impossible to do this. As the Maggid of Mezritch is said to have told his disciples when they asked how to choose a new Rebbe upon his death; if someone tells you they know how to eradicate the “evil inclination” he is a liar and a fraud.
Herein lies our issue. We the People are so stuck in our despair, in our neediness, in our self-deception that we have chosen leaders(?) who are only interested in their own welfare. In the United States and in Israel, the majority parties/coalitions are hellbent on serving their false selves and damn the cost to anyone else. “Proclaim freedom throughout the land” has been co-opted and changed to Proclaim fealty to the MAGA, to the ‘re-taking of all of the land Israel is supposed to occupy’ and hell with democracy, to hell with justice, to hell with love, to hell with loving the stranger, to hell with mercy, kindness and TRUTH! I ask you and me WTF???
How did We the People drink the juice after knowing about Jonestown? How did We the People elect liars and cheats, grifters and fascist autocrats knowingly and, evidently, lovingly? How is this in keeping with any spiritual discipline? How is this being a good Christian when the people in charge deny, defame another human being because they are not ‘like us’? How is this being a good Jew when the stranger is starved and bombed because “those people” are not ‘like us’? How is it being a good human being when the MAGA cheers the inhumanity shown towards any human being and/or group of people for no reason other than “I am in power so I can do anything”?
It all is possible and defendable when, like the elite and powerful people in Ancient Israel, We the People would rather worship at the altar of greed and avarice than see the Divine Image in every human being. We the People have made a conscious decision to “do unto others” what we would never want done to us. We the People are engaging in actions that are “hateful to us” so we do them to another human being! Both go against the teachings of the Bible, the actions of Christ, the railings of the prophets and We the People, like those who have come before us and done the same thing, truly believe we are going to be exempt from the logical consequences of our behaviors.
Living like this is possible because “envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark” recesses of our memory, of our inner life and they, not our souls, not our higher consciousness, are in charge of our actions. We the People are joining with ‘der fuhrer’ to justify these horrific ways of living in the name of ‘christian nationalism’, in the name of ‘it is good for the jews, good for Israel’! We the People have made a decision to ignore the gifts of confession, TShuvah, Daily Inventory for the ‘joy’ of being part of the in-crowd. Howard Lutnick, a man who did not die on 9/11 while most of his company did, is part of the team who promote, extol and engage in the cruelty we see happening. This man, who profited greatly from democracy, who’s ancestors fled someplace so he could grow up in freedom, is gleefully taking part in denying the same to anyone else. DU BIST A YID? You are a Jew?? OY! Yet, this is what happens when “envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark.”
I know this place and I still see how “envy, pride” do push-ups and try to get me to buy into their bullshit. I get angry at injustice, at betrayal, at forgetting those who we owe debts of gratitude to, at mendacity, at cruelty, etc. I just don’t allow myself to indulge in and be overwhelmed by the negative thoughts and ideas that “continue to prowl in the dark.”. It takes a daily spiritual program, daily growing one grain of sand better, connections to the people who love me and letting go of those who don’t. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark