Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 213
“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 again and again beyond the level of the self. (God in Search of Man pg. 402)
On this first day of Elul, the month prior to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as we begin our preparation for these High Holy Days, this teaching is crucial for We the People to be able to engage in “a searching and fearless inventory” as the 4th step of all 12-step programs teach us and which T’Shuvah is all about. As I have written, ad nauseam, we are supposed to engage in this work every day and yet, the Rabbis give us this month to clean up the errors and harms we have been oblivious to, ignored, afraid to make, and look at the myriad of actions that we have done well, see where we have moved forward as well as where we have moved backwards, etc. Yet, most people, don’t really do this deep spiritual, emotional work because society tells us we are “obliged to be perfect once and for all” and as long as We the People buy this bullshit, we are doomed to be stuck in the quicksand of “despair” and never rise to the very attainable goal to be human!
Society uses the “perfection” myth to control us, to make us feel less than and/or greater than, it is the same as ‘the master race’ bullshit of MAGA, the Nazis, the ancient Romans and Greeks, etc. The question that We the People have to ask is WTF, why are we buying their lies and what is it that pulls us to be controlled by “only I can save you”, “I will be your retribution”? How can We the People read the Bible, hear what Jesus did, stood for and died for and equate retribution with justice? They are incompatible! Yet, ‘good christian folk, good jewish folk, good muslim folk’ have bought and sold the idea that they are one and the same. THIS IS TRAGIC!! This is one of the actions and thinking that We the People have to do T’Shuvah for and demand our elected officials cease and desist these behaviors. We the People have allowed society to replace the Pharaoh in Egypt, giving in to the power structure, the rich and famous, the puppeteers who want to pull our strings. We the People are NOT marionettes, we are not meant to be puppets on a string, we are human beings, we are partners with God in making our corner of the world better and to allow society to rule us with their mind-control lies and bullshit, to allow society/another human being to deny our truths and blindly follow them/it, is the major sin We the People have to repent for, in this month of Elul, it’s where we have to return to our spiritual core, spiritual truths from, and it is what we have to have a plan to guard against falling back into this ‘honey trap’ that society and people lay for We the People!
How to do this? Simple and not easy. Each day for the next 40 days, and hopefully beyond, We the People take stock of our self, looking for our talents, our ‘victories’, our spiritual truths and vision, seeing our imperfections and errors in judgement and action, knowing our susceptibility and how to not fall into old traps. Each day, we commit “to rise again and again beyond the level of self” and take action towards this goal, knowing we are not going to be perfect, realizing the imperfections we have are God-given and allow for us to ask for help from another human being. Knowing we are not ‘self-sufficient’, realizing no one is ‘self-made’, gives We the People the strength, the courage, to listen to our intuitive mind and relegate our rational mind to its proper place, as a servant-not a leader. We the People are in desperate need to admit to ourselves, inform another(s) and shout from the rooftops that the rational mind lies to us, the rational mind allows us to buy the mendacity of societal norms. Only the intuitive mind, only the soul, our spiritual intelligence allows us to see and hear truth, gives us the strength to “rise again and again beyond the level of self”.
The rational mind is the “self”, the “heart and eyes which we whore after” is the “self” IMO and it is way past time for We the People to “rise again and again beyond the level” of societal norms. It is way past time for We the People to stand up for our authentic self, for truth, justice, kindness, love, mercy. It is way past time for We the People to stand against the horrific self-serving cruelty and retribution that is running the world in this moment. Psalm 118:24 says “this is the day Adonai has made, let us rejoice and be joyous in it”; to do this, We the People must end our dependence on lies, our co-dependence on someone else ‘fixing us’, ‘fixing it’ and our indulgence in evil, cruelty, idol worship of self, of ‘der fuhrer’, etc. This is the only path to “rise again and again beyond the level of self” and We the People are more than capable, this is our birthright, this is implanted in each one of us and doing this reminds us and everyone around us of the infinite dignity and worth of every human being!
I keep letting go of the need to be perfect/right and it is a daily spiritual workout. Each day, I rise in the morning, middle of the night, and know I have to let go and let my higher consciousness run the show, I have to look at the errors I made the day before, have a plan to repair them and do it. In this month, I have already written to people close to me and to people I have missed, people whom I was close to and we just fell away. I pray there is a path to reconnecting and am good if there isn’t-sad and good. I am not going to make amends to those I have already made them to and who could not/have not been able to own their part, only blame me-to those people I can only offer compassion and mercy at their being so stuck in needing to be right, in their fear of seeing their own imperfections and mendacity. Prayer, Tzedakah, T’Shuvah our best responses to our imperfections and this is the path I choose. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark