Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 195
“The power of evil does not vitiate the reality of good. Significantly, Jewish tradition, while conscious of the possibilities of evil in the good, stresses the possibilities of further good in the good.” (God in Search of Man pg. 377)
“Why bother, what’s the use, nothing will ever change, the cheaters always win, etc” are common refrains of people who experience powerlessness and believe they have no voice. “What does my vote count for” is another one of these cliches people spout and, as we can see, from the millions of people who voted in 2020 and did not in 2024! When one believes that “the power of evil does” “vitiate the reality of good”, these common self-deceptions have great power and lasting influence on everything they do. What is also interesting are the ‘institutionalist’ who believes their own bullshit that they are serving the greater good while allowing “the power of evil” “vitiate the reality of good”. Both groups of people continue to live in their own lies, the lies and deceptions of another and society as a whole. Hence the importance of the thoughts above.
“The reality of good” is the 6th creation in the Bible. We learn that heaven, earth, water, darkness, light are created and with light comes “good”. The rest of the Bible are stories and lessons, paths and commandments on how to ‘come into the light’ and do “the good”. Sometimes we get there and sometimes we don’t, which is what makes the Bible so riveting for me, looking at the pitfalls that our ancestors(being people who came before us-real or imagined) dealt with them. Learning how to find the good and engage in it, seeing how the “power of evil” easily worms its way into the good and we are blindsided by it some time. The Bible, in my opinion, is not looking for purity, it is not looking for perfection, it is a book, a gift that helps us deal with the reality that “darkness was over the face of the deep”, “there was chaos and emptiness” and “the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters”. All three of these descriptions are still at play in our lives, all three are necessary for creation to happen, all creation involves the evil inclination as well as the good inclination, it is our mission, our ‘job’, to not let “the power of evil” “vitiate the reality of good” in our personal, professional, political areas of living.
Rabbi Heschel is not speaking from some lofty place, he is not giving us theories and platitudes, he is giving us the wherewithal to battle “the power of evil” “in the good”. He is reminding us of a tradition that doesn’t claim perfection, doesn’t focus on our being sinners from birth, rather it is a tradition that teaches we learn how to allow “the power of evil” “vitiate the reality of good” through laziness, through greed, through self-deception, through a myriad of lies, deceptions being perpetrated upon We the People by PAGANS and fascists, by autocrats and ‘good people on both sides’, by white supremacists and fanatical ‘religious’ people masquerading as ‘servants of god’ all the while being servants of self. We the People are witnessing “the power of evil” throughout the globe, here in the USA, in Israel, China, Russia, Hungary, North Korea, etc and it is UGLY! “The power of evil”, however gains its foothold because We the People have forgotten that “the spirit of God hovers” over us, and this spirit, this power is our only weapon against “the power of evil”. It is the only path to finding and living “further good in the good”. We do not learn this in religious school, we do not learn this in regular school, we are beating our children into submission so they can ‘get ahead’, ‘doing it for their own good’, ‘it hurts me more than it hurts you’ and other bullshit we tell our children and ourselves.
It is way past time for We the People to return to our primordial way of being-seeking the good, using the knowledge gained from eating the “fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil”, and not repeating the same errors as the people described in the Bible, as the people in our history books, as the elders in our families, as the people around us who are more interested in power than good, more concerned with optics than truth. The challenge that Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above gives We the People is mighty and powerful, it is daring and bold: stop buying the lies of societal norms, live in radical amazement; the maladjustment to cliches and notions, “go for yourself/to yourself to a land I will show you” which is the land of our souls, of our inner lives so we can cope with “the power of evil” and enhance the “good in the good”. We the People have the opportunity each day to make a decision to serve the “good” or succumb to the “evil’, it is an hourly, moment by moment challenge and We the People have to be more clear-eyed as to the differences between the good and “the evil” that disguises itself as “good”. Case in point, anytime We the People allow the travesty of injustice, of inhumane treatment of another human being, racism, anti-semitism, hatred, hardening of the heart to prevail in ourselves, in our families, in our governments to happen and continue. When We the People celebrate the lack of mercy and empathy, when we invite and applaud tyranny, we deny that “good” can prevail, and we deny “the power of evil does not vitiate the reality of good”.
I have railed against “the power of evil” for all my days and I succumbed to it because I was overwhelmed with grief, anger, and loneliness. My soul was bereft when my father died because I knew I was all alone, no one got me. Hence, I did the best I could to let my daughter know I saw her and got her. I have done the same with the people I have encountered since my recovery began in a jail cell. I have continued to speak truth to power, to validate the reality of people and to call bullshit when I see it. I am engaged in battle with “the power of evil” within me and outside of me, it is never-ending and invigorating, and brings me closer to people, to God, to the universe. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.