Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 198
The idea with which Judaism starts is not the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man but rather the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do the will of God. There is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah, and precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will. This is why despair is alien to Jewish faith. (God in Search of Man pg. 378)
The first sentence above is true and most of us do not learn this truth about what Judaism is at its core, This is the terrible state of religious education in the Jewish world, the entire Jewish world. While the Orthodox claim “to do the will of God”, it is, when they are actually fulfilling it, a item to check off a list for most, just go to an Orthodox early morning minyan where the men are talking business instead of listening to God, or a Shabbat morning service where the men are more concerned about their ‘kiddish club’ where they drink instead of being in the service. For the other denominations, they teach pap, they go with ‘social justice/tikkun olam, with Am Yisrael Chai/the Jewish People live denoting a togetherness that never was and is not now, and they are not even convinced that God exists so “the will of God” doesn’t always have a strong hold on them.
The fact that Jewish education doesn’t teach the beauty of wonder, the power of radical amazement, the resilience of living a life compatible with being a partner of God’s is criminal. It is, I believe, the real reason that the current younger generation sees no real value in being Jewish, unless there is anti-semitism to make them remember. They want to be ‘citizens of the world’ because there is no compelling reason for them to carry on this beautiful and important way of living. In fact, relegating Judaism to being a “religion” waters down its beauty, its power and its mission!
As we speak “to do the will of God”, we also have to take a critical look at the “will of God” we are choosing. In the Bible, it is evident that Ezra or someone of his time and persuasion inserted xenophobic and racist statements into the text because, as I am learning from my friend and teacher, Rabbi Hazan Danny Maseng, they are in direct conflict with statements that we know come from a source much higher than human rational, self-centered thinking. 36 times we are told to be kind, to love, to embrace the stranger and then, when good for Ezra, et al, we are being told to kill them? WTF! Yet, Netanyahu, Smotrich, Ben G’Vir, et al are using the few ‘kill them all’ texts to validate their greed, their need to kill, their need to show their power and strength! When we are told about seeing our enemy’s ass wandering we have to take it back to him/her, when we are told one law for the citizen and the stranger alike, when treat the stranger well because your were strangers in the land of Egypt, when “love your neighbor” is the watchword, it is proof that this is “the will of God” and not of some asshole who wants to be God, these statements, the stories of both our rising above our narcissism and failing to rise above it, are proof that the Bible is divinely inspired that the people writing these passages had an experience of higher consciousness that can only be ‘explained’ as an experience of God/higher power.
So, what are We the People to do since we don’t live in Biblical times, since we are so ignorant of the spiritual life we need to live, so deficient in knowing and experiencing “wonder” and radical amazement, so jaded regarding mitzvot and the need to engage in them? We the People are being given an opportunity to “teach ourselves” as the Talmud suggests we do when our parents, when the previous generations fail in their duty to live the V’Ahavta prayer to “teach your children” or as Neil Young sings: “teach your children well”. We the People have to take it upon ourselves to immerse ourselves in the Bible, decide which “will of God” we are going to follow, and find the path of “wonder of creation and the ability of man to do God’s will”. We the People have to take Judaism back from the lazy, power-hungry, sometimes corrupt clergy and lay people including parents, who have reduced this great path for living well to a memorization of one’s Torah Portion and an okay to leave your spiritual education at age 13 when you need it most! We the People are being called to stand on the street corner, to go into the Temples and Synagogues, the Jewish Federations and Community Centers and PREACH THE GOSPEL OF “the wonder of creation and the ability of man to fulfill God’s will”! We the People are being given the permission and the power to help people find “the will of God” that is truthful and not tainted with a human agenda, to lead people to their rightful place as partners with God, to achieve the pinnacle of success; doing the next right thing no matter what or how I feel. In other words, We the People are being called to serve God, to serve truth, to serve with and in love, kindness and pathos.
In my recovery, I have always said: “Fuck your feelings and take the next right action”. I say this because my feelings are not facts and they have, at times before and since my recovery, taken me down a very wrong path. I am pissed off, as you can see, at the ways I was ‘taught’ Judaism and I stayed in Jewish education through my high school years! I did not opt out at 13 and I still did not learn “the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do God’s will”! I did learn the beauty of davening and the fallacy of ‘let us pray’. My rabbinate is all about teaching “wonder”, “the will of God”, radical amazement and truth. It isn’t popular with “mainstream Judaism”, I am not a sought-after speaker, and I do what I am called to do because this is my path of fulfilling God’s will for me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.