Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 227
“Man may be replete with selfish motives but a deed and God are stronger than selfish motives. The redemptive power discharged in carrying out the good purifies the mind. The deed is wiser than the heart.” (God in Search of Man pg.405)
As outrageous and outlandish as the first sentence above may seem, given the history of destruction and cruelty of “man”, it is, nevertheless, absolutely true! So, why, Rabbi, is cruelty and evil abounding in this moment as it has so often in the past, you may be asking/thinking? The facts that “man” is not willing to engage in “a deed and God” doesn’t negate the truth that “a deed and God are stronger than selfish motives”. This is the great issue of our time and of all times: What will it take for “man” to engage in “a deed and God” rather than just living capriciously, living according to his/her ‘needs’ which are really desires and selfishness in disguise?
We Jews have a practice of T’Shuvah and, like the 12-Step recovery programs, we are told to engage in “one day before we die and since we don’t know the day of our death, do it every day”(BT Shabbat 153a). In this month of Elul, we are graced with extra compassion, strength, and mercy so we can confront ourselves and our selfish motives as well as making amends and confronting those who have harmed us. We confront those who have harmed us only to re-connect and re-sew the fabric of our relationship, not to harass nor harangue them. We “rebuke our neighbor so we don’t bear guilt because of them” as we learn in Lev. 19:17). Rabbi Heschel speaks about Repentance being an “unnoticed miracle” precisely because “the redemptive power discharged in carrying out the good purifies the mind”.
What ails society, what is making our world more and more cruel and harsh, is not fatal unless We the People continue to give voice and power to our “selfish motives”! We are not doomed, this is not a moment for despair, it is the exact time to look inside our own souls, do our own inventory and and confront our errors of judgement, our selfish actions, and the harms these have brought to self and another(s). We the People cannot be calling out the evil and cruelty of another(s) without first searching and seeing our own, doing TShuvah for them, and having a plan to not repeat these same behaviors, having a plan to deal the cruelty and selfishness that lies within us, sometimes dormant, sometimes very active, so neither way of being rules us anymore, they become subservient to the “deed and God” rather than being the false god they have become for so many of We the People.
Be it Trump or Netanyahu, Bessent or Ben G’Vir, Lutnick or Smotrich, these men are hellbent on serving their selfish motives, they proclaim their ‘religious fervor’ as a cover for their selfishness and cruelty, for their grift and their power grab. These are not people of faith, these are not people of integrity nor are their followers, their cohorts, their families and friends! One cannot be a Haver, a spiritual friend, to someone who relishes their cruelty, who extols their selfishness and wears their evil as a badge of honor and a symbol of god’s love! With the exception of Trump and Bessent, the Jews mentioned above have NO FUCKING IDEA what this month of Elul is about, they could care less about doing TShuvah and they will walk into Synagogue on Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur certain of their holiness and goodness-this is how destructive “selfish motives” are! It is way past time for We the People to demand an accounting by our leaders for their transgressions instead of white-washing them as the Supreme Court seems to be doing!
We the People are being called by the words above to demonstrate to these PAGANS and WHORES, these CRUEL and EVIL people, the “redemptive power discharged in carrying out the good”. It is way past time for We the People to recognize our own goodness, demand goodness of our family and friends, demand TShuvah from our leaders and hold them accountable and responsible for the evil and the cruelty they have, are and will create! We the People know the truth that “the deed is wiser than the heart” and we have to demonstrate this in our daily affairs. Yes, fuck our feelings, do the next right action, follow the mitzvahs dealing with how to be holy, how to be decent, how to transform our selfishness, cruelty and evil inclinations into servants of the good, of the decent, of the holy instead of the other way around. We the People have to live into the power of “a deed and God”, we the People are needed to be soldiers in the war against God, the war against “the deed”. We the People have the opportunity to stand up for GOOD, stand with the STRANGER, stand for FREEDOM, the question that is being asked of We the People is: “will you do the next right thing, take advantage of this opportunity, and move the redemption of the world forward?
I know the “redemptive power discharged in carrying out the good”, I know how it “purifies the mind” and I know this month has, for the past 38 years, moved redemption forward for me and for those around me. I know that I am far from perfect, I know I make some of the same old errors, I know I have improved, the errors are not as bad, as messy, and I know that I have left the past in the past. I pray for the people who harm me, rather than think about revenge. I rejoice with people who let me know the truth, good and not good, about me, my actions. I know the “selfish motives” are very few and far between now and I know that loving the stranger, my brother, my neighbor is the path of JOY for me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark