Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 237
“To believe in freedom is to believe in events, namely to maintain that man is able to escape the bonds of the processes in which he is involved and to act in a way not necessitated by antecedent factors. Freedom is the state of going out of the self, an act of spiritual ecstasy, in the original sense of the term.” (God in Search of Man pg 410)
SHANA TOVA U’METUKAH!! A sweet and joyous year, a year of truth, of learning, of kindness and of compassion. A year where we put down our weapons and we hear, listen, and understand (SHEMA) the words of the Prophet Isaiah 5:20-21: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.” The times call for action on our part to make this prophecy real and true in our own time!
The way to make this happen, in my opinion, is to live into the last sentence above. I bolded it so you will know what this last blog of 5785 focuses on: FREEDOM and what better time to achieve it, what better place to engage in it than during the 10 days of Awe, the 10 Days of TShuvah? Whether you are going to services or not, whether they bore you or not, you can engage your soul in at least one of the prayers, one of the melodies, one word of the Torah reading, one word of the Haftorah reading. You can allow your heart to be opened by the sound of the Shofar, you can send your negativity away as you cast your bread/sin upon the waters, you can put yourself in “the state of going out of the self”. We the People who have chosen to opt out of organized religion can take this moment to read something, to meditate, to listen to a different piece of music, any action that stirs your soul, that opens up your inner life to yourself and have the same experience of “going out of the self”.
This is the real goal of this period of time, “going out of the self” to have an authentic, truthful look at “self, another, and the world. To achieve “freedom” We the People have to first be in truth with who we are, with whom we are meant to be, and the incongruence between what we know and what actions we take, the incongruence between “the self” and the false “self” we wear for societal acceptance, gain, power, etc. We the People have shown to be less fearful of living inauthentically, incongruently and more fearful of being real, of not settling for crumbs from society, not standing with the minority to do good! We the People are being called by the Shofar’s blasts to WAKE UP and see what is good and no longer confuse, lie about it being evil, to see what is evil and no longer live into the mendacity of making evil good. We are called to be able to distinguish, L’Havdeel, between dark and light, between bitter and sweet, between what we want to see and say about ourselves and what is the real deal. This moment, for all times, is a moment of reckoning for us, not a punishing reckoning, a gifting of sight and a gifting of the ability to change, repair and have hope for living better, the world being a better place because of us contributing our unique gifts and talents to it and no longer being confined by society’s conventional notions, mental cliches, no longer does the one with the gold rule, etc. Will We the People seize the moment, Carpe Diem?
I write about this sentence today, this idea precisely because I had this experience of “spiritual ecstasy” in the jail cell in 1986, I had this experience when the judge sentenced me to prison, I had this experience when I began to study Torah and pray, I had this experience when I decided to serve another(s) instead of just myself. I had this experience when I realized how far apart my first wife and I were, I had this experience when I realized how much I loved Harriet, I had this experience and didn’t know it when my daughter Heather was born, I had this experience when I began working at Beit T’Shvuah, when I studied with Rabbi Omer-man, when I began what is a 30+ relationship with Rabbi Ed Feinstein. I had this experience when I entered Rabbinical School and, no matter how hard they tried to disabuse me of this way, I fought for my authenticity, my congruency.
I have continued to fight for authenticity, for truth, for kindness, for realness, for congruence, for the “spiritual ecstasy” Rabbi Heschel is speaking about. I am not always there and I continue to grow in “freedom”, I continue to create experiences of learning, creating in ceramics, playing bridge, writing that help me “going out of the self” and into the “self” I was created to be. Each time I have this experience, more and more of the falseness, of the bullshit, of the political me, of the caricature of me that I have lived falls away and this is the gift, the joy, the eye-opening experience that helps me live more and more into the words of Isaiah above. I don’t experience those “woes” so much anymore, I don’t need to be validated nor vindicated by anyone, I don’t have any resentments, nor any harsh feelings for anyone. I am sick at what is happening in the world, I am scared for my grandson and the world he is living in. As my brother, Neal, said: “we were born in a much better world than the ones we are giving to our grandchildren”! I have so much joy and faith, I live the best I can each day and I know 5786 will be a “Shana Tova” a year of good because I will bring more good, more light, more sweetness into it and I pray you will also. This is the ultimate in “spiritual ecstasy”, the greatest “freedom” one can experience and I pray we continue to grow in it and bring it more and more into our everyday living. I will write again on Thursday! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark