Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 325
“And yet, what the ear fails to perceive, what reason fails to conceive, the Bible makes clear to our souls. It is a higher truth, to be grasped by the spirit.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.63)
Ah, the hubris of humanity is stated in the words above. We the People have been told by societal norms that our hearing is excellent, that our reason is uber alles the holy grail of living and none of this is true! Yet, no matter how often these ideas, these “conventional notions” are disproven, humanity comes back to them over and over, ignoring the consequences, the hatred, the murdering, the deaths by suicide, the myriad of ways to escape when our reasoning fails us, when we are deaf to what is really happening. This may be, the greatest tragedy of a human life; not accepting that our ears and our reason will get us only so far and, to be human, to be in joy, to be decent, to be kind, to engage in a reciprocity of generosity, “a higher truth” has “to be grasped by the spirit.”
We are so full of ourselves, also so full of shit, that there are people like Donny- the Boy and Bibi-the denier, Vlad-the pouter, Vance-the made-up man, Miller-the hater, Lutnick-the quintessential picture of the Shylock, Hegseth-the face, Bondi-the blonde whore, etc who claim to be the ONLY purveyors of Truth. These people and their cronies like RFK Jr claim to have the corner on the truth and ‘those’ people who disagree with ‘us’ are your enemies, they are the liars, they are the false prophets, it is only ‘we’ that follow Jesus, it is only ‘we’ who care about the poor, the stranger, the …. AND We the People bought this bullshit enough to elect Bibi, Donny, Vlad, more than once!! WTF!!???! Since there is more than “the ear” can “perceive” and “reason” can “conceive”, what possible excuse can We the People have for shrinking our soul’s knowing, for keeping our soul’s at an immature level? We have the record of a higher hearing, a higher consciousness at the Red Sea, at Mount Sinai. We know the experience of Moses upon seeing the “back of God’s presence” and the glow he had after that. We have the record of Samuel’s being called, of David praising God in the Psalms and being able to hear another person’s advice, even a woman’s!
Yet, we the people have gotten so small-spirited, so small-minded, so unreasonable, so deaf that only hatred, only blame, only retribution make sense any more. Our attention span has become so short as evidenced by the ways the DRUMPF has taken the Epstein Files off our radar, he has essentially gone to war to cover up, to ignore his role in the doings and goings on of Jeffery Epstein. He has sent his Goon Squad, his SS Storm Troopers into American Cities to kill American Citizens in order to hide the fact that Melania was an Epstein Girl, that he partook in the Epstein Parties, we know he desired Ivanka as a girl.
Yet, we the people are so short-sighted, so inept spiritually to stand up for the truth that goes beyond the mendacity, the bullshit being shoveled our way. We the people have forgotten the words of the prophets, we have misread the Bible, the New Testament, history itself. It doesn’t belong to the winners, it isn’t the strongest that win/survive. Jesus tells us “the meek shall inherit the earth”, the Bible is the story and written by the JEWS who were displaced from their land, who wandered for almost 1900 years!
We the People must wake the fuck up! We the People are being called by the words above, by the situation of today to go beyond our hearing and our perceiving, to rise above what “the ear fails to perceive” and “reason fails to conceive”. We the People are being given the opportunity to repair the damage we have done by electing the charlatans, the idolators to office. We the People are being given the power to be a blessing, as Abraham was given, by standing for what is good and holy, decent and kind, by rising above the mundane murmurings of society. We the People have within us the ability to be “maladjusted to” societal norms and our mental cliches, to climb up Mount Sinai and meet the One who IS, the One who WAS, the One who WILL BE. We the People are able to grow our spiritual life so We can “grasp” the “higher truth” with our “souls’. To do this, We the People have to rise above the pettiness and pride we seem to always fall into. We have to let go of our need to be right, our need to blame and shame, our need to demean in order to feel stronger, to rise up, to stop needing to step on someone else in order to “climb the ladder of success”. We the People are being asked to take the cotton out of our ears, to stop acting on the first thought and wait for the second one, to see with our ‘third eye’ and allow our souls’ to guide us instead of false ego, false pride, etc being our motivator.
While this seems hard for most of us, I have found it possible to live into the Spirit that guided the Israelites in the Desert, the Spirit that has guided me into recovery and continues to be the guidance I need. I know the draw of false ego, the relief of being able to blame another for my errors, the false claim of ‘not my responsibility’, etc. they’re the tools I used in my life prior to recovery. What I have recovered is ME, the authentic Mark Borovitz, the son my father raised, the soul God created me to be. I engage in higher consciousness every day and ‘see’ things that most people don’t, “hear” things that are unintelligible to many and preach them loud and louder. I experience the sadness of being left out, the sadness of loneliness that the prophets experienced throughout our time, the sadness of disappointment in not being known by those I trust. AND, I experience the joy of speaking truth to power, the joy of continuing to have the energy and staying power to keep preaching the gospel according to my soul, to what God tells me and the joy of being known by so many. It is truly a both/and. The Bible sets my soul free. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark