Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 334
“And yet, we, Philistines, continue to insist upon intellectual cliches, upon setting up our own life as a model and measure of what prophets could possibly attain. We oppose the prophets’ word with our claims that God can never reach and ear, that God will never stoop to light a word in the mind of man.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 66-67)
To put this quote in context, Rabbi Heschel is taking aim at the people who claim the Bible is just another book, “Sinai is a fairy tale”, etc. His use of the word “philistine” as a descriptor of “we” is, as I hear Rabbi Heschel this morning, an indication of both sadness, fear and a call to all of we the people to leave the safety and comfort of our “intellectual cliches”, the narcissistic belief that “we, Philistines” are superior to God, superior to the universe and know or can find out everything there is to know. This was published, remember, in 1955!! YIKES, I shudder to think what Rabbi Heschel, Rev. King, Bobby Kennedy would think of our world today-of what the United States is doing today.
“We, Philistines” are at work each and every day and always have been; seeking out new ways to lie and manipulate, to deceive both our neighbors and our selves, to ‘gain the upper hand’, to ‘get mine’-whether I deserve anything or not. What is happening today with the grift and the graft, with the lying of the Republicans in Congress and in the street, with the buying of the bullshit by the “MAGA crowd”, with the inability of the Democrats in Congress like Chuck Schumer to stand up and fight for what is good and what is right, to hear the call of the prophets and follow their words and deeds, is an affront to God and the fact that these LYING FAUX CHRISTIANS AND JEWS do these horrific deeds, these desecrations of God’s name in the name of God, in the name of Jesus is BEYOND THE BEYOND!
These idolators, these charlatans, these suckers at the tit of the powerful, are exactly describes the people who “insist…upon setting our own life as a model and measure of what the prophets could possibly attain”. These despicable deceivers who use the vulnerabilities of people seeking spiritual health, spiritual healing, spiritual growth, to promote the lies of the powerful, to pick the pockets of the poor and the needy, to deny aid and comfort to the stranger and the widow, are the Philistines, these are the people infecting the blood of our country, these are the human beings who insist upon dehumanizing people not like them and in the process relinquish everything that makes them human(e). On one hand it is so sad and on the other hand so infuriating, so indicative of the self-righteous bastards they are. They are led by the “greatest Philistine of them all-Donald J. Trump”, who of course hawks Bibles, praises Jesus, and does the exact opposite of every principle that Jesus believed in, fought for, and died for. While Jesus may have died for the sins of the people, that Trump et al use Jesus’ name to continue to commit the gravest of sins-stealing/denying the Infinite Dignity and Worth of every human being- is UNBELIEVABLY THE ULTIMATE DESECRATION OF GOD’S NAME by these “good christian folk”.
The call, the plea, the demand of the words above is for We the People to return to the Bible, to immerse ourselves in the words, the deeds of the prophets’ and We the People clean the wax out of our ears, get the hearing aids necessary, the spiritual training, teachings, counseling, we need to SHEMA, hear, listen, understand the words that come from Sinai, to end our incessant narcissistic bullshit and stop denying the humanity of anyone other than ‘our kind’. If God could tell the Angels to stop cheering when the Egyptians were drowning in the Red Sea with the words “my children are dying, my children are dying”(according to a midrash), isn’t it time for We the People to stop dancing on the graves of our enemies, to end our joyous participation in the demeaning and disrespectful ways Trump, Vance, et al speak about immigrants, women, and anyone else they want to tear down? Isn’t it time for We the People to stand up for God, to live the words and deeds of the Bible, of Jesus, of the New Testament? Isn’t it way past time for We the People to end our phony pious bullshit act and admit our own errors, our own missing the mark instead of wrapping ourselves in the ‘truth of our side’? The opposition to Trump et al, has to admit their own mistakes, their own foibles, and stop being on the exact opposite end of the spectrum because this is not what the prophets tell us, it is not this purity test that God is seeking. The prophets tell us that God calls to all of us and only some of us are so sick and tired of being sick and tired that we clean out our ears, open our hearts and remove the “foreskin” over our souls so we can SHEMA, hear, listen and understand the call of God.
This is the hardest thing for most of us to do. It took me 20 years of running away from what I knew to be right, what I knew to be Godly, what I knew was the path for me to finally surrender to the Truth of what the prophets were saying, the truth of what the Bible was teaching, the truth of the poverty of my soul and the truth that I could rejoin the human race, I could redeem myself and be redeemed by God, I could find my purpose and passion and live them in service to something greater than me-You, God, etc. This is the reason I am alive today, I believe. That I could leave my narcissistic victimhood, my pettiness and pride, my worthlessness and find the truth of my soul, the freedom to be me-in all the glory and not so glorious, to live a life unafraid of the bullies, unafraid of the laughter, unafraid of my vulnerabilities being used against me and more afraid of not honoring the Truth within me, not honoring the Gift God has given me, not honoring the Love of God, family and friends. This is how I have overcome my tendency to be a “Philistine”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark