Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 337
“A pattern for living-the object of man’s most urgent quest-which would correspond to his dignity, must take into consideration not only his ability to exploit the forces of nature and to appreciate the loveliness of it is forms, but also his unique sense of the ineffable. It must be a design, not only for the satisfaction of needs, but also for the attainment of ends.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 75)
This is a lot to digest! “A pattern for living” is what the Bible gives us, yet we the people have rejected this pattern because of the conflicting statements the Bible makes at times, because of the ways the Rabbis/Sages decided to both vocalize the text and decide what the text means with their commentaries to influence future generations. In their quest to be relevant, to preserve Judaism, they went overboard in restrictions, in their self-aggrandizement as a body, and they tried to and succeeded in many ways to stifle personal, communal understandings of the text while claiming there are 70 ways to understand the Bible, ‘but ours is the right way’! OY, VaVOY!!
Rather than respect the dignity of every person to experience the Torah, the Bible, the Rabbis, like the priests of old, sought to shape our consciousness of the Bible, stop our individuality, and while claiming the infinite worth and dignity of every human being, legislated, interpreted, and told stories to deny this truth! Just as the Founding Fathers declared “All men are created equal”, we all have “certain unalienable rights”, they kept slaves, denied the dignity and equality of black people, the Christians barely ‘tolerated’ the Jews, etc. We the People are witnessing, once again, the despicable actions of a few, that too many have gone along with, that deny the basic dignity every human being deserves, that denies the pattern of living these immigrants who came here without papers seeking “a pattern of living” that would and could honor their dignity, would and could add to the dignity of the community and country they came to be a part of, and they would both “exploit the forces of nature and appreciate the loveliness of its forms” especially the “form” of “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein” found on the Liberty Bell. Inhabitant is defined as someone taking up a specific space, having nothing to do with ‘citizenship papers’.
The “sense of the ineffable” that the people in power have is BULLSHIT! Their sense is they are the ineffable, they know that ‘God is on our side’ and Jesus wants cruelty towards ‘those people’! How the Clergy that kiss their asses, give them cover, and promote hatred can continue to do this is BEYOND THE BEYOND to me. It goes against everything that the Bible holds dear; especially accountability! Remember God held King David, the most powerful man in the country, accountable for Fucking Bathsheba-another man’s wife hence committing adultery, and then KILLING HER HUSBAND!! Yet these ‘good christian folk’ and these ‘keepers of the jewish faith’ claim to be above accountability above everyone else including God and God’s messengers like the prophets, Moses, Jesus!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE We the People putting up with? Where is our “unique sense of the ineffable”? How are we so deep in our own self-deception, our fears of missing out (FOMO) that this shit has been allowed to flourish and grow??
It is WAY PAST TIME for We the People to adhere to and adapt/adopt “a pattern of living” that “must be a design, not only for the satisfaction of needs, but also for the attainment of ends.” These “ends” are the making of our corner of the world a little better than when we found it. It is NOT allowing this MONEY-GRUBBING WHORE in the White House to continue to make fiats that go so far as to stop the law that Nursing Homes need to be staffed appropriately so people will get proper care! Oh No, says Trump, and evidently RFK Jr., people in Nursing Homes should suffer the indignities of not only their illness, but the indignities of sitting in their shit, piss, and being ignored as much as possible so the Nursing Home owners, many of whom are Jewish I am sad to report, can make more money!! “A pattern for living” is not designed to be about the Benjamins, PEOPLE! The “ends” are how to serve the “ineffable”, how to serve our neighbors, how to love the stranger, the person next to us, how to feed our enemies, how to treat the poor and the needy, how to BE HOLY, how to live the 10 sayings in our daily lives. So I ask, once again WHAT THE FUCK is wrong with we the people that want to be petty, that promote enmity and envy, prejudice and pridefulness, are judgmental instead of discerning, that are easily bribed by the shining thing being dangled in front of them, who hate with reckless abandon and grift/steal with no barriers?
I am enraged about the situation here in America and in Israel. Please do not tell me that Netanyahu is ‘good for the Jewish people’ as he sits with the right wing fascists who are claiming to be against anti-semitism! Their very nature is to HATE JEWS!! I am enraged that instead of changing his tune, Trump is sending his Border Czar-Tom Holman to Minneapolis, cause he is so empathetic and such a ‘fine christian fellow’! I am enraged that the Congress has stayed on the sidelines, the Courts have tried only to be thwarted by John Roberts that ‘fine upstanding jurist’ who doesn’t believe in the spirit nor the letter of the Constitution he swore to uphold! I am enraged that mendacity, subterfuge, scheming and scamming have become so popular that ‘the people’ have come to applaud it, worship it, and serve it! I am enraged that Jews still believe in the ‘rightness’ of Trump’s politics, Bibi’s policies, their ways of desecrating the “unique sense of the ineffable”. I keep doing the best I can to live “a pattern of living” that honors my “sense of the ineffable” and sees the ineffable in everyone I meet. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark