Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 353
“Religion is not a reservation, a tract of time reserved for solemn celebrations on festive days. The spirit withers when confined in splendid isolation. What is decisive is not the climax we reach in rare moments, but how the achievements of rare moments affect the climate of the entire life.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 78)
Reading the emboldened words above makes me think of something else Rabbi Heschel wrote in God in Search of Man pg. 132: “The immediate certainty that we attain in moments of insight does not retain its intensity after the moments are gone…The remembrance of that experience and the loyalty to the response of that moment are the forces that sustain our faith. In this sense, faith is faithfulness, loyalty to an event, loyalty to our response”. We the People are spending much too much time seeking the “climax we reach in rare moments”, the ecstasy of the “high”, be it from substances, process’, ‘making a killing in the market’, ‘getting one over on _____(fill in the blank), etc. This is one of the issues We the People are facing re our devices-how we keep checking them, playing the games on them, using them for old fashion research, mathematics, etc.
“Loyalty” to something greater than ourselves that is part of us and NOT part of us, is an old-fashioned idea nowadays. Rather than appreciate the “climax we reach in rare moments”, rather than have “loyalty to our response” to these moments, too many of We the People have decided to ignore the responses and only seek the stimuli, be it by elected officials who are only interested in what they want rather than what is best for the people who elected them, business leaders who care only about “delivering for their shareholders” rather than what is best for their customers, clergy people who are willing to do what their boards/diocese says so they can ‘keep their job’ rather than live into the CALL from God that propelled them into the Rabbinate, Priesthood, Ministerial roles.
What passes for “loyalty” to an experience and “loyalty to our response” in all religious sects is, for the most part, BULLSHIT! We the People are mad at Clergy who remind us of our heritage, of our responsibility, of loving the stranger, helping our enemies’ asses, being rebuked for our own behavior, demanding that We the People do a daily, weekly, monthly, even yearly Chesbon HaNefesh, an accounting of our soul, and see where we have ignored people who have been kind to us cause we just don’t need them anymore, they are too “inconvenient”, too much of a reminder of when we the people were needy. The response in the “wilderness of Sinai” was “WE WILL DO and THEN we will understand”. There was a climactic experience upon crossing the Red Sea, upon receiving the 10 Sayings, and 45 days later, We the People built the Golden Calf! It ain’t easy to be “loyal to our response” after “the climax we reach in rare moments” AND We the People have to get better at it, we have to remember those who have helped us along the way, know we owe a debt to them, to God, to the people we have yet to meet. The importance of these ecstatic moments is to WAKE US THE FUCK UP! It is not a “nirvana” experience, it is not for us to ‘feel so uplifted”, “feel so peaceful”. These “rare moments” are to get us into action, to make us recognize the unique divine image we possess, the unique divine image that every other human being possess’ and stop our narcissistic, egotistical actions of “Only I can fix it”, “Only I am important”, Only I …
In December of 1986 I had a “rare moment” that changed me. It was a “rare moment” that changed everything for me, changed “the climate of my entire life”. I knew it then, I made a conscious decision to not blow this moment off, as I had so many other times. It is a terrible experience, excruciatingly painful when you are aware of the “climax we reach in rate moments” and then just blow them off, ignore them because of fears, because of greed, because of not wanting to see the harm caused by our ignorance of the truth shown to us in these “rare moments”. Every one of We the People have these “rare moments”, each of us are called by these moments, even the “dark night of the soul” moments to action and, as we see today and throughout history, the action most people take is to be more insular, to figure out the ‘angle I can use to get more, more, more’, to be a fascist, a dictator, an autocrat, an asshole! AND We the People keep electing these people to lead us!! WHAT THE FUCK??
My “rare moment” changed my life, the lives of my daughter, my wife, my ex-wife, my siblings and so many people, it got me to meet President George W. Bush with whom I disagreed politically and connected with his spirit and he with mine. I have met the finest of people who seek to improve their spiritual maturity and health and I have met the worst of people who keep using power and position as a cudgel against having their own “rare moments” change them. It is sad and joyous, exhilarating and depressing and, because of being loyal to my response: I never leave the playing field, I am always ready to pick up the bat and make a hit, score a run, make the catch. This is how my “rare moment” changed me!
ACTION STEPS:
Make a list of “rare moments” you have experienced
Next to each one, write your response to them in the moments after
Write how you have incorporated them into your daily living
Look at the ones you haven’t incorporated and ask yourself “why not”
Write a plan to incorporate and be aware of when/how these moments help you live better.
God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark