Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 357
“It is not by the rare act of greatness that character is determined, but by everyday actions, by a constant effort to rend our callousness. It is constancy that sanctifies.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.79)
Continuing on yesterday’s theme and, truthfully, the major theme I receive from Rabbi Heschel, stop looking for the HIGHS, the PEAKS and, as Deuteronomy teaches remember the mountains, the sea, the ‘over there’ is not where We the People are going to find Good Orderly Direction, as the program of Alcoholics Anonymous reminds as well. Looking at history, seeing the ‘growth’ of Western Civilization that Marco Rubio was so eloquent about while being part of a regime that wants to kill democracy, set up autocracy and have ‘whitey in charge’ just like it used to be and he is CUBAN!! It is so ridiculous because civilization has always been in a push/pull between autocracy and freedom, between Pharaoh and Moses, between profane and holy, these are all points on the continuum that we the People have to choose which way we are headed. Rather than understand our very survival depends on what we do with our inner lives, how we raise our spiritual health, how we know and understand what our “intuitive mind” is telling us, where our “knowing” is guiding us and LIVE these truths, We the People still believe “daddy will fix it”, “mommy will make the booboo go away”! PLEASE PEOPLE - get real, get right sized!
We the People are enamored with celebrity, with wealth, with “greatness” and far too many of we the people keep making ourselves into small caricatures of who we are in order to achieve these false idols. Erroneously believing that “greatness”, wealth, power, are protectors against uncertainty, even death is the bane of the human experience, it is the lie we continue to tell ourselves, it is the insanity we continue to grow. Rather than being enamored with “greatness”, with wealth, with power, the words above remind us of God’s calls to us: “Ayecha-where are you?”, “Shema-hear listen understand”, “Love the Stranger”, “Care for the Poor”, “Be Holy”, etc. It is not our ‘job’ to be great, according to the teaching above; it is our job to “rend our callousness”, ie to “tear our callousness” away from us, to let go of the mendacious belief that cruelty is good, it is necessary at times so we can deal with “those people”, you know “the vermin” that Trump et al speak about, like Hispanics, Democrats, and you better believe many of his cronies include Jews in their definition of “vermin”. We the People have heard this rhetoric before, in the 1920’s-40’s in Germany by a small little group of people who called themselves NAZIS!! Wake up People, when something speaks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck- it is a duck! When people spout the rhetoric of Goebbels, the words of Hitler, erect and put people in Camps like the ones in WWII, have masked men plucking people off the streets, beating people in the streets-what do you think is happening??!!
It is in these actions that these LYING ASSHOLES proclaim their allegiance to “Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior” not caring one iota that everything they are doing is spitting in Jesus’ face, defying the “word of God” found in the Bible and, instead of “rend our callousness” they are boasting about callousness and cruelty and WHERE THE HELL ARE WE THE PEOPLE?? The Congress should be impeached, recalled in special elections across the country, the Republicans should be indicted and imprisoned for Lying under Oath when they swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic because they have allowed both Putin and Orban, Trump and Vance, Vought, Rubio, Miller to attack our foundational core values and “rend” them useless!
To “rend our callousness”, We the People have to stop “swinging for the fences”, end our insane ‘special interest’ modalities, stop living in the either/or of far right, far left. To “rend our callousness”, We the People are being called upon to “do the next right thing”, not perfectly, not with flair nor need for accolades, just quietly, in our “everyday actions” make a difference, move the needle one grain of sand towards what God truly wants-freedom for all, loving the stranger, being holy, caring for the needy and poor, not stealing, murdering, coveting, bearing false witness, selling our souls, not following our hearts and eyes to whore after them, etc. It is only when we “stand firm” (live in “constancy”) that our inner lives transform, that our outer actions are more “in line with the divine”, that Ash Wednesday is the be the beginning of Repentance for both Christians AND Jews, that Passover be the beginning of Liberation from the inner lies, societal norms that are enslaving us and giving us a bad name, a bad conscience. We the People have the power, the skill, the guidance to “rend our callousness” and turn our cruelty into caring, our need for power, wealth, “greatness” into service and love.
ACTION STEPS:
Which will We choose today- “callousenss” or good “everyday actions”?
What “false god” are you worshiping that makes “cruelty” callousness seem logical and ‘holy’?
How are you so focused on “greatness” that you miss the simple acts of random kindness you can do, are done to and for you?
What will it take for you to listen better to your “intuitive voice” as an antidote to the rational/emotional voices that try to get you to go against what is right and good?
GOD BLESS AND STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark