Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 363
“In carrying out the word of the Torah is ushered into the presence of spiritual meaning. Through the ecstasy of deeds he learns to be certain of the hereness of God. Right living is a way to right thinking…” (Thunder in the Soul pg.80)
“Presence” comes from the Latin meaning “being at hand” and “ecstasy” comes from the Latin meaning “standing outside oneself”. An English definition for “ecstasy” is “an experience of mystic self-transcendence” and “an overwhelming experience of great joy. “Presence” is “the state of being present in a thing” and something that “exists and is not seen”. “Usher” means to “show or guide someone somewhere”. Ergo, I understand Rabbi Heschel to be reminding us that “in carrying out the word of the Torah” we are “guided into being at hand of a spiritual meaning”. Through the overwhelming experience of joy that doing a deed brings, we both learn the certainty of the “hereness of God” and we experience a self-transcendence. WOW!! Being present in the “word of the Torah” can, and I believe does, give us the guidance and shows us the way for our own unique “spiritual meaning”. Unfortunately, Rabbi Heschel cannot give We the People “the spiritual meaning” because like it says in the Talmud, every soul is unique-no two people experience “the word of the Torah” in the same way NOR SHOULD WE! Just as after the crossing of the Red Sea, after the moment at Mount Sinai, each person had their own personal, unique spiritual experience by “being at hand” and had their own experience of “standing outside oneself”, so too do each and every one of We the People have to have our own unique experience of any and every “word of the Torah”.
At issue is our lack of understanding and our lack of skill to “be at hand”, to receive the “present” that the Torah is, to have a moment of “mystic self-transcendence” that is not induced by some drug, outside influence like “killing it in business” etc. This need to know the “ecstasy”, the “hereness of God” may be why so many Shamans are portrayed as “standing outside themselves”, why the mystics were always looked at with a greater or lesser amount of skepticism, like the prophets were, like the Torah is now. Developing the skill to KNOW something that cannot be seen is to experience the deepest connection with the authentic self. Only by learning to live in our authenticity rather than in societal norms, in ‘follow the leader’, the moments after the Red Sea, after Mount Sinai, after each and every spiritual experience come to remind us and give us the inner strength to tell everyone to Go to Hell when they want, demand, threaten We the People to go along to get along. When We the People “do the deed”, experience “the ecstasy”, become “certain of the hereness of God”, we catapult our authentic self through the shmutz, the barbed wire that have imprisoned what we have always known to be true and were too afraid to live it. We the People are now armed with the armor of God, with the nearness and “hereness of God” and there is no turning back, we are changed forever, we do “stand outside ourselves” more and more, we are being “guided” to our rightful place.
Of course, this is NOT a one and done! AND it is not a thoughtful path that gets us there, as the last sentence above reminds us. Of course reflection, meditation, are important and crucial to our spiritual growing, they just come after the DOING! “Right living is a way to right thinking” is another way of saying “Na’Aseh V’Nishmah” we will do and then understand. While the Rabbis wanted to give us the ‘right way’ to do, even they could not agree, hence the arguments in the Talmud, the saying two Jews, three (or more) opinions. We the People are taught to turn the Torah over and over, not just read it each year, experience anew “the word of the Torah”, the “word” that stands out to us this year and then LIVE IT each week. The day after is the most important day, as I have said in the name of my friend and teacher, Rabbi Ed Feinstein. The day after we are “ushered into the presence of spiritual meaning” is the most important day, the day after we experience “the ecstasy of deeds” and learn “the hereness of God” is the most important day because what we do with the experience is crucial to our living well, to our society living well and to being more authentically our SELF. It is not easy to continue to build on these experiences as any recovering addict will tell you and it is pretty simple. Using the KISS method (keep it simple stupid) I have each day for the past 39+ years put one foot in front of the other, taking two steps forward and one back, sometimes one forward and two back and I have never returned to the way I was because I made the commitment, followed thru on the commitment to “do the next right action” and I have acted my way into right thinking! It was a struggle for awhile, it is not anymore, I still screw up, and it is not hard to admit it, to acknowledge my frustrations, to rise above them. In my years of personal recovery and in helping addicts and non-addicts find their own authentic selves, doing before understanding is a difficult pill to swallow and when we/they have, the “presence”, the “ecstasy” abound.
Here are some ACTION STEPS:
Find a Guide to read the Torah with and begin to immerse yourself in “the word” and develop your own experience of “the word”
Engage in the actions of the characters, not as an actual happening, rather see how their struggles are, have been, could be yours
Accept the guidance of a force that IS and cannot be seen by you nor anyone
Do an inventory each night of the “right living” you did and you did not achieve that day-acknowledging when your thoughts overrode your authentic knowing.
GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark