Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 348
“Thus, the purpose seems to be to ennoble the common, to endow worldly things with hieratic beauty; to attune the comparative to the absolute, to associate the detail with the whole, to adapt our own being with its plurality, conflicts, and contradictions to the all-transcending unity, to the holy.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 78)
Full Disclosure: This is at least a two-day writing as this sentence is SO pregnant with meaning, with power, with passion, with purpose and with learning. Rabbi Heschel is offering the proposition that “the pattern of Jewish life”, the idea that “Judaism is a theology of the common deed” to mean it is incumbent on each and every one of us, Jew and non-Jew alike (after all Jesus’ teachings came from his understanding of the Hebrew Bible), to “ennoble the common”. I have read this so many times, I have taught this concept often, and to begin to unpack this idea I go to the dictionary and ennoble, from the French, means “lend greater dignity to something”, from the Latin means something is “noted”. Which as I hear Rabbi Heschel this morning, in this moment of turmoil and chaos, of ICE thugs roaming the streets, of kidnappings, senseless murders, senseless hatred, lawlessness and bastardization of our core principles and doctrines by the “Grifter, Liar, Baby” in chief, is telling us that especially in this moment we the people need to “lend greater dignity” to the ‘simple’ actions we take, to the “common” deed of “love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”, because all of us, either personally or in our ancestral history “were strangers in the land of” America.
Understanding the call from the universe to respect the dignity and the nobility of doing the next right action, one must first believe that “all (people) are created equal” that all people are “endowed with certain unalienable rights”, that ensuring every human being has the opportunity to pursue “life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness” is one of the myriad of ways we “ennoble the common” and, very possibly, one of the most important ways we do this. The protests, the push-back we are witnessing is another way we “ennoble the common”, it is a “holy” action reminding us of our prophetic inheritance, suggesting strongly that we go back to the prophets, study them, emulate them and stop trying to ‘be fair to both sides’. It is also important to “ennoble the common” by staying in proper measure, by serving the middle, by not excluding anyone, even our enemies-whom we are told to care for, feed, give drink, help them if their ass falls under its burden, etc. Rabbi Heschel’s theology that this is “the purpose” of the pattern of Jewish life is/was revolutionary in his time and even today! In pursuit of ennobling the common, he was in the forefront of protests against the demeaning of the dignity of human beings-all human beings. He walked his talk and so must we.
“To endow worldly things with hieratic beauty” goes hand in hand with “ennoble the common” as “hieratic” comes from the Latin meaning “sacred”. Judaism, according to Rabbi Heschel, doesn’t disdain the “worldly things” all of us pursue, it is not against comfortable living, nor does it negate the physical pleasures, sex, etc. Rather, Judaism is a “pattern of living” that reminds us nothing is without inherent holiness, everything we do can be sacred-if it is the next right thing. Think about this, We the People, are given the opportunity to care for ourselves AND one another in ways that ‘holy rollers’ would say is evil, terrible, satanic and, in reality, we are continuing “to endow worldly things with hieratic beauty”. This is true with being wealthy and donating to charity, building hospitals, schools for underprivileged, for the ‘outcasts’, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to have a seat at the table, erasing the margins between human beings as Father Greg Boyle teaches and preaches, and “lend greater dignity to ourselves, to another(s), to the deed itself” -this is the path We the People are being called to follow, no matter what faith one adheres to, what spiritual discipline one follows.
This is the thrust of my living. I continue to seek ways to “ennoble the common”, I smile at people on the street, in my golf cart, when I “walk on the way”. The V’ahavta prayer is all about how to “endow worldly things with hieratic beauty” by reminding us to teach our children, to walk the path of living faithfully, honoring our dignity and the dignity of another(s). I live into this prayer, into the gratitude prayer in the morning, into taking an accounting of my soul each day, into standing for what is right and just, merciful, kind and loving. I continue to shout from the rooftops the inequities people do, including my own. Harriet is continually told “how honest you are” as if this is a remarkable phenomenon, which evidently it is, while to “ennoble the common”, to “endow worldly things with hieratic beauty” truth, honesty are the minimum requirements to live ״the pattern of Jewish life”! I am loud and abrasive, I am enraged at injustice, I yell and scream while Harriet is quiet and incisive, kind and cuts to the heart of the matter, and both of us despise mendacity, societal norms and the bullshit that passes as ‘religious’, ‘freedom’, as ‘caring’, as ‘good’.
Action Steps:
Be present in the “common” deeds that you do by rote
Write down the ways you “ennoble the common each day
See the world as a garden which is sacred, how do you add to the sacredness of the world each day
What are you doing to promote the needs of the poor, the needy, the stranger in your midst
Stop your need to validate the wrong doings of another because you are of the same party, tribe, etc.
God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark