Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 5 Day 9
“The deed is the test, the trial, the risk. What we perform may seem slight, but the aftermath is immense. An individual’s misdeed can be the beginning a nation’s disaster. The sun goes down, but the deeds go on. Darkness is over all we have done.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.82)
I am taking my time with this passage because it is so important for We the People to end our obliviousness to what is in front of our faces, to end our mendacity towards ourselves and another(s). Can it really be ‘true’ that we the people are SO SMALL that we are unable to SEE, to HEAR, to UNDERSTAND the “aftermath” of our “deeds”, the “immense” cruelty of what is happening in our country, in Netanyahu’s Israel, in Putin’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, et al??? Is it within the realm of possibility that we the people are SO INCLINED TO WORSHIP IDOLS that we are unable to hold to account people like Jeffrey Epstein and his cronies, that we are so spiritually bankrupt, so spiritually immature, so morally compromised as to allow the rich and powerful to treat the stranger with hatred, to suspect their ‘fellow man’, to believe “the one with the gold rules”, to treat the poor and needy as if they are criminals??
Now, I understand that one may think I am engaging in hyperbole, yet I think not! While no one, except for Trump, Goebbels-oops I mean Miller, Lutnick, Vance, Johnson, Thune, the Republican Party and some Democrats, actually speak this way, and most of We the People have some of these thoughts, some of these beliefs, have engaged in some of these actions without thinking, with malice of forethought, and to go along to get along. Our Bridge Teacher, Randy Bissett, says: “every card says something” and in our context: every action says something about our character, about our beliefs, about our congruency, about our authenticity. I would like to state for the record-our congruency and authenticity need some shoring up, we the people need to GROW UP! I am so enraged, I understand the words of the prophets so clearly, so intensely and I am bewildered that we the people would buy into the bullshit about Iran, the bullshit about Trump’s ‘innocence’ with the Epstein affair, the bullshit about Lutnick’s goodness, the bullshit that Miller spews, the hidden agenda of Rubio, the absolute FALSENESS of everything Vance purports to be. YET We the People DO! WTF??
Is it at all possible that we the people have become so blind, so indifferent to how “the aftermath is immense”? Are we truly unable to Shema, hear, listen and understand, the call of the innocent immigrants being locked up in facilities that rival the ‘work camps’ of Poland and Germany? Are we really that inauthentic that we can stand idly by the blood of innocent Iranians like the school girls who were killed? Are we so self-deceptive as to believe the mendacity of Trump, Netanyahu, Kushner, Hegseth, et al? The “misdeeds” of Trump and his gang of thieves, and zealots and Netanyahu and his gang of thieves and zealots are “the beginning of nation’s disaster” and We the People are NEEDED TO WAKE UP to what is, not what we hear, not what we want to believe, not the deception by these assholes, nor the self-deception of “well it doesn’t affect me”! OF COURSE it affects everyone, hence “the individual’s misdeeds can be the beginning of a nation’s disaster”!
There are, of course, many ways to engage in the solution to this issue, politically, morally, and spiritually. I want to focus on the latter two: We the People are being called upon to regain and recalibrate our moral compass. It is no longer okay to turn a blind eye to what is happening, it is no longer acceptable to not rebuke our neighbors when they are engaging in misdeeds and saying ‘what’s the big deal?’ It is all a big deal because like Nero in Rome, we the people are fiddling around while our country is burning with a hatred that has not been seen since the days prior to the Civil War and the world is burning with a hatred that hasn’t been seen since the 1930’s. AND We the People can turn it around, can speak truth to power and not settle for the lies and bullshit! This is why T’Shuvah was put into the world before the world was created.
ACTION STEPS:
Take an inventory of the ways you think what you do is ‘not a big deal’
Using this inventory, write down the aftermath of these actions
Find the ways to repair the damage you have caused with “no big deal”
Make your amends to the people you have betrayed, especially those who have helped you and you used their vulnerabilities against them.
Make a plan to be more aware of the ‘everyday’ things you do and raise them up to a level of awareness that allows you to see the aftermath sooner and make the appropriate repairs or enhancements.
GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark