Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 5 Day 19
The dichotomy of faith and words which presented such an important problem in Christian theology was never a problem in Judaism. To us, the basic problem is neither what is the right action nor what is the right intention. The basic problem is: What is right living?” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 87)
Many of we the Jewish people have lost this truth! We have gotten so caught up in theology, philosophy, letter of the law, etc that too many of We the Jewish People have lost our way, straying from the path that “What is right living” keeps us on. It is, as I have experienced personally and in my work, “the basic problem is: What is right living” that keeps We the People striving to be one grain of sand better, never resting on our laurels, always ready to do battle with our inner demos as well as the outer ones. The trap here, of course, is to battle, make war with our outer demons, those who genuinely want to harm us, in order to ignore the battle within. Especially as we are 2+ weeks away from Passover and Jews around the world are cleaning out their Chametz from their homes, getting ready to cook lavish meals, prepare long explanations for the Haggadah, get down the Kosher for Passover Dishes, etc AND ignoring the war within, being oblivious and/or willfully blind to the inner battle and taking the frustrations of our inner conflicts out on our outer enemies.
We the People see this in our politics, in our workplace, in our families; one person, one group, one idea, one concept is singled out for ridicule and scorn so the masses don’t look at the people running shit, be it in a company, a family where the parents believe “do as I say, not as I do”, and in our government where the Prime Minister of Israel sends messages of support and his own son to a CPAC conference in Hungary for Viktor Orban and the far right, Anti-Semitic groups from Germany and Austria, both are fringe groups, yet Netanyahu just gave them legitimacy, while extolling his concern for the Jewish People, spouting and not believing: ‘only I can save the Jewish people from Anti-Semitism, from Iran, etc’! WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE?!?
In America, there are some of we the people who want to take the right to vote away from women, from people of color, from everyone EXCEPT White Males-whom they believe should run the world. Depicting Jesus as a white man when he was certainly the same skin color as Israelis and/or Arabs, is another way of obfuscating Truth, making outside enemies to ignore the internal battle white people have with their feelings of inferiority, with egos so small and fragile that only by having power, lording it over another, can they feel good. This is NOT RIGHT LIVING, Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Trump, Mr. Kushner, Mr. Wytkoff, et al!
Another example of this obfuscation is the Iran war; by keeping this in the news, ICE can go along without as much scrutiny, the cruelty of higher prices, much limited health care, the Epstein scandal, the plight of the poor, the needy, the stranger is pushed aside, is less newsworthy, less important? WTF? The takeover of the media by Trump ‘friends’, the threat of the FCC pulling licenses, the capitulation of business leaders, the extolling of Putin and Russia while denigrating our friends and allies of over 75 years is FUCKED UP and only We the People can stop this WRONG LIVING!
“What is right living” is a very simple question that has a myriad of responses with, in my opinion all of them boiling down to the messages of the prophets: “Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God” Do T’Shuvah every day, “love the stranger”, “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to ALL its inhabitants therein”, care for the poor, the needy among you, make a connection with your inner life, your soul you so God can dwell among each one of us, individually and collectively, BE HUMAN, disdain cruelty, jettison lying about another and/or self, don’t whore yourself, your principles for some temporal gain, want what you have and give your unique gifts and talents to the world. This is the path of “right living” as I have come to understand and experience life. As one who knowingly took the path of WRONG living, who relished in all the wrong ways of being, who was a drunk, a thief, a no-goodnik, I know the choices we face and the pressures we the people are under, all of which makes the self-deceptions we engage in more palatable, more powerful and more deadly. Having done all I could to kill the noise, ignore, deflect the inner battle for my soul, for my decency, for my humanity, I was Blessed with an awakening that I could not, would not ignore and I have been building on this awakening for 39+years. My ways are rough and tumble, my senses are keenly aware of bullshit and I, learning from the prophets, have no time for bullshit, and I am unafraid to be accountable nor hold another to account. I also know that my ways of being, my insistence on learning and truth, my uncompromising belief in justice, mercy, love, has pushed people away, losing connection with some people that I thought were ‘forever’ people and I am sad about it and in acceptance. I am not always in “right living” and I am always open to growing and changing.
ACTION STEPS:
Write down the ways you ignore your inner battles, your soul’s calling
Write down the outer battles you fight with the intention of ignoring the inner ones
Each day make a plan to engage in “right living” a little more than the day before
Each night, do an inventory on how you were in “right living” and how you were not.
GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark