Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 5 Day 24
“Judaism is averse to generalities, averse to looking for meaning in life detached from doing, as if the meaning were a separate entity. Its tendency is to make ideas convertible into deeds, to interpret metaphysical insights as patterns for action, to endow the most sublime principles with bearing upon everyday conduct.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 87)
I am writing on these ways of being that, Rabbi Heschel anyway believes, Judaism is based on again. When we the people are afraid to stand up for the principles that all religious life, all spiritual disciplines call for, are based on, it is imperative that We return to the foundational text of all major Western religions, the Bible. Without this return, without our T’Shuvah, we the people are stuck in a body and mind that is so much less than who we are, such a ridiculous caricature of whom we are created to be, an inauthentic replica of the soul, the heart, the wisdom, the knowing that is within each and every one of us.
As the HolyDay of Passover approaches, rather than prepare by asking our neighbors to join us, asking ourselves the question: “what am I a slave to”, preparing our souls, our minds, our hearts for liberation-which the slaves in Egypt also did not do, we the people are worried about the second set of dishes, which ‘normal’ products have become “kosher for Passover”, and the Rabbis make a fortune for their ‘supervision’ of the “kashering” of the companies that make the food, the homes of their congregants, and “how long can I make the Seder last so I can say how much I added to it”. Rather than use this moment to truly prepare our selves for this moment of liberation, this small taste of freedom, making the “idea” of liberation/freedom “convertible into deeds” that will impact our willingness to be in truth about our slavery, that will improve our ability to see the inner slavery of societal norms that has kept us from being who we truly are, we the people continue to stay small, continue to believe in ‘der fuhrer’, continue to seek an outside enemy so we never have to look within and the ‘fuhrer’ doesn’t have to worry about being seen as a liar, a cheat, a fraud, a grifter, etc.
While many of the people will give lavish interpretations of the Haggadah, expound on the different commentaries that the Sages have written, what seems to escape We the People is these ‘insights’, these beautiful mystical insights, have not been accepted in our hearts, even though they are in our mouths! Rather than “interpret metaphysical insights as patterns of action”, we the people are content and thrilled to expound on them and NEVER TAKE THE ACTION they DEMAND OF US!
This is what infuriates me, makes me shake with righteous indignation, makes we want to scream and yell until the whole world hears the CALL OF THE PROPHETS! It is not my insights, it is not my words nor deeds, that are not being heard, it is the words of the prophets, the deeds of our ancestors that we can learn from, both what to do and what not to do, the call of the Voice on Sinai, the Declaration of Responsibility the Rabbis put into the Haggadah: “Every person is obligated to see her/himself as if he/she was brought out of Egypt! This “most sublime principle” must have “bearing upon (our) everyday conduct” or we the people have to admit how FULL OF SHIT we are; once again saying one thing and doing another-just like the grifter, just like Levi and Simeon when they murdered the people of Shechem using guile and false promises! “Ideas”, “metaphysical insights”, “sublime principles” are at the foundation of the Bible’s way of living, at the very core of our beingness and we the people continue to deny this truth so we “get ours”, “be in control”, and, deny one of the messages of Passover: Slavery will (must) end. Instead, we the people (some of the white christian people, jewish people, muslim people) have decided to make slavery popular again, railing against DEI while promoting white men in our military, denying the right to vote for women who changed their name when they got married, denying the equality of people of color, and promoting anti-semitism while decrying it, islamaphobia while ‘promoting’ religious freedom while demonizing Islam. WHAT THE FUCK?
ACTION STEPS:
1) What ideas are you holding onto that are worthy of becoming deeds according to human decency and the call of your higher consciousness
2) How are you making your personal return to the ways of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, as they LIVED THEM, not the ways their words and deeds have been bastardized
3) Are you willing to “circumcise the foreskin of your heart” so you can hear and know the ways to BE HUMAN
4) When will you ask yourself the question: What am I a slave to?
GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark