Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 5 Day 3
“It is in deeds that man becomes aware of what his life really is, of his power to harm and to hurt, to wreck and to ruin; of his ability to derive joy and to bestow it upon others; to relieve and increase his own and other people’s tensions.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 81-82)
Descartes says: “I think, therefore I am” and Judaism says: I am therefore I take action. While thinking is important and necessary, otherwise human beings would be like angels and animals, like robots, just doing what is programmed, it is not where we discover the truth about ourselves, about another(s), about life, about so many things-as I hear Rabbi Heschel this morning. A caveat to this truth, one has to do a daily T’Shuvah, a daily inventory so one can learn what one’s actions are saying-DUH!! This is where reflection, thinking is crucial to promote change, refinement, improvement. Yet, even though Rabbi Eliezer in the Talmud, Shabbat 153a, says: “Do TShuvah one day before you die and since none of us know the day of our death do it every day”, We the People-and I am speaking to Jews especially in this moment, DO NOT ENGAGE IN THIS PRACTICE TOO MUCH! Hence, hearing how many people are cheering at the death of innocent Iranians, innocent Palestinians, innocent Jews (this has been going on a long time) innocent Americans, innocent Blacks, Browns, Asians, etc seems to make perfect sense! If it isn’t us getting killed, discriminated against, hated, forced into slavery, then it is all good, right?!?
We the People are at another crossroads in our history, in our spiritual health, in our physical well-being, in our morality, in our emotional health and our intelligence in all realms of being. Watching the cruelty of carpet bombing, the horror of ICE ‘agents’ (many of them are said to have been pardoned for their Jan 6th crimes and found a ‘home’ with Noem) killing innocent Americans, arresting people for the color of their skin, people who are NOT WHITE being called “vermin” by the President of the United States, by Jews in his Cabinet, by Cubans in his cabinet, proves my point of very little TShuvah being done by the rich and powerful! The audacity of We the People to allow, to watch, to stand idly by the use of “power to harm and to hurt, to wreck and to ruin” is a disavowal of everything that 1776 stands for, everything the Bill of Rights guarantees, what our Constitution is supposed to stand for and these rich, powerful, ‘beautiful’ people are trampling it, are indifferent to the “wreck and ruin” they are bringing to We the People! I am enraged by the indifference, I am trembling at the world my grandson is growing up in, I am mourning the loss of Truth, the loss of dialogue between people with differing viewpoints, the loss of equal opportunity for all and a return to the “good old boys network”, keeping them “n——’s and kikes out of here” actions, bringing back the Jim Crow days, the ‘boy, I said so’ era, etc makes me want to SCREAM!!
Witnessing the joy that cruelty gives to Lutnick, Miller, Vance, Vought, Trump and his kids, to Kushner and his daddy, to Johnson, Jordan, and the rest of the Republicans in Congress is soul crushing, it causes fear of resistance for many of we the people and it is overwhelming many people by the vastness of the cruelty and the celebration of same! What is the difference between the joy of Trump at his cruelty, the glee of Bondi at her cruel and inhumane treatment of people, the happiness of Patel at firing the people responsible for combatting terrorism in the FBI, the celebration of Noem at the killings in Minnesota, AND the joy in Gaza after 9/11? When We the People do not do an inventory of our actions and/or when we do and see NOTHING WRONG with the cruelty, the missing the mark, the sinister theme of our actions, the “mine, first, last and always” attitude, we are denying the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s words above.
Having had to do the painful reflection, inventory of my errors soon after I had my spiritual awakening, my call from the Ineffable One, I know how difficult it is, how disgusting I felt upon seeing in black and white, the “harm and hurt” I caused. AND, it set me free in a way I had never been free-I came out of hiding and I have stayed out of hiding ever since. More on this tomorrow!
ACTION STEPS:
Do an inventory of your deeds each day
Analyze the goodness, the not good, the horrifying nature, and the excellence of your deeds this day
Make a plan to remedy the not good, the horrifying actions you took this day
Make a plan on how to enhance the goodness and the excellence of the deeds you accomplished today
Write a gratitude list in the morning and then after doing the above in the evening-grateful for knowing what is good and not good!
GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark