Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 5 Day 4
“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)
I am in absolute wonder as to the twists and turns that all of we the people make up to deny that our “deeds” cause the harm, the hurt, the ruin, the tensions that is happening in the world today, yesterday, every day! While there is, of course, no shortage of taking credit for our “ability to derive joy and to bestow it upon others”, if we like them, as beneficent lords, slave owners, power-hungry despots/autocrats! Yet, We the People have become so adept at ‘the spin’, so entrenched with ‘the media’ that “Fake News” is often thrown about when the truth is being told, that “I haven’t seen/read/heard that” when asked a question one doesn’t want to answer, that “accuse another of that which you are guilty of” when one’s ethics, morals, spirit of the law as well as letter is being confronted. While the people in power today seem to have learned these lessons of prior times, the ways of dealing with the “inhumanity towards man” has not! Delivery vehicles have changed and the basic “deeds” to wreck havoc, to harm the souls of a nation, a group, and an individual, to increase the tensions of another(s) while decreasing one’s own have not! This is, of course, the main thrust of the Bible-changing the “deeds” that We the People engage in.
What is so incredibly fascinatingly frustrating is “our ability” to continue to engage in the “deeds” that make us feel good by doing bad towards another! “I jewed down the Jew”, “I killed him in this deal”, “I left nothing on the table”, I squeezed every penny from him”, “I took no prisoners”, “I nailed him to the cross”, etc, etc! Yet, we the people, in our smallness, in our pettiness, in our enmity, take great pleasure in these “deeds”, to the ruin of another and to the ruin of our souls, our ethics, our inner life-all the while proclaiming our UNDYING LOVE for GOD, our ABSOLUTE LIVING THE BIBLE, and other such BULLSHIT!
It is WAY PAST TIME, that We the People stop living in the smallness of self-centered ego, in the pettiness of resentments, in the enmity of hating one’s neighbor instead of loving her/him! It is even WAY, WAY, PAST TIME for We the People to take our rightful place in God’s world, in today’s world and “become aware of what our life really is! We the People either live as partners with God in making the world a little better than when we found it or we the people continue to “get mine” and “fuck the rest of you”! While I am usually against either/or choices, sometimes they are the correct questions: Which are you, as a member of We the People or as a member of we the people going to choose? Which community are you joining: the community of people, believers or not, who practice the “deeds” that the Bible directs us to or to the community of people, ‘believers’ or not, who practice the “deeds” the Bible tells us NOT to do?
We the People are given the 248 “Thou will/should/must do” commandments precisely because it goes against the evil inclination, against our self-centered goals and ways. We the People are given the 365 “Thou must/will/should not do” precisely because they feed the false ego, the rational mindset of “where’s mine”, the lure of being the Pharaoh in our own story. Without TShuvah, without “lifting up our eyes and seeing”, without “hearing, listening, understanding” the cries of those who we harm, who are harmed by another, we the people will revel in our smallness, in our pettiness and continue to deceive ourselves into believing we are being “beneficent dictators”, buy into the mendacity being shoveled like shit at us that ‘this is for your own good’, “I am getting your retribution”, “This war is because I listened to my own opinion”, “the rich getting richer is good for the poor”, and other such lies! Hence, the Jewish belief that “TShuvah was put into the world before the world was created” and I add because God knew we would screw up and need a path back to Shalem, wholeness, to Ahava, love, to the Kahal, community. This is the power that Harriet and I and the staff at Beit T’Shuvah tapped into, being the camp outside the camp so people could return to community, to love, to wholeness.
ACTION STEPS:
Examine how many deeds today came from your mind/ego and the results they caused, internally, externally, materially, spiritually
Examine how deeds today came from your spirit, your soul, your intuitive mind and the results they caused, internally, externally, materially, spiritually
Write down the dialogue that goes on within your between the gift, ie your intuitive mind and the servant, ie the rational mind. Which wins more often
Choose which ‘voice’ you are going to follow tomorrow and recognize when you are not!
GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark