Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 5 Day 39
“Left alone, the soul is subject to caprice. Yet there is power in the deed that purifies desires. It is the act, life itself, that educates the will. The good motive comes into being while doing the good.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 94)
“Caprice”, an unaccountable sudden change of mind based on a whim, a feeling, is the condition that We the People are suffering from in this very moment. While everyone knew who Donald J. Trump was/is, it did not seem to matter to the majority of Americans who voted in 2024-granted Kamala was not a great candidate and Tim was an even worse pick- yet a majority of Americans decided to put a person who’s middle name and way of being screams “capriciousness” in charge and saving democracy has become the #1 goal for many of we the people even ones who voted for Trump. Rather than allow “the deed that purifies desires” to impact him, his buddies, the Republican party, all of these entities stay away from any “deed that purifies” and, instead, engage in all of the actions possible which support their avarice, their greed, their hunger for absolute power, up to and including going along with a ridiculous ‘war’ with Pope Leo, accusing the Pope-a boy from Chicago- of not understanding Christ’s words and “deeds”!! WTF PEOPLE?!!
Immersing myself in the words above, I realize the absolute truth of the 2nd sentence: “the power in the deed that purifies desires” applies to the “good deed” and to the “evil deed”. When evil is pursued through deeds, like Bibi and Donny (and their band of thieves, cronies, ass-kissers, cult followers) are doing-they derive more and more power and their motives, desires become stronger, purer, and this is the reason they sound so convincing-because they have put themselves through the purification process that says evil is actually good, denying the Truth is the way of Jesus, Moses, Christianity and Judaism throughout the millennia! I ask again: WTF People?!?@*%$
We the People are being called to account by the words above, by the moment we are living in. The question that I hear coming from the words above and from the Voice on Sinai is: Od Matai-until when will we the people refuse to do God’s wll, to do justly, love mercy, love the stranger, help the poor and the needy, proclam freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to be Holy…? We the People have to seek out the spiritual counselor that can speak directly to the soul within us. We the People have to do an accounting of our soul and list the capricious moments we engage in and heal the wounds that make it okay to violate our covenant with God, betray our neighbors, friends, family. We the People have to make a list of the “deed that purifies desires” and have caused us to do the next right thing and how to enhance these “deeds”.
It is not an easy transition from avarice and capriciousness to doing the next right thing, I know. It took a jail cell to wake me up, it took my 6 year-old daughter’s letter of hate and love to solidify what I knew all along was the right way to live. Ever since, for the past 39 years, I have been on this journey of doing and then understanding, of taking an education and learning the beauty and the ugliness of the actions I engage in, and my life has been a classroom wherein I keep learning more and more how to live, what being a partner with the ineffable one means, how to be the husband Harriet needs, the father Heather needs, the grandfather Miles needs, the brother my siblings need, the uncle my nieces and nephews need, the Rabbi, person my communities need. IT AIN’T EASY AND it is so much more rewarding that the WTF People?!?!! activities I used to engage in! As the Bible teaches us: King David could admit his errors and be repentant and forgiven, the people who left Egypt could bitch and moan AND they never turned back towards Egypt, Moses reminds us that: t”he word is in your mouth, in your heart”. We the People are never to far away to turn back, never so lost we can’t read the map, never too evil to do T’Shuvah and return! The key is: allow the “good” to adjust our motives, to allow the “good” to “educate our will” so God’s will becomes our will.
ACTION STEPS:
Make a list of the triggers for your capriciousness
Make a list of solutions to these triggers because they are not going away
Make a daily inventory of ways your “deeds” purify your evil desires and help you hide from the Truth
Make a daily inventory of your “deeds” that purify you good desires and help you live into Truth
Find and engage with a spiritual counselor, a spiritual friend in learning and educating your soul and your will to be in line with the divine.
GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark