Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 61

“Creation in the language of the Bible is an act of expression. God said: “Let there be”; and it was. Creation is not an act that happened once, but a continuous process. The work Yehi, “Let there be,” stands forever in the universe.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 144/5).

The first sentence above takes my breath away. I am sitting here, stunned by the impact of it. Creation is an act of expression is not just a biblical experience, rather I am understanding Rabbi Heschel’s words to explain to us the origin of the word creation, the truth of the meaning of the word creation, and, maybe, the recognition that, since we have the power to create from God, we need to realize what our creations are expressing. Immersing ourselves in this sentence, we could, and in my opinion, need to, review our creations and ask what do they say about us? 

What does our family life express about us? Are we raising a family that believes in creating good things to express the goodness, joy, hope and responsibility God has imbued us with? Are we raising a family that creates good things only for themselves to express scarcity, fear, prejudice, controlling, etc that God has given us the free-will to choose to do? Am I as an individual creating things that help another, hurt another, control another, free another? In a ‘cancel culture’; ‘micro-aggression’; ‘fear of losing control’ society, what are the ways we have created expressing about ourselves? In a ‘white society rule’; a ‘power for the sake of self’;’the one with the gold rules’ society, what have we expressed through our actions? 

Rabbi Heschel’s teaching here, hopefully, causes us to take a pause and ask ourselves what do our actions/creations express about ourselves. What does it mean to create goodness? Do I have to do everything altruistically to create goodness/good things? Can I make a profit, even get rich from doing good? Of course! Most people who make money, become famous, etc from what they create/their actions are decent hard-working, kind, caring people who look to make their community better and are responsible to and for their community. Of course there are a few bad apples who use their money to create chaos, create mendacity, create wars, create obstructionist policies/ways to stop progress and/or another person’s creation. Yes, we focus on these bad apples more than on all the good, giving them power to create more chaos, more destruction, more mendacity and more obstructions to our own creations. 

It is time for us to immerse ourselves in this first sentence above. It is time for us to stop the negative self-talk that obstructs our creative nature and creative/problem solving ways of experiencing life! We create many barriers for our own selves, for our own creative expression through our negative self-talk, through our self-deceptions, through listening to the nay-sayers around us. We create more chaos and doubt, we create sadness and despair, we create self-defeat and self-loathing when we allow our negative self-talk to ‘win the day’. 

We have the tools, the power, the assistance and the spirit to overcome our negative self-talk. We can use all of these to truly fulfill the Divine need we are created for, the song/niggun of our soul, the gifts we bring to the world in order to make it one grain of sand better. To do this, however, we have to look at what our actions/creations have expressed and ask ourselves what do we need to repair/recreate from these expressions. Once we do this, we are able to continue our study of our inner life, through texts and individual spiritual counseling, and discover the song of our soul and create new actions to express this melody, this song. It will not happen in a day, week, year and we have to constantly check in with our soul because the song changes, once our creation can stand on its own, needs to stand on its own, it may be time for us to sing the next song God is giving us! 

In recovery, we are blessed to clear out the negativity we have lived from and lived in. We leave this negativity, not completely and enough that it no longer controls/rules us, in order to create anew, to hear the true song of our soul, to act in ways that express the love, kindness, truth, justice, etc. that God has imbued us with. In recovery, we are acutely aware of how our actions and creations are acts of expression and we are much more careful as to what our acts of expression are. 

I have been a creator of good and of negativity throughout my entire life. I look back and see that I have made errors, I have allowed my own negative self-talk to create negativity and I am sad, remorseful and ask for forgiveness from the people I have harmed that I know about. I also realize that I have been deaf to the new song(s) God has given me because I was too busy, too needy, too scared to leave the old one. I also know that I have helped to create an amazing place, an amazing community, Beit T’Shuvah and I am grateful that it expresses/expressed my deep belief in the power of T’Shuvah, the power of return, the power of God’s love, the power of Truth, the power of community, the power of belonging, the power of creativity and seeing each person as different, worthy and healable. I know I created a space of caring and concern for another human being. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel 

Day 60

“Divine concern means His taking interest in the fate of man; it means that the moral and spiritual state of man engages His attention. It is true that His concern, is to most of us, one of the most baffling mysteries, but it is just as true that to those whose life is open to God His care and love are a constant experience.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 144)

On this Thanksgiving Day, after parsing this paragraph in sentences, seeing it as a whole and in its wonder causes me to pause in awe, gratitude and humility. Divine concern is for and towards everyone. No one has more nor less Divine concern paid to them because of race, color, religion, practice, etc. No has more nor less Divine concern paid to them because of the way they ‘understand’, pay heed to or ignore, connect to or reject God/the Ineffable One. Divine concern is, period!! We all need to get off of our ‘high horse’ and recognize this truth, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel, and live in awe and respect rather than disdain and ‘better than’. 

I am thinking about the people I disagree with, the ones I call charlatans, they have as much concern paid to them by the Divine as I have paid to me. This equality causes me/we to reach out, to “rebuke my neighbor and bear no guilt because of them”. Yet, I know that no one can stand on the mountain top and say: “I know all and I am the one God loves more than anyone else”. I know that no one can preach loudly that: “I know God’s intent, God’s Will”. I know that God speaks to us both through our Holy texts and listening to the call of our soul/inner life. I know that God is calling to us to ‘do the next right thing’, find ways to connect, be a Divine reminder as Rabbi Heschel teaches, be interested in the concerns of another human being as deeply and dearly as one is interested in the concerns of ourselves.  

Think of all the ways we separate ourselves from each other. “God loves me better because I am ____(fill-in the blank) is a popular refrain among some religious people, because they believe a fundamentalist/non-fundamentalist way of being is what God has ordained. Yet, we are being told that this is not true by Rabbi Heschel; what is true is that every human being is a concern and an interest to and of God. What an awesome and trembling concept this is, in fact, I believe only through wonder and radical amazement can we apprehend this idea. God’s concern and interest do not give us entitlement, do not give us special status, do not give us  the right to say: ‘everyone else has to follow our dictates’. God’s concern and interest give us the opportunity to serve and protect ourselves and another(s) from immoral actions, gives us the responsibility to be inclusive, gives us the obligation to care for and build one another up, rather than tear each other down. God’s concern and interest in us calls us to partner with one another to make this world more whole, more connected, more kinder, more loving, more compassionate, more truthful. 

Yet, we still are trying to be the “ONE” and only that God is really interested in and concerned about. We are still excluding people because they don’t ‘practice’ the way we do, etc. We exclude people from country clubs because of the money charged to be a member, by the blackballing system that is used. We exclude people from getting an  equal education because of the cost of a private school, because we don’t provide quality public education anymore, not enough books, telling what can be taught, some people want to go back to burning books, etc. We exclude people because of race, because of creed, because of religious beliefs and/or non-beliefs, because of their family history, because they have made mistakes in the past and, even though they have done their T’Shuvah/their amends, we still exclude them from jobs, from housing, from our group, etc. Exclusion denies the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above and it is time to rethink our actions. 

In recovery, we know we will differ about the meanings of the spiritual texts we read, we know we will differ over ideas and ways of living well. AND we also know that our unity is so important to our recovery, we know that we do not have all the answers and are in search of the right questions as well. We know that separation leads to isolation and isolation leads to living poorly again. In recovery, we are dedicated to the whole, to the we so that the me can truly flourish. 

I have been excluded from many groups because I don’t meditate, I don’t do this, I don’t do that, etc. I have been used and abused because of my natural way of being, passionate, interested, concerned and loud, abrasive, transparent and committed. Re-reading this paragraph has helped me understand me, better. I am deeply concerned and interested in the well-being of another human being. I am constantly motivated by God’s love and care for me to reach out and help another human being, hence how Harriet and I, along with a cast of 100’s, built Beit T’Shuvah. I realize that my way is not for everyone, just as another person’s way isn’t always for me, and this teaching is giving me more compassion for another person’s way when it is authentic and it is in keeping with God’s interest, concern, love and care for humanity. I cannot and will not abide with people who are only interested in, concerned for, care for and love themselves and “their people” to the exclusion of everyone/anyone else. This behavior will always engender my passionate (some say angry) response. God Bless and stay safe, Happy Thanksgiving, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 59

“It is true that His concern, is to most of us, one of the most baffling mysteries, but it is just as true that to those whose life is open to God His care and love are a constant experience.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 144)

This is the end of yesterday’s quote and again, Rabbi Heschel’s poetry and prose, wisdom and insight pierce the armor many of us have put around our souls and hearts to protect ourselves from hurt. Yet, as I hear and understand Rabbi Heschel’s words, this protection from hurt closes us off to and from God, from care and love from the Ineffable One and from another human being(s). Herein lies the conflict for many of us, if we are vulnerable and open,  we will be hurt by many/some people;  we will find our souls hurt deeply by people we open up to and trust, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes intentionally;  we will have our hearts broken by the love and care we give to another(s) and find we have been “used” and were not aware of the transactional nature of the relationship; all of these will happen and all of these experiences are real and hurtful. Yet, Rabbi Heschel’s words are teaching us/reminding us that God’s love and care, God’s concern and passion for our spiritual and moral state of being, are the one constant we can relay upon. 

Wow, as I write these words I am immediately aware of how some people will read these words. The Greco-Roman society use god as a tool for power, as a proof of the appointment of the current leaders because they are stronger, wilier, slicker, etc. They are not leaders because of the high moral and spiritual stature nor ideals/beliefs; they are leaders because they could defeat their predecessors in war, politics, using hatred, lies, deception, etc to win at any and all costs. While this is a path that some people still choose, as they have over the millennia, Rabbi Heschel is again calling for us to have true faith, not faith that is contingent upon the outcome, rather faith/belief in the experiences of our living: God cares, God loves, God is concerned with each and every one of us. 

This is such a chilling thought and an exhilarating experience! While there are charlatans who use this teaching to promote their own agendas rather than God’s or another soul’s, we “whose life is open to God” know the joy of God’s embrace, the warmth of God’s concern, the spiritual uplift of God’s love. The fact that God’s concern is, “one of the most baffling mysteries” doesn’t stop us from experiencing it! In fact, I am hearing Rabbi Heschel teach us to stop trying to figure out the mystery and be present in the experience. Every time someone asks ‘how are you’ we can experience God’s concern, every time we ask someone ‘how are you’ we are expressing God’s concern! In this experience, we no longer just say it as a throw away line, we take the time and intention to respond truthfully and ask earnestly. How can we be recipients of God’s love, care and concern and not share it with another? This is the Greco-Roman way, not the way of people of faith and who truly worship the Ineffable One. 

While some people say God doesn’t care, Rabbi Heschel’s words confront that faulty thinking. Some of the people who say God doesn’t care finish the sentence with ‘that is why we must’. I am hearing and knowing the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s words above: God cares so we must care, God loves so we must love, God is concerned with our spiritual and moral well-being so we must be concerned with our spiritual and moral well-being as well as the well-being of our family, friends, community, world! 

In recovery, we know this embrace and we are lost without it. We know that God had been trying to get our attention for a while and brought us to recovery through the love, care and concern of another human being. While very few of us hear God’s call directly from the mountain, all of us hear God’s call through another person. In AA that person is called our eskimo, the one who guides us to our recovery even when we are not happy about it nor with them! In recovery, we have the experience of God’s love, care, concern each and every day and we continue to improve our conscious contact with God so as to be enwrapped in this experience more and deeper each day. 

I know that I am embraced by God’s love, care and concern and I know there are times when I forget this truth, by falling into extreme sadness that borders on despair. I have come to realize today that despair is a rejection of God’s love, care and concern while sadness is not. Sadness over the people who have been more Greco-Roman than faithful to a covenant is appropriate, making them bad, wrong, and me a victim is not appropriate and I am guilty of both. I know how blessed I am and I rejoice in my blessings: my daughter, my grandson, my family, my extended family, my friends, my community, my gifts, my recovery, my amazing and adorable wife, and on and on. Knowing I am blessed forces me to confront the times I feel bad because I am not feeling God’s care and love and see the ways I deceive myself into believing this lie- I am always able to experience God’s care, love and concern because it is always here for me and for you! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 58

“Divine Concern means His taking interest in the fate of man; it means that the moral and spiritual state of man engages His attention.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 144).

The more I am living with Rabbi Heschel, the more his brilliance and depth, poetry and prose permeates my soul, my heart and my intellect. Today’s continuation of his writing from the chapter called The Divine Concern, moves me to tears, to fears, to awe, to trembling and to love and embrace. God is taking an interest in the fate of man, God cares! While there are some who believe there is no God so this is just poppycock, there are others who believe God left the building and it is up to us, and, there are people like me who believe God is here, God continues to speak to us, call to us, and we get to respond to God’s call. Unfortunately, not too many of us are truly responding to God’s call in a positive manner, in an affirmative manner, hence the need for God to “take an interest in the fate of man.” The Torah is a story about God and humanity, how we began our relationship, the ways to treat/love God, love another(s) human beings, love ourselves. In Genesis, God saying: “it is not good from human to be alone” proves how interested God is in the fate of humanity. Yet, we are not as interested in our own fate as God is and therein lies the challenge, the problem and the solution. 

The challenge, problem and solution the sentence by Rabbi Heschel is what moves me to tears and fears. I am fearful in the healthiest sense of me not hearing God’s call and not paying attention to God’s path and direct communication with me through my soul’s intuition, etc. I am fearful of the path humanity is taking in hearing the call of our desires, our greed, our need for power louder than God’s call for morality and decency. I am so sad in the moments of reflection when I realize how I did not care as much about my fate as God does, I did not engage my moral and spiritual status as much as God was engaging in it. I am moved to tears and wailing, not as “poor me”, not as “ a victim” rather as a lover who missed the call of his loved one. 

The challenge of living by taking the same interest in our fate, in our moral and spiritual state, by engaging our attention to these matters as God does is enormous and seemingly impossible. We are overcome with our desires rather than our fate, we move any and every mountain in front of us to satisfy these desires, whether they are appropriate, healthy, unhealthy, kind, evil, truthful or deceptions. In doing this, we lose sight of the morality of our actions, of our moral compass being moved towards self, entitlement, status, etc., which goes against the hope/direction of God as to what our fate is. God cannot control the choices we make without our agreement and our participation. We are not ‘fated’ by God, we are given certain traits, certain gifts and these are to be used by us to fulfill the Divine Need we are tasked with, according to Rabbi Heschel, and God cannot make us do things, we have to be decent and moral from our own choice. 

This truth, that God doesn’t choose our fate, we do is what makes possible T’Shuvah, redemption, ‘rags to riches’ stories, etc. This truth is antithetical to the words of the charlatans who preach and pray about poor people not being loved by God as much as rich people, etc. As Rabbi Heschel said yesterday: “The God of Israel is passionately interested in widows and orphans”. This is not the description of the idol these charlatans worship. I am in trembling and awe of this truth. I tremble with healthy fear, with an infusion of spirit and energy as well as questioning my resolve and ability to fulfill this awesome responsibility God has placed on me/us. We have to choose our water, our fate is the result of our choices. When we are as interested in our spiritual and moral state as God is, when we pay as much attention to our spiritual and moral state as God does, we will enjoy life, with all its hardships. We will see life as an opportunity for connection, a journey of service and love, awe and joy. This is the challenge I am hearing Rabbi Heschel give us. 

In recovery, until we realized the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s words above, we were unable to be in recovery. We were stuck in ‘fate’, entitlement, poor me, victim, where’s mine, etc. We kept defending bad behavior, our unhealthy way of living, our soul’s sickness as neither our fault nor anything we could fix. For many, we blamed God or, as my mother used to do, call out to God wondering what we did to deserve this fate. In recovery, realizing our responsibility in our fate, in our spiritual and moral states, in the help God sends to us through our spirits/souls, we now enjoy a different experience, a different fate. 

I experience these words and the actions of God and another(s) as love and embracing me as a whole person. Engaged in my spiritual and moral state, interested in the authentic, real, me is the greatest expression of love there is-it is Godly love. I am so grateful for those who show this love to me daily, weekly, whenever. I realize my addiction, my criminality was my way of escaping the loss of this love when my father died. I realize my worst behaviors appear when the person/people I am dealing with speak the words of this love while their actions are so different. I am also realizing from this teaching, I have to stop seeking this love from another and relish, appreciate and reciprocate this love that I am getting from those around me. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel- a daily path of living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 57

“Zeus is passionately interested in pretty female deities and becomes inflamed with rage against those who incite his jealousy. The God of Israel is passionately interested in widows and orphans.” (Man is Not Alone pg. 144).

Rabbi Heschel is speaking to us in a very subtle, yet powerful manner. He is not condemning passion at all, he is not even, as I read these sentences, condemning rage, he is condemning jealousy, sexual immorality and power for the sake of power, I believe. In the Greco-Roman way of living, which is predominant in our world today, ‘if I can get something, then it is mine, it was meant to be mine, I deserve it’ mindset is predominant. We are intensely jealous and angry at what we don’t have, what we don’t get and ‘where’s mine’ is a constant refrain. It is a personal rage, it is a personal jealousy, it is a personal conquest, it is a personal power over another human being/over many human beings that is our goal and focus. Greco-Roman society sees nothing wrong with using power for their own ends, to serve themselves and their cronies. We have seen this throughout the millennia, we see this today in the ways we have become more polarized than at any time in my lifetime. 

Living in the ways of the “God of Israel”, ie, God of all people, also calls for passion, jealousy and anger. We see this in the Torah, in the Prophets, in the words of the Psalmist, etc. The difference, however, is for whom/what we are passionate, jealous and angry. Herein lies the crux of our struggle to be human. 

The prophets railed against the ‘sins’ of the people of Israel and Judah. They spoke of God’s anger, rage, and jealousy towards the peoples because of their adultery, their uncaring, their selfishness, their misuse of their power. Torah, the Prophets, the Psalmists, all knew that we are born with these traits and, as Rabbi Steinsaltz teaches, we have the ability to use them in proper measure for their intended purposes and we have the power to use them out of proper measure, for our selfish purposes. When we do the latter, we create more evil, we create more hardship, we create a world that God did not envision for us. 

The anger, power and jealousy of God and of the Prophets, the Psalmist, the Torah is focused on the ways we care for only ourselves, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel today. “The God of Israel is passionately interested in widows and orphans” is a testimony to the belief that the weakest, most disenfranchised people must be cared for and, as Father Greg Boyle says, we need to erase the margins and practice “radical kinship”. Yet, for too long, we have been concerned with our self, those who are in our ‘club’, we have made it a practice to ‘go along to get along’ even when we know one of ours is in the wrong-we will defend them rather than rebuke them.

The prophets, the psalmist, the Torah all call for us to stand up for God, for what is right, for what is just, for what is decent, kind, caring, loving and truthful. Yet, there are times when all of us fail in this task. And we are expected to fail because we are not perfect. In the Greco-Roman society, we will lie, explain and cover-up our imperfections; in a society that follows God, that is indeed a spiritual society, we do T’Shuvah/Amends for our imperfections. In a God-centered society where truth, love, kindness, justice, decency, caring is at it’s core, we know we can grow one grain of sand better each day,  we know we are not afraid to be confronted on our errors and/or confront ourselves on our errors because to do so is a great statement of faith. In this way of being, a spiritual way of being, we are aware that to be confronted/rebuked takes a great deal of faith in us that we were just unaware of what we were doing and we can live more just, truthful, loving, kindly and decently. This is the power of the anger, jealousy and passion of God, the Prophets, the Psalmist, the Torah as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel’s teaching today. 

In recovery, we switch our passions from those of the Greco-Roman society to those of a God-centered/spiritual society. We move from needing to be in power, needing to be right, needing to conquer all and be King/Queen of the mountain to using our innate power wisely, knowing when we are right and when we are not, leading when and where appropriate and following when and where appropriate, being with people even as leaders, we do not separate ourselves from the community. In recovery, we know that we have to be as passionate for good, for true connection, for justice as we were for the Greco-Roman ways. 

I stand before you, as I said yesterday, guilty on all charges of the indictment Rabbi Heschel is bringing. And, I am not as guilty today as I was last week, last month, last year. Rabbi Heschel is not expecting us to be God, just to emulate God’s ways and the progress I make, while seemingly small and insignificant, is incremental and growing. At times I revert back to the Greeks, I am sorry to say, and I don’t stay there, which is a good thing. I am hearing God’s passion for me and you when we are the widows and orphans, when we are unable to care for our true self. I am grateful that God, family and friends do when I can’t. The ultimate of “God doing for me what I can’t do for myself. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel- a daily path to living well

  Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

  Day 56

“Zeus is passionately interested in pretty female deities and becomes inflamed with rage against those who incite his jealousy. The God of Israel is passionately interested in widows and orphans.” (Man is Not Alone pg. 144).

Continuing his thoughts about the Divine Concern and comparing them to the Greco-Roman system, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us what it means to be human, what it means to be a person of faith, and what it means to truly serve God in these words. 

Zeus and Greco-Roman culture, when these mythologies were written and up to today is passionately interested in things, in beauty, in one-upping each other and being jealous of another(s). We see this in their stories and we see this in our culture. To make the cover of magazines, one has to be one of the “beautiful” people, either in looks, status, and or economic/celebrity fame. We are a society that is intent on having the “perfect” body, house, job, bank account, cool-factor, etc. We are a society that feels bad/shame when someone else succeeds and, whether we are successful or not, feels jealous rage at the good fortune of another. 

This jealous rage comes out in so many different ways and it is seen in business, religious institutions, politics, academia, and even in personal relationships. In my years as a Rabbi, I have found people suffering from this comparing and competing way of living and it brings them self-loathing, disconnection, despair, depression, and anxiety as well as physical ailments, addictive behaviors/disorders and ruined interpersonal relationships. We see this in the political sphere with all of the vicious polarizing hate speech and disdain our political leaders speak to one another with. We see this in the rallies calling for harm to be brought to people of color, immigrants, Jews, Muslims, anyone who isn’t “us”. We see this jealous rage in the ways that business’ compete with each other, they use the language of war when speaking about their competitors. We see this in the way we speak about a person whom we know, or don’t know, belittling their achievements as “lucky”. We see this jealous rage come out in the ways people manipulate one another through mendacity, deception and fear. 

Passion for sex, for conquest, for jealousy, for ‘being #1, is a hallmark of Greco-Roman society, I believe. In this passion, there are no rules except winning. There are no ‘unfair’ ways to win. As a thief, my associates and I used to say, “if I can take it then it is supposed to belong to me”. The self-deception used by us and by many so-called “legitimate” people is huge and we engage in it so we can assuage ourselves while doing what is wrong, immoral. 

Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that God/Higher Power/Force of the Cosmos/the Ineffable One is concerned with those most at risk of being taken advantage of. The Biblical path, unlike the Greco-Roman path, is to end the rivalries, end the jealousy, end the rage, end the mendacity and the self-deception. It is to raise up and protect those most vulnerable, those most at risk, because without doing this, we cannot really serve God, we cannot raise up humanity and we cannot Be human. This distinction that Rabbi Heschel is drawing is so powerful. He wrote these words 70 years ago, at a time that Americans like to think of as “the good old days” and for him to write these words and give us those teachings, he must have seen how the inside was rotting while the outside was working hard to polish itself. 

We are still hard at work polishing the outside and the inside of society and of individuals are rotting and stinking like old fish. Yet, we persist in using wax to see ourselves as good while the most vulnerable are dying, suffering and pleading for help. My religious colleagues who are willing to decry “the other”, make the vulnerable guilty of anything so we can shirk our God-ordained responsibility towards them, claim they are in this place because God doesn’t love them so much, are deceivers, liars, snake-oil salespeople and part of the Greco-Roman system while proclaiming their allegiance to God. They are idol-worshipers of the worst kind. We have the power to stop their message by letting go of our need to be deceived, letting go of our own self-deceptions and serving God’s passions and interests instead of our own or the ones we buy into. 

In recovery, we know what it is like to be at-risk and vulnerable, we are everyday. We know we are at risk each and everyday of falling back into old habits and paths. We know we are vulnerable to our self-deceptions and the deceptions of another. We know what it is to be a “widow/orphan” because we were without connections and without community by our own choices. Each day we commit anew to living in recovery and letting go of our old ideas. 

I have fallen prey to my jealousies and ‘why don’t they see me’ voices in my recovery. I am not proud of this fact and it is a fact. I know that my jealousy stemmed from my own lack of awareness of who I was/am and what I brought/bring to the table. I have overcome these jealousies through a lot of inner work, given who and how I am-there was not a false polish I could use to fool people. Most of all, I stopped fooling myself. I do not wish anyone harm, I have joy for the success’ of people I know and those I don’t. I am no longer engaging in this Greco-Roman path, I am continuing and improving my dedication to God’s interests and passions. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from rabbi Heschel - a daily path for living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 55

“The Bible tells us nothing about God in Himself; all its sayings refer to His relations to man…We hear of no reflexive concern, of no passions, except a passion for justice. The only events in the life of God the Bible know are acts done for the sake of man: acts of creation, acts of redemption (from Ur, from Egypt, from Babylon) or acts of revelation.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 143/4)

Rabbi Heschel’s words stir up a frustration and a sense of love for me today. In our Greco-Roman brain and way of being, we want to understand everything about God, we want to know the inner workings of God, of the universe, of life. We want to know this in order to have control. In the Greco-Roman path of living, knowledge is for control, for power, for security. We see this over and over again throughout history and today. If we can know how something works, we can manipulate it for our benefit, we can use it to gain ‘a leg up’. Rabbi Heschel is frustrating this endeavor with his wisdom and truth that we do not, nor can we ever, truly understand God in order to manipulate God. 

Some spiritual leaders and their followers claim to know God and understand God, they claim to understand the ONE WAY to God. This claim on it’s face is ridiculous as they are absolutely sure of what God wants and use a text, the Bible, which can be and, according to the Jewish Tradition, must be interpreted 70 different ways. Yet, these power-seeking, text manipulating, charlatans continue to misinterpret the words and the concerns of God for their own purposes. While they claim to love God, they actually are loving themselves and their patrons. To have some understanding of God, of how to live life well, we have to turn to Rabbi Harold Shulweis’ theology, I believe. Rabbi Shulweis, z”l,  taught us to act Godly, to live Godliness. I am hearing this way of being in Rabbi Heschel’s words above. 

Rabbi Heschel is reminding us to have a passion for justice, true justice, righteous justice. Throughout the Bible, God’s passion for justice comes through over and over again, yet we are still tainting justice to our way of thinking, we still use justice to ‘get our way’. We see this in the courts, we see this in elections, we see this in the way business’ deny any wrongdoing and pay a fine for the opioid crisis that killed 100,000 people in 12 months! Where are the people who claim to know God when someone is unjustly accused because of the color of their skin? Rabbi Heschel’s involvement in Civil Rights came, I believe, from his passion for God and, hence, his passion for justice for all. 

God acts for the sake of humanity is how I am reading Rabbi Heschel today. God teaches us how to be creative and that we must further the creation God began as well as continue to use our skills, our talents, our souls to create anew and different to better our lives and the lives of those around us. We create anew because today is new, the situations we face, while seemingly very old, are new and different today because we are different, the day is different, and our experience has taught us what does and doesn’t work. 

God has revealed to us what actions we have to take in order to live well and to live together. We have to stop murdering the souls of another human being with our prejudices and need to control. We have to stop committing adultery towards God and the people we care about and serve with our self-deceptions and the deceiving of them. We have to stop stealing from those less fortunate and from each other using the “buyer beware” attitude and instead making “the seller must disclose” attitude our mantra. We have to stop bearing false witness against each other in order to have power, prestige, control and more money. We have to stop coveting what another person has and instead be happy with what we have while growing ourselves, our spirits and our world. These and so many more are what has been revealed to us through the Bible, throughout history, yet we continue to ignore these truths because of our “eye disease” of prejudice which causes a “cancer of the soul”. 

In recovery, we are constantly seeking to follow God’s revelations and we are acutely aware of God’s redemption of us. We are grateful everyday for our redemption and God’s love and care for us. We also know how insidious it is to revert back to Greco-Roman thinking by believing we know God’s will. In recovery, we are constantly turning our will over to God, knowing this is the only way to combat our self-centeredness and be human. 

I have been redeemed more times than I am even aware of. In writing today, I am acutely aware of the many times I have been redeemed and, how often, I have taken redemption as an exemption. In my recovery I have done this as well. I am blessed with the knowledge of God’s intervention and I have to see the redemptive spirit in every experience of my living. I am struck today with the knowledge that my experiences have within them a redemptive quality and my job is to find what I am being redeemed from and pointed towards. I am understanding Rabbi Heschel’s call to all of us to be aware of and engaged in the acts of creation, the redemptions we have to see and participate in and to “lift up our eyes and see”! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily guide to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 54

“In mythology the deities are thought of as self-seeking, as concerned with their own selves…The Bible tells us nothing about God in Himself; all its sayings refer to His relations to man…We hear of no reflexive concern, of no passions, except a passion for justice. The only events in the life of God the Bible know are acts done for the sake of man: acts of creation, acts of redemption (from Ur, from Egypt, from Babylon) or acts of revelation.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 143/4).

Greco-Roman society is built upon the foundation of self-seeking, immorality and stealing, and deception. I make this bold statement because the ‘religion’ they followed, the gods they worshiped were proud of these ways of being. Sacrificing a virgin to Zeus was nothing because the gods took mortal women/girls for themselves all the time, according to the some of the stories. Is it any wonder that our society is so ravaged by deception, immorality, self-seeking and theft? 

Even though Rome and Athens were conquered and destroyed at least in part, their legacy and their way of being survived. We see it throughout history, we see self-seeking and deception even in the leaders who called themselves part of The Holy Roman Empire. They did not care about the people who did not bow down to them and their religion, to their ways as the only ways, etc. They were monarchs who were not benevolent, were concerned with how much tribute, monetary and in words, was paid to them. They would turn on trusted advisors and servants in the name of Christ, even though Christ taught love, tolerance and community. Up to and including today, some people in power have to validate themselves by bastardizing Christ, Adonai, Allah, Confucius, Buddha, etc. We see this in the “prosperity gospel” beliefs that God loves the rich more than the poor, God loves the winners more than the losers, etc. This is one of the subtle ways Greco-Roman society corrupted even Constantinople’s defeat of Rome and has wormed its way into the highest seats of government and religious life in some cases. 

Yet, people of faith, authentic faith, faith in God, people who immerse themselves in the Bible and experience God and themselves in every chapter of it, are not fooled by the masks of Greco-Roman society, by the subtle calls of deception, adultery, theft, immorality that is constantly calling to us. Yes, we succumb at times for a moment, we just recognize our seduction quicker and leave it as soon as we realize it. God and faith are not to satisfy any deity/ruler’s  ego or passions or concerns, as Rabbi Heschel teaches us above. NO! God and faith are hear to remind us that God puts God-self 2nd to justice, 2nd to acts of creation, 2nd to acts of redemption and 2nd to acts of revelation. By 2nd, I mean that God is not as interested in being worshiped with blind faith and/or in some rote manner, God is more interested in meeting the needs of humanity than meeting God’s own needs. God wants to further the human experience, show us paths to lift ourselves and another(s) up from any doldrums, depression, despair, to heights we cannot even fathom. God puts God’s self aside to raise up the self of each and every human being. 

How do we repay God for all our bounty, asks the Psalmist? We don’t and we can’t, we can only “pay it forward”.  We get to “pay it forward” to God by raising ourselves up from the Greco-Roman societal way of living. We get to “pay it forward” by being passionate for justice for everyone, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, etc. We get to “pay it forward by forgoing our inclination to betray another in order to promote oneself. We get to “pay it forward” by reaching back into the abyss and bringing another human being out of the darkness and deception, washing them and giving them a clean, fresh start. We get to “pay it forward” by living an authentic life that is based in justice, love, truth, kindness, etc. We get to “pay it forward” by living in the “sublime wonder” of life and giving love to oneself and to all humanity, to name a few ways of ‘repayment’. 

In recovery, we know how important it is to “pay it forward” because there is just no adequate repayment for everything we have received from God, from people close to us, from the universe, In recovery, we know that reaching out, being available to connect with another human being in sadness and joy, in light and dark is the real sign of our repayment to God and our statement of leaving the Greco-Roman societal norms.

I have a passion for justice that was given to me by God and by my ancestors, parents, etc. For 20+years I ignored it, went against it, and believed in the Greco-Roman way of being. I crashed and burned because, ultimately, it just wasn’t my way of being. I have in these 33 years of recovery, had my passion for justice, my concern for humanity, my love and connection for my soul and the souls of all I meet rekindled, the pilot light was given fuel and the gas flows full strength now. Of course, the passion gets too much at times, the flame gets too hot and people, including me suffer-for this I am sorry. I am not, however, sorry for the passion. As I read Rabbi Heschel today, I am glad to be passionate for justice, I am honored to be able to participate in acts of creation, I am humbled by the revelations I receive and able to live because of the many times God has redeemed me. I heard God calling to me 35 years ago in a jail cell and I have been blessed to continue to hear and serve God’s passions, God’s love and God’s purpose for me. Stay Safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark 

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel- a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 53

According to Cicero:”The gods are careful about great things and neglect small ones.” (De Natura Deorum. Book ii ch.66, 167). According to the prophets of Israel, from Moses to Malachi, God is concerned with small matters. What the prophets tried to convey to man was not a conception of an eternal harmony, of an unchangeable rhythm of wisdom, but the perception of God’s concern with concrete situations. Disclosing the pattern of history, in which the human is interwoven with the divine, they breathed a divine earnestness into the world of man. In mythology the deities are thought of as self-seeking, as concerned with their own selves.” (Man is Not Alone pg. 143). 

Continuing yesterday’s theme of Greco-Roman society and Jewish/faith society, we can see how in God’s world, in a faith society, humanity and the divine are “interwoven” not separate as they are in the Greco-Roman society. I am understanding Rabbi Heschel to be reminding us that nothing is separate from the divine, not even evil I would add, and in the Greco-Roman society, everything is separate from the gods except when they want to ‘mess’ with the women, the men, the world itself. 

Greco-Roman mythology was, I believe, a description of how the society was being run with ‘gods’ as a metaphor for the ruling class at the time. It was/is a literary device to condemn what the rulers were doing without calling undo notice and death to the authors. I believe this mythology was/could have been, in actuality, a protest gatherings, a march against what was happening in the seat of power and it became an accepted way of ‘religious behavior’ when the powers that be co-opted the writing. Today and throughout history we have seen how people have co-opted good for their own purposes, we have seen how people have pointed to the Greco-Roman society as one of progress and innovation, of perfection and beauty, to be envied, admired, copied and continued. Hence, the reasons, in my opinion, for the problems of today: greed, bastardization, authoritarianism, power-seeking, finding scapegoats and inability to put the interests of another(s) ahead of personal ones, etc. 

I hear Rabbi Heschel’s words here as a condemnation of what is happening today and what was happening at the time he wrote this some 70 years ago. In the shadow of the Shoah, in the shadow of Nazi Germany and Europe of the 1930’s, in the light of what was going on in the world at the time of his writing; Korea, the Rosenberg sham trial, the senseless hatred between Jews, the discrimination towards Jews and Blacks, etc; I hear Rabbi Heschel’s condemnation of these travesties of justice, travesties of spirit and the myriad of ways we were/are turning our backs on the Ineffable One. While the subtitle of Man is Not Alone is “A Philosophy of Religion”, I am experiencing it as a call to action to redeem our humanity and our connection to the Ineffable One, to our communal responsibility and to justice, kindness, compassion, care, truth and love. 

In an authentic faith community, in Judaism, as I read Rabbi Heschel today; we are drawn away from the selfish and self-seeking because we are “interwoven with the divine”. I am taking this to mean that the divine energy is within us, the call for and to justice is within us, the need to be part of something greater than our smallness is within us, the need to love unconditionally is within us, the need to receive love is within us. I am reminded of what the S’fat Emet, a famous Hasidic Rebbe says about the commandments, each one is hear to unlock all of what is within us interwoven with divine service so these energies can uplift our self, our neighbor and our world. There is nothing selfish/self-centered/self-seeking about living life “interwoven with the divine”. 

In recovery, we are imbued with a “divine earnestness”, we know that without being aware of this ‘fact’, we will sink into the abyss that we were in prior to our recovery, the absolute demoralization, depression, anxiety ridden state where escape is the only option or so it seems while we are in the above states. In recovery, our “divine earnestness” is the oxygen mask we put on and wear throughout the day, realizing when we take this ‘mask’ off, we are susceptible to old ideas, patterns and this is the road to living hell. 

Hearing, experiencing, reading and writing today is liberating and guilt-producing. I am guilty of some of the ways of being I mentioned about Greco-Roman living. Realizing this and knowing this allows me to change, it also reminds me of the subtleness of the Greco-Roman societal ways. I am so sorry for the times, granted much fewer as my recovery has progressed than prior to my recovery, when I fell into the societal trap of Greco-Roman ways. I am at a newfound liberty/freedom in experiencing Rabbi Heschel and in experiencing life. Looking at events through this lens, Greco-Roman vis a vis divine concern, I realize most harms and hurts are not as personal as I usually take them, they are actually societal norms and people are not even aware of the harm they are bringing. This is true personally and globally, it is easier to let go of and not harbor any resentments when I realize, it wasn’t personal and the person was just going along. It saddens me more to realize how much people conform to conventional Greco-Roman ‘wisdom’ and sad is better than mad/resentful. I am liberated and freer because Rabbi Heschel has, once again, shown me how to be a rebel spirit and how to call out truth and hear it as well. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 52

According to Cicero:”The gods are careful about great things and neglect small ones.” (De Natura Deorum. Book ii ch.66, 167). According to the prophets of Israel, from Moses to Malachi, God is concerned with small matters. What the prophets tried to convey to man was not a conception of an eternal harmony, of an unchangeable rhythm of wisdom, but the perception of God’s concern with concrete situations. In mythology the deities are thought of as self-seeking, as concerned with their own selves.” (Man is Not Alone pg. 143). 

Rabbi Heschel is reminding us of the difference between the Greco-Roman way of living and the Jewish/Faith-based way of living. In the former, these mythological creations of human imagination are remote, uncaring, with their focus on their needs and wants, desires and abilities to take what they want, when they want it. The Greco-Roman way of living, as described above and lived in antiquity and now, is a zero-sum game, a dog eat dog world, survival of the fittest, power for the sake of pleasure, etc. This is why the Greco-Roman path has to be authoritarian and needs to either co-opt religion, denigrate it, or kill it. 

This has been our history, while people are decrying Critical Race Theory and people are saying everything in American history is based on racism, while people are speaking about the exploitation of the masses and people are speaking about the need for law and order, no one speaks of the beginning of this way of being, as eloquently and powerfully as Rabbi Heschel is speaking to me right now. I hear him saying ‘look at how Jews were feared, hated, persecuted, killed for being Jewish and following a path of living that serves God. A path that is concerned with our fellow people and sees each person as a unique being created by God with certain unalienable rights, the right to dignity, the right to freedom, the right to uniqueness, etc. and along with these rights, each human being has the responsibility to honor their dignity and the dignity of every human being regardless of gender, race, religion, creed, sexual orientation; the responsibility to make free-will moral choices and help and hold every human being responsible to make free-will moral choices; and they are responsible to live the unique gifts they have been given by God/the Universe/the Ineffable One/etc and help/hold every human being responsible to live their unique gifts. 

In the Greco-Roman way of being, this is foolishness and stupidity! All that is important is power, control and pleasure. In the authoritarianism that has come back in a most powerful manner today; power and control are the only paths to pleasure and the lies these practitioners tell are so outrageous many people are believing them! The more outrageous, the more blame on an “outside group” the more believable it is to more and more people. I have found people who profess to be ‘good christians’ ranting and raving at my friend John Pavlovitz for believing in the words of Christ and the New Testament as well as the Old Testament. I have found people who, while quoting holy texts, bastardize the spirit of these texts for their own gain. How sad, how disgusting and how destructive doing this is. Instead of being the opponent of this way of being, many “people of faith” have been co-opted to believe the exact opposite of what the basic tenets of their faiths teach. Which is the way of authoritarianism always, look at our recent past with Nazi Germany, Boznia, Rwanda, etc. 

 In the Greco-Roman way of living, everyone is expendable, relationships are transactional and the foundation of society is utilitarian. If one can prove their worth to the people in power, they are rewarded; if they can’t, they become either slaves or prisoners. The real criminals, as we see in Russia, in other authoritative countries, and here in the US, are exempted from responsibility, looked up to as so smart to be able to do this and envied because their followers want to live the same way. In the Greco-Roman way of living the only ones being served are the gods and the people the ‘gods’ put in power. 

In recovery, we know that the small stuff is what is important.We have lived in the Greco-Roman manner and we crashed, so we have had to find a new way of living/being. We call it spiritual, we call it religious, we call it a discipline, and what we are really saying is ‘I can’t live life in a utilitarian way anymore, there is something inside of me that is screaming out to change before I go mad and/or kill myself and hurt the people I care about’. In recovery, we recognize the dangers and the harms that relationships that we made seem covenantal and were really transactional brought. In recovery, truth and transparency are our number one goals/actions each day. 

I will write more about this tomorrow. 18 years ago, my High Holy Day theme was: “Beat the Greeks”, it was timely then and it is timely now. I also realize how insidious this way of living is, I am guilty of succumbing to the Greco-Roman way of living at times. I am remorseful for giving into these kind of societal norms. I also know that most of the time, I rebel against this way of being and, unfortunately, get so incensed by it that I get bombastic and discounted. I feel the “fire in the belly” at this ‘normal’ way of being and rail against it, sometimes to my own detriment. I continue to speak out and reach out and find new ways to speak so another can hear. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 51

“While man’s concern for others is often tainted with concern for his own self and characterized as a lack of self-sufficiency and a requirement for the perpetuation of his own existence, God’s care for His creatures is a pure concern.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 143)

I am continuing with this teaching because it kept me disturbed for the past 24 hours. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us/teaching us that God has no other agenda than our welfare, our betterment, our growth, our healing, our living our passion, purpose and divine need. He is contrasting this pure interest with the interests that we humans exhibit. 

We are not expected to be without self-concern, in fact, I am worried about someone who has no self-concern as it could mean a lack of self-reflection, a lack of self-knowledge and a lack of self-sufficiency. We humans are somewhat self-sufficient and not totally self-sufficient. We are told in Genesis, Chapter 2, “it is not good for human to be alone”. Yet, we try and portray ourselves as ‘rugged individuals’, ‘self-made people’, etc. We are none of these false phrases, we use them to prove our self-sufficiency rather than acknowledging we need aid and assistance to live well. As I am reading Rabbi Heschel, again, this morning, I realize the taint with concern for our own self is not a bad thing. 

Hillel said: “If I am not for my self, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” I hear this call in these words of Rabbi Heschel. We have to have be for our self, our soul, our beingness and not expect everyone else to care for us and not denigrate the gift of life God has given us! We have to grow our self, our spirit, our intellect and our emotions, to maturity and that takes a lifetime and a lot of outside help. We do not need to hide our concern for self in our concern for another. In fact, owning our own agendas in our interactions is the best way to a) get more done, b) have more cooperation and collaboration, c) learn more and different ways to grow our skills, the skills of another and d) build stronger community. 

Rather than obfuscating our self-concerns, let us broadcast them loud and proud so people around us can make the choice to join, aid, teach, learn from a place of truth and transparency rather than from being deceived or their own self-deceptive place. If we believe that our self-concern is legitimate, holy and being ‘for my self’ ie, for my soul, why hide it? This is my problem, and I believe, Rabbi Heschel’s problems with the charlatans who purported to be speaking the “Word of God” all the while spreading hatred, bigotry, anti-semitism, anti-muslim, anti-immigrant, etc. They never spoke their agenda and bastardized the spirit and word of God for their own self-centered needs, not for their concern for their self/soul. I think this is an important distinction, self-centered needs are egotistical and totally selfish, self-concern needs are to promote a healthy self-image, a healthy intellect, ego and spirit. 

We are being inundated with the mendacity of people who have only one goal in mind, power over us! The attacks on the truth, the lack of transparency, the need to BE RIGHT, on both ends of the spectrum are the poisons we are being fed each and every day, 24/7. We need to differentiate between self-concern and self-centeredness, we have to differentiate between mendacity and truth, and we have to differentiate between authentic and counterfeit. It takes getting out of our need to be deceived and having real self-concern so we can have real concern for another. We are not supposed to have “pure concern” because that is God’s realm and God’s beingness, we are supposed to limit our self-concern when helping another person so it doesn’t become self-centered.

In recovery, we are constantly seeking to care for our self, which is why it is called a ‘selfish program’ all the while improving our self, maturing our self, hearing our self, so we can be of more service to another, especially those we have harmed prior to and in our recovery. In recovery, we are not seeking purity, we are seeking progress, we are not seeking total enlightenment, we are seeking to grow along spiritual principles a little more each day. In recovery, we learn to let go of the self-centeredness and self-deception so we can serve our authentic self and the authentic self of another. 

I have been disturbed about this sentence because it is so nuanced and I see the ways I have not always lived in the nuance. I am unashamed of my self-concern and deeply remorseful for my self-centeredness. While people may think they know the difference, I have come to realize I know the difference, I know when I have been in self-concern and when I have been in self-centeredness and I am aware of how the errors I have made, for the most part, have come from my concern for another and lack of concern for self. I have been a responder and that has taken time away from me, family, etc. I have taken time off and learned to say no and that has helped reconnect me to my self/soul. I know the wisdom of working hard to not ‘buy one’s own press’ because that is the slippery slope to self-centeredness and self- deception. I am happy being Mark and not trying to be God. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel- a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel 

Day 50

“While man’s concern for others is often tainted with concern for his own self and characterized as a lack of self-sufficiency and a requirement for the perpetuation of his own existence, God’s care for His creatures is a pure concern.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 143)

Immersing ourselves in these words and this experience brings both joy and anguish to me. Joy in that God is concerned for me, you, all of humanity-without any prejudice or bias! Anguish in how often my concern for you and your concern for me is self-serving and seen as something lacking in me and/or you. Yet, there is great hope and solace in this teaching as well, Rabbi Heschel uses the words “often tainted” nor always tainted. 

How is it often tainted? Let me count the ways! In speaking with someone explaining to me the “anti-vaxxer” way of thinking, the person said: “when someone mandates something to/for me, I immediately say No and exercise my right to say No. It is not fair that I am not allowed in the restaurant to eat with my other non-vaccinated friends.” I asked this person about their religious practice and they replied they are devoted to their faith and carry out the principles and tenets as well as observe the rituals exactly as told. I asked this person, who told you? The answer was: “God”. I engaged in a lengthy discussion and came away understanding that if a principle/law they want to follow or are told to follow by whomever is their Guru/Leader(spiritual, societal, etc) at the time is written in a form that people want to believe, then it is a higher power/God/Divine instruction so they can follow it. If it is a principle/law that they are told is bad by this same Guru/Leader, then they believe themselves exempt. The issue, as I understand it is not the divinity of a law/principle, it is the polarization of people so authoritarianism can prevail and replace our democracy. 

The taint often comes in the form of seeking power, riches, fame and prestige. We will blindly support an AOC because it is ‘woke’ to do and then when she supports anti-semitism in the form of anti- zionism/anti-Israel, we don’t know what to do. We will blindly support the right-wing policies of a Josh Hawley and then when he is standing for racism, hatred, tearing down the democratic norms America is built on, we are at a loss. For the devoted followers, they are never at a loss because they are following them off a cliff because they believe they lack something that these types of charismatic leaders can give them. They have bought the mendacity they need them for the “perpetuation” of their existence.

This way of being is true in the workplace, on social media, and in families. “My way or the Highway” is the binary choice we are given. People who don’t want to follow science, faith, laws, etc are free to do so, they just have to experience the consequences and here is the problem. People on the left pole do not want to be called out on their incongruence just as people on the right pole . Neither do any of the “polar people” want to experience any consequences for their behaviors, like the people who are going to benefit because of the 13 Republican Representatives voting for the infrastructure bill, yet they want to threaten their lives and think it is just fine for them to do this. The people, like Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, who decide to lie to Congress, the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, all think they can do this and not experience any consequences, except for being called heroes of course! The “squad” is proud of voting against compromise to defend their ‘purity’ while harming the rest of us. Families sometimes buy into the lie “father as all-knowing” (for those of us who watched the TV progam, “Father knows best) and we know this to be a lie, yet people still believe it and follow it. Families make up their own rules for themselves and live incongruent lives (as we all do) and yet defend to the death their congruency and their rightness. We see this in workplace, in the Hulu series Dopesick self-concern is on stage and on trial, yet even the good guys miss the Divine Concern for their spouses, their co-workers, their kids, etc. 

In recovery, it is okay to be concerned with our self as it is in the Bible. To “love thy neighbor as thyself”, as we learned earlier from Rabbi Heschel, we have to love our self. The difference for those of us in recovery is that the “self” we are talking about is the “self”/soul/spirit that is connected to our Higher Power, Higher Consciousness, God, Buddha, etc. It is not a self-centered egotistical self, rather it is a transparent, bright, maturing spirit that is unafraid and needs to serve another person because they “get to” rather than for selfish reasons. In recovery, we are attuned to service with an attachment to our soul and to the Ineffable. 

I find this passage disturbing, for a change. I know that I have changed “often tainted” to occasionally tainted and at times, my service is tainted. My commitment is to lessen the taint one grain of sand each day! I also know that I am an enigma to many people because I am loud, I am brash, I am on fire most of the time. I realize I am so sensitive to the “taint” Rabbi Heschel is teaching us about, that I come off angry, loud, bombastic, etc when I am reaching out to another(s) in order to bring them back to living authentically and covenantally. I am disturbed at how I have failed to be clear about concerns and how others have betrayed what I thought was an authentic knowing of me. More tomorrow, God Bless and Stay Safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path for living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel 

Day 49

“There is no other way to feel one with every man, with the leper or with the slave, except in feeling one with him in a higher unity: in the one concern of God for all men.” (Man is Not Alone pg.142)

“The dedication of the heart and mind to the fact of being present at a concern of God…” that Rabbi Heschel wrote in the paragraph prior to this one finds its culmination in this sentence. Rabbi Heschel is calling us all to take this action of feeling one with every person; that he calls us to feel one with the leper and with the slave is telling as well. Prior to his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-war movement, his outward activism, he was an activist in his writings, he was and is an activist in his call to all of us to: stop theorizing about God; to stop creating false narratives about God; stop claiming ‘only my way/definition/knowledge about God is correct; there is no God; etc and meet God through meeting the concerns of another person, in the interests of another human being, in the connection, cooperation with another soul/spirit. 

Reflecting on Rabbi Heschel’s background, how intensely the Shoah impacted him, how rich his childhood was with reverence, love, joy, being seen and freedom to be who he is, it makes perfect sense that the leper and the slave would be the extreme examples for him in 1951 when this book was published and in the years prior when he was writing it. Who were the lepers back then? I remember survivors of the Shoah thinking they were lepers and something was wrong with them, otherwise why were they chosen to be put in the camps and why were they chosen to survive? In the early 1950’s, prior to Elie Weisel’s publication of Night, people did not share their stories of horror, there was shame in even exposing their arms with their numbers tattooed on them, people stayed away from them, instead of welcoming them, for fear of any number of things and treated them like lepers to a certain extent. 

The slave could have been the black people whom he saw being treated as slaves, even though they had been emancipated 90 years before, with the Jim Crow laws, with the attitudes toward people of color in the 1940’s/50’s even up to today. I imagine Rabbi Heschel being terribly mortified, sad, and righteously indignant towards the people who treated the black person as less than, who thought they were so much better then the black person and, while they paid them wages, albeit not as much as white people, they looked down on them as if they were slaves and servants. Rabbi Heschel doesn’t reconcile a belief in God, a meeting/identification with God and Judaism as being compatible with these types of behaviors, as I am experiencing his writing/teaching/wisdom today. 

Rabbi Heschel is calling upon us to rise above our egos, our prejudices, our “eye diseases”, our societal norms, our self-deceptions, our lower reasoning, the calls of false prophets and clergy, to meet the slave, meet the leper, meet the person of color, meet the LGBTQI, meet the Jew, the Christian, the Muslim, the practitioner of Eastern disciplines, the enemy we fear, the white supremacist, the republican, the democrat, the neighbor, the person we disagree with, the ones who have harmed us and the ones we have harmed in this “higher unity” which is for all of the above to meet us as well! We do this by raising up our selves, raising up our souls and seeing the infinite worth and dignity of every soul. We do this by letting go of pettiness and pride, envy and enmity, false ego and misguided hearts and vision. We do this by, as is said in the 3rd paragraph  of the Shema, “do not scout out after your hearts and your eyes to whore yourself after them”. We rise above and meet/feel one with another human being when we see their interests as our concerns, when we stop judging people by the color of their skin, by the religion they practice, the country they come from. When we stop judging people by their worst action and not their best, when we are stuck in binary thinking about another human being and ourselves, when we need power and prestige over and above our need to be connected and our need to be one with God/Ineffable One. 

In recovery, we are constantly improving our “conscious contact with God as we understand God” so that we can carry a message and reach out to the person who is still stuck in their old ways of self-harm and harming another(s). In recovery, we know that we can only truly meet someone in spirit and in higher unity, which is a bedrock of recovery itself. 

I am overwhelmed with sadness over the fact these words published 70 years ago, are still unheeded. The issues they teach us about and the solutions Rabbi Heschel knew to be the best ones/only ones are so prevalent today, on the right and the left, in the home, the school, the workplace, in our governments, in the streets. I am ashamed of how little progress we have made in eradicating the self-deception, mendacity, lack of concern for God and another person(s). I am constantly seeking to stay in Rabbi Heschel’s solution and when I miss the mark, I learn something new and I continue to meet people in the higher unity, the one concern God has for all of us and, even when another person(s) can’t meet me there, more often than not, I continue to hold a place for them rather than leaving God’s concerns and presence. Stay Safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 48

“It is the sense of the ineffable that leads us beyond the horizon of personal interests, helping us to realize the absurdity of regarding the ego as an end.”(Man is Not Alone, pg. 142).

“Realizing the absurdity of regarding the ego as an end” is both brilliant and a warning to all of us. Our reality is that most people do not realize this absurdity. Most people either regard the ego as an end, satisfaction of one’s desires is a cherished value to some, or they are oblivious to the people who do and use them/us for their benefits only and these oblivious become enamored with the mendacity of the people who regard their ego as an end and use anyone and everyone they can to feed their insatiable ego. 

Ego is not bad in and of itself, reason is not bad in and of itself, manipulation is not bad in and of itself, what makes any of these entities bad is how we, humans, use them. God gave us ego and a healthy ego is the source of some of the greatest discoveries and cures humans have made happen. It takes a healthy ego to leave Egypt, England, to discover the ‘new world’, to leave one’s home for a better life in a foreign country, etc. It takes a healthy ego to be a pioneer in any field of endeavor, in any exploration.

 Ego only becomes bad/corrupted when we regard “the ego as an end.” When we are so focused on self, so enamored with ourselves and see our ego needs as the only think important to fulfill do we become dangerous to ourselves and to another(s). When our egos are so full of themselves, when we see/believe our egos are the only ends that even need to be fulfilled do we become bullies, aggressors, power-hungry, engage in willful blindness, enslave another person(s) to do our will/bidding, etc. While many people try to hide their egocentric behaviors, it has become in fashion lately to flaunt our egotism, to surround oneself with sycophants, to coerce good people into doing their bidding and tarnishing themselves. We see this in politics, in business, in organizations, in families, etc. 

It is very sad to see how “regarding the ego as an end” is ruining our democratic norms; breaking down employees who work hard and keep getting the short end of the stick; changing the mission of some organizations from their original mission to help to the new mission of keeping their jobs/organization afloat; how members of families live in terror of one or another member who rages when their ego needs are not met and/or enslaves the other members of the family to serve them out of fear of loss. Many people continue to use reason to serve their ego as an end, they manipulate people through coercion, persuasion, bribery, etc to do their bidding, to feed their ego. What Rabbi Heschel is teaching us, I believe, is to use our ego to serve the ineffable, to use our reason to serve our souls, to use manipulation to put our spiritual, emotional and mental structure back in sync like a chiropractor manipulates our body to get in back in sync. 

Our egos are means to an end, meeting the Ineffable One at a concern, our egos and reason can support our soul/spiritual knowledge and course. In fact, our egos are essential in pushing us forward on our spiritual course, moving us forward to “being present at a concern of God:, moving us forward in connection and love. Ego and reason are tools to serve our soul’s interest, our spiritual calling, acting on our “sense of the ineffable”. Our world is going through a depression right now, a depression of spirit, a depression of “being present at a concern of God”, a depression in honoring and revering those who have helped us get where we are, the good people who gave their lives in wars, who suffered from discrimination and did not stand down, the majority of people who vote for decency and justice, the leaders of different movements/organizations that send up for and serve the infinite worth of every human being-erasing the artificial margins we try and put up between “us and them”. It is our ego strength and our reasoning used in the service of our souls, used in the service of the Ineffable One, used in the service of another human being(s) that can and must raise us all out of this depression. It is what Rabbi Heschel did in conjunction with Rev. King, Father Berrigan, Rev Sloane and Dr. Bennett in forming CALCAV. We can and must rise up again and face down the lies, the power, the falseness of these EGO driven people today who are ruining our world, going against the call of God and the needy, the poor, the stranger, etc. and stand up for Decency, Democracy and Devotion to the Ineffable One. 

In recovery, when our egos are seen as ends, we say we are “easing God out” of our lives and our actions. Prior to recovery, our egos were the only ends we served and our recovery is based on how well we can use our egos to serve God, to serve another and to serve our authentic self. In recovery, we continue to grow along spiritual lines so we can be of maximum service to another, to God and to our self.

I have dedicated my ego to serving God for these past 35 years, since I was arrested and, while I am not always successful, I see how far I have come in this time. I am not a victim, I do not need to be right most of the time, I use my reason ,my manipulations and my ego to serve more than myself, I use them to serve God, to serve another and I remain grateful for the life I have today. I heal and deal with life as it comes today and I not afraid to admit my errors, which is the test of my ego working for my soul or for itself. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 47

“It is the sense of the ineffable that leads us beyond the horizon of personal interests, helping us to realize the absurdity of regarding the ego as an end.”(Man is Not Alone, pg. 142).

Many people, over these past 33 years, have told me “I don’t believe in God” and therefore, whatever I am saying they feel they can tune out and doesn’t apply to them. So many people according the latest Pew Study, are unchurched and don’t believe in ‘the God of the Old Testament or the New Testament’. Here is the war between mind/ego and soul/spirit being played out within us and we use the hypocrisy of a few Religious Zealots/fundamentalists to help our minds/ego win the battle. In the face of this, comes Rabbi Heschel’s words, teachings and we are confronted with a deep truth that we know in our soul and our ego/intellect vehemently denies. 

Ineffable comes from the latin meaning not able to describe, the English definition is to great or extreme to be described. In Hebrew we use the phrase “Ein Sof” as a Name of God, meaning without end; so, we can read the sentence as it is the sense of the Limitless One, too great to describe, that leads us beyond the horizon of personal interests… Sense comes from the Latin meaning to feel, so only the feeling of the Limitless One, too great to describe, can leads us beyond the horizon of personal interests. I am overwhelmed with this statement because belief in God is not crucial to see the truth and wisdom of Rabbi Heschel. Most of us, scientists, clergy, atheists, agnostics, etc know that there is more to the world than humans, that we did not create this world, that there is an energy beyond our comprehension and description, aka black  hole, so sensing this energy can come with or without belief in God. 

Getting back to the wisdom, when we refuse to sense the Ineffable, when we decide that everything can be explained with our intellects and our egos need to be served first, last and always, we are stuck in our personal interests and live a very small and shallow life. We may be President of the United States, President of Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Syria, etc, we may run one of the Fortune 500 companies, a Senator, Representative, another elected official, yet “when we refuse to sense the ineffable”, when we are stuck in our egos and intellects, when power and money are what we worship, we live small lives, we live lives of opulence on the outside and decay on the inside. Furthermore, living a small life as described and being in any kind of power from child to parent to co-worker to employer to boss to official to lobbyist to power broker, etc we impact the lives of a few to the many negatively and, sometimes irreparably! We see how the poor are treated, we see the hatred, the racism, the anti-Semitism, the lies we are being told, the anti-muslim, the anti-anything other than me ism and these are all indicators of how large our egos have become and how stuck in serving them we are. We are experiencing a resurgence of xenophobic behavior as well as the behaviors above which leads to war, death, destruction and, as Afghanistan has pointed out, senseless loss of life on both sides. We need to restore the sense of the ineffable for us to have a chance at changing what is and fulfilling the basic need of all people; believers, agnostics, atheists; Freedom. 

We can never be free as long as we are stuck in ego and, Rabbi Heschel is saying the way out of the slavery of the ego begins with the sense of the ineffable. There is more to this world than me, there is more important activities than constantly feeding my/our ego. Yet, we seem to have forgotten this, we seem to be stuck in the collective ego, the fantasy of America, the ‘good old days’ when men and were men and women knew their place, etc. Without a sense of the ineffable, we fall into depression, anxiety, addiction, physical illness, possibly even somatic illness’. It is not that difficult to find proof of the ineffable, science does all at the time, whenever they get stuck, stopped in their desire to explain how things work, which is a noble and necessary endeavor, IMO, they are content with ‘I don’t know’, which is another name for ineffable, maybe. When we see all the things that we did not grow, we did not have a hand in making, mountains, lush valleys, forests and deserts, we have ‘proof’ of the ineffable because we cannot describe what we are experiencing , when we are sensing. This is how we can begin to nurture and grow a sense of the ineffable that will “lead us beyond the horizons of personal interests.” 

In recovery, we do an inventory of our behaviors and we realize how stuck on me we were and the only ‘cure’ for this self-centered, harmful, not seeing/caring about another human being is “a sense of the ineffable”. Without a larger purpose than our own selfish needs, we will sink back into old behaviors and return to a way of living that is harmful to ourselves and to so many people. We readily admit that going “beyond the horizons of personal interest” is the only way to freedom. 

I am overwhelmed by this sentence fragment. I sense the ineffable every day, every hour, and I know this is what gets me “beyond the horizons of personal interests”. Each day, I am given a new lease on life and joining my energy with the energy of the Ineffable imbues me with a spirit to serve, to create and live a little better today than the day before. More tomorrow. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 46

“Inner freedom is a miracle of the soul. How can such a miracle be achieved? It is the dedication of the heart and mind to the fact of our being present at a concern of God, the knowledge of being a part of an eternal spiritual movement that conjures power out of a weary conscience, that, striking the bottom out of conceit, tears selfishness to shreds.” (Man is Not Alone pg. 142).

As I was speaking about yesterday, the thoughts and teachings expressed above, as with all of Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and teaching, go right to the core of being human. They are in keeping with Rabbi Heschel’s belief that to be human we are to “enable the common” and “the knowledge of being a part of an eternal spiritual movement…: “ is the path forward. Herein lies our challenge, our solution and the war that happens both in our inner lives and the ones we begin, face, react, respond to in our outer lives. 

We are fatigued, as people, as individuals, and as countries. The Covid-19 Pandemic only amplified the fatigue most people experience. It is a fatigue born out of selfishness, conceit, seeking of power for power’s sake, xenophobia, poverty of the economic variety, poverty of moral fortitude, and poverty of the spirit/soul. We have become people who are so fearful of ‘losing everything’, that we live from a scarcity mentality while living in the most abundant of times. We live in suspicion of everyone around us, not believing that someone could be kind because they are kind, that someone could reach out because they know they are part of this “eternal spiritual movement”, that we are able to and want to be present “at a concern of God”. Because of our suspicion and our fears, because of our experiences and those of our ancestors, because we are unwilling/unable to dedicate our hearts and minds to being presented with a concern of God and, hence, not responding to it, we remain a “weary conscience”. 

This does not have to be the case, however!  We, the people, need to rise up and demand from ourselves and from one another as well as from governmental leadership that we all change course, we all turn inward to seek the inner freedom Rabbi Heschel is speaking about, we all truly dedicated our hearts and minds to being present at a concern of God and acknowledging we are all part of an eternal spiritual movement. We may not nor should we agree on the solutions to today’s challenges, we may not nor should we agree on the priorities of solving today’s challenges, yet we will, once we seek inner freedom, see one another as humans just like ourselves, we will seek out compromise rather than ‘my way of highway’ obstructionist behaviors. As we seek our own inner freedom, we become so interested, excited and engaged in helping another(s) attain their own, sometimes overbearingly so. 

What this knowledge of being present at a concern of God and knowing we are part of an eternal spiritual movement does is infuse us with an energy that keeps regenerating. This spiritual energy is the fuel that keeps us going, keeps us in the battle against those who are stuck in inner slavery, stuck in self and stuck in ‘poor me’, ‘need to have power’, ‘where’s mine’, etc. The knowing, the deep experience of our soul’s knowledge, pushes us closet to God, closer to the honor, joy, wonder and awe of being present at a concern of God, which is another human being’s suffering, caring for our planet, treating each person as having infinite worth and dignity, believing in the possibility of change/tshuvah, and so much more. Every day, we are confronted with the gift of being present at a concern of God, it is a gift because we are given the opportunity and the power to be part of the solution, we are given the gift and the power of getting out of our conceited ways, our better than places to share with God and another human being an experience of connection. We are, every day, being given the opportunity and the power to “tear our selfishness to shreds” through service, through awareness, through connection, through learning together with community, friends, family and foe alike. 

In recovery, we are constantly seeking out our self-serving ways in order to “tear selfishness to shreds” and be of service to people, whether we know them or not, whether the result is what we hoped for or not. Being part of the solution is one of the keys to our recovery and, in recovery, we leave the results up to God and this is how we are aware God is both concerned and present. 

As I have been writing this, I realize inner freedom comes from heeding the prophet Isaiah’s words to beat our swords into plowshares and we will stop learning war. I am not able to be enslaved to all of the bullshit that life wants to throw at me, when I am engaged in putting down the tools of war and meeting another human being and God in the concern God has presented to me in this moment. I have dedicated my mind and heart to being present at a concern of God, I have much experience of being infused with God’s power, the power of my soul to meet a challenge and concern of another human being that God has put in front of me. I am certainly not shy about showing up, I certainly am not always the pretty package people hope for when they call a Rabbi, and I certainly show up and am strong enough to do battle with the Angel of death, literally and metaphorically, physical death, emotional death and spiritual death and never tire in this battle. I am grateful to Rabbi Heschel for opening up this knowledge in me and I hope I do for you as well. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel- a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 45

“Inner freedom is a miracle of the soul. How can such a miracle be achieved? It is the dedication of the heart and mind to the fact of our being present at a concern of God, the knowledge of being a part of an eternal spiritual movement that conjures power out of a weary conscience, that, striking the bottom out of conceit, tears selfishness to shreds.” (Man is Not Alone pg. 142).

Immersing oneself in Rabbi Heschel’s teachings is a wonderfully, arduous, exhilarating painful journey as evidenced by the teaching above. “The dedication of the heart and mind to the fact of our being present at a concern of God:” is a fragment that is too large for most of us to imagine. It is an experience that we shy away from and work hard to ignore. The word ‘dedication’ comes from the Latin meaning “to devote/consecrate” and the Hebrew is “Hakdasha” which connotes “holiness in the action”. 

Rabbi Heschel is teaching us that without holiness, without devotion, without consecrating our hearts and minds, the miracle of inner freedom will not occur, as I am understanding him today. I agree wholeheartedly, I also hear Rabbi Heschel reminding us that our hearts and our minds are separate entities from our soul. Our souls are in direct communication with God and want us to be “present at a concern of God”. Our souls are our Image of the Ineffable One that each of us have, so we are already in a state of “Hakdasha”, of consecration when we are one with our souls/let our souls lead our actions. The challenge, as I am reading Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom today, is to bring our hearts and our minds along. Too often we talk ourselves out of what our souls know to be right through the logic of our lower consciousness, the ‘reasoning’ of our intellect and/or the emotions/desires of our hearts. Rabbi Heschel is pointing out to us that, while we think we are serving ourselves and some made-up ‘greater good’, we are actually harming our souls, our authentic selves, sending authenticity, spiritual health, inner freedom farther and farther away from us. Thereby, sentencing our selves to a longer prison sentence, for some-a life imprisonment, yet, we always have the option of parole. We can parole our selves whenever and wherever we begin to consecrate, devote, elevate our minds and hearts to serve our souls, to serve another human being, to serve God/Higher Power/Higher Consciousness. 

We are living in a time that sorely needs this dedication, this devotion, this consecration of concerns of God, and the soul(s) of another(s) human being(s), elevating our selfish desires by devoting ourselves to serving something greater than our power, prestige, obliviousness to the call of the needy, the poor, the stranger, etc. We see how authoritarians are using our vulnerabilities against us, accusing good people of doing bad, just like Goebbels employed as part of the Nazi propaganda; how these people are gaslighting the rest of us in order to keep their power and have minority rule, rather than decisions by the majority, as our democracy calls for. We see this way of being in families, in organizations, in companies, etc. The lack of devotion, the lack of consecration, the lack of elevation and holiness people engage in to ‘make a buck’, stay in power, tear down another person to make themselves feel better, is at a tipping point and we need to heed Rabbi Heschel’s words and turn our society away from the impending doom and destruction we are headed for. 

We can only dedicate our hearts and minds when we realize that every human being has the same value as we do, every single life has meaning, a purpose and is entitled to dignity and respect. We can only achieve this when we cure the “cancer of the soul” that prejudice is, when we change the lens’ we see another person through and welcome them and their concerns into our lives, into our spaces, - not push them away, not treat them as less than human or at least having less worth than we do, no longer separate ourselves from our community at large. We achieve inner freedom when we dedicate, consecrate, elevate, make holy our connection with God/Higher Power/Higher Consciousness, when we realize what we do matters, when we appreciate the moments we spend with another human being-not fixing them, rather, hearing them. When we realize and respond to the interests/concerns of another human being and in doing so, we serve the concern has put in front of us , not the self-centeredness we default to. In Ethics of our Ancestors, we are taught: “Nullify my will before Your will” to remind us who we are serving. 

In recovery, the third step in AA teaches us to “turn our will and life over to the care of God as I understand God”… so as to get out of our selfish self, to leave the prison of our desires and reasoning. In recovery we learn how to use our reasoning to serve our souls, to serve God, not to serve selfishness and not to serve power for the sake of power. 

In my recovery, I have been blessed to devote, consecrate and elevate my living and the living of another(s) by being present at a concern of God. There is much more I have to write on this topic tomorrow. I know that being present at a concern of God is so much better than being stuck in my selfish concerns. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 44

“Inner freedom is a miracle of the soul. How can such a miracle be achieved? It is the dedication of the heart and mind to the fact of our being present at a concern of God, the knowledge of being a part of an eternal spiritual movement that conjures power out of a weary conscience, that, striking the bottom out of conceit, tears selfishness to shreds.” (Man is Not Alone pg. 142).

In Rabbi Heschel’s interview with Carl Stern in December of 1972, days before his death, he described the prophets as “abrasive, disturbing, giving me a bad conscience”. It is in reading Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and teachings that he is the most abrasive, disturbing, giving me/us a bad conscience in the most uplifting, poetic, loving ways. 

In this passage, Rabbi Heschel is calling on all of us to strive for and, at times, achieve Inner freedom. We do this, as I am understanding him today, through our souls. We have to develop a mature soul/spirit in order to achieve this miracle of inner freedom. We have to engage in the soul enhancing activities of love, justice, kindness, compassion, truth, etc in order to grow our spiritual maturity as well as our spiritual freedom. Society is very dismissive of our inner lives in subtle and not so subtle ways. We will go see therapists to “figure life out” or to have help with a “mental/emotional condition” all the while neglecting the real issues of our time and all time: Soul Connection to something greater than oneself, Soul to Soul connections with another(s) person(s), and covenantal relationships not just transactional ones. 

One cannot achieve inner freedom without first acknowledging that we are more than matter, we are more than ideas, that we are more than individuals coming together for protection, needs, etc. We have to acknowledge our souls, our spirits and, instead of stunting the soul’s growth as an adolescent, provide space, engagement and teachings for ourselves, our family, our children to grow their souls in their unique manner and way that is appropriate to them.

 Rabbi Heschel is screaming at me right now: “Mark, why are you stuck in slavery, you have been free and can achieve inner freedom again and stay there longer!” This is the call that I am hearing from him right now, for me and for you and for everyone. The miracle of the soul is inner freedom and this happens when we grow our spirits, our souls in conjunction with our unique calling/talent/gift from the Ineffable One, when we acknowledge that there is something greater than ourselves in this universe and we are not the end all/be all of the world. The miracle is taking place right now, possibly , if you are engaging in soul maturing and growing practices today and every day. When you pray with intention, you are engaging in soul maturing activities, when you meditate, in whatever way you choose, you are engaging in soul maturing activities, when you connect with another person’s soul and stop wondering/worrying about what they can do for you, when you stop objectifying another person and see them as a reflection of some part of the force of the universe, the Ineffable One, you are growing your soul. Surrendering our need to be right, to look good, to be in power, to ‘one-up’ everyone else, is a path to soul maturation. Letting go of always trying to ‘look good’, be politically correct, up with the latest fad, etc is an action that leads to soul growth. 

We live in a ‘where’s mine’ world and we are constantly blaming, shaming, bullying, another(s) for our own gain, not for their betterment. While teaching responsibility, the acceptance of guilt and the power of constant messaging can be used to enhance the soul and spirit of another as well as oneself, today these assets are turned against the people who need them in order to make them believe lies, manipulations, ‘alternative facts’ as well as stopping them from taking life-saving measures for themselves by some of the people in power. We have allowed some people to unleash their soul killing, spirit suffocating, words and ways to permeate us and, set back the inner freedom and miracle of the soul. Authoritarians do not want us to achieve inner freedom, the charlatans parading as keepers of the faith who do not want us to achieve inner freedom by their coziness to power, the ways they bastardize the words of spiritual freedom and maturity to enhance their image, the sheep who are so deep in their own self-deception and mendacity they cannot discern the Word of the Soul, the Ineffable One, are to be dealt with using strength, decisiveness and compassion. Otherwise, without compassion, we become them and we are all lost and enslaved. 

In recovery, we are witnesses and recipients of the miracle of the soul each and every day! We have a daily practice of soul enhancing, growing, maturing activities. We know that we never stay in one place, we know we are either moving forward or backwards in our spiritual condition. We are also aware that sometimes we take one step back in order to move two steps forward. In recovery, we are not looking for perfection, only progress. 

I have many more moments of Inner freedom than inner slavery. Because I have experienced the miracle, the moments of slavery are all the more painful and debilitating. I know, however, the path back-through connection with another, through study and love, through service and truth, through random acts of kindness and compassion, through taking time for my self, golf, family, friends, and through connection to the Ineffable One. More tomorrow, stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 43

“But inner freedom is spiritual ecstasy, the state of being beyond all interests and selfishness. Inner freedom is a miracle of the soul.” (Man is Not Alone pg.142)

In the next few days we will learn Rabbi Heschel’s teachings on how to achieve this miracle and for today, as we head into the Sabbath for all of the Abrahamic Faiths, I want to delve into these words. So many people are trying to achieve this spiritual ecstasy through artificial means and, while achieving it for a moment or longer, it is not an inner shift usually. Ayahuasca, peyote, dope, monastic prayer and living, crystals, etc may and do get people to a spiritual ecstasy and, sometimes keep them there with repeated treatments, and the inner freedom Rabbi Heschel is teaching us about is the inner freedom that comes from growing our soul organically, not trying to achieve spiritual ecstasy through artificial means rather through connection to the Ineffable One and to one another. The artificial means that people use to achieve this spiritual ecstasy  do work and may even propel people to seek inner freedom more, yet my concern is by artificial means alone, there is no regular practice for achieving inner freedom more often, growing our inner freedom and, of course, becoming reliant on the artificial to get us to the real.

Ecstatic moments are just that, moments! Spiritual ecstasy is not going to be a once and for all lifetime ride, rather, as I am immersing myself in these words and teachings, it is a place we can and will visit and then leave. It is not an experience of fairy dust and moonbeams, it is not an experience of escape and hiding, it is an experience of deep connection to the Ineffable One, to another human being and to all of humanity as well as connected to eternity I believe. The error that many of us make is that we want to stay here, we want to dwell so close to the Ineffable One so we try and imitate Aaron’s two sons, Nadav and Avihu, who burned themselves up by trying to getting too close to God, through meditative and/or artificial (distilled spirits) means. Inner freedom is achieved in moments, not hours, days, weeks, etc and these moments grow into hours, weeks, years for some people and for others of us we keep getting there more often during a day, week, month and year until we are in a regular practice/routine of taking the actions to achieve this inner freedom and spiritual ecstasy. 

“The state of being beyond all interests and selfishness” is not a state most of us can sustain for long periods of time, much less forever. As I think back, my grandfathers achieved and lived in this state most of their lives. Neither one cared much about material things, they were always ready and willing to help another human being, they did not talk bad about another person and would not let anyone in their midst berate someone else, and they came from Eastern Europe, experienced the progroms, came over here in steerage, without much if any resources and made a life for themselves and their families. We have many other examples, Nathan Hale who regretted that he “only had one life to give” before he was hung, Mother Theresa, Rev King, Rabbi Heschel, Bobby Kennedy, Daniel Webster, All the people who fought at the Alamo, all of the men and women who have fought to keep our democracy alive, etc. Yet even most of them had moments of selfishness and interests- again not as a bad thing, rather as a human thing. We are all capable of attaining these moments of spiritual ecstasy, however and this is the place where self-deception and mendacity rear their ugly heads.

We are experiencing a moral and spiritual depression right now in the world, even though there are so many seekers of spirituality, so many people waving the flag of morality as rallying cries, we are in a moral and spiritual depression. Many of the flag wavers and gurus of spirituality and morality are charlatans! They are people who want, need, and depend on power and control to exist. They are people who prey upon the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of another(s) in order to gain, keep and extend their power. These are not people who are in “the state beyond all interests and selfishness”, they are deeply committed to their interests and selfish ways. Rather than care for another human beings needs and interests, they are constantly calculating how to get another person to do their bidding so they can stay blameless, shocked, give alternative facts, bastardize the principles they so eloquently espouse. This is true of people all along the continuum of faith, morality, etc. We, the people, have to stand up against the selfishness inside of us, we have to let go of the self-interests that we constantly are thinking about and engage in the interests of the Ineffable One, the interests of another human being and serve them, which in turn serves us because we reach the state of spiritual ecstasy.

In recovery, we know that our recovery is based on our spiritual condition each day. We are very aware and engaged in getting out of ourselves to serve the Ineffable One. We take stock of ourselves each day to catch the selfishness and disinterest in another quickly and turn our moral and spiritual compass back to due north. 

I have achieved moments of spiritual ecstasy often and realize that the state of “beyond all interests…” is not always a happy state. My soul cries for the needs and treatment of another(s) both by me, which I do T’Shuvah for and by another(s) and by society. Each day, I am blessed to experience more inner freedom for longer periods and I am grateful to everyone who helps me get out of me! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel - a daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 42

“For integrity is the fruit of freedom. The slave will always ask: What will serve my interests? It is the free man who is able to transcend the causality of interest and deed, of act and the desire for personal reward.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 142)

Who is truly free according to Rabbi Heschel’s description above and how do we get to freedom? I am realizing how many people, believing they are free are actually slaves. Many of us equate freedom with doing what we want to, what we think is best/right, etc. Yet, here comes Rabbi Heschel and he tears this way of thinking/being apart with this teaching. Freedom involves choice of course, yet it also involves what choices we make, whom we are serving with our choices, and which type of choices we are making. 

We make choices each and every moment, from the time we get up till we lay down to sleep, yet making choices is not necessarily freedom, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel this morning. Rabbi/Dr. Abraham Twerski, of Blessed Memory, says being human means making “free-will moral choices”. Putting Rabbi Twerski’s wisdom with Rabbi Heschel’s teachings, we can see that to be free means ‘the what choices we are making’ have to be moral choices, they have to be choices where we are taking the next right moral action for ourselves and for another human being, for another animal being and/or for our planet’s well-being. The what cannot be about what is good for us only, the what cannot be for our desires alone, the what cannot be about the actions we take to gain power, prestige, reputation, etc, if we want to be free. The what entails transcending beyond our self interest, going beyond our desires, going beyond even the interests of a group, political party, leader, etc , to serve the interests of God, Higher Power, Higher Consciousness, Greater Good. 

This is an important distinction to make. It is so easy to fool ourselves, to buy into the self-deception of freedom because we choose to serve the ‘interests’ of another person who is interested in only themselves, their power, their personal greater good and not the greater good of humanity. We see this with people who vote in authoritarian governments, we see this in elections in this country where people support people who care nothing about  serving, only about having power. We see this with the gridlock that happens in state and federal governing bodies so often. We see this in the ways people have shielded a Jeffery Epstein, an Elon Musk, etc to gain favor and get wealthy and powerful. We see this in the ways our lobbyists serve the clients who give them the money and will go against their own moral compass to win. We see this type of behaviors in everyday people who defend the right to kill another, harm another, with guns, with Covid-19, with domestic violence, etc all the while denying the right to choose for women. The ends that some of us are serving are the ends that God, that morality, that being human calls for, they are the selfish ends and we fool ourselves by believing this makes us free people. 

On a personal level, so many of us suffer from this self-deception that we have even distorted what is moral, what is transcending our desire for personal reward. Many people buy into the lie that the people leading the Confederate Army are American Heroes, when they tried to bring down the entire democratic experiment. Can you imagine revering people who are trying to bring chaos, anger, mendacity to you, your family, your country? Can you imagine revering people who state openly that all they want is power and they want to cater to the rich and that poor people are poor because God doesn’t love them? Can you imagine revering religious leaders who preach hatred based on color, creed, religion, socio-economic status? Can you imagine revering people who are so quick to be anti-Semitic and call it anti-Israel? Can you imaging revering people who want to upend our system to ‘help the poor like themselves’ while they are wearing designer clothes, making speeches, promoting themselves? I hope so because so many of us are doing just this. We are slaves to the words people speak, the emotions they engender in us and we don’t hear the truth of their words. We must be continually on-guard to recognize when we are deceiving ourselves and when we are hearing the lies/deceptions of another. This is the path to transcending our desire for personal reward.

In recovery, we know all too well how enslaved we have been and we are constantly exploring our actions and thoughts to root out the lies we tell ourselves and the lies we perpetrate onto another human being. We can only harm another person when we lie to ourselves about them even being human, we deceive ourselves into believing they are objects to serve our needs, rather than we are blessed to be able to serve another. In recovery, we are continually walking on the road of freedom, moving forward one step at a time each day. 

I have been blessed and rewarded with freedom by transcending my own interests and desire for personal reward most of the time. While recognition is wonderful and I like it, what is and has been more important is: how do I serve another human being. How can my story, my wisdom help another human being live better. Being recognized for this is not a personal reward, it is an honor, a blessing and a ‘good’ report card to and for God. I have witnessed 1000’s of people achieve true freedom and I pray we all help more on this journey. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark