Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 311

“To the sense of indebtedness, the meaning of existence lies in reciprocity. In receiving a pleasure, we must return a prayer; in attaining a success, we radiate compassion.” (Who is Man pg. 118)

Rabbi Heschel is always reminding us of our need to live a life of reciprocity, a life of giving and taking, a life of doing and being, a life of action and reflection, etc. Rabbi Heschel’s message is very clear to me, experience our life as a work of art, reminding ourselves that we are the artist creating it. Creating it well means living in the both/and; not the either/or. Looking for our uniqueness, cultivating our inner life into a rich landscape of connection to God, to another(s), to the world. Yet, we continue to “miss the mark” in this area, we continue to blame and shame, to lie and deceive, to place optics over substance, to create gargoyles instead of The David or The Moses as Michelangelo did. He was an amazing sculpture and one of the stories we have about him is that he just chipped away the marble that was hiding our view of these amazing sculptures. For him, I believe, sculpting was a pleasure and his response to the question of how he did it, was his prayer of gratitude to God for his talent.

Humanity has always, to a greater or lesser extent, taken pleasure as an entitlement not a gift. Reciprocity has always been seen as a one-way street by the majority of people, especially people who are in power or think they should be in power. They do not have a sense of indebtedness, rather they have a sense of entitlement. We are witnessing the logical continuance of such entitlement with the lies and deceptions of Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump and his boys, these MAGA people who are running in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, etc. They may or may not believe their rhetoric, they only want to win, in winning they receive pleasure and they return harming the stranger, taking advantage of the needy and criminalizing the poor. Not exactly the prayer Rabbi Heschel has in mind in his wisdom above.

Yet, why shouldn’t people do this, why not have men make more than women for the same job, why not have white people earn more than people of color, why not hate the Jews for not acknowledging Christ as the Messiah and Redeemer, why not lie, cheat, steal to get ahead, we are entitled to it if we can make it happen goes this type of thinking. Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above rejects the entitlement of humanity, it rejects and refutes the deceptions and bastardizations of the “religious right”, the religious left, either extreme-politically, emotionally, spiritually. Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom is that God gives us the gift of pleasure, as I am understanding him today. God gives us the ability to “receive pleasure” and the honor to “return a prayer”. Notice that he uses the word “must” in this phrase, giving us the sense of imperative, the experience of a commandment, the joy of an obligation.

Immersing oneself in the words above, over and over again has allowed me to realize the multi-faceted view of living Rabbi Heschel is giving us; to see life as indebtedness, to realize that reciprocity is the pathway to making meaning in our being, and pleasure and prayer are so closely linked point us to the uniqueness, love, care, kindness, and truth of God and the imperative to act Godly. Just as God receives and accepts our prayer, so too do we get to and must receive and accept the prayer of someone else. Just as God is our lender, so too do we have to lend to the poor, the needy, the stranger according to their need, not our wants. Just as God cares for the downtrodden and the voiceless, we too have to care for them and give them a lift up and be their voice until they can speak. Just as God condemns mendacity and deception, so too do we have to stop supporting the way of being that says looking good, having the ‘right’ words, the ‘right’ optics, the ‘right’ politics makes you a ‘right’ person. Religious, social behaviorism and the plagiarism of the spirit, of the words of God are antithetical to everything that Rabbi Heschel is saying above. Lets change the ‘game’ and instead lets get serious about living, about life. More on this tomorrow!

In recovery, we are always offering a prayer of gratitude and a prayer of thanksgiving. We wake up grateful for this day, we are thankful for our opportunity to serve, to overcome whatever obstacles we may face today by not engaging in old ways and behaviors that brought us down. We are eager to reciprocate and to act Godly, we seek out ways to serve rather than be entitled as we were before. In recovery, we are well aware of our need to live in the tension of indebtedness and reciprocity in order to experience the true meaning of our being, our existence-what we are here for and how to carry it out.

I have found reciprocity of generosity to be one of God’s great gifts to me and to thee. While the people I have helped may not reciprocate, I get a gift from an unknown, unlikely source and I realize that the Universe is truly benign and good. Mercy is abundant and I have to remember to pay down my indebtedness, reciprocate with joy and whatever another human being needs (rather than what I want to give) and serve with pleasure, receive al that life gives me with pleasure and then offer a prayer to God of thanks, of help, of awareness or needing to be made aware. Since I have staying power, I am always blessed to receive the message God is sending even if I act hastily. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 310

“To the sense of indebtedness, the meaning of existence lies in reciprocity. In receiving a pleasure, we must return a prayer; in attaining a success, we radiate compassion.” (Who is Man pg. 118)

Pirke Avot, “Ethics of the Sages” a tractate of the Talmud, offers a teaching by Ben Zoma, “Who is Rich? One who is happy with his portion”. Another way of saying this could be: Who is rich? One who wants what one has. This comes to mind after immersing myself in the opening phrase above. (I am using my/I in this blog as a universal individual) What is my portion/what I have? It is my soul, it is my uniqueness, it is my ability to join community and it is my ability to be part of a covenant with God. My portion is what I add to this world to make it a little better than when I found it. My portion is what I bring to the different tables I sit at, home, work, school, faith community, friendships, prayer and meditation. My portion is my offering to God, to another; living and being happy with what I bring, with who I am is my repaying the indebtedness I feel.

Wanting what I have is not the same as settling. I am not settling by being happy I am not just “accepting my lot in life”, exactly. I am, in a sense “accepting my lot in life” by being engaged in my spiritual sense, my inner life and bringing my unique talent to the world, unafraid of what someone else thinks, undeterred by the scorn of another, unwilling to bend to the whims of the conventional notions and mental cliched winds that are blowing in this moment. I am not “accepting my lot in life” from the standpoint of being someone’s slave, someone’s source of amusement, from being a mindless robot going along with the majority to do evil-the evil being immersing my self in lies, deceit, mendacity and other such soul killing activities.

I am not ‘done’ because I am happy with my portion, because I want what I have-rather I am only getting started! Wanting what I have/being happy with my portion is the ultimate sign of satisfaction, connection to God/Higher Power/Universe and faith. It is our commitment to being in reciprocity with the world, with God, with family, with humanity. I am giving back to the world, to God, to humanity my contribution to move our state of being a little higher than it was prior to my birth/creation. I am “going back and forth” with life to repay my indebtedness, I am giving what I have in  this moment and am unafraid to make mistakes and own up to them. I am giving to God, what is God’s-my abilities-giving to another what is theirs-my loyalty, love and truth-giving to my self what I owe me-kindness, compassion and self-love.

As we continue to march towards Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we are being called to do our Chesbon HaNefesh, our accounting of our soul. Reviewing our year(s) from our sense of indebtedness and reciprocity can only give us more clarity as to who we are, what we are and how to “rejoice in our portion” more each day. Being happy with what we have means I am more than 51% immersed in being authentically me, I am more than 51% immersed in serving something greater than my false pride and ego-I am more than 51% immersed in serving my soul, the soul of the Universe, the souls of the people I encounter and the souls of people I will never meet. We do this by living our lives out loud, by not hiding who we are and by offering our gifts to the world and to another human being. We do this by being an advocate for our own soul and for the soul of another(s) through connection, caring for the stranger, poor and needy of our soul and the souls of everyone else. We do this by letting go of our need to be liked and engaging in our need to serve, to add, to repay. In this sense, repayment of our indebtedness is actually adding to our corner of the world and serving something more than our puffed up ego. Our sense of indebtedness allows us the beauty of living in the reality and spirituality of our imperfections and acceptance of “missing the mark” as a part of living well.

In recovery, we continue to repay our debt by serving another, serving God, serving community. We are grateful for our ability to serve, we are grateful for our ability to care for another human being’s spirit and life, we are amazed at what we actually have to contribute and we no longer wish we “had what she/he has”, rather we want the serenity and grace we see in someone who is “happy in their portion” and lives their portion out loud.

I rejoice in what I have each and every day. I am elated to be able to reciprocate to God what God has given me, I rejoice in my awareness of what God gives me, and I am overjoyed for the success of people and humbled by what they give to the world and to me. I have been an advocate for the soul for over 30 years now, I have experienced derision and scorn, being used and abused for my foibles and strengths, being ‘outsmarted’ and thrown away/dismissed as I didn’t even merit a conversation. When I erred in 2020 and offered T’Shuvah, I was told that someone else’s opinion was the only truth and what I had to say, recount did not matter and was not considered true. Told this by people who stand for the ‘liberal’ agenda, for justice, was laughable and I realize it was God telling me to repay my debt in another arena, to reciprocate in a different locale, to move forward and feel compassionate pity, for those who need to live false lives. I repay my debt by not harboring anger and resentment, rather by rejoicing in what I have right now. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom- A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 309

“To the sense of indebtedness, the meaning of existence lies in reciprocity. In receiving a pleasure, we must return a prayer; in attaining a success, we radiate compassion.” (Who is Man pg. 118)

We are afraid to engage in our spiritual/inner life sense of indebtedness because we are afraid of having to repay our debt. As we are in the middle of the month of Elul, looking at the fullness and brightness of the moon, we are reminded in 14 days, we will be welcoming a new year by reflecting on this past one and looking ahead to the new one. In 23 days, we will be asking for forgiveness from the Universe/God for ourselves and one another. Yet, during the rest of the year, most people run away from the sense of indebtedness that could propel us to living freer and richer lives.

We are afraid that the repayment terms are not going to be to our liking. We are afraid that someone is going to ask us to do something that is uncomfortable. We are afraid the Creative Force of the Universe is going to ask/demand we be more of who we are created to be. We are afraid to be called to be free, to be grateful, to be just, to be merciful, to be loving, to be truth in all of our actions, in all of our living. Rather than welcome this opportunity, we run from it; much like Jonah in the Bible who was so afraid of being embarrassed that his prophecy was not going to come true, that God would spare Nineveh, he ran away in the opposite direction. We all are guilty of being Jonah-like and, I believe, this is why we read from the Book of Jonah on Yom Kipper, the day of At-One-Ment.

Is it really to much for us to know we owe and pay the debt down as much as possible each day? Is it really too scary to find that we are being called to action in ways we are immensely capable of? Is it really to onerous to let go of our ideas of fame and fortune, black and white, either/or in favor of service, in favor of compassion towards self and another(s),  in favor of kindness, in favor of humbleness? We have made these ways of being seem wrong in our society, in our conventional notions and mental cliches we constantly berate ourselves and one another for walking in God’s ways, rather than ‘the ways of the world’. We are bombarded with the lies of TikTok, Facebook, Newspapers, Cable News, Broadcast News, as we have since the times of Plato and before. We would rather lie to ourselves and one another, we would rather believe the lies of people we know are lying than to accept this truth of having spiritual senses and having one of which is indebtedness.

Letting go of the lies that have been with us for time immemorial is too daunting a task for most people. Even the lies of interpreters of religion who believed what they were saying, yet knew it was self-serving and using their lies to enslave people to their way of thinking and to serving their needs for power. Today, many people are believing the lie that religious teachings have nothing to tell us, that we know what is moral and what isn’t, we know right from wrong, etc. These same people justify their actions, make excuses and blame everyone else for what is happening, even go so far as to say God is punishing us for people living their truth by “coming out” as LGBTQ, people of color standing up and saying We Matter, Jews standing against the lies, the “Protocols of Zion” and other such Anti-Semitic rants, Muslims demanding a seat at the table. How asinine, how inane, how blasphemous! These same people say “God is Love” and then call on the God they deny, God of the Old Testament, to “smote their enemies”-what mendacity and what a load of BS that, unfortunately, a lot of people subscribe to. People go along with these lies because we have been hearing them forever, it seems. People buy into these deceptions because they are too lazy to develop their spiritual senses, too inexperienced to develop a richer and more meaningful inner life, too accepting of conventional notions and mental cliches.

We can, however change this way of being in ourselves. We are not stuck in stupidity forever, we are not stuck in spiritual immaturity as a punishment from above, we are being called every day to spiritual maturity, we are given inner sight and wisdom each and every hour. We have the technology, we have the tools, we just need the Willingness to be Honest and Open to truth. We need to remember the WHO of living, we have to cultivate a relationship with WHO, we need to take a look at our past year, this New Year season, with the eye on improvement, not shame or hiding. We need to look forward to next year not with resolutions, rather with knowledge of where not to go and chart our life journey with the maturity and wisdom gained from living this imperfect year. We need to rejoice in our indebtedness, not run from it.

In recovery, we are constantly seeking to repay our debt. We are painfully aware of how long we ran from our spiritual sense of indebtedness and how running didn’t work for us anymore than it did for Jonah. We are committed to spiritual progress and the difficult work this entails, the ups and downs, the two steps forward and one step backwards approach to life-which is the only truthful approach to living in truth.

I will write more on this tomorrow. I rejoice in my debt, I am grateful for God’s belief in me to keep my debt on the books and seek to repay with my actions each and every day. God Bless and Stay Safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 308

“To the sense of indebtedness, the meaning of existence lies in reciprocity. In receiving a pleasure, we must return a prayer; in attaining a success, we radiate compassion.” (Who is Man pg. 118)

I am experiencing the first phrase of the first sentence in a very different way today. Rabbi Heschel is calling to us to first recognize we have spiritual senses and inner senses just like our 5 physical senses. We have within us a state of being/quality of being indebted, of owing. This is not a feeling, as I am reading Rabbi Heschel this morning, this is a state of being, this is a way of relating to the world and to our self. This is radical and important because most of us put these spiritual and inner life senses off, we ignore them as feelings that have to be medicated, go into therapy for, etc. We believe these spiritual and inner life senses as less important and, at times, meaningless in our daily lives than our 5 senses. Rabbi Heschel comes knocking on our  doors, on our hearts, on our minds and our souls today and every day to remind us of the importance of our inner life senses, the necessity of our spiritual senses and the urgency to merge them with our 5 senses so we can live full and whole lives.

We humans are a very interesting lot, we have no problem being the holder of a lien, the person who wants another(s) feeling indebted to him, even being the person who borrows knowing she/he is not going to pay it back(think Donald Trump); yet we are very squeamish when we hear the call of our inner life saying that it is time to pay back the loan of oxygen in the world that allows us to breath with kindness and goodness, with truth and love, with compassion and service. We run from this calling of the debt, from this demand for payment because we don’t want to look at ourselves, we don’t want to live from our spiritual and inner life senses. Living from these senses along with our 5 physical senses means we cannot do the things we are used to; ‘killing the competition’, stepping on anyone so we can climb to the top of the ladder, being a taker and not a giver, using our intuitive mind to enslave another(s), to ‘beat’ another, to amass so much wealth we will never be able to spend it in 5 lifetimes, using our senses to ‘smell a rat’ rather than smell a partner, etc.

We also are a very interesting lot because we do know how to love and to appreciate, to embrace and give back, to welcome and be grateful. Watch most people around their newborns, parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, friends, and one will see the gratitude and welcoming that comes from these spiritual and inner life senses. The miracle of life is so overwhelming at birth that we only know how to love and appreciate the forces in the Universe that make this happen, the strength and courage of a mother to give birth, the helplessness and support a spouse gives the mother during the birthing process and pregnancy, the first embrace of the baby by both parents and by the community. And, we begin a process of trying to kill the baby’s inner sense of indebtedness, the baby’s state of being so worthy that the Universe/Higher Power/God calls to them for help, assistance, and to repay their particular debt. Not entirely, not all at once, and to make payments in whatever form and amount each of us are able; rather than ignoring the debt as so many of us do.

We all suffer from ignoring our spiritual and inner senses at times. We are bombarded with all sorts of mindfulness practices and new age traditions which are fantastic. In reading Rabbi Heschel, this morning, I believe we are missing a tried and true method of mindfulness, our indebtedness, our spiritual senses, our inner life senses that remind us we owe. We are not alive just for our self, we are not here just for the pleasure of another, we are not living to be a slave to our frontal cortex nor to our immature emotions. We are alive because we owe, we are alive because we are indebted and we know it, we are alive because we realize we have the capacity and desire to repay our debt to the extent we are able and we are alive to celebrate our existence through acknowledging and embracing our indebtedness.

In recovery, everyday we seek to connect with our inner life senses, with our spiritual senses and, combined with our physical senses, respond to the call of the day, the call of another human being, respond appropriately to the calls of our being, wrestle with the false pride and selfish ego we have allowed to flourish and grow. We know we owe and we are grateful for each and every opportunity to repay our debt to our self, to our families, to our friends, community, world and Higher Power.

Being indebted has driven me most of my life. For a period of 20 years from 15-35, the knowledge of being indebted drove me to steal, lie, cheat and drink. I robbed myself of my spiritual and inner-life senses-only wanting to satisfy my urges, not my debt. In fact, I believed everyone owed me because I grew up without a father during my teen years. Since 35 and before 15, I knew that my spiritual senses, my inner-life senses were showing me a world and a path that was uniquely mine. I have lived this path in these past 36 years, I repay my debt by helping another in my own unique way, I stay loyal to truth, I stay loyal to people who have helped me and I have helped by staying loyal to principles we share. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 307

“The mind is in search of rational coherence, the soul in quest for celebration. Knowledge is celebration. Truth is more than equation of thing and thought. Truth is transcendence, its comprehension is loyalty.” (Who is Man pg 117-18)

The greatest difficulty of humans is to “climb across” the abyss from mendacity to truth, this is from the days of Adam and Eve and ever since. Whichever creation story one adheres to, the pull towards mendacity and deception is always present in these stories. It seems as if Rabbi Heschel’s words another of God’s call to us to wake up, to do the hard work of this climb, to not fall into the abyss of mendacity, deception, self-deception. As we prepare for our Mid-Term elections, we are facing this abyss again, we are witnessing many people who have chosen to “climb across” the truth staring them in the face to jump into the abyss of mendacity and deception. This is scary, it is historical and we can break this cyclical way of living.

Thomas Cahill, in his book, The Gifts of the Jews, explains how the Jews gave us a way out of the cyclical nature of life that the world had accepted, adapted to. Judaism taught that life is on a continuum and we have choices, no matter what our situations are. The “negro spirituals” are an example of a people enslaved who chose to keep their spirits and hopes alive through song and prayer. What is happening in the world today is frightening because it is indicative and caused by the inner choice of individuals to follow grifters, liars, deceivers into the abyss of mendacity with a ferocity that is overwhelming their souls and their minds! Republicans are now claiming that they are for women’s rights, not mentioning their decades long attack on Abortion rights, the white supremacists of the far right now claiming to love people of color, Marco Rubio is spreading more and more lies of his love for all people while his words prove otherwise. In our political world, mendacity is the norm and it is causing the downfall of democracy, the downfall of the rule of law and the downfall of the freedoms so many brave young men have died for since 1776! Just as in the Roman Empire, the Greek Empire, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire, the USSR, mendacity and deception work for a while and then it turns on itself and everything falls apart.

We can, however, change the course of our future by rejecting these deceivers, rejecting the judges that are more concerned with Donald Trump’s reputation than the crimes he has committed, more concerned with controlling everyone and putting our democracy under “Christian Law” like Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. We can reject the Marjorie Taylor Greenes who want to believe in the fascist way of being, who want to embrace the White Supremacists. We can reject Kevin McCarthy’s way of rejecting Liz Cheney who, even though I disagree with her politics strongly, wants to preserve democracy and calls out the mendacity of Trump and his cronies while embracing Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, et al. We can reject the lockstep way of the Republican Senators who have decided that Mitch McConnell is all-powerful and all-knowing and must be obeyed. Where is Daniel Webster when we need him?

Daniel Webster, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, and so many other great revolutionary spirits like the Prophets, the Berrigan Brothers, Reinhold Niebuhr, Abraham Joshua Heschel, et al all live inside of us, their spirits are co-mingled with ours. Just as they rejected the ‘status quo’, the “conventional notions and mental cliches” of the ruling class and the people they were able to deceive, so can we. We do not have to keep climbing across truth to embrace lies, we do not have to climb across truth for optics, we do not have to climb across truth for political correctness, we do not have to climb across truth for power, we do not have to climb across truth for exclusion, for prejudice, for fear and for hatred. We can and must reject these lies that have seized our consciousness, these deceptions that we have grasped together in order to be accepted, in order to live our baser, most animal-like desires. We do this by engaging in daily prayer, writing, inventory, learning, growing and maturing our spirits and souls, being able to see where we miss the mark and where we hit the mark, make amends for our errors/mistakes and stop believing that truth and kindness are weakness.

In my recovery, I have had many “dark nights of the soul” which is attributed to St. John of the Cross and is described in the story of Jacob in the Bible. I was a deceiver and a follower of deceivers. I went against everything my faith, my father, my grandfather stood for and I regret this. I regret it because I love all three so much and I treated their principles with such disdain for a long time. My recovery, like the recovery of so many people, began when I had to face myself, when I had to wrestle with my inner self, my inner voices and I was blessed to hear the call and voice of my higher self, my divine image. I continue to wrestle, I continue to fight the mendacity and self-deception that is constantly calling to me, I continue to win the war while losing some of its’ battles. I find that I can lose a battle with mendacity today, I can fall into the abyss of deception today and pull myself, with the help of God and many people around me, out of this abyss today and/or tomorrow and/or eventually. I never stop my engagement with truth, I am married to my search for it and to people who also are engaged to truth. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 305

“The mind is in search of rational coherence, the soul in quest for celebration. Knowledge is celebration. Truth is more than equation of thing and thought. Truth is transcendence, its comprehension is loyalty.” (Who is Man pg 117)

Because we have to “climb across” all of the lies we tell ourselves, the deceptions of another(s), the conventional notions from history, etc in order to discover, uncover, recover truth, it is imperative that we are open and mature to comprehend truth. Immersing myself in Rabbi Heschel’s teachings and wisdom has me seeing the truth that there is no THE TRUTH, except for God/Higher Consciousness/Higher Power, etc. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us to not get too far ahead of our self and believe the subtlest of lies, we know THE TRUTH! Isn’t this what causes war and anger, splits friendships and family, causes civil wars and wounds the souls of so many people? This subtle lie looms so large for so many that we are willing to buy into the deceptions of another because it makes us feel good, believe we are on the ‘right’ path and empowers us to be ‘in charge’ rather than a follower. The reality, of course, is feeling good is temporary and like any addict we need more and more which leads us to abuse people and our own souls more and more. Truth is we are going down the ‘wrong path’ farther and farther which could lead to our T’Shuvah, our return, and we are being manipulated like a puppet on a string. How does this happen? We are not in comprehension of truth, we are not loyal to truth and this is the root of our ‘irrational coherence’, our ‘wait for the other shoe to drop’ mentality, and our need to punish someone else for our inability to comprehend and be loyal to truth.

Comprehension comes from the Latin meaning “seize/comprise” and “grasp together” and the Hebrew is understanding. Loyalty comes from the Latin meaning “legal” and the Hebrew is faith. Rabbi Heschel’s brilliance above could be understood as grasping together/seizing and understanding truth is the path of a legally and faithfully led life. WOW, what a statement, what a mantra to meditate on, to pray on to use to recover our truth, to be open to the truth of another(s), to use as our foundation to live a “life compatible with being a partner of God” as Rabbi Heschel teaches elsewhere in his writings. Seizing lies, grasping together ‘alternative facts’, understanding how to manipulate is not truth, no matter how much a Judge in Florida who wants to protect poor little Donny Trump, the victimizer who is always crying wolf, always being mistreated, always the epitome of Untruth, wants it to be. No matter what Moscow Mitch, Mealy-mouthed McCarthy want to say, their actions are actions of untruth, their actions are actions of not being faithful to the “founding fathers and mothers”, not being grasping together both spirit and law, not understanding their mission from God, from the Constitution is to aid the poor, welcome the stranger, give to the needy. The same, of course is truth for all of us.

To climb across, to transcend our pettiness and pride, need for power over another(s), we need to surrender these wanton thoughts, become “maladjusted to conventional notions and mental cliches”, and mature our inner lives so we can hear the call of our souls and the demands of God. We do this by first accepting truth as truth, not as a battlefield rather as a safe landing space. Truth is neither good nor bad, harsh nor easy, simple nor complicated, it just is. While we will never grasp together everything in life, we will never be able to seize and understand all that is happening in our lives, we can be loyal to the foundations of communal living, to the laws of the Bible, the laws of nature. We can engage in being more understanding of our inner life, of our way of thinking in order to change what needs to be changed, mature our self, and grasp together a way of living that is uniquely and divinely ours. We have the power within us to do this, we have the moral and spiritual vision and roadmap to do this, we need to make this decision to turn away from the pettiness and pride, need for power, see today as new and express gratitude in words and deeds each day.

Recovery is the result of our awareness of spending much too much time in pettiness and pride, envy and enmity, living in immature inner lives, and having “stinking thinking”. Each day we surrender our negativity and our puffed up egos to a power greater than ourselves and seek to be right-sized and of service to another(s) at work, at home, on the street and everywhere we go. Business owners take pride that they are feeding people, their employees, and providing a service that is needed, employees feel a sense of inner worth by staying faithful to their employer and their work, knowing they have to be faithful to themselves and being faithful to their employer means putting in an honest day’s work for a day’s pay. Each and every day we are able to learn, embrace and engage in truth one grain of sand more.

I have been seeking truth for most of my life. I have had to and still have to, at times, climb across my own self-deception to seize truth, to grasp together what is and then understand the ‘lay of the land’ and engage with it. I have missed this mark at times, fewer in my recovery than prior to, and it has cost dearly. When I allowed pride and enmity to cover what was really going on, it has been a disaster. I am realizing the cause of the disaster was my inability to discern truth for reasons known and unknown. I am more aware of truth, not deception today and every day moving forward. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 305

“The mind is in search of rational coherence, the soul in quest for celebration. Knowledge is celebration. Truth is more than equation of thing and thought. Truth is transcendence, its comprehension is loyalty.” (Who is Man pg 117)

Rising above our false pride and ego needs is a challenge to us all, climbing across the abyss of falseness, mendacity, deception, looking good, wealth, power, fame, is, difficult all the times and seemingly impossible at others. As Rebbe Nachman says, a narrow bridge and the foundational element is to not be paralyzed by fear. Yet, it is fear of truth, fear of climbing across this “narrow bridge” that causes many people to give up, to make sense of the non-sensical, to go along with the prejudice, hatred, fear, anger, etc that is inside of them because of their need to compare and compete.

Many years ago I discovered a difference between truth and honesty, my personal experience and my experience with many people had shown me that we all were mostly honest, even as thieves, because we spoke and acted as we were feeling and thinking in the moment, with the lies we tell our selves, wearing our blinders, believing our bias’ and having poor ‘vision’. Yet, we were sure about everything we were saying, just as so many people today are sure of what they are saying about the FBI, the government, etc all of which they call upon when they need it, the people protesting about the government staying out of their health care are many of the same people whom are on Medicare and Medicaid. They are not lying, however, they are being honest with all of the truth blockers I mentioned above. This is an important point to make, let’s not just write people off because they have different views than us, let’s not write people off because they have a different ethnicity, different skin color, different religion, etc. We have done this for millennia and it has only bred more hatred, more separation, more prejudice and spread a “cancer of the soul” as Rabbi Heschel defines prejudice. Having compassion and finding ways to speak with one another in a way that both can hear is essential if we are to heal the rift and climb across our small needs to walk on the bridge to wholeness, truth, harmony and the Promised Land.

As I said yesterday, God is truth and, to me, this means that truth is the whole picture. We cannot ever know the entire picture on our own, we get glimpses and there are prophets, like Rabbi Heschel and Rev. King, who speak truth to us because they have “been to the mountaintop” and been blessed by God/Higher Consciousness to have the vision of truth planted within all of us, brought out. So, how do we climb across our own pettiness and pride, envy and enmity? We do this in community, we do this by wanting to learn, wanting to be and acting like the student rather than the smartest person in the room. When we no longer need to prove our point, when we are open to what is happening and what we are learning, when we are able to communicate, argue for the sake of learning, when we seek God, when we act Godly, when we take the eye patches off and “circumcise the foreskin of our hearts”, we are able to walk on the narrow bridge in balance and in joy. We are able to climb across all of the differences and meet everyone we encounter with curiosity, kindness, openness, reverence, respect. We are then able to learn together, allow their honesty to penetrate our souls, our minds and come together to see more of the whole picture, to see more paths to move forward on and choose the ones that, together, make sense and help us explore more and dig for more truth.

In recovery, we are aware that the search for truth is like peeling the membranes of an onion, they are very thin and strong as are the lies and deceptions we have held onto. We have to, like a sailor scraping barnacles off of a boat bottom, have to peel one membrane at a time, carefully and with our full attention and intention to this endeavor. We are acutely aware of our propensity to lie to ourselves, to engage in self-deception so some of us begin each day with the lies we are telling ourselves and then let them go so we can seek truth this day. We ask for help in our prayers, meditations, meetings, and from those close to us. We are aware we cannot do it alone, we cannot live as if we are on an island anymore, we seek and crave connection, we walk on the narrow bridge with courage, strength and a lot of hope and humility.

I have found seeking and speaking both truth and honesty is a narrow bridge that seems to sway a lot over the abyss of mendacity, optics, popularity, etc. I do not have a corner on the truth, I know I seek it every day, I learn more of what truly is in this world and in the spiritual world beyond the physical one, I am overwhelmed with the beauty, awe and spirit I am able to imbue each and every day. I learn the truth of relationships a little more each and every day, I learn the real difference between covenantal ones and transactional ones and I learn more about my need to confuse these two at times. I am aware of the search for truth that I have been on for most of my life, interrupted by my experience of loneliness and being bereft of connection I gave in to the ‘dark side’ of self-deception and mendacity. I continue to “circumcise the foreskin of my heart” each day, I strive to “love mercy, do justly and walk in God’s ways” a little more and I am wearing a “new pair of glasses” so I can walk on the narrow bridge with joy, excitement and see what truly is. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 304

“The mind is in search of rational coherence, the soul in quest for celebration. Knowledge is celebration. Truth is more than equation of thing and thought. Truth is transcendence, its comprehension is loyalty.” (Who is Man pg 117)

Truth has to be transcendence according to Jewish philosophy, thought, belief as Judaism says God is Truth and God is everything. We are not talking about an anthropomorphic god, we are talking about the abstract God of the Hebrew Bible, who comes to us in dreams, in Eureka moments, in higher consciousness, in our moments of moral quandary and in our moments of meditation and prayer. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us to stop believing our thoughts are truth, to stop believing because there is an object of our thoughts, a thing, and we can define it, use it, manipulate it doesn’t equal truth.

Yet we find ourselves, as we have throughout the millennia, in a time where people are willing to define truth in whatever way they want. We are so sure we have ‘the corner on the truth’ that we will annihilate anyone who disagrees with us. We so desire to convince ourselves and every other self of how smart we are, why we should be in power, why they are wrong, we actually deceive ourselves to believe we alone (and our ‘people’) have the truth and can carry it out. Some people actually believe that God is on their side, as the Dylan song goes, even though they wipe out millions of people, even though they disenfranchise millions of citizens, even though they spout hateful and warlike sermons, prayers, speeches, marches, etc. Others still know they are lying and continue to accuse someone else of what they are doing. We are in a quandary as to know who to believe in, what to believe in and how to discern truth from lies. We are still believing that truth is the equation of thing and thought. Descartes did us no favor by his statement “I think therefore I am” because we have bastardized these words to give us permission to believe that our thoughts are the basis of truth and we will use any thing we can to live this belief, just ask anyone on the far left or far right. Ideology becomes all  encompassing truth.

We have an antidote to this moral and spiritual malady that has coursed through the veins of people forever, that courses through the veins of communities, countries, states, religions, ethnicities, etc. Rabbi Heschel’s definition of truth above is this antidote, transcendence means to “climb across”, “to go beyond our limits”, “to rise above”. Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom that he is imparting to us is the wisdom of not thinking we are able to fool all of the people all of the time. It is the wisdom of realizing that we all have to face “the man in the glass” as the poem teaches us. It is the wisdom of accepting the truth of our self-deceptions, our mendacity and our deception of another(s) for our own gratification, our own satisfaction, our own wealth, our own power, our own need to hide, etc. None of the “ways of the world” are good enough excuses to salve our guilty consciouses upon our newfound awareness of how we have bought into the conventional notions and mental cliches society has been selling us forever. It is the wisdom that while two plus two equals four is a truth, is valid, we cannot reduce truth to a mathematical equation anymore than we can keep it something ethereal and abstract. Truth is concrete and transcendent at the same moment, in every moment, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel today.

Yet, as we are acutely aware, it is also highly manipulated beginning with religious leaders who want to rule countries, people and the world with their invalid interpretations God’s Will and their mendacious expressions of idolatry and continuing to the leaders of countries who actually want to be the rulers of their land as in antiquity, the Dark Ages, Middle Ages, and, up until 1776, the modern age. The need of some people to want to go backwards, to want to rule with an iron fist and rob the coffers, steal the gold and silver in the religious and secular temples and churches has never left us. Yet we are proving to not have learned from our history, we are proving that self-deception as a major disease of the mind, emotions and spirit is alive and well in many of us. We are proving that the “eye disease” of prejudice has caused stage 4 cancer in our souls and we no longer can discern truth nor lies, healthy actions from the unhealthy ones and ‘doctors’ who care from ‘doctors’ who want us to stay sick for their benefit. Our country is in such a quandary as I write and our democracy is in the balance. Truth is not known by either side in this battle for the soul of our country, in this battle for the health of our individual souls, mendacity and deception is detectable and this is what we have to fight against, this is what we have to find the cure for, on a personal level and then on the larger stage.

In recovery we are constantly seeking out the mendacity and self-deception that creeps into our way of being. We are looking at ourselves with a critical eye, not to beat ourselves up rather to uplift ourselves by seeing when we seek truth and when and where we give into deception of self, deception by another, etc. Both happen each and every day which is why we “seek progress not perfection”. We become deeply aware that we are not God so we cannot know all truths and our job is to continue to search, learn and seek more truth about self, about another, about the world, about God/higher power, each day. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Spiritual Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 303

“The mind is in search of rational coherence, the soul in quest for celebration. Knowledge is celebration. Truth is more than equation of thing and thought. Truth is transcendence, its comprehension is loyalty.” (Who is Man pg 117)

As Rabbi Heschel wrote about, taught about, spoke about and marched against the dis-integration of our souls, of our inner life throughout his life, so too we find our selves in a similar predicament. We are “sticking together” an irrational coherence of reasons and excuses for our current predicament. Just as Donald Trump is not the problem, neither is whomever we are blaming for the misery in our lives currently. It is not our parents, our siblings, our neighbors, our bosses, our competition, our co-workers, it is us! This month of introspection prior to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur gives us the opportunity to let go of our irrational coherence. And, it is hard!

We have spent a lifetime glueing together these excuses, reasons, denials, blames, etc. We have spent a lifetime fighting against surrendering our irrational coherence because we keep making it rational to ourselves. We have spent a lifetime running away from our inner life, running away from the call of our souls and the demands of God. All the while fooling ourselves into believing we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. I am not speaking about the evil dictator, I am not speaking of the authoritarian leader, I am speaking to and about all of us who are alive today, all of us who are determined to find reasons and/or excuses for what we are doing, for what is going on in the world, etc. I am speaking to every unique individual who still runs away from their uniqueness and denies their similarity with every other human being. I am speaking to the individual who knows they are in low-grade misery and is so comfortable in it they are afraid to leave it, afraid to be free, afraid to see their whole self and continue to hide, blame, explain.

Irrational coherence is, of course, an oxymoron and, I believe we live in it daily. We do “make our own beds” not with the circumstances of birth, or prejudice, or being born into a rich/poor family, or color of skin, faith we grow up in, etc, we “make our own beds” with the ways we respond and/or react to life’s ups and downs. We can’t change our genetics, we can’t change our ethnic background, our race, we can change the story we tell ourselves going forward in life, we can change the maturity of our inner life, we can change how we relate to the Creative Force of the Universe which infuses me with power, spirit and creativity, we can change our thinking from excuse to responsibility, blame to T’Shuvah/amends, irrational coherence to a “rational coherence” that is on the path towards “celebration”.

We do this by letting go of our “indifference to the sublime wonder of living” as Rabbi Heschel teaches in God in Search of Man, we do this be no longer being a bystander in our lives, we do this by letting go of our need to be right, surrendering our obsession with false ego and pride. We create a “rational coherence” that leads to “celebration” through commitment to the search for truth which entails hearing and taking in what another human being who is searching for truth is saying about us, about an issue, about life. It is through an acknowledgement of our own imperfections and rejoicing in them, it is through seeing our humanity and the humanity of another(s) through the lens of imperfection. It is through loyalty to principles, loyalty to one another, loyalty to God/Higher Power/Higher Consciousness, loyalty to the call of our inner life, our souls. We are able to create a “rational coherence” that leads to “celebration” through community and through covenantal relationships. We are in desperate need of this type of living, we are dying on our insides because of our irrational coherence, and like climate change, without doing surrendering to the “sublime wonder of living”, without living in radical amazement, soon, it might be too late to turn our ship called humanity around.

In recovery, we know all about irrational coherence, we know all about blame and excuse, we have PhD’s in all of these areas. Because we are so aware of our tendency towards irrational coherence, we do our inventory each and every day as guard rails against falling too deeply back into this soul crushing experience. Because we “continue to take personal inventory”, we rejoice in our errors and in our awareness of them as well as celebrate our victories and our “rational coherence”!

I have spent many years not blaming another, pointing out my part and someone else’s part and not making someone else the cause of my actions. I have experienced being blamed and vilified as well as extolled and uplifted and, truth be told, the latter feels much better than the former AND I have erred and done the next wrong action at times so the blame and vilification has led me to look deeper into my actions, my reasoning and helped me leave the irrational coherence that led me to think those actions made sense. The difference between blame and holding another person responsible and accountable is very nuanced and I believe we hear blame when it is about being responsible and hear blame as a way of deflecting my personal responsibility. To those who have heard blame from me, I apologize deeply and sincerely. I have been engaged in T’Shuvah and taking my responsibility for 35 years and I accept, take and announce my responsibility and my part in both the good and not so good much more each day. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 302

“The mind is in search of rational coherence, the soul in quest for celebration. Knowledge is celebration. Truth is more than equation of thing and thought. Truth is transcendence, its comprehension is loyalty.” (Who is Man pg 117)

Combining the first two sentences above gives us an insight to Rabbi Heschel’s brilliance and his deep concern for all of humanity. He is addressing all of us, the over-thinkers, the under-thinkers, the feelers/intuitive, the non-feelers/non-intuitive parts that we all have. As we are in the beginning of Elul, the month before Rosh Hashanah and we are being called to do our own inventories, these words of Rabbi Heschel ring loudly in my soul and in my mind.

How are we putting together irrational thoughts, lies, false pride and ego, feelings of not belonging and making them ‘rationally coherent’ in our minds and then taking this false coherence and acting out towards our self, another(s) self, and God? All of our societal ills, I believe, can be traced to the irrational coherence humans have made the foundation of their quest for power. One reason is that celebrity, fame, wealth, comes with this power and, falsely, humans keep believing that rule and dominion, from the first chapter of the Bible, includes other humans and even God! While it is easy to point to the demagogues and authoritarians as evil, we have to remember that pointing a finger at one person results in three fingers being pointed towards our selves. What irrational ideas, alternative facts, feelings of hurt, anger, fear are we making into a seemingly rational and coherent belief and then acting on it.

One example may be the belief that if you are not LIKE ME, you are an enemy, a threat, and I have to overpower you, enslave you, despise you, kill you, etc. We see this in business all the time, how we are always trying to ‘kill’ off the competition, we will go to any lengths to ‘win’, we want the most likes on social media, we want to be the next BIG THING and we are willing to trample the rights, the reputation, the needs of anyone and everyone to win, to be the all-powerful, to be Pharaoh. While one may think that they are not doing this, we have to realize, in this month of Elul, of inventory, how we are the followers, how our irrational incoherence has fooled us, made us a pawn and tool of our desires, of the deceptions of another, of our neediness, of our fears, hurts and angers. The Pharaoh’s can’t win, they can’t survive without our buy-in and we buy into an irrational thought pattern, a mendacious belief system that we/another make into a seemingly rational coherence. This is the great challenge of our time, of all times. It began with Adam and Eve and has continued ever since.

Knowledge, as I understand Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom today, is an inner quality, it is the combination of wisdom(facts/truths) and the understanding of this wisdom-understanding the many facets of it and understanding how to use it-which come together in our souls, in our kishka’s/guts. This is my understanding of Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above “knowledge is celebration”. We are able to put truth and understanding together only in our souls which leads us to action, service, kindness, compassion, justice, authenticity, transparency, and real “rational coherence”. Our souls are the bridge and the core of our knowledge, our souls are the entity which puts mind and spirit together, our souls are where God speaks to us, lives in us, and strengthens us. We are constantly running from our spiritual nature, from our souls knowing because we are afraid, because we can’t ‘prove’ the truth, etc and, ergo, we have lost the art, the joy and the engagement in true celebration and substituted celebrity instead.

In recovery, we speak about ODAAT, one day at a time living. We are constantly reviewing our days, weeks, months, years to mine them for the wisdom we are in need of, to grow from rather than defend, to have our eyes opened a little more each day to authentic celebration, to actual “rational coherence” rather than the ‘rational coherence’ we engaged in by twisting our lies and deceptions into something that made sense because our adeptness at mendacity and deception. In recovery, we are celebrating our similarities and our differences, our camaraderie and joining together to overcome the lies, deceptions, mendacities that took us away from spirit, from higher consciousness, from God.

I have wrestled with “rational coherence” forever. My mind always wants to make sense of things, my soul always wants to celebrate whatever is happening and for a long period of time this was the war I waged in my inner life. I surrendered my need to wage this war when I first read the Torah and Rabbi Heschel simultaneously in prison in 1987. Since then, I have wrestled to hear truth, to hear the knowledge that my soul speaks to me and to act on it, I have lessened my irrational thinking and my need to make it into a “rational coherence”, I do not celebrate the misfortune of another, I am at the ready to be of service, I am engaging in a constant inventory and repair/repentance as well as seeing what I do well and enhancing it. I am no longer driven by my false ego and by the deception of another(s). I realize my power, I realize my enemies, I realize my friends and allies, I embrace the truths shown to me by another(s) and by God. I celebrate each day for what it is, not what I want it to be. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 301

“The mind is in search of rational coherence, the soul in quest for celebration. Knowledge is celebration. Truth is more than equation of thing and thought. Truth is transcendence, its comprehension is loyalty.” (Who is Man pg 117)

The Latin roots of “rational coherence” are ‘reckoning/reason sticking together’ and the Latin root of “celebration” is ‘frequented/honored’. Immersing ourselves in the first sentence using the roots could mean our minds are always seeking/in search of a reason that sticks together, a reckoning that sticks together. Yet, in spite of this truth, we are willing to believe the lies we tell ourselves and the lies another(s) tells us. In spite of our minds being in search of a reckoning that is truthful, that will last the test of time, we actively engage in self-deception and mendacity, we believe that there is the “one person” who will fix everything, who will take out vengeance on our ‘enemies’, who will ensure that we are not forgotten. History has taught us that these demagogues, these authoritarians care nothing for their followers, they care nothing for truth, they care nothing for anything but their lies, their grifts that they can hold together to deceive everyone for as long as their run can last.

On a more personal level, we have to look at the myriad of ways and situations where we allow our selves to believe our lies have “rational coherence”, that they are reasonable and this reason sticks together because we make up scenarios that allow us to believe our lies, to believe the deceptions of another(s). We do this because we are so afraid of the truth, we do this because we are so afraid to see what is, we do this so we don’t have to respond to the call of the poor, the needy, the stranger within us and outside of us, we do this so we can continue to live in willful blindness and not accept responsibility for our part in any situation. Making our lies seem logical, sensible, and clear is a major undertaking for most of us, we are so afraid to allow our minds to see and embrace truth. To find the reason that doesn’t fall apart from it being based in mendacity and deception means we will have to be more responsible to the demand of the Universe, to the call of the Ineffable One to tend our corner of this garden called earth. We are able to find the tools necessary to nourish the seed of life that has been planted in us, to live with our eyes wide open, finding joy in tragedy as well as success, accepting the bad with the good, sending tall against mendacity, deception by another and self-deception.

As I wrote yesterday, Rabbi Heschel is not asking us to abdicate our minds in order to live from our souls, our minds are not a bad place to live in and/or visit. It is when our minds have been poisoned by the lies of another, by the bastardization of principles, by the false stories we tell ourselves that they become the playground of self-deception, the tool of mendacity and the weapon of mental and spiritual destruction. We are facing such a time in the world, in this country, in our communities, families, in our very self. The fatigue that is being felt by the majority because the mendacious ones and their followers get energized by their lies, they plug into a power supply that is limitless with their deceptions, self and towards another(s). For the majority of us, the bombardment of these lies, the bastardization of the principles of the Bible, the Koran, the New Testament, democracy, decency, kindness, etc overwhelm us and we find ourselves powerless to change the minds of another(s) with facts, with “rational coherence” because the lies are stuck together with the same type of adhesive that barnacles use to stick to a boat!

And, we are able to reject this onslaught, begin to break down the framework of the lies and deceptions when we use truth as our guiding light. When we are able to acknowledge the lies we tell ourselves and see them for what they are, defenses against change; when we seek to connect with another(s) for the sake of learning and improving our corner of the world; when we are determined to stop blaming, be responsible for our actions and speak truth to power, even the power of our lies and self-deception; then we are beginning our recovery and building a way of living that we can live in always, not perfectly, and always searching and seeking a “rational coherence” that causes our soul to experience the joy of a true mind/spirit connection and celebrate the wins and losses of the day with equanimity and welcoming.

This “rational coherence” and “celebration” of our soul is what we are recovering in recovery. We work at this every day, we begin with gratitude upon awakening and end our day with gratitude for being aware, alive and in recovery, no matter what the ‘results’ of our day were, we know we have learned something, we lived our commitment to “rational coherence” and “celebration” a little more today than we did yesterday and this makes it a great day!

I will write more on this on Sunday. Shabbos is a time to reflect, it is a time to celebrate and I know if I don’t have some “rational coherence” based in truth, my soul cannot celebrate. I strive to find the truth, I seek it out from within me and from another(s). When there is not “rational coherence” I, today, am able to accept it and move on rather than fight the mendacity, the blame, the need for another(s) to make me wrong with anger, ferocity, and, at times, inappropriateness. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 300

“The mind is in search of rational coherence, the soul in quest for celebration. Knowledge is celebration. Truth is more than equation of thing and thought. Truth is transcendence, its comprehension is loyalty.” (Who is Man pg 117)

The challenge of being human is summed up in the first sentence above. This is the struggle, war, argument going on inside of us always and forever-between rational coherence and celebration, between mind and soul, between earthly and divine instincts, between comprehension and knowing, etc. All human beings experience this challenge, all human beings are engaged in this challenge, not all human beings are aware of this struggle, not all human beings face this challenge and many human beings decide to make sense, “rational coherence”, rather than engage in the struggle, rather than engage in celebration.

When we decline to engage in this ‘war’ within our self, the majority of people, in opting out, give too much energy to searching for “rational coherence”. We go overboard with “left brain” behavior, we believe we can think our way into good situations and out of bad ones, we believe that there is a logical reason for everything, everything can be discovered, if it isn’t logical, provable, evidence-based then it isn’t true! We develop our “left brain” to such a degree that we are able to deceive our self into believing our own lies, we are susceptible to the deceptions of another(s) and, I believe, we become enslaved to our mind and, in many cases, we descend Into a slavery that is as burdensome and onerous as the slavery in Egypt is described in the Bible. Some of us are Pharaoh, some of us taskmasters, and some of us the people building the pyramids. Because we have indulged in the false belief that our minds are everything, our minds are our greatest asset, we have fallen headfirst into this trap, we are being used as pawns by people who use their minds to enslave us, who use our vulnerabilities against us and we then engage in violence against our soul, we block our hearing the true call/demand of God, we stop maturing our souls in order to follow the leader.

We are in such a situation now, we have Putin and Orban in Europe; Xi in Asia;  Trump, Thiel, Masters, Oz, Lake, DiSantis, the Republican Party, White Christian Nationalists, the Squad, etc all using “rational coherence” to “rally the base”. “Rally the base” is the descriptor of what is happening and has been happening for millennia, leaders are appealing to the baser instincts of their followers and their enemies, they, at times, use soul language to sound good, yet they have a logic that puts them in a position to lead rebellion for the sake of their own power, begin wars, figuratively and literally, against outside enemies so their followers can have ‘them’ to focus their hatred, their frustrations and their anger. All the while making it seem logical and, in their amazingly deceptive manner, even spiritual. When the mind is what is understanding God’s words, they have to be bastardized and manipulated, which is exactly what is happening now and has happened throughout history.

Our minds are crucial to our existence and growth, they are necessary for our spiritual growth as our souls are crucial to our existence and growth and necessary for our minds’ growth. This is not a polemic for either one, I believe. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us of our desperate need for both our soul and our mind. He is calling to us to develop and mature both, he is demanding we stop favoring one over the other, rather he is teaching us to use both in concert with each other and to use both in proper measure. I am hearing Rabbi Heschel exhort us to be more aware of how both mind and soul are part of every experience we have.

In recovery, we are seeking to put our living back into proper measure, or put our living into proper measure for the first time. We were so out of whack, so out of alignment that only a power greater than ourselves could do the chiropractic work on our minds and souls necessary for us be back into alignment with truth, with life on life’s terms, with our fellow human beings. We are learning how to access both mind and soul in their proper measure and allow the one most appropriate to lead in each experience we are in.

I am writing this with awe and reverence for Rabbi Heschel. I have a ‘math brain’ and a soul that is more developed and mature than it was when I was a con man, a drunk and a thief. Today, I realize that my need to put things into “rational coherence” is also a need of my soul as well as my mind. I have used the wrong language for quite a while, I am realizing. What has been described by me and another(s) as my need to know is really, my need to comprehend so I can have an appropriate response, without both my mind and soul understanding and comprehending, my response is almost always too little or too much, rejected or accepted, and I am either loved or betrayed. I am saddened that it has taken me so long to understand this truth of my self, my way of being, I could have found better ways to communicate and to connect with another(s) and within my self. I am elated that I am realizing this now, I am elated that I am able to let go of my need to comprehend reasons and deal with what is, accept that another(s) have their own war inside of them and, sometimes they victimize someone else to give themselves a measure of ‘peace’. I have done this before and regret this way of being greatly. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 299

“To celebrate is to share in a greater joy, to participate in an eternal drama. In acts of consumption the intention is to please our own selves in acts of celebration the intention is to extol God, the spirit, the source of blessing.” (Who is Man pg. 117)

Once we are able to let go of our self-centered need to please our selves only, once we are willing to surrender to the basic spiritual truths of being human, we are then ready and able to “extol God, the spirit, the source of blessing”. The basic spiritual truths of all humanity are: love, kindness, truth, justice, being needed, needing another, community, connection, compassion and service. Immersing oneself in the ending words of the last sentence above, understanding the word intention in the Latin meaning of the word; purpose, celebration takes on a new meaning as does consumption. Truthfully making the extolling of God; the love of mercy, justice, and walking in God’s ways, fulfilling our need to be in truth and to be needed, engaging in authentic connection and needing another(s), living with compassion towards self and another(s) as well as being of service to humanity, to nature, to God/Universe. We are learning/re-learning from Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above to stop these foolish flights of fantasy into consuming as much as we can, having as much as we can,  in order to ‘win’, in order to please our false self, in order to satisfy the urges and cravings of our authoritarian leader, because we have become a slave to our consumption urges and always need to be feeding it with more and more stuff.

Making service our purpose, making serving something greater than our self our purpose is the path back to our basic goodness of being, the path back to living the foundational spiritual values, principles and truth that live within us. Making truth our purpose and path, seeking justice as a matter of course, authentic connection seems to miraculously happen and we are more fulfilled because of connection, truth, and justice to the world around us, to the world that the Ineffable One inhabits as well. When seek to be kind rather than nice, when we seek to be compassionate rather than greedy, when we fulfill our calling to make our corner of the garden that we inhabit a little better than it was before we were here, then we live with an ease and a knowing that is indescribable. We are no longer looking over our shoulder and worried about who is trying to take something from us, we are looking forward and around us to see who we can share our bounty with. We bless God before and after we eat to remind us that all that we have is not of our own doing solely, we acknowledge that we have had so much help to be where we are, parents, friends, teachers, co-workers, the universe, etc and being able to sustain our bodies, minds and spirits is a gift.

Prayer is not to ask for something, as Rabbi Heschel teaches, it is to praise, to thank, it is a song and it comes from our souls, not our minds. We pray each morning, afternoon, evening as well as before and after every meal, ending with our bedtime prayers not as a chore, not as a petition, we pray as a song of gratitude and acknowledgement of the blessings and gifts we receive each and every day. Upon arising, being grateful to be alive and committing to be compassionate and faithful is our action of gratitude. Helping another human being just by saying hello and acknowledging their existence is an action of gratitude that we are awake, aware and alive.These suggestions are ways to make extolling of God, the spirit and the source of blessing our purpose. These are the ways we can allow ourselves to be confronted and defeated by a higher truth when consumption, self-deception and the deception by another(s) tries to overwhelm us.

In recovery, we reject our past ways of consumption for the sake of more, for the sake of escape, for the sake of faux protection. We are at least 51% committed to engage in acts of celebration rather than self-centeredness, rather than self-aggrandizement. We have a practice, unique to each of us, for praise, for gratitude, for blessing and to be of service, to be compassionate, to make truth, justice, kindness, mercy the address we now live at. In recovery, we surrender each day, sometimes many times a day, we set our purpose/intention on connection, service, and love.

My life in recovery has been about extolling God, the spirit and the source of blessing. I know that without God’s help, I never could have gone from being in prison 35 years ago to being in retirement after the humbling joyous experience of being of service to God, to humanity, to my family, community. I am acutely aware of my flaws, I am reviewing them as I write and I have made my amends and searching for ones I still need to make. I am content in ways I never understood before, I am not interested in licking old wounds, in dealing with people who have betrayed me, in trying to figure out what someone’s motive is. I am more interested in celebration, in taking actions that extol God, not me; extol the spirit within me, not my false ego and pride; the source of blessing, all the people who touch my life with love, with lessons, with guile and with truth. It is no longer about getting even, figuring out someone’s motives, it is about engaging in the connection, in the experience, learning from both and making this day one grain of sand better than the last day. My purpose is based in the spiritual truths above and I get to live them each day-how great is this! Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi

Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 298

“To celebrate is too share in a greater joy, to participate in an eternal drama. In acts of consumption the intention is to please our own selves in acts of celebration the intention is to extol God, the spirit, the source of blessing.” (Who is Man pg. 117)

Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above is not a condemnation of consumption, I believe it is a deep regret that humanity has replaced celebration with consumption, confusing the two and missing out on the importance of extolling God, higher power, etc. He is, in my understanding today, lamenting the situation we find ourselves in-‘celebration of self’ rather than extolling the spirit and the source of blessing. Kosher living is what I hear Rabbi Heschel calling for, demanding of us. Living a life that is fitting and proper, living a life that has self, God, and another humans at the center and in our core is the challenge of these words above. Consuming enough food to live and enjoy is appropriate and necessary as is having friendships, sex, work, exercise, knowledge, excitement, loss and gain, love, truth, kindness and compassion. All of these and so much more are necessary to have a good life. Our challenge is to live our lives in proper measure, in ways that are fitting and proper for the experience we are in at this moment.

The reason that mendacity and deception of self and/or another is so devastating to us is that we are no longer able to discern what is truly fitting and proper, no longer capable to recognize truth, kindness, love, justice, mercy. We are no longer able to extol spirit, the source of blessing, God, higher power or anything except our self or the authoritarian self we have chosen as our idol. Consumption that is our of proper measure, that is no longer fitting for the moment in any area of life, is, as I experience the brilliance above, the symptom of a society that has gone away from God, that is desecrating God’s name, trying to crush knowledge and experience of the spirit and replace the source of blessing with itself!

This is where we find ourselves at this very moment, led there by the so-called ‘people of faith, good christian white men’, from the federalist society who want to install christian law in our country saying this is what the founders wanted. What BULLSHIT! The original English settlers ran away from religious intolerance of England and the King in order to not have what these liars, these deceivers, these con artists are promoting. So many have died to keep our democracy whole and holy they have not died for a plutocracy nor a theocracy to be established. What these grifters really want is power, they want to be adored as much as Trump wants to be adored, they want to remake Jesus to be a control freak and a lion, not a man of God/son of God. These charlatans give religion, Jesus, faith and God a bad name. They want to consume our democracy and replace it with a theocracy and a plutocracy, even though these are opposite forms of government usually, the grifters have gotten together to unite for power, for consumption, for being the masters while the rest of us are the slaves, for the ‘white race’.

Lindsey Graham, wonder what secrets he is afraid of being revealed, has spoken in ways that seem like a call to riot, inciting civil war, he is ducking a subpoena, all the while preaching law and order, all the while calling people of color, Jews, Asians, Muslims, John McCain his friends. He is a desperate white man trying to hold onto and be next to power, he is so self-seeking, he needs to consume more and more power and protection, he is willing to and has given up his principles. We see this so often, people who are bent on consumption and unwilling to be responsible for the damage they cause, unwilling to extol God because they are too busy pleasing themselves and/or pleasing the idol they have come to worship, like Lindsey Graham’s idol worship of Donald Trump and the lies he tells.

In recovery, we have a solution for this over consumption, it is called a searching and fearless inventory, a fourth step. We are constantly searching out the lies and deceptions, the resentments and angers we have held onto dearly and made consumption the only method of self-soothing. We are engaged each day in a way of living that is fitting and proper for the moment, knowing it is never a one size fits all, knowing it is never a one and done proposition. We review our year, our month, week, day to see where and how we have done well also. In recovery, we want to view the whole picture and not give in to our prejudices and self-pleasing ways.

Since this is the 3rd day of Elul, it seems fitting and proper to write about consumption and celebration in this way. I know most of my faults and flaws, I am aware of what people put on me also. I am saddened by the latest betrayals of people I once trusted and I see that my need to please my self with lies of connection have led me to experience betrayal while the other people knew we had a transactional relationship. I realize it was my neediness that allowed me to lie to myself and to protect and defend people rather than principles at times. I am elated to be able to realize more and more each day, I am ecstatic that I haven’t lost my desire and capacity to learn and grow. I am  committed to T’Shuvah, to my daily inventories, to continuing to “promptly admit what I was wrong” and “extol God, the spirit and the source of blessing” that keeps me on this wonderful path and this amazing life I am leading. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 297

“To celebrate is too share in a greater joy, to participate in an eternal drama. In acts of consumption the intention is to please our own selves in acts of celebration the intention is to extol God, the spirit, the source of blessing.” (Who is Man pg. 117)

In the Bible, we are taught that it is God that goes before the Israelites to ensure their victory over their enemies, reminding us it is not just about us, we are not the all-powerful Oz that we have come to believe we are. Yet, this gift from God, this going before us has been bastardized to mean that God is vengeful and unmerciful in the “Old Testament”. How absurd and sad! Yet, how powerful a method to hide the truth of these deceivers: we want to please our selves with power, we want you to serve us, we want to have it all, etc. This way of thinking and acting have been with us from the beginning of humankind and, at times, it has been overwhelmed by people walking in the ways of God instead of walking in the ways of power.

We are in a time right now that calls for us to distinguish what we need to consume to survive and thrive and what we are consuming just because we can. I am thinking about the laws of Kosher eating in the Hebrew Bible. My friend and teacher, Rabbi Edward Feinstein, taught me that the laws of Kosher eating come to remind us, just because we can doesn’t mean we should, doesn’t mean it is fitting and proper. Keeping Kosher is another way to be conscious and thoughtful as to our actions, as to our consumption. Can we say the same about all of the other things we are trying to consume, are our actions fitting and proper in all areas of our living? Probably not, because we are human, we are imperfect. Rather than turning our imperfection into neurosis’, let’s use them to help us make decisions regarding the paths we choose to make choices.

We are in a crisis right now, whether the mendacious ones, the deceivers will convince the majority, including people who will be harmed by their actions, that they are acting in God’s name, according to God’s Will, all the while pleasing only their selves, caring nothing about their fellow human beings. We are seeing this in business, in politics, in the breakdown of neighborhoods, in the increase of street crimes, in the increase of mass shootings, in the increase of racist, anti-semitic acts, anti-asian acts, etc. We are experiencing a time of great upheaval, of a desire to return to the ‘good old days’ of white supremacy, of pitting one group against another, of riling up the ‘troops’ to storm the Capital, to get ready for a civil war. All in the name of ‘celebrating of great history and the intent of the founding fathers’. We need to stand firm against the liars and cheats who are ruining democracy and trying to overtake freedom with authoritarianism.

We need to go on a new ‘food’ plan, a new/old way of being ! A way of being that allows us to surrender our need for control and certainty to God, a way of being that helps us lose the weight of false ego, pride, fear of missing out (fomo) and our insatiable hunger for power. This way of being is found in the Hebrew Bible, in the Gospels of the New Testament, in the Koran and in every spiritual discipline there is. It is a hard path to begin, it is a hard way of being to live every day and we will falter and we will err on this journey. Yet, we can begin this ‘consumption’ plan today by letting go of the irrational fear of Charlottesville, “Jews will not replace us” was the chant by these “good people” as the former President declared, or the lies of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers of how only their form of White Christianity will save us. Of course we will have to take the deceptions of the ‘Prosperity Gospel’ promoters off our plates as well. We will have to limit our intake of bastardized teachings from our spiritual texts and close our mouths and minds to the mendacity of ‘strict constitutionalists’. Every day, we are served extreme ideologies on a platter and it is up to us to reject these seemingly sumptuous meals in favor of the middle path, in favor of a meal that is satisfying and not indulgent, providing nutrition and not too rich in carbs, in flour, in anything that gets us bloated and fat. We can have differing opinions and learn from one another without needing to consume another human being as our slave, our enemy. We can live in ways that are compatible with our being a partner of God!

In recovery, we are always adjusting our consumption. In fact, I would posit, that we are in recovery from our incessant need to consume. “One is too many and a 1000 is never enough” is a saying in recovery and this is the theme we are on a ‘diet’ from, the desires and needs we need a new way of being to handle appropriately. In recovery, we are acutely aware of our tendency to enslave, to give into our fears and our false egos and know that surrender is our only answer so we can once again gain control of our actions and life.

I am always battling my physical weight. I am aware of my ability to go on a diet and lose weight and sad at my inability to keep it off forever. I am elated with my lack of desire to consume everything in my orbit and all the oxygen in the room in most other areas of my life. I am grateful I have learned to listen enough to learn from so many and I am humbled by God’s faith and trust in me. I am also in awe of God’s mission for me and giving me the power to carry it out. I can’t rest on my laurels and I can’t worry about tomorrow. I can only be in today and I can only feel sad for those who want to control and consume me, want to enslave me and harm me. I resist and God helps me remember to stand for truth and walk in God’s ways and not need to ‘get even’ anymore.  God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 295

“To celebrate is too share in a greater joy, to participate in an eternal drama. In acts of consumption the intention is to please our own selves in acts of celebration the intention is to extol God, the spirit, the source of blessing.” (Who is Man pg. 117)

Humanity has always mistaken consumption for celebration, I believe, because of our inability to get past our selves! We are so self-centered and self-seeking we confuse consumption with celebration. We seem to be hard-wired to consume everything we see and have the desire to conquer, rule and control everything around us. Doing this causes us to engage in the consumption Rabbi Heschel is speaking of above.

I believe the root cause of this out-sized need to consume everything, to have the biggest and the best, etc is fear. Many of us live with fears that we are not even aware of, fears that we can’t name consciously, fears of not enough, fears of being left out, fears of what happens when we die, fears of powerlessness and many more. Some people turn to religion to deal with their fears, some people turn to spirituality to deal with their fears, most people turn to power, control and mendacity/deception to deal with their fears, hence Rabbi Heschel’s observation above.

Fear and faith co-exist! The word for awe in Hebrew is the same word for fear because both awe and fear provoke reverence in us, when we engage the experience we are having, rather than trying to control it. I have heard many people ask “where is your faith” and I respond, “I have absolute faith in God, it is you and me that I have fears about”. Because of the need for certainty and our dependence on ‘knowing all’ we have forgotten that at Mount Sinai, at the Red Sea, at the Last Supper, at Mason Temple on April 3, 1968, Rev. King delivered his “Mountain Top” speech, and so many other events in the history of humankind that are moments of great trembling, great fear, great awe and absolute displays of the certainty of God, the certainty of prophecy and the uncertainty of life!

Turning to faith is not the same as the so-called ‘religious leadership’ of the National Prayer Breakfasts want us to believe. Turning to faith is not what the deceptive proponents of the ‘prosperity gospels’ would have us believe. Turning to faith is not what the White Christian Nationalists would have us believe either. Turning to faith is to turn inward and outward, to realize the similarities every human being share and the call/demand of God to care for our self, care for the all selves, care for all of God’s creations. Turning to faith is to be afraid to “see God face to face” because the radiance is too great for humans to handle. Turning to faith is adopting an attitude of gratitude for being alive. Turning to faith is to never take anything for granted, not even our breathing. Turning to faith is to mature and grow our inner life, to connect our souls and our minds, to ensure that we immerse ourselves in God’s words and seek to understand their meaning for us, seek to do God’s Will: “Love your Neighbor as You Love your Self” and “Love God with all your heart, soul, your everything”, “love mercy, do justly and walk in God’s ways”! These are not impossible tasks, these are all doable for each and every one of us once we surrender our need to control, our need to lie to another(s) and to our selves, once we allow ourselves to dream the dream of Godliness and holiness that are embedded in our natures.

We are in the midst of a crisis of faith, because we are being bombarded with bastardizations of what faith truly is. Any faith that is not inclusive, any faith that is discriminatory, any faith that is ‘holier than thou’, is not a true faith in God. Any faith that seeks to shut people out forever for their errors is not a true faith in God. Any faith that seeks to control everyone and make everyone bow down to it, is not a true faith in God. Faith in God, living a spiritual, principled life is never certain, we are told there are 70 ways to understand each verse in the Bible, the New Testament was written in Aramaic and translated into different languages and we all know how much is lost in translation. We are hearing the word of God through the voices, bias’, lies, and need to control of humans, so we must, in order to have a faith that guides us and helps us move through our fears, engage personally in the principles and teachings of our faiths and not let someone else’s opinions rule us.

In recovery, we find solutions to our various crises’ of faith, our various fears and uncertainties. This solution is to seek and relate to “God, as we understand God”. Not as idolatry or control, rather to engage in a relationship with God, to struggle and wrestle with God and our fears and uncertainties, to immerse ourselves in principles rather than in consumption and lies. It is a work in progress and this road is much better than the one we used to be on.

Awe and fear have always co-existed inside of me and for over 20 years, I thought that was a bad thing, a defect of character inside of me. I know now, that the path to a mature relationship with God has to have this both/and. I continue to cultivate the relationship and learn how to live with this both/and each and every day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 295

“To celebrate is too share in a greater joy, to participate in an eternal drama. In acts of consumption the intention is to please our own selves in acts of celebration the intention is to extol God, the spirit, the source of blessing.” (Who is Man pg. 117)

Someone asked me the purpose of this daily writing and blogging it and I thought about the question with consternation, inquisitiveness and joy. Consternation because I thought the title says it all, this is for everyone to learn and share in the wisdom, brilliance and teachings of Rabbi Heschel for our everyday living. My curiosity was peaked by being asked this question at all, wondering what this person was getting that made the question relevant for her. I am joyous that the question was asked so I could explain, it made me know this is being read and, whether I am clear on my intention or not, it has at least one person thinking about Rabbi Heschel, thinking about how to live well and reading this daily! I want to be clear about my intentions, much like the first sentence above; this blog is a celebration of Rabbi Heschel’s impact on my life, a sharing of the greater joy we, I and all of the people who have learned Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom with me over the years, have experienced and participated in and how this  joy helps us participate more fully “in an eternal drama”. It is to let you, the reader, know I am available to help you navigate with purpose and passion in all areas of your life and a snippet of how I help a person apply this type of wisdom to any and all parts of their life.

These past 295 days are my sharing in the “greater joy” of living life on its terms, not the ones I want, not the false narratives that so many people are spouting today. We all have an opportunity to share in the greater joy of living, to participate in an eternal drama if we are willing to follow a few simple paths that God/the Universe has set out for us, the first of which being to “Love God with all of our heart, soul, our everything”. To do this we have to love our self, love our neighbor, love our enemies with all of our heart, soul and everything. Each of us are created in the Image of God, each of us has within us the spirit of the Universe, each of us is endowed with the need for connection, love, service, community. Yet, in false narratives that we make up and/or adopt from another that is made up, we lose sight of these truths, we forget this simple path and we make war, false accusations and dangerous lies against another so we can be all powerful.

Our need to be God causes us to worship idols, to participate in an action that is the antithesis of the “eternal drama” Rabbi Heschel speaks of above. We cannot “share in the greater joy” Rabbi Heschel is speaking of when our joy is derived from mendacity, from ‘winning the war’, from ‘beating the competition’, from showing off how strong, smart, rich, famous, powerful we are. This is the reason so many ‘successful’ people have such utterly sad inner lives, why they are so envied for their outside achievements and in such terrible turmoil in their inner lives. Divorce, being mis-attuned with children and partners, being feared rather than loved, fearful their inner demons may ruin a carefully crafted outer image, etc are all. Writing this blog is a way for me to participate in the “eternal drama” of joy, of life, of love, of service to people who are in need and desire of a more mature and congruent inner life.

We forfeit our share when we indulge in idolatry in all of its forms. When we allow our selves to be ‘bought off’ by money, power, prestige we are engaging in idol worship. When we buy into the lies of Trump and his band of thieves, power-hungry mongers, sycophants, we are engaging in idol worship. When we buy into the lies of religious leaders, spiritual gurus that they have the answer and they alone are the truth, we are engaging in idolatry. When we buy into the lies we tell ourselves that we need to buy these lies, that these lies are actually the truth, we are so spiritually ill that we need a physician of the soul to help us be on the path of spiritual healing and psychological clarity.

In recovery, we are constantly searching for and living a path towards spiritual healing and psychological health. In the 3rd step we “made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God, as we understand God”. We are willing to surrender our fears and our self-centeredness, our self-pity and our need to be right, our false ego and our need to be the director of everything so we can “participate in the eternal drama” of living well, so we can “share in a greater joy” and rise above the misery we have been in and we have caused/shared with those around us.

I have to let go of the false narratives I still tell myself, I have to surrender the caricatures of me that I have created, I get to do this by sharing the joy of living that I experience, by not allowing the doings, defining, opinions of people who want to harm me infect me with doubt, despair and/or send me back to idolatry. I have been participating in the “eternal drama” more and more and staying out of the drama people create as well as creating personal drama less and less. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

living rabbi heschel’s wisdom - A daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 293

“Yet what I mean is not outward ceremony and public demonstration, but rather inward appreciation, lending spiritual form to everyday acts. Its essence is to call attention to the sublime or solemn aspects of living, to rise above the confines of consumption.”(Who is Man pg. 117)

We have become consumers of junk science, alternative facts, false moral equivalency, deceptions and ‘celebrity’ status. Polio is showing up in waste water because people don’t want to be vaccinated nor do they want their children vaccinated because they are believing the junk science of the vaccine deniers. We have lost over a million people to Covid-19 because these same deniers convinced millions of Americans to not wear masks, to not be told what to do with their bodies while supporting people who want to decree what a woman can or cannot do with her own body! Because people are so willing to believe the lies of leaders, both religious and secular, they have betrayed their interests, betrayed the health and welfare of their children and families, they have betrayed the call of the universe to participate in the solution instead of becoming the problem. Yet, we are being bombarded by these deniers, these liars who are following the lead of the Tucker Carlson’s, the Sean Hannity’s, the Matt Gaetz’, et al and people are consuming these lies as if they were their mother’s milk. I believe they are caught in the confines of consuming the lies that appeal to their greatest fear, being left out/being out of the group. What Donald Trump was able to masterfully create was a narrative for people who felt left out and feared being displaced by “those people” that he was one of them, that he is their champion not because he is different, rather because he is like them, they are ‘his people’.

This consumption of lies and deceptions is so far reaching that it touches every part of our lives. Even with the documentation done by Eisenhower, even with the oral histories done by survivors of the Shoah, people are denying the Holocaust happened, they are denying the death of 6 million+Jews simply because of Hitler’s desire to scapegoat the Jews, simply because of the racial prejudice against Jews that was started by the Catholic Church a millennia ago. For so long, up until Vatican II and Rabbi Heschel’s efforts to get Jews killed Christ out of the Catechism, and mission to the Jews revoked, Catholics consumed these lies and, like Blacks, Hispanics and Asians as well as Jews today, this consumption confined the Jews to a certain status, engendering hatred and animosity. What makes these lies and deceptions so attractive and palatable to be so consumed?

I believe it is the same thing that Trump tapped into. People are so afraid of change, they need and crave certainty so badly that anyone who promises the status quo and guarantees the certainty people are wanting will be blindly followed. We are witnessing one of the most distressing times in our Nation’s history. I hear Rabbi Heschel calling us to task, calling us to speak out, calling us to reach out to everyone we can and stop the mendacity that will kill freedom, end the deception that is killing democracy, surrender our need to live in the past and welcome the changes that each new day brings. Stop trying to hold on to the heirlooms of the past and immerse ourselves in the beauty and challenge of here and now. We will always be consumers, the question that Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom brings up for us: what are we going to consume? Are we going to be confined by the consumption of lies and deceptions? Are we going to be confined by the consumption of power and prestige? Are we going to be consumers of true celebration, true inner appreciation and welcome “the sublime wonder of living”? Are we going to consume truth and solutions more than lies and problems?

In recovery, we seek to be in the solution and, at times, be the solution. The solution to all of our issues today, according to Dr. Paul, is acceptance. We have to accept what is, we have to be in truth and clarity about what is happening right now in front of us to be able to adapt, change, respond and be in the solution. Without acceptance of truth, of reality, we are not in recovery, we are in our addictive thinking-which is what is happening all over the world. We are in desperate need of recovery, recovery of truth, recovery of dignity, recovery of our ability to truly celebrate and recovery of real freedom.

I see the subtleties of my own consumptive behaviors in my recovery. I believed the lies and deceptions of another(s) without too much questioning because I believed it would serve the mission I was on. I consumed the ‘friendship’ of people who needed me and whom I needed (or thought I did) and I have been thrown out with the trash when I was not useful anymore. I am also sure that there are people who experienced me in the same light. I am sorry for their experience and my part in it. I am sorry that I was so deep in my own narrative that I could not see the deceptions and mendacities of another(s) and, in truth, did not realize my own lies I was telling myself. Writing this today has me realizing the myriad of ways consumption confines me, confines everyone unless we are first serving a higher purpose, unless we are first in inner appreciation of life and our place, unless we are, as Ben Zoma teaches, happy with our portion in life. Without appreciation for what we have we become consumer whores and this exacerbates our angst and does not allow for celebration. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel’s Wisdom - A daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 293

“Yet what I mean is not outward ceremony and public demonstration, but rather inward appreciation, lending spiritual form to everyday acts. Its essence is to call attention to the sublime or solemn aspects of living, to rise above the confines of consumption.”(Who is Man pg. 117)

Remembering these words were spoken in 1963 to a group of students and faculty at Stanford University and hearing them, reading them today is mind boggling and totally in keeping with the “good old days” and “old ways of being”. In the “good old days” of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judea, the Greeks, the Romans, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Spanish, the Ottomans, the Germans, the British, and, now the Americans, people in power become more interested in consumption than in celebration, more interested in self than in living up to the threshold of God, more interested in consumption than in the plight of the poor, the needy, the stranger.

The prophets, whom some of us still study and learn from while many more of us read as an assignment to be forgotten immediately, foretold the dangers of this grave error and the people in power did not listen then nor have they since. The lure of consumption is as addictive as any drug, any drink, yet we congratulate consumers on their purchases, on their filling up with more and more, we are envious of the people who can suck all the oxygen out of the room, fly on their private jets, buy multiple homes, automobiles, jewelry, clothes, etc. We are in awe of the people who have forgotten that once they were poor, once they were on the outside and now, having a seat at the table, have forgotten, denied, their obligation to include everyone, to make a “bigger table”, as my friend John Pavlovitz teaches. This is how addictive and blinding our desire for consumption is, for us the onlookers and for the people consuming.

We see it in all the fad diets, all the get rich quick schemes, all the long cons/ponzi schemes, we see it in the ways people will ‘bet their rent money’ on the false hope of winning the lottery. We see this desire play out in our searching for mates, for friends, for likes on social media. We see evidence of our need to consume in our closets and in our refrigerators, in our offices and in our homes, we see it in our hoarding, in our clutter, in our envy and in our jealousy of another(s). Yet, we are still unwilling and/or unable to admit to ourselves how confining this consumption is, how confining our desire/addiction to consumption is and how it is threatening our very freedoms, both internally and externally. Consumption confines us through scarcity and deception. We have become believers that the consumers at the top of the pyramid know what they are doing so we try and copy them, we listen to them as if they are wise and caring, as if they have our best interests at heart and then we find ourselves enslaved to them, we find we “owe our soul to the company store”, we become encircled in the chains of consumption, in the chains of deception and in the chains of slavery.

We are witnessing the beginning of the ruination all of the civilizations mentioned above experienced, I believe. We are at the beginning of the lies from religious leaders who are bastardizing God’s words, God’s Will, our individual, personal connection and understanding of the Ineffable One’s call and demand for us. We hear them constantly tell us Christ was the Lion, Christ was the conqueror, while the words of Christ in the Gospels is about treating the poor, the needy, the stranger, the addicts, the whores, the thieves, etc with love and respect, with kindness and assistance. We hear them speak of how God wants perfection, how doing as many mitzvot as possible is all that matters, how making someone else wrap T’Fillin, is good whether they want to or not, whether they understand the meaning and the inner connection or not. We hear them tell us there are 70 ways to understand the Bible and only their way is the correct ONE WAY. We hear and take in their lies like dogs waiting for a treat, we let go of our ability to discern wheat from the chaff, lies from the truth, soul knowledge from our self-deception.

In recovery, we check in with our self each day to find the lies we are telling ourselves, to find the meaningless consumption we are engaging in, to find the unwitting ways we are still enslaving ourselves and another(s). We work hard each day to practice the principles of the prophets, the principles of spiritual connection and growth.

I am guilty of consumption and the slavery of same. I have been enslaved by my need for the latest and best in electronics, shoes, etc. I also have learned to wait and discern the differences between my wants and needs, I also make sure that I take care of God through my Tzedakah/tithing prior to taking care of me. I am grateful for what I have and want my life, my stuff, my friends, my enemies, my family, and my spirit. I know where consumption takes me and I have stayed out of the depths I went to prior to 1988 and continue to grow and learn. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Living Rabbi Heschel’s Wisdom - A Daily Path to LIving Well

Daily Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Day 292

“Yet what I mean is not outward ceremony and public demonstration, but rather inward appreciation, lending spiritual form to everyday acts. Its essence is to call attention to the sublime or solemn aspects of living, to rise above the confines of consumption.”(Who is Man pg. 117)

In looking up words Rabbi Heschel uses, I am always startled at my misconception of many of them as in today’s words, sublime and solemn. Sublime comes from the Latin meaning “up to the threshold” and solemn means “customary/celebrated at fixed times” according to the dictionary online. Reading the last sentence above with these meanings, using Rabbi Heschel’s foundation of radical amazement, gifts me with the understanding that celebration’s essence is to have my inner life, my soul call attention to the aspects of life that are customary, that are regular and be aware of them. Stop taking everything/anything for granted, I hear Rabbi Heschel telling me, start to and continue to allow our inner life, our spirit, make us aware of the celebration of each action that moves life forward, that serves a higher purpose, that promotes us “up to the threshold” of holiness, goodness, kindness, service, justice.

Looking at the news, reading the things we celebrate, worry about likes and clicks, are all ways to distract ourselves from these important, fundamental truths Rabbi Heschel is teaching us. We have lost, it seems, the ability to live sublimely, to live “up to the threshold” because nothing is ever “good enough”, nothing is perfect and we have come to use these two profanity’s against ourselves and against one another. How many of us truly see our daily actions as good, good enough, perfectly imperfect? How many of us complain about, admit to, proudly declare how not good enough we are? We are so fixated on ‘celebrating’ the wins, the likes, the clicks, the adoration, the approval of another that we are no longer paying attention to all the ways we are living “up to the threshold” and celebrating them and ourselves. We are so fixated on the outer shell, we come to define solemn as “not cheerful, serious, dignified” customarily celebrating waking up each morning as a miracle. We are so fixated on “getting it right” we are blind to the joy of connecting with our soul, our family, friends, partners, nature, God, another human being.

We can change the ways we are living once we surrender our need for certainty. Once we surrender our need to be defined by another’s standard, society’s standard. Using the word perfection is an example. Who defined perfection? Some man who wanted to control another, some man who wanted his wife to feel inferior, some man who wanted his children to fear and please him is probably who defined it and many other men went along with him. Perfection, not good enough, social media, are all levers of control that also are sold to us as certainty. A religion that offers certainty also is bastardizing God because God is so unknowable and so infinite that we can only experience and worship,  celebrate and be in partnership with God “up to the threshold” of our understanding and spiritual maturity. We celebrate God at fixed times and customarily throughout the day when we eat, when we pray, when we take the next right action. Yet, many of us are oblivious to this truth in favor of the the lie and deception of perfection, good enough, how many clicks/likes did I get this time!

We are in desperate need, as a society, of a new/renewed awareness of what it means to celebrate, what it means to immerse ourselves in the essence of living, in the essence of celebrating, in the essence of connection, in the essence of imperfection. We have the ability to accept and adapt to new/old concepts and ideas, we have the spiritual tools to “live up to the threshold” of our capabilities, yet we are constantly falling prey to the deception and the lies, to the control and the power of societal norms, of bullies and authoritarians, to the false needs of another and the facades we wish to show the world. Rather than be “dignified” lets be customarily celebrating our actions of kindness and love, rather than being “formal”, lets get to know the inner life of ourselves and another human being. Rather than experiencing something as unparalleled, lets enjoy and enhance our living “up to the threshold” of the moment. We have the ability, we have the spiritual nature, do we have the willingness?

In recovery, we celebrate each day of recovery with gratitude, with joy, and this is a “customary” action we take. We live “up to the threshold” of our ability in the moment with the knowledge that each moment is different, our best is forever changing and we can only do what is in front of us now and to the best of our ability today.

Sitting here writing this, in New York City, I am having an experience of joy and relief. I am always connected to Rabbi Heschel and being here in the City he called home for so many years, I feel the connection a little stronger. I also am aware of the ways/moments I don’t “live up to the threshold” of my abilities, when I give in to the baser desires of my humanity. I am also aware of how much, how often and how customary it is for me to celebrate life, actions, the people in my life and the heroes who have helped to shape me, mold me and bring me closer to God, to authenticity and transparency. I am uncontrollable to most people because I do have the desire to push myself and another(s) to the “threshold” of God, love, justice, kindness, compassion, truth, etc. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark