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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 177

“Evil is not only a threat, it is a challenge… The mitsvah, the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self, is our way of dealing with the problem. We do not know how to solve the problem of evil, but we are not exempt from dealing with evils.”(God in Search of Man pg. 377)

The more one immerses oneself in Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom, the more one can enlarge one’s soul, I have found. The teaching above is causing me to tremble with awe and consternation. The second sentence above, reminding us and calling out to us the importance of the mitsvah for our inner life, for our outer life, and to answer the call of God and pay forward some of what we owe to God is a moment, opportunity for us to look inside of ourselves and at the outside world to take notice of where we are, what we are doing and who we are.

The consternation one can experience is to see the myriad of ways we do not use the mitsvah as “the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self” and instead use it to bludgeon another person with our ‘holiness’; our need to have ‘christian law’ be the governing plan of our nation. The false belief that God wants us to kill innocent people because they are different than us, to kill people who make the mistake of getting in the wrong car, knocking at the wrong door, and saying we were afraid for our lives, that we were ‘standing our ground’? When local, state, and national judges and legislatures are deciding what is good medical care and calling this a ‘religious’ duty? When people are judged by the color of their skin, by the religion they practice, by the faith they profess, by the political party they are aligned with, by the zip code they live in, rather than the content of their character, than the service they provide, we should be in deep consternation over our state of being. When the lies that Christ/God cares for wealthy people more than poor people, that God wants whites rather than people of color to rule, that one group is inferior to another based on some ridiculous lies and deceptions, how can we not be in consternation and tremble?

Yet, we hear this type of mendacity every day from ‘good religious folk’, who have never used “the mitsvah” to truly serve God, to engage in “helping man” and do the work “of cleansing the self”. Rather they are bastardize the “humble single act  of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self” to mean they should rule over another human being, groups of human beings, that they know what is best and everyone should be serving them and their leaders who are authoritarians and fascists. How can we not be in consternation and trembling fear over what is going on in our country and in our world today. When we are so stuck in some euphoric recall of the past, repeating the same errors that the prophets came to Israel and Judea about and believing we are exempt, when innocent children and young adults are killed, shot at because of a broken tail light, because they knocked at the wrong door, because they pulled into the wrong driveway, where is our outrage at our behaviors, where is the call for a new way of being that is in concert with the call of the prophets, that brings “the mitsvah, the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self” into the forefront of how we live?

If this is not cause for concern and consternation, if this is not cause for cleansing our self of hatred, of our eye disease and cancer  of the soul as Rabbi Heschel defines prejudice; what will be the catalyst? The followers of these liars and cheats, these scammers and cons will wake up one day to realize their pockets have been picked clean, their fate is no better than the people they hate, and be bewildered at the betrayal by ‘their fearless leaders’.

In recovery, we experience this consternation when we first begin to recover from the mendacity, the self-deception, the horrific actions we initiated and/or participated in that demand our self and every other self we came into contact with. Our recovery is based on letting go of our need to self-deceive, our rolling around in mendacity, repairing the damage from our horrific prior bad acts. We begin to live in awe of “serving God, of helping man and cleansing the self”. We have committed to a new set of principles to live by and “we practice these principles in all our affairs” and stay in awe of how well our lives work and how grateful we are for what we have.

I have been living in consternation over what is happening in our world and I see how it permeates the smallest corners of our lives. I listen to people speak about “those people” and see only differences that make “those people” less than they are. I point out errors in how people are treating one another and I am blamed for my anger, my abrasiveness. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 176

“Evil is not only a threat, it is a challenge… The mitsvah, the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self, is our way of dealing with the problem. We do not know how to solve the problem of evil, but we are not exempt from dealing with evils.”(God in Search of Man pg. 377)

We have forgotten the wisdom of Rabbi Heschel above and see evil as only a threat, only “how to solve the problem of evil” and not as a “challenge”. In between the first sentence above and the second, Rabbi Heschel teaches us that we are in a “tragic predicament” and hiding in temples and churches, mosques and synagogues, imploring of God to intercede, recognizing the peril nor faith in the omnipotence of God will “stem the tide of evil”(ibid). This was in 1955 when he wrote this and we ignored him then and, unfortunately, many of us are ignoring his prophecy, his call to us, his standing for God, Godliness and his deep faith in our ability to overcome our selfish desires.

One of the challenges of evil, I have found, is that most of us do not recognize it and/or ignore it. We see evil and shrug thinking, ‘this is just the way it is’. We see evil and we engage in self-deception and mendacity to explain that what we are seeing isn’t really evil. We are witnessing people point fingers at their ‘enemies’ and call them evil, we are watching people tell us not to look behind the curtain and if we do, not to believe our eyes, just listen to their words. We are witnesses to the evil of gun violence, senseless hatred, racism, anti-semitism, homophobia, misogyny, and so much more and we seem frozen to do anything. While it is easy to decry “evil”, it is crucial to heed the words of Edmund Blake: “evil flourishes when good people do nothing.” Hence our need to engage with the brilliance of Rabbi Heschel about “the mitsvah”.

Staying with the first sentence, for today, and thinking about our duty to “wage war with evil”, to honor what we “owe to God” from yesterday’s writing; isn’t it time for all of us to stand up to the challenge of evil rather than use it as a threat to impale our opponents, our antagonists, our enemies? When Tucker Carlson uses his megaphone to spread lies, knowingly in order to keep up his ratings and the stock price of Fox News, when Kevin McCarthy goes along with the fringe elements of his party to threaten the credit worthiness and promise of the United States, when the Republican Party is willing to have Trump, a twice impeached and indicted perpetrator of evil, of racism, of anti-semitism, of disdain for the rule of law as their front-runner for their party’s presidential nomination, when the 160+ non-freedom caucus members are too afraid to join with democrats and find solutions to our national challenges, we are witnessing the threat of evil and failing to meet the challenge of evil. We have become so afraid of the deceivers, the Putins in our midst, the Orban admirers here in our country, the thread of fascism that runs throughout our land because they have guns, they have taken over State Houses and State Government in some areas of the country that we cower when evil is in front of us and think we can hide from its effects. How asinine and stupid can we be, how ignorant of history and the failures of our ancestors can we be?

When we see evil as a challenge instead of just a threat, we seek to find solutions through communal discourse. We begin with our own tribes, of course, and, because we know we cannot meet the challenge alone, we begin to engage with other tribes to work together to meet the challenge of evil. Rabbi Heschel’s life is a perfect example of this. He banded together with Reinhold Niebuhr, Martin Luther King, the Berrigan Brothers, Union Theological Seminary, the Vatican, to meet the challenges of evil in his time. He did not need to solve it alone, nor did he need to say ‘only Judaism can save us’. He knew that to “wage war with evil” we would need the help of other tribes and only through creating a community dedicated to “dealing with evils”.

I have been engaged in an eternal struggle with evil my entire life. When I was acting in evil ways, I was a threat to everyone. My recovery, and everyone who is in recovery, is dependent upon seeing evil as a challenge and not let it overwhelm me/us. For me, I have to call it out, I have to confront it, which doesn’t make me popular, doesn’t make me welcome in “polite society” all the time. Yet, I continue to seek out people to work with and help me confront the “evils” we are facing in this moment. I understand Carlson, Murdoch, McCarthy, et al, they only want power because they believe with power they can control evil and use it as a weapon to stay in power. I have to rail against it because I am a student of Rabbi Heschel’s, I am a Jew, I am a human being, I am a son/grandson of men of decency and love, because I can’t live with me without doing this. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 175

“We do not wage war with evil in the name of an abstract concept of duty. We do the good not because it is a value or because of expediency, but because we owe it to God.”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, officially. Yet for the survivors of the Shoah, the soldiers who fought in this most ugly war, their dependents and family members, every day is Remembrance Day and we are trying so hard to forget what happened in Europe from 1933-1945 that we are seeing history repeat itself. I thought I was going to move on to a different teaching of Rabbi Heschel’s, yet remembering the Holocaust has to happen every day, otherwise we lose the battle and stop our effort to “wage war with evil”. We forget that we owe God our good actions, our good deeds, our good thinking and our good heart.

We are seeing the outcome of people refusing to “wage war with evil” that resides within each of us. We are born with the evil inclination and the good inclination, both come from God. In infancy, these two seemingly opposing forces cause the Tohu V’Vohu described in the 2nd verse of the Genesis; emptiness/void and chaos. The suggestion/commandment is to integrate these seemingly opposing forces so that our evil inclination works for and with the good inclination to make great things happen for ourselves, for human beings, for God.

Yet, Clarence Thomas, Jim Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, and so many others who claim to be ‘god-fearing people’, feed the evil inside of them, wage war with the good rather than “wage war with evil”. When we look at Varian Fry and Hiram Bingham IV, when we see what Mary Jayne Gold did to help them and the Emergency Rescue Committee, we see what God-loving Christians are. We see the humanitarian efforts to save people for being people, not excluding them because they are Jewish. We can draw the contrast between these Righteous Christians and the Unrighteous Ones parading around today. We see that evil has won their inner war, that mendacity, deception, power and Fascism are more important to them than repaying the debt owed God for being alive. We are watching the ‘maga’ crowd crowd out Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, God, Allah, Ineffable One, and call evil their power greater than themselves.

It is true, evil is a power greater than we. This is why we have to “wage war with evil” and seek God’s help in our inner battle so we can connect with other divine images, ie people, to join together to “wage war with evil” that Jordan, Trump, Thomas, McCarthy, Greene, Gaetz, et al represent and promote. “Wage war with evil” is, at its core, an inside job. Each of us has to look inside, do an inventory and see where and when we are indifferent/oblivious to the evil around us and the evil we are causing.

Engaging in TShuvah through this lens gives us all a new appreciation of the insidiousness of evil, the power of evil, the disguises evil uses, and the way evil has penetrated our thoughts and society to make us spiritually unwell. Maimonidies wrote a book: The Eight Chapters, about our spiritual ailments and how to heal our soul sickness’. He recommends a physician of the soul and, unfortunately, our clergy are either not equipped to be this spiritual physician, are abdicating the responsibility to therapists, or have lost their own war with evil and are adding to the spiritual ailments individuals and society are suffering from. One marker for knowing this is how many clergy, ‘god-fearing people’ support, clap for, agree with Putin, Orban, Netanyahu, MBS, etc. Anyone who attended the gathering where Orban spoke to CPAC, to the Republican Party core, is someone who supports fascism, supports exactly the opposite of what Holocaust Remembrance Day is about.

Harriet Rossetto, my wife, says “you don’t have to be an addict to be in recovery” and “you are either in recovery or denial.” We are living in a time where the principles of recovery have to be incorporated into every persons daily actions. It is a time where the teachings of Torah, the path of Jesus’ loving every person, Mohammed’s call to serving Allah have to actions we take all the time, not just words we spout. We all need to get back to the task to “wage war with evil” for our benefit, for the society’s benefit and to pay back what we owe God. I have been looking inside of me, I realize that my delivery at times is not understandable by some people and I also know that, at times, I lose my war with evil. I am able, however, to admit it, repair it and repair me. I also know that I live my principles no matter what, that without principles I would never be in recovery and I am deathly afraid to look the other way when evil is around me, when it is more expedient to stay silent. The prophets are the example for me and for you. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 174

“We do not wage war with evil in the name of an abstract concept of duty. We do the good not because it is a value or because of expediency, but because we owe it to God.”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Tonight begins Holocaust Remembrance Day, 80 years ago was the Warsaw Ghetto uprising where Jews took action against their oppressors. They waged “war with evil” in the name of God, not some “abstract concept of duty”, no matter what their religious level of observance was. They knew they were targeted because they were Jews and Hitler needed a scapegoat. Their actions showed they were not just going to do nothing, they were not going to be indifferent to the evil of the Nazis and the Poles who collaborated. Unfortunately, while we remember them tonight and tomorrow, we are not necessarily following their example!

We are living in a time where evil is disguising itself as good, where hatred and fear are running rampant, where Truth is being manipulated and facts are being discarded in favor of “alternative” ones. We are witnessing the proliferation of fascism once again here in our own country. We are hearing Netanyahu extolled for his authoritarian actions, we are being deceived by charlatans and liars, truth is being deflected through actions which will scare us into submission and some of our elected officials, some of our clergy, some of our lawyers, some of our educators, some of our media, some of us are surrendering to the evil being waged ‘in the name of good’.

We, the people, have to “wage war with evil” in the name of God, in the name of decency, in the name of humanity, in the name of justice, in the name of mercy, in the name love, in the name of freedom. We have to take back God’s Name from the liars and deceivers who use God’s Name as an abstract, who use God’s Name to promote evil as good. It is up to us to stop the mendacity being spewed in our streets, in our houses of worship, in our homes, in our halls of justice, in our halls of Congress. It is time for we, the people, to say NO to Marjorie Taylor Greene and her extolling of white supremacy, it is time to say NO to Ron DeSantis’ assault on freedom to choose and women’s rights, it is time to say NO to the lackeys who cozy up to the corrupt NRA and extoll a culture of guns and violence. It is time to say NO to criminals who hide behind their money, power, and lies. It is time to say NO to the authoritarians who are in power and those who back them, it is time to say NO to those for whom fascism holds such fascination and power. It is time to remember the stain on America prior to and during the Holocaust when our State Department and members of Congress were fans of Hitler and denied life-saving visas to Jews from Europe. It is time to say “Never Again” to allowing these fascist devotees to rule and ruin our freedoms and the Great Experiment called the United States.

Yet, saying NO is not enough. We, the people, have to say YES to a more just society. We have to say YES to ensuring that “ the moral arc of the universes bends towards justice”. We have to say YES to respecting the inherent dignity and worth of every human being. We have to say YES to the uniqueness of every human being, YES to their unique gifts and talents that were endowed to us all by God and are needed for everyone’s betterment. We have to say YES to growing our inner lives and living into our role as partners with God. We have to say YES to the good, YES to truth, YES to mercy, YES to lovingkindness, YES to walking in the ways of God, YES to paying back at least some of what we “owe to God.”

This is what recovery teaches and preaches. This is the only way to live in recovery is by saying NO to evil and YES to good, NO to mendacity and YES to truth. Our “searching and fearless inventory” comes after we “made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God”. We are deeply aware of the debt of gratitude for our recovery, we are committed to paying it forward through actions of good and repairing the evil we have wrought.

I know that my NO is very loud, it is very brusque at times, it can even be seen as harsh and it is very strong. I have spent the last 34+ years saying NO in order to say YES. I am constantly looking inside to take note of the good and enhance it as well as find the evil and repair it. I will never vanquish evil from the world nor from me completely and, as Rabbi Tarfon teaches, it isn’t my job to finish the work and I am not free to engage in it. I believe when we “wage war with evil” so we pay down what we “owe to God”, our life and everyone else’s is a little better. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 173

“We do not wage war with evil in the name of an abstract concept of duty. We do the good not because it is a value or because of expediency, but because we owe it to God.”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

In light of history, in light of what is happening today, these words of Rabbi Heschel send chills throughout my being. The first sentence reminds us that we must “wage war with evil” and I am afraid we have fallen very short of this fact, this demand, this calling. We have confused evil with good for so long and with such intensity that many of us are unable to distinguish one from the other. Another challenge we face as human beings “yearning to breathe free” is our indifference to evil, our going along to get along, our fear of standing for what is right and good, our submission to ‘this is the way it is’ and our subservience to “on advice of legal counsel”.

To immerse ourselves in the wisdom of Rabbi Heschel above, we first have to immerse ourselves in our own actions and inactions. We listen to people extol guns and assault rifles in the name of freedom and liberty while these same people seek to kill women who, for their own reasons and in their own anguish, decide to seek an abortion! They have decided that a fetus is human upon conception, which is different than what Judaism says, and call abortion murder instead of a medical condition that a women has to decide about, much like a cancer patient deciding which treatment to seek or not seek.

“In the name of God” people extol evil and discard good, saying that Jesus tells them to abuse the ‘anti-christ’ which is anyone who doesn’t believe what they do, whether Christian or not. “In the name of Jesus” these people make immigrants devils, democrats pedophiles, Jews liberal, blacks the enemy, etc. They are passing anti-voting rights laws, denying medical treatments to women and the poor, etc. Yet, Jesus’ words, like those of the prophets were to rail against such actions, he and they stood with the poor, the needy, the stranger, the widow, and the orphan. Jesus, the prophets, Abraham, Moses all stood with and for the people who were enslaved to a life of misery because they were conquered, enslaved, shunned, powerless and voiceless. Yet, these people who excel in confusing evil with good, go against the very people in whose name they speak and act!

They are acting in “an abstract concept of duty” that is only to serve themselves and we, the people, must stand up to their evil, must not go along with their confusing evil and good, must no longer be silent and indifferent. We, the people, have to look inside of ourselves and heed the voice of duty to God, duty to what is right and good, duty to our fellow human beings, and stand for the good, for our moral values. We have to stand with the poor, the needy, the stranger, so no one ever feels left out. All spiritual disciplines teach us and remind us that every person matters, every person has infinite dignity, every person is in need of assistance, community and everyone belongs because we are all created in “the Image of God”. We have to speak, we have to vote, we have to stand up to these charlatans and bullies and we have to stand with one another in strength, support and loving kindness.

In recovery, we join in a very concrete sense of duty in order to “wage war with evil.” Our recovery is based on the fact that we were people who made evil good and good evil, we were the type of people who bastardized morality to serve our desires and selfishness, we were the type of people who sought money, power, prestige, and were obstinate and stubborn just because we could be. Now, we have a new sense of duty, a new way of living, a returning to our moral compass and a return to decency and service. We join with one another and are loyal to a power greater than ourselves, to a morality that sees every person as precious and to a way of being we can be proud of with all of our imperfections.

Because of my life prior to recovery, I am acutely aware of evil and I have waged war against it for these past 35 years, even while in prison. I do it loudly, I do it brashly, I do it with an urgency that comes from deep in my soul. This past Friday was the 100th birthday of my father, Jerry, and I know that I have his loudness and his loyalty. I know that people are put off by my intensity and passion, yet I can’t be any other way. When I see, smell, intuit evil, I go to war with all the weapons available because I used evil to harm people. Waging this war comes from the sense of duty I have to my father’s example and memory, from the sense of duty I have to God and the people who need to be uplifted from the slavery they are in. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 172

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Holiness is a state of being in which we experience being set apart, elevated, and connected. While these three experiences may seem different, they are, in fact, very connected. Rabbi Heschel is, once again, reminding us and/or teaching us what it means to be human, what it takes “to overcome the powers of evil”, holiness through the mitzvot. We are called to be “a holy nation”, a “nation of priests” which means we do not relegate holiness to ‘those exalted few’, rather we are all responsible, capable and needed to live in the state of holiness. As imperfect as we may be at any given moment, we still have the obligation and reward of being holy.

We do not set ourselves apart from other people, we set ourselves apart from the “seductiveness of vice”. In turning and returning to our primordial state of being holy, we live into and lean into the “power of love” that abides in our guts and is diminished and defeated by our fears, our giving into “the powers of evil”, our self-deception that we are not good enough nor are we capable of being holy. Living into our innate holiness allows us to see the beauty of our souls, the power of our talents/gifts, and the strength to follow through on our calling and live our purpose and passion out loud. It is hard to do in the world of mendacity and illusion which has overpowered and sneered at our basic goodness of being and our holiness. Holiness is a gift that we are given at birth, and as Einstein reminds us, “we have forgotten the gift and worship the servant” which is what gives the “seductiveness of vice” its shine and allure.

We elevate our self and our world through “the joys of mitsvah”. The mitzvah is a pathway and a roadmap to our returning to our authentic self and being of service to God, other people, and our selves. It is our guide to finding the purpose and meaning in the seemingly smallest of acts and in the grandeur of living morally. Rabbi Heschel is calling out to us in this and every one of his teachings to “come home”, to leave the superficiality of ‘how things look’ and immerse ourselves in the joy, the learning, the liberation and freedom that engaging in mitzvot gives us. He is demanding we live up to our calling, live up to our being a partner with God, live up to the divine need we are created to suffice. We can only do this when we elevate our self from “the powers of evil” and return to “living in the light of the face of God”. We are capable, we are needed, we yearn to do this, it is only the deception of another(s) and our self-deception that prevents us.

As we set ourselves apart and elevate our self, we are connected to our souls and to the souls of everyone around us. Setting ourselves apart and elevating ourselves gives us the opportunity to relate to one another on a soul-to-soul level rather than on a role-to-role level. We also relate to God on a soul-to-soul level which replaces the infantile vision of God, replaces the anthropomorphic ideas of God and we relate to the creative energy, the morality, the kindness and compassion, the truth and justice of God. We are able to accept people for who they are and not “need” to make false images of them nor buy into the false images they present. We are able to accept our self with our imperfections and not need to hide behind facades and mendacity. Being connected gives us the “power of love” and the experience of “the joys of the mitsvah”.

In recovery, we set ourselves apart from the negative version of our selves that we engaged in with veracity and vengeance. Through the steps, through the mitzvot, we elevate our daily living and “act our way into right thinking and feeling”. Being a part of recovery allows us to know we are connected to one another and we are needed by another(s) and we need them as well. Being in recovery is being in holiness, being in recovery is hearing and heeding God’s call and Rabbi Heschel’s teachings.

I do not always live into my holiness, I make mistakes and have a negative impact at times. Yet, I also know how often I am living into holiness and how much joy I receive from the mitzvot. As I grow in my understanding of Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and in my own recovery, I find the “power of love” overwhelms me and allows me to feel sad for those who are stuck in their Egypts and joyful in connecting with others who “trudge the road to happy destiny’ with me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Livng Rabbi Heschel’s Wisdom - A Daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 171

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself” we are taught in the Holiness Code in Leviticus, Chapter 19. “You are a Nation of Priests, A Holy Nation” we are reminded of a few times in the Torah. The Rabbis teach that “we are to see ourselves AS IF holiness resides in our guts,(we are full of holiness)”. We have 613 pathways to rising above the seductiveness of vice and engage in the “power of love” and “the joys of the mitsvah”. Isn’t it time we actually use “the light of the face of God” to engage with love and mitzvah, with one another as fellow travelers? Rabbi Heschel teaches us that we are divine reminders, so whenever we see another human being, we are seeing an image of God, a reminder of God. Hence we are “living in the light of the face of God” all the time and we keep being willfully blind to it!

Utilizing the “power of love” does not mean ‘live and let live’, it doesn’t mean everyone can do anything they want, it doesn’t mean that all behaviors are ‘cool’. Utilizing the “power of love” does mean we care about another human being; how they are physically, emotionally, spiritually. It means we care about our self and how we are doing emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It means that rather than engage in the usual negative self-talk-we praise ourselves for the good we do and make a plan to repair any harm we have done and stop trying to do things that are out of our realm, our capabilities, our understanding. We surrender to the fact that we can’t do everything and asking for help, giving someone else space to do their work/expertise is an act of giving, it is an act of grace to us that someone else can do what we can’t and an act of grace to another person by recognizing their talents and asking for their help. This is an act of strength, love, holiness.

Utilizing the “power of love” means we engage in conversations with people who we think may be heading down the wrong path. In rebuking someone one, we help the person see their own capabilities, see the faith we have in them that they can turn stuff around, and we are reaching out to stop a disaster, a harm to them and anyone else. Doing this from love means we are not berating them, we are raising them up, we are not lording over them, we are where they are at and reaching out a hand, an olive branch, a mentoring. Utilizing the “power of love” also allows us to accept people who shun us without resentments, it helps us keep the door to our hearts open even when we have to close the doors of our homes. The “power of love” helps us take the next right action and connects us to the universe and one another.

“The joys of the mitsvah” are too many to list, yet, I will illuminate a few. One joy is the connection that is made with God and another human being when we are in mitsvah rather than vice. While being part of a gang to engage in vice is fun, it is not joy, it is not sustainable, and it leads to ruin, “the joys the mitsvah” makes us part of God’s Gang and is not always fun, it is a sense of completeness, accomplishment, grace, joy of knowing that I am building a better life for my self and all those around me. It is a sense of fulfillment and a step closer to deeper connections with nature, humanity, God, universe. It gives one a deep breath and an ability to enjoy breathing and take everything in without needing to make it according to our design. The “joys of the mitsvah” and the “power of love” help us to live in acceptance of life, sadness at the pain, suffering, hatred, anger, and commitment to make our corner of the world a little better than when we found it.

In recovery and in my life since I began my recovery, there is no such thing as perfection! Living in the “power of love” and “the joys of the mitsvah” give us a glimpse  and a goal of how we want to live and the rewards of following a spiritual path that honors God, honors human beings, honors nature and honors self. We get to enjoy the good and have faith the sorrow will pass and we will know how to handle both with grace, joy, kindness and care. We are constantly living without resentments and in divine pathos for the people who are stuck in their anger, hatred, self-loathing, etc. We know how sad it is to be stuck in needing to be right, needing to look perfect, needing to be liked by the ‘right people’, and the sadness, pain and distress it causes. Living in the “power of love” and “the joys of the mitsvah” have lifted us out of this deep hole and we pray that others can experience this uplift as well. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 170

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Rabbi Heschel’s influence on America in a very turbulent time is historical. What many people miss, I believe, is his concern and influence on our inner lives. It is easy to blame “them” and march against racism, homophobia, antisemitism, Islamaphobia, greed of corporations, etc, it is harder to look inside of ourselves and see how we have been seduced by vice, how we have allowed evil into our hearts and minds willfully and unwittingly. Rabbi Heschel’s words above are directed at our inner lives as much as the outside world, if not more in my opinion and experience.

Immersing ourselves in these sentences necessitates a dive into our actions, our thoughts, our inner world. “The seductiveness of vice” emerges from our insecurity, our feeling of less/lacking, a poverty of our spirit because we have rejected the truth that we are “living in the light of the face of God” and we have the “power of love” to draw on. Instead we focus on what we don’t have, we focus on what another does have, we focus on quick, fast and in a hurry, etc. The other day I read an article in The New Yorker about the run on Ozempic as a weight-loss miracle drug and how diabetics who actually need it can’t get this life-saving drug because the rich, famous, etc are buying it up! Full-disclosure, I asked my doctor if it would help me in my struggle with weight and she said she didn’t want to take it away from her patients who have diabetes. This is how seductive vice is in our inner lives, we will selfishly use something that is meant for people who really need it for our own desires and wants. We live in a world where the inner life, while spoken about often and loudly by many clergy and eastern philosophy practitioners, is left adrift, is left unmoored and unattended to.

Rabbi Heschel’s words are meant for us to look inside ourselves, to see how we can overcome the “seductiveness of vice” by doing mitzvot, by taking the next right action no matter how/what we think or feel. Before Nike, Judaism taught: “just do it” (the mitzvot) and then the understanding, the feeling, the thinking will come. Before Descartes: “I think, therefore I am”, Judaism, through the mitzvot, acknowledged ‘I am a human being endowed by my Creator, therefore I think’. Looking inside of ourselves to see how we fall into “the seductiveness of vice” is crucial if we are to separate truth from lies, deception from reality, and make the changes necessary to “live in the light of the face of God” and experience “the joys of the mitsvah.” Rabbi Heschel is calling out to us and calling us out on our facades of piety, our fake religiosity, I believe. He is calling all the people who perform mitzvot, who wrap themselves in Jesus, who praise Mohammed and treat another person with disdain, use people for their own selfish needs, bastardize the Torah, the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran, the Eastern Philosophies for their aggrandizement and riches.

We have to end our dependence on “vice” and engage in “the joys of the mitsvah”; our inner lives depend on it. Without a stronger inner life, an inner life devoted to truth, love, compassion, justice, kindness… our outer lives will continue to be in the shambles they are in right now; democracy in the US teetering on its foundation, racism being flouted in State Capitals, the Halls of Congress, the Supreme Court, as well as in the streets, marketplace, workplace, hatred of Jews for no reason other than we are Jews, 2.4% of the population and 55% of the hate crimes, from many of ‘the good people’. We have “the power of love”, we have “the joys of the mitsvah” to save us. Tomorrow more on how they can.

I have seen a shift in my inner life since I began writing this blog. Rabbi Heschel’s words above reverberate truth and power to and for me. I have found a myriad of ways I had been seduced by vice and have repaired them through “the joys of the mitsvah” and “ the power of love”. I have no resentments, no angers, no blame, no shame, about the past. I still review it every so often to see how and where I erred and seek to repair my inner damage, my inner life and, of course, the damage anyone else experienced. I also know that I cannot change the opinion of someone else and if they take what I write, what I say, in ways I did not intend, if they consciously misinterpret my words and actions for their own false narrative, I am powerless and I rely on “the power of love” to send them prayers of healing and goodness. No hate, just love! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 169

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

I am not sure if the second sentence above was ever truly believed by human beings. It is, for sure, the teachings of Torah, Bible, New Testament, Koran, and all other spiritual disciplines, yet, it doesn’t seem to have been practiced by the “powers that be” very often! In his interview with Carl Stern, recorded 10 days before his sudden death, Rabbi Heschel says: “There was an old idea in America that virtue pays. And the idea was very helpful to many people, until some of us discovered that crime pays even more. And it does.” We have gone away from the idea that virtue, hard work, decency, truthfulness, kindness, compassion, etc. pays and believe that deception of self and/or another; stealing of souls, minds, identity, dignity; liberty to kill with guns so I can keep my assault weapon in case ‘they’ come for me; unwelcoming of the stranger, imprisoning the poor and needy; etc. We have become a society that rewards the thief if they can con and steal big enough, rewards the liar if they voice our ‘oppression’ loud enough, exalt the Pharaoh within and outside of us if they promise to cater to our fears of irrelevance and becoming ‘less than’ the ____(fill in the blank).

Whether it is in Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Sandy Hook, etc the gun violence doesn’t seem to matter to some people. Rather than seeking solutions to this uniquely American phenomena, some of the elected officials would rather take money from Gun Lobbyists and blame the individual. While it is true that the individual firing the assault weapons is responsible, in no way am I absolving them of guilt nor responsibility, it is also true as Rabbi Heschel says: “In a free society, some are guilty, all are responsible.” He goes on to say, in his interview with Carl Stern: “How can I pray when I have on my conscience the awareness that I am co-responsible for the death of innocent people in Vietnam?” Anyone who blames only the one who pulls the trigger is abdicating their responsibility as a human being, as a reminder of God, as a divine need, as a person of faith. These so-called ‘god-fearing’ idolators and charlatans believe in, practice and are overwhelmed with “the seductiveness of sin” and they find no “joys of the mitsvah”. We, the people, have to force the change; We, the people, have to stop these charlatans from making America small again, from re-creating the atmosphere that almost broke this country apart in the 1840’s on regarding slavery. Even after the defeat of the Confederacy, the emancipation of the Negroes, the charlatans in Government made the Jim Crow laws possible, still treated Black people as less than, still shunned the immigrant, etc, all in the name of the flag and patriotism. We, as a country, have practiced, been willfully blind and deeply committed to “the seductiveness of sin” over the “joys of the mitsvah” from our beginning and it is time to stop pretending, it is time to stop lying and it is time to stop bastardizing religion by saying this is what God wants when it is really what Pharaoh wants.

We have a choice that needs to be made: are we going to continue to give in to the “seductiveness of sin” or embrace the “joys of the mitsvah”? This is not an easy choice, it is not an apparent choice to most people. Many people see themselves as good people and they are willing to ignore the homeless, complain about what is not being done, ban the stranger from our doorsteps, not believe in redemption and rehabilitation, be unforgiving, be judgmental about another without ever looking at themselves, etc. While not overtly evil in their minds, their actions are always tinged with “the seductiveness of sin” by getting over when they can and ignoring the call of God to care for the needy, the poor, the stranger, and to defeat the inner Pharaoh as well as stand up to the Pharaohs in our midst.

In recovery, we find the joy of service, the joy of sobriety, the joy of a “new pair of glasses” and the joy of redemption. “We made a list of those we had harmed and became willing to make amends…” is the 8th Step of the Anonymous Programs and a crucial step because it moves us from shame about our errors into guilt for what we have done. This step moves us from “the seductiveness of sin” into the “joys of mitsvah” because we are now repairing the damage, asking for forgiveness, acknowledging the harm we brought to another human being, and having a plan to not repeat this bad behavior. Amends/Tshuvah is one of the greatest mitsvah and the joy of being free of shame and guilt, being reconnected to ones’ authentic self, and connected to people, soul to soul-not role to role.

God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 168

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Rabbi Heschel does not diminish the “seductiveness of vice” in this piece of wisdom from him, rather he acknowledges it and gives us the antidote to it, “joys of mitsvah” and “power of love”. As I delve into these three sentences above, I am struck with the simplicity and difficulty contained therein.

We have to “make a decision” as the 12 Steps of AA suggest to us, to live in “the light of the face of God”! We have to make a decision to stop hiding from God, hiding from one another, we have to stop worshiping false gods of our own making. We need to see the world through God’s ‘eyes’ and remember the call of the prophet Micah, the charge of Moses: “walk in the ways of God, guard and do these mitzvot, do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God.” Throughout the Hebrew Bible we see our heroes “living in the light of the face of God” and then living according to the mask they put on. No biblical figure is perfect, no biblical figure ever gets it all right, yet they manage to live the power of love more often than not because they seek to live in “the light of the face of God.”

This first sentence also teaches us that God’s face is always showing, God is not some distant entity (or made up story as some would say), rather God is close, God’s light is here for us to live in. When we see another person, we can choose to see the “light of the face of God”, as Jacob did when he reunited with his brother Esau. When Moses ‘met’ God, people could see the light radiate off of his face. When we see another human being, we have the choice to see the “light of the face of God”, the particular divine image that human being represents or to see the enemy, to put on our mask, to see how we could use this human being to further our selfish gains.

We are faced with this choice each and every day. Rabbi Heschel published God in Search of Man in 1955, he had the gift of prophecy that we here in the United States were going to face this choice over and over. Yet, today’s emergencies regarding speaking truth, diminishing racism, antisemitism, all forms of hatred have been building for a long time, almost since the end of WWII. It was difficult for Jews to get into the US even after the war, it was difficult for Blacks to vote even after fighting for our country, the Rosenbergs were scapegoated, especially Ethel who was known to be innocent, and executed. The National Prayer Breakfast began as an instrument to woo lawmakers and foreign officials to a new way of emulating Christ, be the lion-not the lamb, the prosperity gospel, etc. Rabbi Heschel saw what was happening in the name of idolatry and being called ‘god’ so he wrote to warn, to teach, to help us overcome some natural tendencies by “living in the light of the face of God”!

We are being bombarded by the charlatans in Tennessee who are willing to mistreat people for their love of Guns and Power! We are watching Florida ban a picture novel of Anne Frank, we witness parents being able to ban teaching about the Civil Rights movement, which Rabbi Heschel was a part of, because it might offend a white person, it might traumatize a young white boy or girl. We need to traumatize people, we need to help people reach a bottom of their own evil so they can recover their humanity. People like DeSantis, Pence, Hutchinson,  McCarthy, Greene, et al have to be shaken, traumatized, suffer in order to return to “live in the light of the face of God” and not in the darkness of the face in their mirror!

In recovery, turning our will over to the care of God, as we understand God, is a crucial point in our recovery. It is the time we embrace and commit to “the power of love” and to “living in the light of the face of God” to the best of our ability. Not perfectly and we seek to grow along these lines one day at a time and to seek spiritual progress.

I am blessed with the bounty that God has blessed me with, the power and strength to spread the “power of love” to another person. I am blessed to keep learning how to enlarge my life by learning new ways, new subtleties, as to “living in the light of the face of God”. I made the decision 34+ years ago and I make the decision each day I renew it, grow it, find new ways to understand my decision and realize how my actions of years ago were affected by my lack of understanding as I do today, yet not out of malice or ego. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 167

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Today is Easter Sunday and the 3rd day of Passover, this quote from Rabbi Heschel speaks to the experience of both Passover, Easter, and Ramadan, I believe. All of these Holy Days represent ecstatic experiences of being “in the light of the face of God” and are meant to imbue us with the “power of love”. These holidays give us a framework to remember, to immerse ourselves in these experiences of “a power of love” to “overcome the powers of evil” that live inside of us as well as those outside of us. This is the great challenge for all of us.

“What are you a slave to” is the question that Passover is the answer to. What Pharaoh have you set over yourself, what Pharaoh have you allowed yourself to become a slave to in your inner life as well as your outer life? These are, in my opinion and how I am understanding Rabbi Heschel today, the main questions that the phrase: “Every person should see him or herself as if she/he/they were brought out of Egypt” that is in the Haggadah and we read at our Seders. Slavery is evil, Pharaoh is evil and only when we are “living in “the light of the face of God” can we overcome these evils that dwell inside of us and outside of us.

Unfortunately religion, as practiced by some, has/is using the “light of the face of God” to enhance evil and diminish love. Unfortunately, there are people who claim to speak in God’s name who using “the powers of evil” to overcome “the power of love”. Notice that the use of the plural when speaking of evil and the singular when speaking of love in the quote above. Evil has many different insidious ways of infiltrating our living, many different forms of hiding in what seems “good” and “Godly”, and so many of us are willfully blind to the myriad of ways the “powers of evil” overcome us, deceive us, and we join with them. We are facing a great upswing from “people of faith” who promote evil, believe in guns that kill being okay to use for the sport of killing another human being, who expel people who disagree with them from the halls of power, who claim to be ‘populists’ when they are not trying to help the disenfranchised but trying to get people to go against their best interests by appealing to “the powers of evil” that live in their inner lives.

We are in such a state of disarray that if Jesus sat in many churches today, he would never recognize his words nor his way of serving God. He would be aghast at the use of his teachings to serve “the powers of evil” by bastardizing his helping the poor, the needy, the stranger, the criminal, etc. We are in such a state of disarray that if the Prophets of Israel were speaking out, they would be scorned, thrown in jail and, in some states, lynched! We are in such a state of disarray that Rabbi Heschel’s words are quoted and not lived, Rev King’s words are revered and not lived, because the “powers of evil” are using great teachings, great experiences of “living in the light of the face of God” for their selfish needs and desires. We are living in a time where the prophets are forgotten and used for evil, where Jesus’ teachings are used for evil, where the Hebrew Bible is used for evil by the mendacious and evil practitioners who claim to be ‘speaking the word of god’ and speak the words of idolatry.

In recovery, we know that only by “living in the light of the face of God” can we “overcome the powers of evil” that reside within us. We know the damage, the spiritual death that comes from living into “the powers of evil”, we know the lies we tell ourselves to become slaves while thinking we are free. We know that being human means we have to make “Free-Will Moral Choices” as Rabbi Abraham Twerski teaches. We are aware of our need to engage with the “power of love”, towards our self and towards another(s). In recovery, we see one another as holy souls, loved by God and our goal is to live into and from the “power of love”.

The “powers of evil” have taken so many forms in my life. I am aware and guilty of thinking I was being loving and actually being overcome with the “powers of evil.” I have been fooled by my own inner slaveries and inner evil. I am sorry to all who suffered because of it. I also know that “the power of love” is where I live more and more in these past 34+ years of recovery, not always, not perfectly, yet more than 51% and “living in the light of the face of God” more and more gives me the hope and the strength to persevere, to spread God’s message in my own unique way. I know I need help to “overcome the powers of evil” and God, family, friends are the help I am blessed with. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Year 2 Day 166

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 166

“The biblical answer to evil is not the good, but the holy. It is an attempt to raise man to a higher level of existence, where man is not alone when confronted with evil.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)

Now that the Seders are over, the work begins:) We count the Omer in the Jewish Tradition, 50 days until we reach Mount Sinai and receive the word of God, the experience of God and the guidance God gives so we can raise up to the “ holy”. It is also Good Friday today, when Christ and his disciples conducted a Seder and then, on Sunday, is Easter. These two holy periods, as I have said before, are periods of redemption. Immersing ourselves in Rabbi Heschel’s words, give us a new context for these events, the new context is raising our level of existence from the profane, from the depths of hopelessness, to the level of redemption, of hope, of connection, of the “holy”. 

It is only through our connection to “holy” can we attain the help we need to confront the evil that is around us and the evil that is within us. Prejudice, our inability to hear one another, our stiff-neckedness, our need to project onto another the negativity that we participate in and feel are some of the facets of evil we battle with daily. Our indifference to the plight of the poor, the widow, the orphan, the stranger is an indifference to evil, and Rabbi Heschel warns us that this is the greatest evil. Our complacency to “that’s life”, to “this is the way it has always been”, “be a man and take it”, etc is an indifference to evil, it is a giving up to the forces in the universe that are self serving and authoritarian, it is admitting that our own inner evil is too much for us. Yet, Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and truth above seem to be ignored and this may be the greatest weapon evil has-our ignoring of truth, our ignoring of guidance, our ignoring of the opportunities to be “holy”. How we got here is not at issue here, what we do now that we are aware of where we are, how we are and what to do with this uncovering of our eyes, this taking off of the blinders, this is what is at issue right here, right now. 

When school students walk out of classes and go to the State Building in Tennessee to protest the killing of 3 9-year old kids because the Republican majority won’t put a limit on assault weapons that were created for war situations, because they will not honor the humanity and dignity of LGBTQ+ and other ethnic minorities such as people of color, Jews, Muslims, etc, and the response is to unseat a duly elected Democratic Representative because he joined in a lawful, law-abiding protest, we are watching evil in action. When people go to church and hatred is spewed about “those people”, “the sinners”, “the murderers who exercise their freedom and choose abortion for any number of reasons”, we are witnesses and, for those who go along with these misguided clergy, practitioners of evil. We, the people, who left Egypt these past two nights, we, the people, who will celebrate Christ’s resurrection, and we do nothing to promote dignity and holiness, are not the people who follow Christ, are not the people who left Egypt. We are the people who chose to stay in the comfort of slavery, we are the people who desecrate Christ’s name and teachings. We are the people who give evil more energy, more fuel and more power. 

We, the people, live life as Christ preached, we, the people, who followed Moses out of Egypt, out of narrow places, we are the people who must stand with the students, must stand with the statehouse legislators who stand with our children. We are the people who get to raise our self and one another to the level of holy” and use the guidance and assistance of the people around us and the power greater than ourselves, i e God to confront and transform evil into holiness, into service, into kindness, justice, mercy, compassion, love, truth and freedom. While right now we are beginning the journey through the wilderness, connecting with “holy” gives us community and strength to be invigorated and enriched by the travails along the wilderness trail from liberty to freedom. 

“Honesty, open mindedness, willingness are the three key ingredients we learn in early recovery to be able to travail the pitfalls of our journey in recovery. They are also ingredients in reaching “holy”. We know that our journey is physical, mental and spiritual-with many of us believing that spiritual is the key component between not using and being in recovery. 

“Holy” is not a constant state for me, it is the only state of being that has allowed me to change, to ward off the inner negativity that wants to bring me down, to face down my enemies with strength, courage and kindness. I need the help that God, community, family give me so I can transform the evil within and outside of me. God Bless, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 165

“The biblical answer to evil is not the good, but the holy. It is an attempt to raise man to a higher level of existence, where man is not alone when confronted with evil.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)

On this first day of Passover, as the dawn breaks and the Israelites realize they are no longer trapped under the thumb of Pharaoh, they are also on the run from Egypt, lest Pharaoh come to his senses and realize what he has done and chase after them. I am sure they feel exhilaration and fear, which is the description for our encounter with God and with the “holy”. While it is fun for some and boring for others to sit at the Seder table and tell the story, it is imperative for us to engage in the story of the Exodus from Egypt “as if we ourselves had been redeemed from Egypt”, as the Haggadah teaches us. Which, in my thinking means we have to leave at least one of the myriad of inner slaveries that we are in.

It is impossible “to raise man to higher level of existence” when we are stuck in the mud, the muck, the mire, of our inner slaveries. When we are stuck in an ego that says we are never wrong, when we have to be right to everyone on our outside, never admit our own errors/our own part in any negative interaction, when we have bought this lie of ‘smartest person in the room’, ‘don’t they know who I think I am’, we are enslaved and alone-no matter how many people we have around us. We also, somewhere, know that we are fallible, know we have to make/should make amends, desperately want to have real connections and we are too stuck in the deceptions of our inner evil inclination, hence we stay a slave to self-deception and mendacity. How many of us are afraid to raise up “to a higher level of existence” because it will mean we cannot wear the mask of perfection?

Our Seders, the story, the food, all come to remind us that redemption from slavery is possible, that leaving Egypt was not a one and done experience, it is a constant possibility, as long as we are willing to leave. There is a midrash(commentary) that says only 20% of the slaves left Egypt-80% were more fearful of freedom, of redemption, of the “holy” than they were of the ignominy of being a slave! Another of the inner slaveries that many people suffer with is ‘nothing will change’, ‘this is my lot in life’, ‘I am a victim’, etc and these lies we tell ourselves keep us locked into the slavery of blame and hopelessness. The story of the Exodus from Egypt, the story of crossing the Red Sea, all show how the “holy” raises us up to believe in and participate in our liberation, redemption and journey towards freedom. We are in a world where pointing the finger to deflect from anyone seeing us, to blame everyone else for our circumstances, to give up any hope, any effort to change are strangling the freedom that Passover embodies.

There are many more inner slaveries that I could mention. It is important for everyone to look at their lives and see which Egypt you are still enslaved in, which Pharaoh you are still serving with glee and joy, unaware of your enslavement. It is imperative to “lift up your eyes and see” as God tells Abraham, the masks you wear, the inauthentic lifestyle you practice and the evil you produce. “Holy” is here to help us, the Seder is “holy” because it comes to help us remember our proper place in life being free people.  It helps us to raise every person “to a higher level of existence and reminds us this is the call of the poor and the needy, the stranger and the citizen alike. Our inner slaveries are like cataracts on our eyes, they give us the vision that slavery is freedom, evil is good, profane is “holy”, they turn everything upside down, they are the source of the sickness of our souls. Yet, “holy” is still with us, the story is still being written by us and we can say YES to liberation and journey to freedom, we can say NO to self-deception and mendacity. Which will you choose this year?

Recovery teaches us to “live life on life’s terms” and “life’s terms” change daily, when I chose recovery, I changed the terms on which my life was based. When I engage in “holy” the terms of my life change, so “life on life’s terms” is a continuum, not a constant. Leading a Seder, participating at a Seder, just being a Seder, can change “life’s terms” for any and all of us. It does each year for me, I look at where I have been freer and where I am still stuck. This year I am leaving the Egypt of distraction, I am committing to set aside time to look at emails, texts, dumb TV, and limit rather than have distractions rule me. I pray you find your inner Egypt that you will leave this year. God Bless and here’s to a little more freedom, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 164

“The biblical answer to evil is not the good, but the holy. It is an attempt to raise man to a higher level of existence, where man is not alone when confronted with evil.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)

Tonight begins the celebration of Passover, the exodus from Egypt, the redemption from slavery of an outside oppressor. We are also in the middle of “holy week” in the Christian tradition. Both of these celebrations are about redemption as is, I believe, Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above. We are redeemed when we allow ourselves to be raised up to the “higher level of existence” of the holy, when we are not alone in our confrontation with evil. “Holy” comes from the Dutch root also meaning whole, and the Hebrew word, Kadosh, translates to elevated, set apart, and connected.

As we leave the slavery of our outside oppressors we get to realize that we are not alone in our quest for wholeness, we have the help of God, of a Higher Power, in our search for meaning, in our reaching for a life of purpose. Dedicating ourselves to seek, find and maintain the “holy” in our daily living aids our staying out of the oppression of another human being, being lifted up out of the profanity of “same shit, different day”, opening our eyes to the wonder and radical amazement of life, and knowing that we matter.

Evil is a state of being where nothing matters and there is “nothing new under the sun”, every day is the same and we are hopeless. The exodus from Egypt is the antidote to the cunning, baffling evil that lurks in the hearts of people. Not just the Israelites were redeemed at the time of the Exodus, we all learned that slavery is not a ‘normal’ state of affairs, it is not our ‘fate’ to be slaves. Tonight Jews and non-Jews will tell the story of the exodus from slavery, the exodus from self-deception and self-negation. We will proclaim Dayenu, enough! Enough with the lies we tell ourselves, enough with the lies we buy into from another(s), enough with the incarceration of the spirit and body of people for our selfish needs, for our power, for our self-aggrandizement. Enough with the betrayals of the “holy” by the charlatans who use the words of the Bible for their own ill-gotten gains. Enough with racism, anti-semitism, anti-LGBTQ, anti-muslim, anti-asian, anti-anyone who is not like me.

In our retelling of the story of the exodus from Egypt, we are recite the 10 plagues and while many people are repulsed by the plagues and the chaos, death they brought, we recite them so we can remember where evil, where slavery, where seeing another human being as our enemy, our tool for self-gratification leads us. The plagues were necessary not to show God’s strength, rather to show Pharaoh’s obstinance and what it takes to defeat evil and rise to the “holy”. As Rabbi Heschel teaches us from his address at the National Conference on Religion and Race in January of 1963: “The outcome of the that summit meeting has not come to an end. Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate.” We celebrate the exodus from Egypt not just to be grateful that we are not still slaves in Egypt, also to examine and confront, have a summit meeting with all of the Pharaohs we experience today. When one party in a democracy is willing to not be governed by the rule of law, when one party in a democracy is eager to rule based on  their will, their needs, their fears, their greed, Pharaoh is here, “holy” is being defeated by evil.

Recovery is redemption from the slavery of addiction. Recovery is “holy” in action, recovery raises us up to a higher level of existence, recovery is biblical! Harriet Rossetto calls the Bible the big book of Jewish recovery from our human condition of evil. In recovery we know that we are one action away from being enslaved again, one action away from being Pharaoh again. We are so acutely aware of our need to be grateful to be free and that gratitude is an action, not a feeling. We are given a reprieve based on our spiritual condition, one day at a time.

Each day, in the Hebrew Prayerbook, I remember the exodus from Egypt. Each day, as I write this blog I remember my exodus from the slavery of my addictions and bad actions. Each day, I practice gratitude and kindness, love and compassion, mercy and justice so I can engage God’s help to raise me to “a higher level of existence”. Evil doesn’t have the hold on me that it used to and it is still necessary for me to celebrate Passover so I see the subtle slaveries that people still have on me and leave them as well. Happy Passover, God Bless, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 163

“Where does God dwell in America today? Is He at home with those who are complacent, indifferent to other people’s agony, devoid of mercy? Is He not rather at home with the poor and contrite in the slums?…Where in America do we hear a voice like the prophets of Israel? Martin Luther Kind is a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America…Martin Luther King is a voice, a vision, and a way. I call upon every Jew to harken to his voice, share his vision, to follow in his way.”(Essential Writings pg. 83-84)

Today, April 4, 2023, is the 55th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and the words above are the words of Rabbi Heschel on March 25th, 1968 when he introduced Rev. King to the Rabbinical Assembly’s annual convention that year. Rabbi Heschel’s words were a call to his colleagues then and a demand to all of us now. On a day when the antithesis to everything Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel stood for, called for, everything their vision and ways showed us how to serve God and one another, is going to grab all the headlines because of his arraignment, it is more important, I believe, to gather together, study Dr. King find ways to “harken to his voice, share his vision, to follow his way.” We are being bombarded by the charlatans who say God is at home with the “complacent”, the “indifferent to other people’s agony”, to those who are “devoid of mercy” and we have to stand up against these lies. We have to, as Dr. King, Rabbi Heschel, and so many more did, stand with and for “the poor and the contrite in the slums.” If we do not do this, we fail to recognize the sickness of our own souls, the desecration of God’s Name and ways we are committing, and we add to the agony of people and God. In the Talmud it says God cries each night for God’s children who are in exile, our separation causes agony to God. Yet, we continue to allow prejudice, self-centeredness, etc get in our way.

I hear from Jews about anti-semitism which is on the rise and they do not see the correlation between the suffering of Black people, people of color, LGBTQ, etc and the rise in anti-semitism. I speak to people about serving God through Dr. King’s vision, through following his ways, Rabbi Heschel’s ways, through God’s ways and they look at me as though I have three heads. These same people will support the antithesis of Rev. King, Rabbi Heschel, because he is ‘good for Israel’, not realizing his comrade in arms, Netanyahu, also is an authoritarian, who believes he is above the law. Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel spoke to the Rabbinical Assembly, at that time a more conservative group,  about following God’s laws, living the life the prophets of Israel teach us to, to practice the principles we espouse in all of our affairs. Today, we have so many clergy who preach their principles, not God’s. We have so many people who speak about abortion as murder and engage in murdering the souls and spirits of Black people, people of color, LGBTQ, Jews, Muslims, anyone who is not white!

Dr. King gave words and deeds to God’s call for and to all of us. He marched for the dignity of every human being. He was assassinated because he was marching for worker’s rights, for a living wage and, as with JFK before him and Bobby Kennedy 2 months later, anyone who was going to cost ‘the man’ money had to be disposed of. Dr. King’s death did not end the cause, it just left it without a galvanizing voice, Rabbi Heschel and others carried on his vision, his voice and his way to this day. It is time for all of us who believe in God, who say we are religious and/or spiritual to rise up for justice. It is time for all of us who espouse the words of the Bible to lift  up for the poor. It is time for all of us who live in awe of God to heal the agony people are experiencing. It is time for all of us who speak words of gratitude and blessings to exude mercy for all. It is time for us to stand in the paths of Dr. King, Rabbi Heschel, God.

Dr. King’s message is not just about Black people, it is for all of us who have been marginalized and have marginalized another(s).“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” is for all of us to remember and help bend the arc a little closer to justice with our actions and our ways of living. Judging a person by “the content of their character” rather than “the color of their skin”, the faith they practice or don’t, their sexual orientation, their gender, is not just about Black people, it is about how to serve God! It is about not being judged because some of us are in recovery, it is about not being afraid to be seen, it is about not hiding anymore. I have believed in Rev. King’s and Rabbi Heschel’s “voice, vision, way” from childhood because they were my father’s as well. In my life in recovery, they have been the guides and while not always following them well, I have not hid, I have helped heal the agony of another. Please celebrate Dr. King rather than give air to his antithesis. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 162

“There is no reverence for God without reverence for man. Love of man is the way to the love of God. The fear lest we hurt a poor man must be as deep as the fear of God, for He that oppresses the poor blasphemes his maker, but he who is gracious unto the needy honors Him (Proverbs 14:31).”(God in Search of Man pg.375)

Immersing ourselves in Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above we have to ask ourselves how we are oppressing ourselves. As Passover is 3 nights away and we are all supposed to “see our self as if we too had been taken out of Egypt”, I believe we can apply Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom to the way we treat ourselves. How often have we berated ourselves for our errors in actions, in judgements, in our economic status? How often have we ‘bought into’ the way society sees us and feel bad because we are “not more like”__(fill in the blank). How often do we compare, compete and make ourselves feel bad for not being ‘where we think we should be’ or ‘where we thought we would be’?

None of these ways of speaking to ourselves honors God, according to the teaching of Proverbs above. Yet, we continue to do this, we continue to “blaspheme our maker”. There is a famous story in the Talmud about an ugly man who is berated by a famous Rabbi and the ugly man tells the Rabbi to complain to his Maker about the reason for his ugly exterior. The Rabbi immediately sees the errors of his way. If someone else is not to denigrate us then, all the more so, should we stop denigrating ourselves!

We live in a world of comparisons and competitions, yet we learn in the Bible that all of us are “created in the image of the divine”. We also learn in the Bible that each of us have different ‘jobs’ to do in this world as partners with God. Extrapolating these teachings we are all different, unique, needed, precious and we are all similar in these traits. We are not created to be “Stepford Wives”, we are created to be different and similar, urges for good and for evil, some to lead and others to follow, some to be clergy and some to be congregants and all to be engaged in learning, in making mistakes and doing T’Shuvah, being nonjudgmental about another person and, most importantly, non-judgmental about ourselves.

We have to leave the Egypt of self-deprecation, we have to leave the Egypt of self-deception, we have to leave the Egypt of comparisons and competitions, we have to leave the Egypt of our eye disease towards our selves. We are supposed to use this time of Passover and the 7 weeks till Shavuot, till the Pentecost, as time to cross the Red Sea of ‘beating ourselves up’, of not seeing the beauty and worth of our self, of oppressing ourselves and blaspheming God. All of these Egypts help us do the same to another human being, where leaving these Egypts  will cause us to see the same beauty, need, uniqueness in another and we will no longer fear one another, we will work together. Leaving our own inner Egypts of self-denial, self-deprecation will end the eye disease and cancer of our souls that prejudice, hatred, fear bring. We do this one step at a time, one day at a time. We make a list of all the ways we have harmed ourselves, we look at our foibles and errors as stepping stones of learning, we make the needed adjustments in our actions and our thinking. We make a list of everything we have done and continue to do well. We remember to honor God, rather than blaspheme God, we make a commitment to honor our self rather than oppress our self.

Chuck C wrote a book called “A New Pair of Glasses” and this is what recovery gives us, a new way of seeing our lives, a new way of seeing life itself. With this new way of seeing, we are able to admit our errors and imbue our self with the knowledge, strength and vision to move forward as God designed us to. Doing our daily inventory helps us stay current, let go of our errors, learn from them and move forward. Each day we are sober based on our spiritual condition and without a better view of our self, without honoring our self, without being gracious to our self, we know we will stay stuck in everlasting ignorance.

This is difficult for me to do, I have to work on being gracious to myself each day, sometimes each hour! I am better than I was and there are times where I “blaspheme my maker” by oppressing myself. It then, of course, leaks out into my actions and I oppress someone else and I am sorry for those actions as well. I see myself clearer and clearer each day through Rabbi Heschel’s teachings and I am making the necessary changes so this Passover I can leave another Egypt. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 161

“There is no reverence for God without reverence for man. Love of man is the way to the love of God. The fear lest we hurt a poor man must be as deep as the fear of God, for He that oppresses the poor blasphemes his maker, but he who is gracious unto the needy honors Him (Proverbs 14:31).”(God in Search of Man pg.375)

Rabbi Heschel’s use of Proverbs here is so timely for us, even though these words were published in 1955! Here again, Rabbi Heschel is using the teachings, the truth of antiquity to help us learn/relearn how to live in this world being human. Here again, Rabbi Heschel is quoting Scriptures to remind us of our obligation to help one another rather than take advantage of one another.

This Tuesday will mark 55 years since the tragic despicable assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and while our former President will be in court the same day, I pray we pay more attention to Dr. King’s words, teachings, activism than to the lies, the spectacle that Trump is hoping for. Dr. King, Rabbi Heschel, both knew that quoting the Bible to sound good was vapid and empty, they both railed against the clergy who sat on the sidelines at best and preached in favor of oppressing “the poor” who “blasphemes his maker”. They both knew that we have to be gracious and helpful, honest and freeing, caring and engaging the poor in order to honor God. As Rabbi Hillel says: “what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow; this is the whole Torah, all the rest is interpretation, go study”.

Yet, we are pursing the hurt of the poor, the stranger, the needy under so many guises, wrapping ourselves in ‘safety’, ‘charity begins at home’, ‘they don’t know enough to vote’, and/or antisemitism, racism, fear of being ‘displaced/losing power’, etc. We are watching the Republican Party ban books and sell guns, defend Donald Trump and spew racist, anti-semitic tweets, extol hatred towards immigrants and love towards insurrectionists. We are living in a world that is so upside down that Christ has become the avenger instead of the healer, God of the Hebrews is a vengeful God so we can be vengeful towards one another, Allah wants us to kill the infidel, etc. We have confused good and evil so much we are unable to tell the difference of truth from lies, fact from fiction, kindness from cruelty, love from hate, etc. Rather than judging a person because of the content of their character, we are judging people by the color of their skin, the religion they follow, the outside trappings they wear, the facades and masks they put up. Rather than moving forward towards the Promised Land, we are continually trying to return to Egypt because some White People want to continue to be Pharaoh!

As we enter into the celebration of Passover on Wednesday Evening and with Easter being a week from today, along with marking April 4th as a day of tragedy, it seems fitting for us to revisit Rabbi Heschel’s words from January 1963 which are found in his book The Insecurity of Freedom: “At the first summit meeting on race and religion, the participants were Moses and Pharaoh…The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end. Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate.”

These words, spoken 60+years ago are as true today as they were then, we keep forgetting the words of Proverbs, we keep forgetting the call of God, we keep rejecting the demand to “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”. We keep forgetting we are called to help our enemy, to return lost objects, to “not hate your brother/sister in your heart”. We all have both Pharaoh and Moses inside of us, we have both energies and we decide which one to use for what. We, the People, are allowing gun-toting bigots to ruin our future as well as our present, just as the majority of Egyptians, after seeing the truth of Moses’ words and God’s deeds knew Egypt was heading for a fall and pleaded with Pharaoh to “let the people go” watched in dismay and horror as their husbands, fathers, sons were swallowed up in the Red Sea. Will we heed Proverbs, Rabbi Heschel, Dr. King, etc or will we repeat the way of Pharaoh and Egypt believing doing the same thing over and over will bring different results?

My recovery and recovery in general begins when we admit that we have to honor the needy and see the neediness of ourselves. Once I looked in the mirror, once I was told by Rabbi Mel Silverman that he could never let me go because I was a Jew, I belonged to him, I could begin to deal with healing my neediness and reach out to honor my fellow inmates. This began my journey in recovery and led me to where I am now. In recovery, we “love you until you can love yourself” which is the groups actions of being gracious to the poor in spirit and honoring our Higher Power/God as well as honoring our self. We are gracious towards ourselves as well rather than oppress our self as we once did. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 160

“There is no reverence for God without reverence for man. Love of man is the way to the love of God. The fear lest we hurt a poor man must be as deep as the fear of God, for He that oppresses the poor blasphemes his maker, but he who is gracious unto the needy honors Him (Proverbs 14:31).”(God in Search of Man pg.375)

“Love of man is the way to the love of God” is a sentence that has been forgotten and misunderstood for millennia. Usually, we are told, even in our prayers, that we are to love God and that will lead us to love people. Yet, here, Rabbi Heschel is teaching us the opposite. Many Priests, Rabbis, Ministers, Imams, and other spiritual leaders preach to us to love God first. Yet, without the love of one another, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us there is no pathway to loving God. An outrageous statement in some ways and a statement that has been ignored by most people.

I hear Rabbi Heschel’s words as a demand for us to stop wrapping ourselves in the cloak of loving God while we hate one another. Instead of doing good for one another, instead of living in truth, kindness, caring, compassion, love and helping one another to move towards doing good, we perpetrate evil upon one another in the name of God, in the name of success, etc. We, the People of God, have used the vulnerabilities of another to build ourselves up, we have stepped on people and deceived people in order to gain power, property, prestige and wealth while ‘saying’ we are ‘god-fearing’ people. In his wisdom above, Rabbi Heschel says nothing about fear, only about love.

What does it mean to love man? It means to see one another as partners in making the world a little better than how we found it. It means to stop seeing one another as an enemy and worrying about guarding our stuff because of fear of someone else taking it. It means to stop being willfully blind to the needs of another and to surrender our incessant need to ‘get ahead at any and all costs’. It means to see the divine image of all people and connect with this image to help and serve. It means to not take bribes which blind the eyes of the righteous. It means to care for one another as we care for ourselves. It means to risk the wrath of another by telling them when they miss the mark. It means to rise above our narcissistic traits and connect with one another as human beings. It means to “walk in God’s ways” by caring for one another. It means to raise up the soul of one another rather than try to crush it. It means to pursue “righteous judgement” as Moses teaches us in Deuteronomy. It means to accept each person as a divine reminder and a divine need and assist one another to achieve the divine need we are here to satisfy.

We are in a perilous state, as we have been before, where people are more interested in their agendas than in God’s! In California the ‘progressive’ democrats killed a bill where fentanyl dealers would be warned after their first conviction for distributing it that they could be subject to charges of murder if they sold it and someone died. In their blindness to what is happening and to fulfill their agenda on prison reform, which is an agenda I support, they killed a bipartisan effort to do something about this hideous killer drug and the people who are not loving another(s) by giving them poison, by facilitating their death. In Florida, the governor called out the DA in New York for indicting Trump and calling him a puppet of liberal Jews. In one statement, he proved his bona fides as a racist and anti-semite, and he is a candidate for President of the United States! We see people unable to speak with one another over the polarization that has happened here and in other countries across the globe, like Israel. Yet, these people who care for their agendas uber alles, speak of how they and/or their leaders are anointed by God to do these hateful acts!

In my recovery, I have found that love of human beings also involves my ability to admit my errors. It means to see the divine image in everyone and not ever put another human being out of my heart. I may have to put them out of my home/my space, I just can never dismiss them as a human being that needs my empathy, my love. “Love of man” has forced me to change my ways often in my recovery, it has given me the light to change the way I speak to an individual based on how they can hear, how they understand. It has opened me up to a broader vision of what Torah teaches, of the different pathways when “walking with God”. Recovery through Torah, through faith, through a spiritual discipline means I see the content of a persons character and engage with people to uplift my character and theirs. It means being cured of the eye disease and the cancer of prejudice and finding acceptance of my place and rejoicing for and with another as they find theirs. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 159

“There is no reverence for God without reverence for man. Love of man is the way to the love of God. The fear lest we hurt a poor man must be as deep as the fear of God, for He that oppresses the poor blasphemes his maker, but he who is gracious unto the needy honors Him (Proverbs 14:31).”(God in Search of Man pg.375)

The word reverence comes from the Latin meaning ‘to stand in awe of’. On the first sentence above, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that all of our prayers, all of our mitzvot, all of our deeds are for naught without ‘standing in awe’ of the human being before us. Since we are all created in the Image of God, any disdain, any dismissal, any bullying, any scapegoating of another human being is an action against God as well as another person. This doesn’t mean that we don’t hold each other accountable for actions taken, it means even in our accountability we have to ‘stand in awe’ of the human being in front of us.

It also is telling me that we have to stand in awe of our self. Living this teaching of Rabbi Heschel’s means no longer engaging in self-denigration, no longer engaging in self-deprecation, no longer believing our self-deceptions and no longer believing the deceptions of another. We are being called on by Rabbi Heschel, I believe, to look in the mirror and see our own divine image, to go about our daily activities remembering everything we do needs to be done with the knowledge that we are divine reminders and divine needs, as Rabbi Heschel teaches us in his interview with Carl Stern.

Humanity has never fully lived into the truth and wisdom of the first sentence above and herein lies our difficulty with evil, herein lies our propensity to blame, shame, etc. Every human being “yearns to breathe free” as Emma Lazarus reminds us in her words on the Statue of Liberty. Every one of us in America are immigrants, except for the Native Americans. When we complain about immigrants, as we have throughout the history of America, we are not showing reverence for God, no matter how much we wrap ourselves in the particular spiritual discipline we follow. When we deny equal ‘status’ to people of color, we are not ‘standing in awe’ of God nor human beings. When we believe people need Assault weapons for ‘sport’, when we believe people need high-capacity magazines for their guns, knowing that these are specious arguments and our mass shootings occur with these weapons and magazines, we are not ‘standing in awe of God nor human beings. When we blame the perpetrators alone, not the lack of training, closer inspection of people’s mental health, when we blame the victims as people do by saying the doors should be locked, etc, we are not ‘standing in awe of God nor human beings.

When we deny the rule of law and say some people are above the law, “there is no reverence for God” nor human beings. When we punish people according to the color of their skin, the religion they follow differently than we punish white people, “there is no reverence for God.” When we replace faith with creed, “worship with discipline, love by habit,” when today’s crisis is ignored because we are having euphoric recall of the past, to paraphrase the opening chapter of God in Search of Man, “there is no reverence for God” nor for human beings. When we fail to see the uniqueness of another human being, when we make another human being ‘the other’ “there is no reverence of God” nor of human beings.

In recovery, we know we have ‘to stand in awe’ of God and another human being in order to stay in recovery. Our previous ways of being denigrated the divine image of our self and everyone else. Where we saw differences, we look for similarities, where we blamed another person for our situation, we take responsibility for our part. Where we engaged in entitlement, we are now of service. Each morning we “turn our will and our life over to the care of God” and have reverence for God and for human beings.

I realize that my reverence for another human being is easily misinterpreted by the way I may show it. The “fire in the belly” that I experience in seeking truth, speaking truth; my ability to see the divine image in another human being and break down all the walls and defenses people have put around their divine image has driven me at times to be abrasive, argumentative, loud, blunt, impolite, insensitive to people’s feelings. Today’s teaching above reminds me to be true to my own divine image and the divine need I am meant to fulfill. I also realize that not everyone wants to hear me, not everyone can hear the ways I fill God’s call to me. I have to have more reverence for people who need a different way so I can have more reverence for God. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 158

“What is a mitsvah? A prayer in the form of a deed. And to pray is to sense His presence. “In “all thy ways thou shalt know Him.” Prayer should be part of all our ways. It does not have to be always on our lips; it must always be on our minds, in our hearts.”(God in Search of Man pg. 375)

Rabbi Heschel’s merging of prayer and Mitzvah is, in some ways, revolutionary. Most people think of mitzvah as a deed and prayer as a petition. Yet, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel’s teaching today, I hear him reminding us that mitzvah as a “prayer should be part of all our ways”. While it is important to pray, to commune with God, with our higher selves, prayer alone, study alone will not change anything, including us. We have to take action, we have to respond to God’s call to us through our actions, not just our words.

Rabbi Heschel is calling to us to be congruent, to be alive, to be aware, to serve our self, our community, God, with all of our hearts, minds, and actions. He is demanding we stop regulating prayer to the synagogue, church, mosque; he is calling us to account for our daily actions; he is asking us to “take a leap of action” as he says often. In order for change to happen, in order for us to be a partner of God in making the world better, in order for hatred and strife, prejudice and power-grabbing, self-deception and mendacity to end, we have to “sense His presence” in all of our actions. We have to stop using prayer and mitzvah for our advantage, to build our selves up, to bastardize God’s ways and desires, as we have throughout the millennia.

“What is the next right action” is the question that we have to ask and answer for ourselves constantly. I believe this is what “must always be on our minds, in our hearts.” Yet, we continue to ask and answer a different question: “what is in my best interest” and we find ourselves in the morass of deception, selfishness, hatred, prejudice, etc. We find ourselves going against what is truly in our best interest, serving God. We find ourselves thinking about how to get over, how to get ahead, how to deceive another into going against their best interest to serve ‘the leader’, ‘the group’.

Netanyahu and his band of merry men are trying to destroy the democratic state of Israel, they say they are Ultra-Orthodox Jews serving God while in reality they are serving their selfish desires. They have deceived themselves and their followers into believing that “prayer is on our minds, in our hearts” all the while going against a foundational tenet and mitzvah of God-“do justly, love mercy, walk in the ways of God”. They are not doing justly, they want to control justice, they do not believe in nor love mercy for anyone who is not in lockstep with them and their thinking, they are do not “sense His presence” because they do not see the divine image in anyone who doesn’t go along with their ways! While they may practice Judaism in an orthodox manner, they do not follow the words of the prophets, they do not allow for any other opinion but theirs, they do not follow nor engage in a discussion and exchange of ideas and ways to find “the next right action”, they only know and want what they want when they want it. This will lead to destruction and ruin.

In America, the Republican Party has been the home of ‘the unreligious right’. As in Israel, the leaders and followers are not congruent with the teachings of their faiths. They do not “do justly”, they also use their brand justice as a weapon against their enemies and a gift for their cronies. Rather than “love mercy” they show none to the people whom they consider enemies (anyone who doesn’t agree with them and/or stands in their way of total domination). They give shelter to people who use prayer for their own selfish desires, they lead people into believing God loves them more so everyone should follow them, they shun the stranger, the poor, the needy and show them disdain rather than mercy. How are they “walking in the ways of God”?

In recovery, we learn to serve God is to serve another. Each morning, each day we begin with prayers that lead us to serve, lead us to do mitzvot. We are acutely aware of how our actions shape us, shape those around us and the world. We pray each day with the action of turning “our will and our life over to the care of God as we understand God” because without the “sense of His presence” we know how lost we can become. Each and every hour, day we carry our prayers, our actions in our hearts and in our minds so we can grow in our knowledge of “what the next right action” is and how to carry it out. We seek each day to be one grain of sand closer to fulfilling the words of the prophets, return to God, do justly, love mercy, walk with God. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark