What is your response to the Burdens, Challenges, Contradictions of Freedom? Year 4 Day 77

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 77

“Freedom is a challenge and a burden against which man often rebels. He is ready to abandon it, since it is full of contradiction and continually under attack. Freedom can only endure as a vision, and loyalty to it is an act of faith.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 15-16)

Pondering these words, realizing they were written and spoken in 1958 and mostly unheard and unheeded to this day, saddens me, enrages me and emboldens me. I am sad that I did not hear these words when I was younger, I am enraged that “freedom” has been taken for granted so much that we could lose it at any moment, thank you Donald Trump, Russell Vought, Project 2025, and, of course, Elon Musk. I believe it is crucial for us to imbue, immerse and understand the words and sentiments expressed above. Remembering that these words come from a man who watched the most erudite country, the country that was considered brilliant, modern, strong, etc reject “freedom” because it was too hard, the people decided, to go against the fascists in their governments-sound familiar Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, et al?

The Declaration of Independence is not just a severing of our relationship with King George and England, it is a document full of challenges and burdens. Jefferson, a slave owner, knew what he was doing was wrong and he couldn’t bring himself to free his slaves, probably afraid of backlash and losing money, stature, etc. Yet, he believed in the equality of all people and sold the entire Continental Congress on this truth and way of being. We, America, have never lived this truth and challenge completely and it is the burden that our democracy is under and the challenge from a man of faith and decency, a man who knew right from wrong and, even when he couldn’t do the next right thing, he wanted the country to. Today, our “freedoms” are under attack from someone who thinks the real challenge is to see how powerful he can become, under attack from a group that hails Hitler (listen to Tucker Carlson, Trump, his podcasters, etc), loves Putin, Orban, Xi, Erdogan, and extols might over right. This is a prime example of “a challenge and burden against which man often rebels”.

Of course, the fascists in the White House, Congress, the ones who are lobbyists, who are the ‘religious people’, the ‘god-fearing christian nationalists’, are not the problem. The problem is We the People! Just as justice denied to anyone is justice denied to everyone, any of the  challenges and burdens of freedom that are unmet means freedom falls and we become slaves to our desires, to our self-deception, to the mendacity of the ‘leader’ and find ourselves performing harsh labor as our ancestors did in Egypt, once again. As Jews, we know how this story plays out, as Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, we are experienced in how allowing these “challenges and burdens” be unmet, by our rebelling against them leads to tyranny, torture, gas chambers, being fed to the lions, etc. While the outrageous behaviors and speech of the mendacious ones currently in power are getting worse and worse, what is really troubling is how We, the People are buying into their bullshit and defending them! We, the People are not only “ready to abandon it”, we already have in many cases. Rather than deal with the contradictions and attacks, many of We, the People have gone along to get along, believing it won’t be as bad as you think, he has Jewish grandchildren, he is a ‘strong man’, he is a ‘warrior’, he ‘resonates’ with people, etc. For this, we are willing to “abandon” our “freedom” and throw off the Yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, we are willing to go against the Biblical commandments to “love your neighbor as yourself” and “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all the inhabitants therein”. It doesn’t say only the people the ‘cult leadership’ deem to be worthy of freedom (only them and their cronies fit this description) nor does it say only the citizens(again this designation is up to the ‘cult leadership’) nor does it define “your neighbor” as only white people! Just as the Declaration of Independence is America’s challenge and burden, so too is the Bible the challenge and burden of Jews, Christians, Muslims. We, the People are not expected to finish the job, fulfill the commandments completely once and for all, rather We, the People have to respond to the demands of these holy documents, respond to the “contradictions” of “freedom” and defend it against the numerous attacks against it. Over the first 248 years of our democracy, our systems held, one or another branch of government stood up against the bully and the autocrat, today We the People must demand our elected officials, our Courts stand up unless we are cool with the abandonment of “freedom”, unless we are cool with making Germany of the 1930’s look like child’s play.

We, the People are being called by Rabbi Heschel’s words above, by our own intuitive mind, by the inner voice of higher consciousness to STAND UP, to DEFEND and PROTECT the “unalienable rights” enumerated in the Declaration of Independence. There is a demand going forth from Sinai, to people of every faith tradition and spiritual discipline to “GO TO YOURSELF/FOR YOURSELF to the “land I will show you” which is the land of democracy, the land of “freedom”. It is up to We the People to respond to this call in this moment with the same loyalty as we have to our faith tradition, our spiritual disciplines. We the People are the ones who have inherited the vision of the prophets, the vision of the Bible, the vision of the Declaration of Independence. In a marriage ceremony we sometimes hear the words, “let no man put asunder” referring to the covenantal experience of marriage. We have this same covenantal relationship with freedom as it was given to us at Mt. Sinai, because we were brought out of Egypt before and we recall and see the Egypts we are in every year at our Seders and it is high time that We the People answer the call, stay loyal to the vision of freedom and the actions that ensure We the People will always “Let Freedom Ring”.

I have fallen short of the way of being the words above teach me. I have also hit the mark and I continue to believe that “freedom” is making a “free-will moral choice” as Rabbi Abraham Twerski teaches. I have this ability, I have to do the work to clean out the shit that gets in the way of living like this-mostly my insecurities, my false desires, my inauthentic needs-which I have been lessening over these past 36 years. I am not rebelling against “freedom” anymore, I live into the burdens and challenges as well as the contradictions of being free and I am always at the ready to fight against the attackers of “freedom”, following the examples of my familial ancestors as well as the prophets, the early masters of Hassidism, and all of the people who fought for and envisioned a way of living happy, joyous and free. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Are You living as a free person-letting go of prejudices and stereotypes ? Year 4 Day 76

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 76

“For freedom is not an empty concept. Man is free to be free; he is not free in choosing to be a slave; he is free in doing good; he is not free in doing evil. To choose evil is to fail to be free. In choosing evil he is not free but determined by forces which are extraneous to the spirit. Free is he who has decided to act in agreement with the spirit that goes beyond all necessities.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 15)

I am reading these words and re-reading them to hear the logic, the wisdom, the truth and the demand of them. The idea that one is not free when one is a slave seems obvious, duh!! Yet, as I allow these words to wash over me, I realize all of the slaveries we are in, be it work, the almighty dollar, our inner slaveries, our self-deceptions, our need for certainty, for surety, our need to be right and to argue to the death our point of view, our addictive behaviors and substances, and so much more make us not free and we are too oblivious to this truth to realize it! Rabbi Heschel is pretty careful with the words he chooses and “he is not free in choosing to be a slave” points me to hear his warning, his demand, his calling out to us to look at our lives differently, not that we can do whatever we want and this makes us free, rather freedom is not “choosing to be a slave”.

Writing about this, of course, forces me to ask so many questions and look at life, both mine and what is happening in the world from the lens of slavery vis a vis ”freedom” and our awareness of our being “free to be free” and “not free in doing evil”? “Free in doing good and not free in choosing to be a slave”. As I listen to people speak and they realize that our current political climate is fraught with danger, both here and abroad, they complain of their lack of agency and, in reading this, my new response is we had agency in November of 2024 and we didn’t use it to the best of our ability, we knew what was planned and, maybe for the first time in his life, Trump is being true to his words, retribution, weaponizing the government, tax cuts for the rich, tariffs, and taking over Greenland, Panama, and Canada! We the People, chose to be a slave because we did not exercise our freedom to see, to think, to hear, to know what is true and what is false, what is freedom and what is slavery, what is good and what is evil. By ignoring our basic freedom to know, we find ourselves in the quandary of our own making and too many people are unwilling to admit this and/or see the mess we are in and heading towards.

Trump wants “Hitler’s Generals”, Musk praises Stalin, Mao, Hitler and blames their “public specter employees” for the mass murders, and people still believe in them! Talk about “choosing evil” and “not free but determined by forces which are extraneous to the spirit”!!! AND, the political turmoil, the undermining of our freedoms and our democracy are also “forces which are extraneous to the spirit”. These actions, our “choosing to be a slave” last November(remember some are guilty, all our responsible), are the outer manifestations of our inability to accept the freedom we received at Sinai, the freedom of following a path of decency, kindness, justice, mercy, imperfection, and truth. It seems as if our mendacious need to be perfect, to be certain, to know what the future holds, overrides our need to be present in the moment, rejoice in our imperfections, immerse ourselves in the spiritual texts we read so we can be one grain of sand freer today than we were yesterday.

I am hearing Rabbi Heschel call us to take stock of our inner lives, to do the inner work necessary to “know the difference between cursed be Haman and blessed be Mordechai”. I hear the demand to properly prepare for Passover because we, unlike our ancestors, have the forewarning that Passover is coming, we are going to be able to leave whatever Egypt, narrow place, we are currently in and walk through the desert to freedom at Sinai, on Shavuot. We the People need to do this inventory, this inner work so we can clear out the plaque in our spiritual arteries and the wax in our spiritual hearing. We, the People are in desperate need for a “new pair of glasses” and maybe even Cataract surgery because we seem to have lost our hearing, our eyesight, and our ability to discern truth from lies, freedom from slavery, good from evil. “We got trouble, right here in River City, with a capital T” which could stand for Trump or “rhymes with a capital P” and that could stand for Putin!.

The issue is, however, as we are in Lent, Ramadan, and preparing for leaving Egypt, to see our inner Trump, Putin, Musk, Pharaoh, as well as  the inner Moses, the inner spirit, the inner prophet. We have all of these ‘voices’, ‘ideas’, ‘ways of being’ within us and we have to be constantly choosing which one will speak for us, which one will determine our actions- the one that is free or the one that is a slave to greed, power, etc. Remember the prophets railed against the very same type of leadership that We the People chose last November. It is not as if we are not constantly warned about the fragility of freedom, the need to “act in agreement with the spirit that goes beyond all necessities”-the entire Bible has stories of what happens when we go against our basic need to be free, what happens when we “choose to be a slave”, yet we seem incapable of learning from it, from the experiences of our ancestors who fled tyranny to be free in “the new world”. We the People are being called to use this time when all three Western Religions come together to celebrate being free and take the time to do the inner work to be free, to “act in agreement with the spirit that goes beyond all necessities” because the greatest necessity is for We the People to live in freedom and choose the good!

I know the subtleties of “choosing to be a slave” and I am repulsed by the times I knowingly and unknowingly chose slavery over freedom-UGH! I am also aware of the times when I gave into “forces which are extraneous to the spirit” and chose evil, not necessarily EVIL, rather the small things that have such great impact on another and my spiritual health-DOUBLE UGH!! I am also aware of how often I have chosen freedom, I have done the good because it is the next right thing to do, how often I have nullified my will before God’s will so God’s will becomes mine and how often I choose to be free, no longer giving my dignity and worth over to someone else to validate, rather the knowing of freedom and the engaging in acts of freedom that are “in agreement with” both my spirit and “the spirit that goes beyond all necessities.” Truth, justice, kindness, mercy, using my prophetic voice, speaking truth to power, all are expressions of being free. Grateful to all my teachers and friends who help me to stay free! Let’s leave the Egypt of our own making this year!! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Are you willing to "climb across" the normal, the 'safety net' of your rational mind and experience the transcendence of Freedom? Year 4 Day75

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 75

“The meaning of freedom is not exhausted by deliberation, decision, and responsibility, although it must include all this. The meaning of freedom presupposes an openness to transcendence, and man has to be responsive before he can become responsible.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 15)

I am eager to arise each morning, way too early, so I can read Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom for this day, I can hear his call and I can improve my ability to “be responsive”. We are living, once again, in a time where people of ‘no-faith’ are not the “NONES” who respond to the various surveys/polls done. The people of ‘no-faith’ are the people who have so twisted and bastardized the words of the Bible, the message of Jesus, the tao of Buddha, they are really worshiping the idols of their own making, either in the form of a person or an idea/rationalization they have conjured up for their own power and prestige. Unfortunately, these ‘no-faith’ people are in charge and desperate to take away our “freedom” as well as our money, safety, security, etc. Like Pharaoh in the Bible, like the Romans in Jerusalem, like Torquemada in Spain, like King George, like so many others throughout history, people who are the loudest about their loyalty to god, who claim this is what god wants are actually descendants of the people of Haran who bought the idols that Abraham’s father was making!

The cruelty, the mendacity, the “not knowing the difference between Blessed be Mordechai and Cursed be Haman” that is ‘celebrated on Purim, has put us into a situation where truth is so hard to find, it has been so bastardized and raped by the ‘good god-fearing christian nationalists’ like Vance, Vought, etc, most people are unable to discern fact from fiction, truth from lies, and good from evil. All of our “deliberation, decision, and responsibility” today seems to be geared towards screwing one another, not helping one another live free. During this period of Lent, Ramadan, preparation for Passover, isn’t it time for us to engage in the spiritual work that the universe is calling us to? Isn’t it time for us to do what it takes to be liberated from the internal prison of rationalizations, “deliberations”, and choosing the “responsibility” to the shareholders, to our benefactors over our “responsibility” to freedom for all?

We cannot do this unless we immerse ourselves in the wisdom above, the words of the Bible, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and all of their authentic disciples. Immersing ourselves is to experience the words and thoughts, the meanings and vision as if we are hearing them, reading them and seeing them in real time and in the moment. “What is the question that this piece of wisdom is the answer for today”, my Rabbi, Jonathan Omer-man used to ask me and I still ask myself and every one I study with. How do we engage in “an openness to transcendence”? “Transcendence” comes from the word transcend and the Latin is “to climb across”, hence “transcendence” is to “climb across” the norm, letting go of our adjustments to societal norms, and go to the realm of our souls, of living into the gifts of our intuitive minds. The issue for We the People is whether we are willing to be open to anything that we cannot see, touch, feel. Are we capable of climbing across our thoughts, feelings, our self-deceptions and the deceptions of another(s) to engage in the “radical amazement” and “wonder” that comes with allowing ourselves to have “an openness to transcendence”? In this moment, this is the most pressing question We the People are facing and it seems as if too many are not engaging in this openness, they are too stuck in their inner slavery, they are too invested in their self-deception and they are following the teaching of Raba in the Talmud: get so drunk we don’t know the difference between Haman and Mordechai! The people who refuse to be open to “transcendence” are also the people who are not following the teachings of Hillel in Pirke Avot, don’t get too friendly with the authorities because they are not your friends” and, in a place where there is no humanity, be human!(Pirke Avot, 2:3, 5)

We the People, as we engage in the spiritual discipline of our choice, as we let go of something for Lent, purify ourselves during Ramadan, search out and let go of the Chometz that has made us fat and lazy, insolent, deaf, and blind since last Passover, desperately need to “climb across” the abyss of lies, grifts, bastardizations and the deceptions of self and by another. We are being called to each and every day, demands are placed upon us by the cry of the needy and the poor, the desperation of the stranger seeking refuge and a better way of living, the elderly who are lonely, the veterans who answered the call to safeguard us, the prophets who follow in the footsteps of our ancestors, the prophets. 4 weeks from last night is the first Seder, the reading of the Haggadah and the meal celebrating liberation. We are not free until we reach Sinai and accept the “yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven”, until we agree “to do and then understand”. “Transcendence” is such a part of the story of Passover, the counting of the Omer and then receiving the Torah at Sinai, we read about the Rabbis who were gathered at B’Nai Brak, and told by their students that they were going to miss the time to say the Shema because of their discussions. What they were planning, according to our lore, is the Bar Kochba revolt, the last effort to be free of Roman rule, the rule of another country/despot. Isn’t this what Passover is all about-planning our freedom from our inner slaveries, ridding ourselves of the fat and lard, the treif, leavening that has clogged our spiritual arteries and caused plaque to constrict our intuitive minds giving too much power to our servant, the rational mind? This is the demand, the call: be “responsive” to the build up of shmutz that has poisoned our minds, narrowed our thinking like when we were in Egypt, helped us believe the lies we tell ourselves and the ones we have been imbued with. There is a difference between what is truth and goodness and what is a lie and evil-we cannot confuse these ways of being anymore!

I do everything I can to be “responsive” and “have an openness to transcendence” because living at the level of lies, of evil, of negativity led me to being a drunk and a thief. It allowed me to lie to myself, blame another(s) for my bad actions, deny and defend myself all the while shirking my duties and obligations as a son, brother, husband and father. Recovery through Torah and 12-steps has given me the wherewithal to “hear the call”, “respond to the demand” and take the next right action. I am engaged in my Passover preparation, I am deliberate and diligent about “being human” and not buying my bullshit nor the bullshit and lies of another, no matter who is spouting them. “Freedom” is the not only the greatest gift, as described above, it is the greatest way to thank the universe for this gift. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Moral and Spiritual Isolation leads to egocentricity and cruelty - Year 4 Day 74

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 74

This sensitivity to the novel and the unprecedented is the foundation of God-awareness and of the awareness of the preciousness of all beings. It leads from reflexive concern and the moral and spiritual isolation which is the result of egocentricity to a mode of responding to each new and unique experience in terms of broader considerations, wider interests, deeper appreciation and new, as yet unrealized values.”(Insecurity of Freedom pg. 15)

Today is Purim, tonight is Shabbat and tomorrow we read the story of the Golden Calf in Temples and Synagogues across the world. We also begin the countdown of 4 weeks until Passover, the “season of our liberation”. In order for all of us to be human, in order for all of us to be free, I am hearing Rabbi Heschel call us to have “sensitivity to the novel and unprecedented” rather than see the world as “same shit, different day”. We are being made aware, once again, what it takes to live into the world as it is meant to be, what it takes for us to live into our soul’s purpose and fulfill the meaning of our unique existence: “God-awareness and the awareness of the preciousness of all beings.” This is the path to freedom, worthiness, wholeness and joy and without the “sensitivity”, we are lost, we become slaves to our wants and desires as well as the wants and desires of another(s).

We are in the throes of a cycle that has been in the world for millennia, progress and then pull back, awareness and then willful blindness, “reflexive concern” and then ‘responding to each new and unique experience”. In this moment, we are being held by our throats and a gun is being put to our head to ignore “God-awareness and the awareness of the preciousness of all beings” for the sake of the few, the rich, the ones in power, the ‘god-fearing christian nationalists’ who know nothing of what Christ said, lived, taught! Rather than being sensitive to these awareness’, rather than being sensitive to the “preciousness of all beings” almost half of this country is only sensitive to their own ‘preciousness’ , their own needs and desires, jettisoning “God-awareness” for the worship of idols, of the ‘great leader’, etc. Rather than understand there is always a Haman(boo) who wants to destroy a certain group that she/he believes will thwart his/her quest for power or wants to use them as scapegoats, blaming them for the ills of the country and getting their loyal followers to hate them also-i.e. George Soros, most people buy into the bullshit these ‘leaders’ are slinging and we find ourselves in the situation we have today-people losing jobs for no good reason, the stock market and the economy are in chaos for no good reason, Democratic leaders are called dictators and dictators are hailed as ‘freedom fighters’, etc. Yet, no matter what this ‘leader’ does, his minions will clap like trained seals and his soldiers will fight his battles for him. Donald Trump is a brilliant marketer, throughout his lifetime, he has sold ice to Eskimos, and he has sold his people the idea that “reflexive concern” is more important that “a mode of responding to each new and unique experience…” We’re in a state of “moral and spiritual isolation” that is so disguised by Mike Johnson, et al that they believe they are ‘god-fearing christians’ of the highest order and Trump is their messiah!! He is their ‘anointed by God’ savior-this is the height of insensitivity to me.

Living into the words above takes We the People to leave the “moral and spiritual isolation” we have been living in. This is such a subtle state that we easily deceive ourselves that we are not in it by attending services, by saying our daily prayers, by spouting the rhetoric of the church, temple, mosque, spiritual discipline. Yet, we are seeing the effects of this “moral and spiritual isolation” the effects of the “reflexive concern” and the “egocentricity” of people in the ways we are treating one another. We forget whom we owe debts to; people who have helped us along our journey, God, parents, siblings, customers, employers, employees, etc. We are watching the “I” of our egos on full display in our homes as well as in the streets and in the halls of Congress as well as the White House-all of which belong to “all the people” of this country. When parents are authoritarians instead of guides and teachers, when children are unappreciative of the sacrifices parents make and their entitlement for what they believe should be done to and for them, when people want to force their beliefs onto everyone else, when morality and civility are considered ‘woke’, when cruelty is said to be the exercise of freedom, We the People have to stand up and say NO, NO, NO!

It is time for We the People to live into the teaching above that moment brings about a “new and unique experience in terms of broader considerations, riders interests, deeper appreciation and new, as yet unrealized values”. Rather than sit on the sidelines, rather than be depressed and in despair, Rabbi Heschel is calling We the People to action. We the People need to look inside ourselves and hear the still, small voice of wisdom and knowing, of action and goodness, of truth and justice. Following this inner voice is a path to the freedom we all seek and only some of us find. When we have “sensitivity” we are able to see far beyond the horizon, we are able to hear with clarity what the next right action is, and we are emboldened with a strength that is beyond anything we ever imagined to stand up, to take our inheritance from the prophets and speak truth to power, block the path of the usurpers and live our “God-awareness” out loud as well as extolling the “preciousness of all beings.” We the People are the messengers God has sent to the world, We the People get to do this work, We the People need to do it now!

I have been sensitive to these concerns of God for a long time, for a period of time they were not deemed worthy concerns by people around me. I fought for justice as a kid/teenager and lost the will to fight along the way. I stood with Civil Rights activists and anti-war activists, I cheated people and saw them as ‘my ticket out of poverty’ rather than as “precious beings”. I have lived the entire gamut of this continuum and it is better on the side that Rabbi Heschel is describing! I like seeing the “preciousness of all beings” because this gives me empathy and I can see the pathetic nature of these charlatans, idolators in charge, these spiritually and morally bankrupt people in all arenas of our living and our world. They are responsible and I can go to war with them with a heart of peace when I remember they are also precious children of God, when I remember they are lost sheep who can do a lot of damage, have to be corralled and it has to be NOW before the damage they cause is irreparable. I have had my interests widened, my considerations broadened, and my ability to see this moment as unique and respond accordingly because of my sensitivity to truth, justice, the moment, and God. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Ass-kissing, Going along to get along or radical amazement-where do you live? Year 4 Day 73

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 73

“The shock of radical amazement, the humility born in awe and reverence, the austere discipline of unremitting inquiry and self-criticism are acts of liberating man from the routine way of looking only at those features of experience which are similar and regular, and opening his soul to the unique and transcendent.”(Insecurity of Freedom pg. 15)

Tonight is the Rabbinic holiday of Purim, when the Jews were saved from Haman (boo) and Mordechai (Yay) was honored by the King and Queen Esther saved the people Israel from extinction in Persia. It is a troubling holiday for many people because rather than show grace and compassion, when they had the opportunity, the Jews of Persia killed tens of thousands of people, a real “I’ll show you, you anti-semite”. It also is a holiday that ‘celebrates’ getting drunk as the Talmud says, “ad lo Yodea” “until you don’t know the difference between Mordechai and Haman”. Reading the words above, reading Jonathan Greenblatt’s ass-kissing praise of Trump’s arresting Mahmoud Khalil, I realize to celebrate the disastrous actions by the Jews of Persia and by some Jews ever since, like Baruch Goldstein, Meir Kahane, Netanyahu, the West Bank Settlers, we have to be drunk and not know the difference between good and evil not know the difference between right and wrong. Which is exactly what Khalil’s arrest shows, exactly what Trump’s administration is promoting and what a USEFUL IDIOT Greenblatt and other ‘good jews’ are!

Rather than having “the shock of radical amazement” change and motivate these assholes and know-it-alls to understand, see and fight for what is right and good, they are oblivious to even noticing the wonder that surrounds them because they live in a world of certainty and sureness-‘only I can fix it’, said by the one who is intent on breaking everything that makes us free and democratic. Yet, there are jews, christians, muslims, blacks, hispanics, who claim to be ‘god-fearing’ people who go against the dictate of Hillel: “ Be careful with ruling authorities, they don’t befriend a person unless it suits them and serves them, they seem like friends and don’t stand by you in your hour of distress”(Pirke Avot 2:3) and another one: “A brute is not afraid of sin…nor is someone who engages in too much business, wise. In a place where there are no humans, BE HUMAN.” (Ibid 2:5) Given the world today, I am amazed at Greenblatt’s words and actions of kissing the asses of the people in power and calling this “jewish” when Hillel the Elder, a revered Rabbi in the Talmud, tells us it is wrong! Of course Greenblatt and other Jews will defend their choices and Trump to the death because he “resonates” with the people. Haman(boo) resonated with the people, Stalin did also at first, Hitler, Sabbatai Zevi also resonated, were they also to be praised???

“Radical amazement”, “awe”, “reverence”, “humility”, “self-criticism”, “unremitting inquiry”  are the only paths to “having an authentic awareness of that which is” as Rabbi Heschel says in Man is Not Alone. These traits reside within each and every person and those who choose to live into them are often derided as ‘head in the clouds’, ‘unrealistic’, ‘not living in the real world’, stupid, easily manipulated, etc. Rather than seeing themselves as imprisoned in their rational minds, in their desires and fears, in their need to have power or be close to it, Greenblatt and the other ‘useful idiots’ who are supporting Trump, who want a dissenter like Khalil deported are forgetting Germany in the 1930’s, they are forgetting America in the 1930’s, they are oblivious that the law being used to deport Khalil is the same one that was used to deport and not allow Jews into America during the McCarthy years and that was a great time for freedom, for civil liberties, wasn’t it?

Only through the ways described above can We the People have the experiences which will get us out of the routine “same shit different day” attitude and way of being in the world. Only through wonder can We the People truly see what is, what could be, what should be and how to get there. Our rational minds are the servants to help us get there and out intuitive minds are the seer, the visionary, the pathfinders for us to fulfill our soul’s purpose, to live into the “self we were created to be” as Thomas Merton says. We the People are being called to “unremitting inquiry”, Rabbi Heschel is demanding that we never stop asking the right questions so we can be in the right solutions. It is a hard way to live, Socrates taught: “an unexamined life is not worth living” some 2400 years ago, Malcom X taught “an examined life is painful”. As the saying goes: “no pain, no gain” which makes it ridiculous that We the People keep running away from true “humility” which comes from “awe and reverence”, that we keep being adjusted to the conventional notions and mental cliches of societal norms rather than be maladjusted like Moses, Abraham, the Prophets, the 20% of the people who left Egypt, Rather than be like the Jews of Persia and enjoy killing, We the People are able to be “liberating” ourselves through letting go of these old ideas, being self-critical to learn and grow, find  and live into our individual uniqueness and transcendence. WILL YOU??

As a devotee of Rabbi Heschel and radical amazement, as someone who read the entire sugya of the story of “ad lo yodea” where Raba invites Rabbi Zera over for Purim-they both get drunk, Raba slits Rabbi Zera’s throat and then prays and he is healed. Next year, Raba invites Rabbi Zera over and the response is: “a miracle doesn’t occur every single time”! To the Jews who don’t want to know the difference tonight, I offer more than a few words of caution! As a drunk who knows the damage I inflicted in my drunkenness, I am deeply remorseful. As a human being who fell into the clutches of not being self-critical at times and was blinded by it, I offer many words of caution! Radical amazement is such a gift that is open to everyone. It takes humility, not mealy-mouthed head down, begging for scraps, true humility, knowing who one is, living a “unique and transcendent life” and helping another(s) do the same. It changes how I was with my daughter, Heather, acknowledging her as a person, not just ‘my child’, giving her agency and doing my best to ensure she knew I loved her as a person. This way of being is the path to the loving relationship I have with Harriet, it is also the reason I have spiritual friends and also the reason I am not always liked so much. I am certainly not everyone’s “cup of tea”. I can’t ‘go along to get along” like Greenblatt and many others do-not in my nature nor nurture-my father didn’t and I am not ‘politically correct’! While I know I am not always right, I do live “an examined life” and it is painful and the pain leads me to living in radical amazement, awe, reverence, humility more and more each day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Is creativity achievable without freedom? Year 4 Day 72

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 72

“Although all men are potentially free, it is our sacred duty to safeguard all those political, social, and intellectual conditions which will enable every man to bring about the concrete actualization of freedom which is the essential prerequisite of creative achievement. Insecurity of Freedom pg.15)

Over 60 years ago Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, in his “I have a Dream” speech said:”Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty, I am Free at Last” which is a quote from a “Negro Spiritual” speaking about death as the ultimate freedom when one is a slave. Hearing Rabbi Heschel’s words written 5 years prior to that speech and prior to ever meeting Rev. King, I immediately thought of these words. “Free at Last” is not just about outer freedom, it is also about inner freedom. Without inner freedom, without sharing our path to inner freedom, we will never move beyond “potentially free” and we certainly will not fulfill our “sacred duty to safeguard all those political, social, and intellectual conditions…”. This, of course, is the demand of the first sentence; to see what our “sacred duty” is and this “sacred duty” is not just about some ritual we perform to ‘look good’ in the ‘eyes’ of God or the people in our houses of worship, it is about how we help every human being “bring about the concrete actualization of freedom” and this is what Rev. King may have been pointing to when he ended his I have a Dream speech with “Free at Last”. He unburdened himself of the shackles of sticking to the page, he allowed his soul to speak for him and he, as Mahalia Jackson suggested, preached his Gospel, the same Gospel found in the Bible, in the words of Jesus, etc.

In our present climate, these words, the words of Rev King seem trite and ridiculous. Maybe they were then as well, I just remembering being enthralled by Dr. King and his speeches because they said the same things that my father, z”l, was teaching my brothers and me-it is our duty to treat all people with respect regardless of race, color, creed, religion. In the 1960’s I was not aware of Rabbi Heschel, unfortunately, and these words written in 1958 point to his being able to incorporate the errors of past generations and what he saw in the moment with his prophetic vision and give us these warnings, which, of course, we have failed to heed. The goal of our Declaration of Independence and the path laid out by the Constitution are lofty and match this first sentence above; the issue being that we have failed to move them forward to a tipping point whereby every different administration, every different Congress, every single citizen will accept their “sacred duty to safeguard all those political, social, and intellectual conditions…” We are witnessing the exact opposite of fulfilling “our sacred duty” right now, Trump and his people, under the direction of Putin and ‘christian nationalists like Russell Vought, are doing everything they can to undo these “safeguards” and to tear down the “concrete actualization of freedom” for all people and limit this “concrete actualization of freedom” to only the select few of their choosing, not even all who bend their knees and kiss their asses will experience this “actualization” and they are too spiritually immature to realize it. Rather than have “creative achievement” that come about because of this “actualization of freedom” people like those in power in the US and across the globe believe they can force people to be “creative” even though they are enslaving them. It hasn’t worked so well in Russia under Putin, it has never worked that well for any autocrat, any despot Monarch for any long period of time. Greece fell, Rome fell, Babylonia, Assyria, England, Spain, France, the Ottoman Empire, Germany, Italy, Japan, China, why not the US? We thought we were immune because we were founded on religious freedom, we enshrined freedoms in the first amendment to our Constitution and we became oblivious to the warnings of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha all of whom, in their own way, called to us to not think we are so high and mighty, not believe our own press and treat every person with dignity and respect-we are all equal in the eyes of God, in our Higher Consciousness, whether we believe it or not; this is just a spiritual and moral truth.

We, the People are being called by the words above, by the current situation, by Rev. King’s words, by all of the holy texts of every spiritual discipline to our “sacred duty to safeguard all those political, social, and intellectual conditions which will enable every man to achieve the concrete actualization of freedom..”! We the People have abdicated this “sacred duty” for far too long and the current situation of bullying, of disloyalty to the Constitution, to our allies and friends, of racism, of hatred, of disdain for the principles found in the Bible all while wrapping themselves in the ‘flag’ and ‘christian values’ is the result! We the People have to get off our asses and demand change, demand that our elected officials do their “sacred duty” and ensure freedom for all so we can have more “creative achievement” and be a better nation today than we were yesterday, just as we have to be better human beings today than we were yesterday if we are to continue to “grow along spiritual lines”. We the People are being called to show up and stand up for our brothers and sisters as Deuteronomy teaches “Love the stranger because you were a stranger in the land of Egypt”; Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that without our doing our “sacred duty” freedom will be lost for all people and then the words on the Liberty Bell and in Leviticus 25:10 will ring hollow as they did for almost 2000 years and there will not be anyone to: “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”. Is this really what We the People want to leave as our legacy to our children and grandchildren? Is this really what We the People want our final will and testament to say?

I am sending postcards to the White House for the Ides of Trump and while I do not to see anyone do to him what was done to Caesar, I do think it is time for our Congress to tell him “You’re Fired”! In reflecting on my life, I believe that I accepted the “sacred duty to safeguard…” and enabled many people “bring about the concrete actualization of freedom” and they then use this “freedom” to bring about “creative achievements”. It is a joy and an honor, to be a witness to the throwing off the inner shackles which have kept people (including myself) slaves to societal bullshit and lies, slaves to their own self-deceptions, and watch in awe and wonder at their “creative achievements” in their newfound “freedom”. This is the fight we all have to fight, both in our own lives and help another(s) with their inner wars to be free with all the rights and responsibilities that freedom carries according to the Bible. I have not always been “nice” in my manners and I have seen helping people see the handcuffs and prison cells that keep them locked up and help them find their road to freedom as my “sacred duty”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Who are the real traitors? Who are the people who sacrifice for the greater good? - Year 4 Day 71

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 71

“Freedom is the liberation from the tyranny of the self-centered ego. It comes about in moments of transcending the self as an act of spiritual ecstasy, of stepping out of the confining framework of routine reflexive concern. Freedom presupposes the capacity for sacrifice.”(Insecurity of Freedom pg.15)

These descriptions of and defining terms about “freedom” are so poignant in our times and I believe “freedom” has become so bastardized and ignored that we have become oblivious to what it is, how to keep it, how to grow it and how easy it is to lose it. It is so interesting that the people who hate immigrants are descendants of immigrants and/or immigrants who came here to pursue ‘the American dream’ because Musk couldn’t do it in his native South Africa because of his prejudice and hatred of anyone not white like him. Earlier in this chapter Rabbi Heschel reminds us of the “true essence” of “freedom”: to sacrifice prejudice even if it hurts, to give up superstition even when it claims to be a doctrine. We are witnessing the exact opposite of both sacrificing “prejudice” and “to give up superstition”. “Prejudice comes from the Latin meaning “in advance of knowledge” and superstition comes from the Latin meaning “to stand over”. In both cases, truth and knowledge are being “sacrificed” not “prejudice” nor “superstition” and we see both running rampant in the world today. We are so “prejudiced” that we are willing to let go of the “freedom” that our Constitution and the Amendments guarantee! We are so superstitious that we are willing to have Trump, Musk, Putin, Bibi stand over us as Pharaohs and their minions like the taskmasters in Egypt so we do their bidding and, like Joseph did in Egypt, there are Jews who are willing to gouge the populaces so the wannabe oligarchs, these Pharaohs and their courtiers can get richer!

It seems like a dream, like an unrealistic way of being reading the words in bold above. What was Rabbi Heschel thinking? How could he have such a utopian view of human beings after witnessing Nazi Germany firsthand, after losing so much of his family and a way of life in the Shoah? I would say that is exactly how and why he is calling out to us and demanding we not fall asleep again, that we “lift up our eyes and see” what truly is, not what the Pharaohs, the wannabe oligarchs, the liars and the deceivers are trying to show us. He is demanding we stop playing the shell game with these cheaters and recommit to the covenant of freedom that was made by the founding fathers of this great nation. It is a great nation and only people who want to deceive and enrich themselves want to ‘make it great again’-as we can see with the chaos and disruption the Musk/Trump administration is doing and the effects on the economy, the market and everyday items that ‘only they can bring down’!

The only sacrifices that are being made in this moment are the ones by people who believe in “freedom”, who know the “tyranny of the self-centered ego”, not by the people elected to maintain and grow our freedoms. These people are seeking the approval of Putin and his minions, Trump and Musk, Bannon and Miller, Bibi and Smotrich, etc. They have abdicated their duties for fear of not being re-elected, for fear of Trump’s private militia, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, coming after them and/or their family. They are afraid of Pam Bondi filing charges against them, etc. Rather than seeking “moments of transcending the self”, rather than having an experience of “spiritual ecstasy”, these ‘good christians’ who do not follow what Christ preaches, instead stay within “the confining framework of routine reflexive concern. And We the People elected them!!

This is our moment, this is our calling, this is the meaning of Lent, of Easter, of Ramadan, of Passover, of all holy days in every faith and spiritual discipline. We the People need to reclaim our “freedom”. We do this by reclaiming our personal “freedom”, by going back to the basic principles of faith and “freedom”-transcending our lower selves and serving our higher consciousness, our “intuitive minds”. To do this we have to first acknowledge the lower self for what it is, a servant to our higher consciousness, a servant to our intuitive mind. We the People have to know that both ‘selves’ are necessary and needed in order to be human and to be free. We can “transcend the self” when we are aware of and in service to our higher consciousness, to our intuitive minds, to our spirits, to our “gut instincts”. We have the moments of spiritual ecstasy Rabbi Heschel is speaking of more and more often, and, we live into the words of the V’Ahavta  prayer: “You will speak of them when you lie down..teach them to your children..” In other words, the more we serve our higher consciousness, our intuitive minds, the more we live the principles and values found in the Holy texts of every spiritual discipline and the better off we are to ward off, fight back against the autocrats, the wannabe dictators, the mendacious and despicable useful idiots of these ‘leaders’. Living to serve our higher ‘self’, “stepping out of the framework of routine reflexive concern” means we are in “sacrifice” of saving our face, we “sacrifice” our false selves, our masks and our mental make-up for truth, for goodness, for “freedom” and then we can and will “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”!

I am enraged, bereft and bewildered at the loss of “freedom” so many of us are experiencing right now. I watch as Musk, an unelected IMMIGRANT, who has been on the DOLE OF THE GOVERNMENT his entire business career, is slashing every freedom and safety net for people ‘not like him’. He and Trump and the rest of them are hurting white people, people of color, Jews, Christians, Muslims alike without a care in the world for another human being. I know this way of being, every addict, everyone knows this way of being and anyone who says they don’t understand and/or they are good people living ‘good christian values’, ‘living what is written in the torah’ are LIARS and stuck in self-deception! I lived as a narcissist and a bully, a deceiver and a grifter; I hurt a lot of people and I have lived these past 36 years doing TShuvah. I know the signs of the lie and it drives me crazy, I hear Rabbi Heschel’s words in my head and know I have to do something, so I write to you each day, I post on social media, and I support people who stand up against these “People of the Lie” as M. Scott Peck describes in his book of the same name. Rabbi Heschel is calling me to do more, to not settle, to not give into despair and to fight for the Good, for the Holy, for the Principles and Values of the Bible. I hear him remind me that the Prophets stood up knowing the people would not listen, Moses gave us a prophecy of what would happen when, not if, we succumbed to a Trump, a Putin, a Musk and I fear, once again it will take great suffering to regain “freedom”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

How do you define Freedom? Year 4 Day 70

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 70

“Freedom is the liberation from the tyranny of the self-centered ego. It comes about in moments of transcending the self as an act of spiritual ecstasy, of stepping out of the confining framework of routine reflexive concern. Freedom presupposes the capacity for sacrifice.”(Insecurity of Freedom pg.15)

Sitting at my computer, reading these words leaves me understanding Rabbi Heschel’s teaching in God in Search of Man that “freedom” is an event. For most people, “liberation from the tyranny of the self-centered ego” never occurs or if it does, they are not aware of it. In AA there is a saying; “I may not be much but I am all I think about”. Psychologists/therapists ask:”how does this make you feel”, making the feelings and thoughts of the individual uber alles. While it is important to think of oneself and know how experiences make us ‘feel’, the ridiculous emphasis on the individual, on ‘success’, on wealth and power for the sake of the individual’s mental health has led us to live in “the tyranny of the self-centered ego”.

In government, we no longer have “public servants”, we have people whose ego is so self-centered and they are so consumed with being re-elected, they no longer care about what is good and right, they are hellbent on lying and deceiving their constituents about their votes, their lack of progress and forcing the country, the state, the city, to suffer under the “tyranny of their self-centered ego”. Rather than be the “public servants” envisioned by the founding fathers, politics is a full-time job. Rather than serving the greater good ala Daniel Webster, they serve their agendas, their party leader’s whims and desires and they too become trapped in the “tyranny of the ‘leader’s’ self-centered ego”. Isn’t it horrifying to realize how UNFREE our elected officials are, how UNFREE we are and how difficult it is to become liberated?

Individuals are totally susceptible to falling into the “tyranny of the self-centered ego” and not realizing it because our societal norms are to fight to be right, never surrender, and, especially in this modern era, deny, deny, lie, lie, never take responsibility for anything ‘bad’, always take credit for anything good, use deception and mendacity to ‘fool’ the public, our neighbor, our family, etc. We are so stuck in this “tyranny” that we are unaware of how tightly our “self-centered ego” has us by the throat and is chocking the spirit out of us. We are oblivious to the death and destruction of our creativity, our ability to see and hear truth, to participating in the covenant made with God by our ancestors and re-made by each of us with our birth. The “self-centered ego” is a tyrant! It is a despot that leads us to engage in autocracy, in absolutism, and it uses oppressive power, cruelty for the sake of cruelty, chaos, deception, fear, blame and scapegoats to feed itself and imprison the individual and the people around it. The “self-centered ego” begins with Cain and has continued through this moment. it is the root cause of entitlement, of enslavement, of not welcoming the stranger, of making poor people into criminals just for being poor, of using jails and prisons to deal with people who have mental health challenges, etc. The “tyranny of the self-centered ego” is so devious that we are unaware of how it kills the kindness within us, how it stops us from being, as Thomas Merton says,: “the self we were created to be”.

Of course the same is true in the religious realm. We have people put into positions of power and they say they are serving God when really they are serving themselves, their egos, their agendas. Leaders of Churches, Temples, Mosques routinely make decisions and invent rituals that exclude people, the lay leaders have their agendas and if the Priest, Minister, Imam, Rabbi doesn’t follow it, if they speak truth to power, they are fired. Most clergy, however, succumb to the whims and wishes of “the board”, most clergy live in the “tyranny of the self-centered ego” because they believe their interpretation of scripture is correct, most are unwilling to truly entertain arguments questioning their rulings, questioning their actions, questioning them. Rather than being a forum and a place for divergent ideas, most religious institutions have their own dogma, their own ‘flavor’ and work hard to promote their own agendas. This is, of course, OUTRAGEOUS!

Easter is April 20th and Passover begins on April 12th; the period of Lent is to prepare for Easter and the period between the first of Nissan, March 30, and Passover is to prepare to be liberated. This confluence of Holy Days is not accidental, after all Christ’s Last Supper was a Passover Seder. They both are the root stories of Christianity and Judaism. Yet, we seem to see them only as times to get together, ask when do we eat, be bored by the reading of the Haggadah, unless there are antics and theatrics, go to Church to show off our “Easter Bonnets”, etc. Both Easter and Passover are about “the liberation from the tyranny of the self-centered ego”, i.e. “freedom”. We the People have to engage in these Holy Days if we want any chance of having an experience of “freedom”, if we yearn to unshackle ourselves from the “tyranny of the self-centered ego”, our own and/or the ones that are controlling us like Presidents, Senators, Congresspeople, Clergy, Parents, Siblings, bosses… We, the People are being called upon to STAND UP for our true selves, to REBEL against the tyrannical madness of governing bodies in every realm of our life, to ENGAGE in truth and goodness, to UNDERSTAND that the stories of Passover and Easter are not one and done, rather we have to engage in UNSHACKLING ourselves from our “self-centered egos” every day.

I know the “tyranny of the self-centered ego”, I lived it for over 20 years and knew I was enslaved to it, without any hope of being free of it. I was ruled by it and Passover never meant much to me since my Grandfather died and stopped leading the Seder. This year, as in the past 35 years, Passover is the time for me to do an inventory since Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, I was clean and caught a glimpse of the purity of my soul, the cleanliness of my being-I schmutzed it up quickly and for me to be liberated on Passover, I have to rid myself of Chometz, all the leavening, all the fat that has accumulated around my soul, my mind, my inner life. I learned this from Rabbi Mel Silverman in prison and have engaged in letting go of one of the “tyranny’s” that prevents me from “liberation from … my self-centered ego” and also allows me to have more compassion for those who are still stuck in their own. I am grateful for the “freedoms” I enjoy and look forward to expanding them. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

How do you define "Freedom" and are your definition and your actions congruent? Year 4 Day 69

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 69

“Although political and social freedom must include all this, even the freedom to err—its true essence is in man’s ability to surpass himself, even to act against his inclinations and in defiance of his own needs and desires, to sacrifice prejudice even if it hurts, to give up superstition even when it claims to be a doctrine.”(Insecurity of Freedom pg. 14)

The definition, “true essence” of freedom as defined by Rabbi Heschel above is startling and, of course, ‘right on the money’. People have a warped idea, belief in what “freedom” is and in today’s politics, as has been true throughout the millennia, “alternative facts”, “spin”, denial, outright lies and chaos are seen as being free. Abusing and bullying those in need, those who have less power, less agency, less advocacy is seen as strength and courageous. “Prejudice” is seen as smart and a saving grace against “those people” and “superstition” is what keeps so many people from believing what their eyes are seeing. This is true across the globe and, on a more personal level, throughout families, religious institutions, ‘progressive’ and ‘conservative’ groups also. We are in such disarray as human beings, we have lost our compasses, we have lost our path towards and of “freedom” and don’t even know it! This is how deep and how dearly we are locked in self-deception and mendacity. OY, VaVOY!

Yet, the good news is that we have the "ability to surpass” ourselves, our false egos, our selfish, narcissistic habits. This experience of surpassing oneself is rampant throughout the Bible, unfortunately, not surpassing ourselves is more rampant:( and everything changes at Mt. Sinai; not the behaviors of human beings rather the pathways to be able to “surpass himself” are made clear, sort of. Murder, theft, adultery, false testimony, coveting were all rampant in Egypt and in Canaan, even among the Israelites I believe. These were ‘just the way the world works’ and along comes this band of ex-slaves and God which no one can see nor hear with their physical ear who ‘appears’, ‘speaks’ and makes a covenant with the people which they accept, even though they don’t always follow it. The same is true for us today, we make a covenant with someone, some entity, and we pledge to be loyal and true to this covenant even though we know we will not be perfect. Hence, be it with God, with higher consciousness, with our spouse, our children, our employers, our employees, we have to know we will, at times, fall short and we will continue to use our “ability to surpass” ourselves to make things right and grow along spiritual and moral lines.

More good news is that we can “act against our own inclinations and in defiance of our own needs and desires”! While this is not always the case, we are able to have our ‘good inclination’ direct our ‘evil inclination’ to do the next right thing and this is, for many, a daily occurrence that is fleeting on some days and may only happen once or twice while acting with “our own inclinations” may happen more often, we know that we can rise above them, we can master them as God tells Cain-“sin desires you much and you can master it”. While it is difficult to do this, as our inclinations lie to us and make it seem as if we don’t follow them, we will die, we will suffer great loss, we will be unhappy, etc, history has shown and many people’s personal experience validates our ability to “act against our own inclinations” brings about stability, care, kindness, loyalty, connection and honoring our covenant. In a marriage, at least in good lasting marriages, both partners “act against their own inclinations” to stay together especially when one or the other does something stupid, hurtful, wrong-be it to their partner, themselves, to another human being, this affects both partners and to stay together is to “act against the inclination” to leave and give up. We have the same issues when we our intuitive minds say one thing and our rational minds say another. Our “inclination” is to go along with what is rational, what is in keeping with the “conventional norms” of society, we don’t want to be a ‘freak’, an ‘outcast”, and to be in “freedom” we have to go against this inclination, we have to be “maladjusted to norms and words” so we can have “an authentic awareness of what is” as Rabbi Heschel’s definition of “radical amazement” teaches.

We the People have had a skewed vision of what “freedom” is and what it entails to be free, I believe. To act “in defiance of our own needs and desires” takes great spiritual strength and vision. It takes a surrender to the principles and values one finds in the Bible, the holy texts of every spiritual discipline and the commitment/covenant to follow through on “practicing these principles in all our affairs” as the 12th Step of AA calls for. We the People are being called to stand up for true “freedom” in all realms, political, social, familial and personal. This can’t happen unless we begin and not end with ourselves. Committing to strengthen our “ability to surpass” ourselves and taking actions that allow us to exercise this “ability” has to be a daily commitment and actions. We the People will no longer give ourselves and another(s) excuses as to why we chose not to “surpass” ourselves, we will be responsible for missing the mark and grow one grain of sand more to “surpass” ourselves more often. We the People are being begged to “act against our own inclinations” for selfish desires, for more and more power, money, prestige, sex, drugs, rock and roll. This can only happen when we begin each day with the gratitude found in the Modeh Ani prayer, found throughout the tenets of every faith/spiritual discipline and remembering to be grateful for what we have and what we don’t have! We the People are being reminded that we are so much more than what our rational minds tell us, that we have within us the light and sight to see and live in a world that is truly free; this is the messianic vision and We the People have within us the wherewithal to bring ourselves and those around us a little closer to this vision each day.

I have learned how to do these things and do them more often than not during each and every day. I wrestle with my “inclinations” and I am not ‘on the circuit’ as a speaker or at cocktail parties because I speak and act in “defiance of my own needs and desires” much of the time, I take into account what is right and good, true and loving and do the best I can to act accordingly. While I miss the mark often, my ‘true north’ is always in the direction that Rabbi Herschel’s words give to us. I am hearing his voice decrying what  he was a witness to; the “simonizing” of his faith so people would ‘like it’ and not be too ‘burdened’ by it. Rather than help us me be free, “mainstream” Judaism tried to put me in a straight jacket. I rebelled and am living life according to the Biblical dictates as I understand them and invite you to do the same. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

Do you know that each of us has the "freedom to err" and the call to do TShuvah? Year 4 Day 68

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 68

“Although political and social freedom must include all this, even the freedom to err—its true essence is in man’s ability to surpass himself, even to act against his inclinations and in defiance of his own needs and desires, to sacrifice prejudice even if it hurts, to give up superstition even when it claims to be a doctrine.”(Insecurity of Freedom pg. 14)

In the writing above, the first thing that stands out to me is, “the freedom to err”. This is one of the first freedoms we learn about in the Bible, remember the Garden of Eden story, and the last freedom we give to ourselves and to another(s).  Our society has been and is so consumed with perfection, with “getting it right”, with the fear of being shamed and deemed unworthy when we “err” that this “freedom to err” has been subjugated to the demand to perform perfectly. We experience the pressure of “getting an A” on every test in school, in sports, in business, in marriage, in our children, in, in, in. We have lost, if we ever had, the “freedom to err”.

Immersed in this thought brings me to an understanding of our lack of “freedom to err”, we misinterpret, misunderstand the Bible’s teachings about consequences for our actions. We also misinterpret and misunderstand the Bible’s teachings about TShuvah. Just the fact that people in the Bible commit errors, think about Cain killing Abel and God not intervening, is proof that we have the “freedom to err”. The story leading up to this homicide shows that we also have the freedom to do better after we err-Cain is told that “sin couches at your door, it desires you much and you can master it”. Yet, this truth goes unheard by Cain and he resorts to killing and then complains about his consequences-never once expressing remorse. Throughout the Bible we have stories and prophecies about the consequences of our errant ways, of the gross errors we will, do and may make, These are not punishments as prescribed by Biblical commentators, they are lessons and prophecies and are a flashing neon sign that we not only have the “freedom to err”, we will always make mistakes.

We human beings are well aware of our imperfections, we have a litany of things we do wrong, not ‘good enough’ that runs through our heads daily, for some of us hourly, for others every few minutes. Yet, rather than understand that we are not created to be perfect, rather than accept our need to “fail forward”, “learn and grow”, we have set up a system that measures success by how much money one has, what is the latest great thing we have done, who is the Greatest Of All Time, etc. The idea that we would willingly and confidently admit to our errors of judgement, actions, our unwitting mistakes of judgement and our lack of knowledge is anathema to our being. Hence the Bible’s direction about TShuvah!

According to the mystics, TShuvah was put into the world before the world was created and I add because God knew we would screw up and need a way back. This is the what God tells Cain, in their first exchange, ‘if you do right, you are uplifted”, showing there is a way back, the major theme of the beginning of the Book of Leviticus is about bringing sacrifices for a physical experience of expiation, Yom Kippur the day of Atonement aka At-One-Ment is the day we can be completely clear and clean for a minute of two. Rabbi Eliezer, in the Talmud, Shabbat 153(a) says we should do TShuvah one day before we die and since none of us know the day of our death, we should do it each day validating that we will take bad actions and they don’t define us. Yet, we continue to make fun of, shame and be ashamed of the errors we make, the ones friends and family make, and we punish people, no matter how much good they have done-one Oh Shit wipes out 1000 Atta Boys/Girls.

We the People have to accept and engage in our “freedom to err” as a gift from the universe, as a truth of our higher consciousness and end our constant loop of shame, guilt, saying I’m sorry and the repeating the same shit over and over again. We have become so afraid to show our imperfections that we have people who will lie about losing elections, being wrong, committing crimes, abusing people, denying rights and decency to “those people”. We the People have to stand up and speak truth to ourselves, we have to stop telling our children that what they do reflects upon the whole family and will make us outcasts AND We, the People have to, in turn, stop making outcasts of an entire family because of the actions of one member! Having the “freedom to err” doesn’t give us license to fuck up, it is only an acknowledgment of our imperfect status, it gives us the experience and permission to repent, restore what we have torn, and find new ways to deal with the emotions, inclinations, etc that these repeating experiences trigger. We the People are being called to stand up to the bullies who make fun of our imperfections, use our insecurities, our vulnerabilities against us and call them out. We the People have to wave the banner of our “freedom to err” and add it to the “Four Freedoms” that FDR laid out in January of 1941: “the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear”. We the People must demand the “freedom to err” because without it, we will never achieve the other “Four Freedoms”. We the People begin this old/new way of living by doing our own inventories, our own admitting of errors, speaking of our imperfections to our children, our parents, our family, friends, co-workers, communities and governments. Our society has to let go of these old ways of using vulnerabilities against people and embrace the imperfections of self and one another with the responsibility to do TShuvah. In this way, the “freedom to err” becomes a foundational learning experience rather than a foundational hiding excuse.

I have been “free to err” for my entire life and only in the last 38 years have I enjoyed it. I have been ‘beaten’ up by another(s) for my errors, I have paid the consequences for my errors(sometimes more than I think they were worth) and I am still standing, growing, writing, preaching, and teaching. The “freedom to err” has given me access to all sorts of freedoms, the ones FDR speaks of and the greatest one for me-the freedom to learn. It also gives me my unique pathway to fulfill the Biblical paths of living well and overcoming my own errors, change my paths, both external and internal, change my thinking and act my way into a spiritual life that gives me so much more than I deserve. “Freedom to err” has given me the insight and eyesight to know when I am lying to myself, to another(s), and when I am being lied to, it has given me a dedication to truth that I have inherited from the prophets, my grandfathers, and my father. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

What is your definition of Freedom and are you living it? Year 4 Day 67

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 67

“The will is not an ultimate and isolated entity, but determined by motives beyond its own control. To be what one wants to be is also not freedom, since the wishes of the ego are largely determined by external factors. Freedom is not a principle of uncertainty, the ability to act without a motive. Such action would be chaotic and subrational rather than free.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.14)

Rabbi Heschel is reminding us of the challenge of truly living free, free from our self-will, free from our “wants to be”, free from our ‘doing what we want when we want’. It ain’t easy and it is doable, at least for moments at a time. The writing above begs a few questions; the first being: what does determine our “will”? While many of us believe we are “in control”, the wisdom above is telling us maybe we have a lot less control that we think. Having a rich inner life and living an “examined life” as Socrates calls on us to do, we can be in truth with ourselves and see how often our “control” is being determined by so many outside forces: upbringing-positive or negative, desires-realistic or not, resilience or entitlement, whims of society, power exerted upon us or by us, psychological make-up and spiritual immaturity or maturity for a few. When “keep up with the Jones’” is the mantra we live by, when “retribution” is our goal, when “making it” at any and all costs makes sense, when using “those people” when referring to another human being or group of people, when “racism, anti-semitism, etc” are seen as good and ways to get ahead-we are not free and our will has been determined by “motives beyond its own control”. Yet, we seem to be unaware of this truth, many people would rather believe the lies they tell themselves, that their ‘leader’ tells them than open up their eyes, circumcise the foreskin of their hearts, and choose life, choose truth, choose blessings. In fact, in America today-more people believe the lie than seek the truth. I believe the reason for this is because truth is messy, it is elusive and it is never complete because as we learn more, we see more and as we seem more we experience more of the truth of every situation. A lie, on the other hand, is clean, it is tight, it is tied in a bow and it never changes, it is easier for lazy people to digest and it appeals to the masses who are lazy regarding growing their inner life and maturing their spiritual health.

The words above could shatter what many people think, especially the second sentence. What could Rabbi Heschel possibly mean when he says “to be what one wants to be is also not freedom”? Isn’t freedom all about ‘being who one wants to be’? Don’t we learn “you can be anything you want to be” from an early age? Are we really trapped when we want “to be” anything we want to be? Of course it is not black and white, there is so much nuance to these words and Rabbi Heschel is correct, I believe! We are so caught up in self when we want “to be” what we want to be that we miss a lot of sign posts, a lot of danger warnings on the road to our ‘being ourselves’ and we often miss the truth about ourselves, the call of our inner life and the success of being human that each and every person has within themselves. We are witnessing today, as we have throughout the history of humankind, the challenge of dealing with our own egos and the egos of another(s). There are many malignant narcissists leading business, governments (Federal, state, and local) in countries across the world. There are many malignant narcissists who are heads of households and hold their children and their spouses captive while they “be” who they want to be at home. There are many on Boards of Directors of religious and non-profit institutions who’s egos are being fed by their power and their “good works” which maybe are not so good because they are serving their egos before serving the needs of another. Clergy as Symbolic Exemplar is a similar trap. Many people go into jobs, careers in all fields including the Clergy as just that-a job, a place to have power, respect, to hide and this is not freedom at all. We have see the effects of this way of being with the widespread clergy misconduct that has been publicized and has been swept under the rug, the alcoholism, addiction, sexual misconduct that clergy and other people in power have committed, When we look at the toxic masculinity that is having a resurgence, the “me too” movement that went too far with accusations that hurt innocent people, the racists and anti-semites in the minority communities fighting one another, the common denominator is ‘freedom to be who we truly are’ when these same people haven’t a clue as to who they are and they are spiritually immature and taking their spiritual maladies out on whomever is near and convenient.

We the People are being called by the words above, by the teachings of all spiritual disciplines, by the Voice on Sinai that is constantly calling to WAKE UP! There is a demand in the universe for truth and for freedom, real freedom and, while we will never get completely free, the path to this goal is laid out for us and it is not through our ego, through our money, through our lies, through our grift, through our strength, etc. They only path for us to reach the goal of “Freedom” is through our inner life, through our souls. Think about Nelson Mandela, he was freer in his prison cell than the guards who were guarding him, the same is true for many others, yours truly included. Everyone doesn’t have to be arrested to find spiritual maturity and everyone needs to “grow along spiritual lines” if we want to be free. Our egos and our wills will never stop being influenced by outside issues and forces, this is not the point. Rabbi Heschel is calling to us, as I hear him this morning, to mitigate these outside forces and not be enslaved by them, to end our checking on ‘which way the wind is blowing’ before making a decision to act, to do the next right thing no matter how we think or feel, to live into the holiness code and learn from the stories in the Bible the best path to take and not be held captive by our egos and wills, by the whims of society, by the desires and needs of the malignant narcissists in our lives. We the People can do this by finding teachers and guides that help us discover the truth within ourselves, help us hear the music of our souls better and play the score that our inner life is writing. Our inner life and our souls make symphonies that rival the greatest composers and most of us are tone deaf to them-this is the tragedy that We the People suffer from daily.

I continue to grow along spiritual lines, I know when I am enslaved by ego and will and I work hard to not be ruled by them and I am not always successful. I continue to seek spiritual guidance, spiritual growth through study, via spiritual guidance, via being of service to another, via this blog. I am not the “to be” I dreamed of as a kid and my life is so much better for it! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Are you sowing the seeds of freedom's destruction because of your compulsions? Year 4 Day 66

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 66

“The danger begins when freedom is thought to consist in the fact that “I can act as I desire.” This definition not only overlooks the compulsions which often lie behind our desires; it reveals the tragic truth that freedom may develop within itself the seed of its own destruction.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.14)

I began to listen to President Trump’s address to the Joint Session of Congress and I had to stop- his denigration of the Democrats, President Biden, his praise of the way he treats the people and countries that have been our allies, friends and partners and his joy at firing people, like he is on his ‘reality’ TV show were too much. I watched the sycophants of the Republican Party praise him, I watched Mike Johnson call for decorum while praising the release of the people who brought destruction to the Halls of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, it was just too much for me. It brought the opening quote to life in a most powerful way and the cautionary words of Rabbi Heschel’s that I am delving into today.

I want to make very clear, Donald Trump is not the biggest problem facing Americans today, nor is Elon Musk, RFK Jr., et al. The biggest problem we are facing as Americans is that we are not looking into the dark “compulsions which often lie behind our desires”. Trump, Musk, the Republican sycophants, are just giving into these “compulsions” as are the people who believe every word these lying grifters are saying. All of the hullabaloo around tariffs, firings, etc-while real and necessary, is masking the real issue facing all of us. We, the People are engaged in a denial of the “compulsions which often lie behind our desires”, we seem to be willfully blind to how we are participating in growing “the seed of its own destruction”. I sit at my computer each day, I read a few sentences from Rabbi Heschel’s vast wealth of writings (haven’t touched the unpublished works, the works in magazines, etc) and I wonder how we have wound up so far from our roots, so far from the ideal as portrayed by the prophets, so far from our own basic goodness of being, so far from the words of the Bible propelling us to care for one another, to “love your neighbor as yourself”, to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

One of the ways we have wound up here, I believe, is that we have not raised the souls of our children, just as many of our parents did not raise our souls. We and they raised our minds, our bodies, our emotions and, the most important part of every human being, the soul, our spirit, were ignored! This is not an indictment of parenting nor parents, it is just a fact that I have observed over my 70+ years of being alive. We allow our children to go to religious schools, to Temple, Church, Mosque and when they come home they see the opposite of the behaviors and ways of being they are learning. We give over the spiritual education and maturing to a group of people, Clergy, who themselves in most cases are spiritually immature, who are more into dogma than spirit, who “act as I desire” and call it “god’s will”, who promote a xenophobic, nationalistic, prejudice that has torn our country apart in earlier times and is tearing us apart right now. Maimonidies, the famous 10th Century Jewish philosopher, teacher, physician, wrote a treatise called “Shemonah Perakim” which goes into great detail about the spiritual sickness human beings fall prey to and how “the physician of the soul” is to help them heal their spiritual malady. At issue for him is that most people who are spiritually sick don’t believe themselves to be and need the “physician of the soul” to diagnose them. Today, these people are supposed to be the Clergy people and most Clergy are too afraid, too drunk on the Kool-Aid of the dogma of their faith, too afraid to stir the pot and piss off their board of directors and lose their job, to stand up and BE the “physicians of the soul” that are needed in this moment.

We, the People need to demand more from the Clergy of our time, in our neighborhoods. These are the people who should be leading the march on Tesla and across the country as the Clergy did at Selma, Alabama 50 years ago this month! We the People need to do our own introspection into the “compulsions” that underlie our indifference to the undoing of freedom that we are engaging in politically, morally, individually, and spiritually. We, the People are needed to stand up to the lies we are telling ourselves, to the ‘worms’ in our brains that are convincing us that bad is good, that up is down, that lying and grifting is truth and generosity, that stealing is giving, that hating is loving, that treating people as animals, calling them “vermin” is welcoming the stranger, that cutting Medicaid and other social service programs is caring for the poor, the needy, etc. We the People have to begin again to heal these “compulsions which often lie behind our desires” we have to recognize “the tragic truth that freedom may(has) develop within itself the seed of its own destruction”. We are witnessing it today, the breakdown of spiritual health is due to our unwillingness to engage in soul work, to honor the wisdom of our souls, of our “gut instinct”, and follow the truth especially when it is inconvenient. We the People have “become fat and kicked…forsook God and ignored God’s rock of Salvation”(Deuteronomy 32:15). We the People need to “return…and I will heal your faithlessness”(Jeremiah 3:22), we need to hear the words of Hosea, chapter 14:2-5, ringing in our ears, tasting them in our mouths and guiding our hands and feet:”return to God for you have stumbled in your iniquity…I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely”. We the People are being called by the words above, by the forces of the Cosmos, by the stirrings of our souls and our hearts, to heal our spiritual maladies, to return to the person we are meant to be, to be the divine need only we can fill.

I have been engaged in this quest for spiritual health for 38 years, since Rabbi Mel Silverman became my teacher in prison. Each of my spiritual guides, along with my constant companionship with Rabbi Heschel- keep me disturbed! I can never rest on my laurels or accomplishments because there is always more spiritual growth to engage in. My first spiritual guide was my father and his death caused me to be spiritually bereft and I did not recover from that trauma until some 22 years later. My diagnosis of the problem for most people today comes from my experience of being adrift after his death and my years of helping thousands of people find their spiritual health and live productive lives. I refuse to buy into the lies and the subterfuge of societal norms, I stand against the ‘good people’ on the ‘right side’ who are still spreading spiritual disease so they can have power and prestige-on the right and left. I believe we can heal and I commit to continue to help. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Is "I can act as I desire" your definition of Freedom? Year 4 Day 65

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 65

“The danger begins when freedom is thought to consist in the fact that “I can act as I desire.” This definition not only overlooks the compulsions which often lie behind our desires; it reveals the tragic truth that freedom may develop within itself the seed of its own destruction.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.14)

Considering these words were written in 1958 and Ike was in the White House with Nixon as his VP and today we have Trump as President and Vance as VP, these words seem very prescient.

The first sentence about is the result of poor education, poor upbringing, poor religious education and the “do as I say, not as I do” school of parenting, teaching, living. I am thinking of my 9th grade Civics Teacher, Ed Roach, his memory is a blessing, who taught us that first and foremost: freedom, citizenship is based on our ability to be responsible to both, that they are responsibilities as well as rights, that the Bill of Rights doesn’t give us carte blanche, it sets up for us a way of being that holds us responsible to live truthfully, respectfully, and with another’s well-being in mind. He would take a group of us to Washington DC each winter break and we would visit the monuments, the Halls of Congress, the Smithsonian, etc to see what it takes to keep “freedom” alive and well. It seems as if the current occupant of the White House never learned these truths, never has felt responsible for anything except his imaginary success.

This “I can act as I desire” is one of the fallacies that many people grow up with, especially among the “privileged elite”. While the Republicans speak about elites in such derogatory terms, they are actually the ruling members of the “elite”. They graduated from ‘top’ schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Wharton, etc; they sit in their offices buying politicians and supporting the right-wing agendas that lower taxes for them, only; that deregulate their businesses so they “can act as I desire” and not held accountable; proclaiming their ‘love of god/christ’ they continue to want to gut all social safety net programs for the poor and middle class. Of course, in today’s Republican Party, they also believe that Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, are here to be subservient, that we are all ‘second-class’ or ‘third world’ people who come from “shithole counties” as Trump has expressed. Musk, Trump, Vance want America to become what South Africa was: an apartheid state; a state where “those people” know their place; a place where dictatorship is good, true freedom is bad; where “If I want it, I can take it and if I do it, it must be legal” is the prevailing ethic(?).

The idea expressed in the first sentence above is not a new one, it is not only in politics, it is also very prevalent in our everyday living. The Bible is an antidote to this way of thinking and being-yet it is being used to fortify the lie expressed in the first sentence. It is being used to fortify the bastardization of freedom, to put us deeper and deeper into the “the danger” Rabbi Heschel is warning us about. Because We, the People and our religious and educational leaders have failed to promote “true freedom” to us, our children and grandchildren, we find ourselves in the predicaments of today: our government giving itself over to Putin; people believing the lies of the ‘charismatic leader’; being spiritually sick and not realizing it; clergy helping lead us into the spiritual sickness that will end our freedoms; etc. Rabbi Heschel’s “In a free society, some are guilty all are responsible” is ringing in my ears, my soul right now. We, the People have failed to “guard and do” the ‘laws’, the upkeep of being free and, because of our laziness, our arrogance, we are in danger of losing it all to a buffoon, to a racist and antisemitic foreigner, to a hillbilly asshole who looks good and to a ‘christian nationalist’ who seeks power for himself and his cronies and a loud-mouth ‘street’ fighter who has degrees from Georgetown and Harvard!

We, the People have to take our own inventory, see our own responsibility in the demise of our freedoms, stop blaming everyone else and clean up our own house. We, the People are in desperate need of doing a 4th and 5th step as we say in AA, of doing T’Shuvah as laid out in the Jewish Tradition: doing our inventory or hearing the rebuke of our behaviors from another, finding ways to repair the damages we have wrought, owning up to our errors to the people we have harmed, making whatever restitution necessary to make them whole, and creating new paths so we don’t do the exact same thing again-creating new neural pathways so we can leave the bonds of slavery to old ideas and ways; confession and contrition in the Christian world are very similar to both the Jewish way and the AA way-so no matter whether one is an adherent to a religious path or a spiritual path-there is a way to avoid the “danger” to “freedom” from erroneous thinking and “privileged actions”.

Our legal system, our moral system, our constitutional system and our religious systems have failed us badly and the payment has come due, it seems. What we have to remember is that all of these systems depend on human beings-us-to function and to work well. All of these failures are laid at our feet because We, the People have been responsible to make them work well, to hold those in charge accountable and to stand up for and to fight for the “hard-won freedoms” that our fathers, our ancestors fought for and some gave their “last full measure” for. Be it Washington’s farewell address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, FDR’s “Four Freedoms” State of the Union address, Kennedy’s Ask not what your country can do for you Inaugural address-we have been given fair warning what would happen if we failed to hear, guard and do what is necessary so that “Let Freedom Ring” stays a constant. Just as in the Bible, what people call vengeance on God’s part is actually just prophecy, telling what will befall us when/if we turn away from our soul’s calling, our inner life’s knowing, God’s suggestions on how to live well. We are living in these predictions, living in the wreckage of our past errors of arrogance, of far left/far right policy wars, of our desire to be deceived. The question is will we come out the other side or will we lose our “freedom” because of our negligence and a bunch of grifters taking advantage of same.

I know these “dangers” because I lived them and now I don’t. I received a Pardon from Governor Newsom last week as recognition of my way of being sober, decent, of service. I needed a pardon because of falling into the danger Rabbi Heschel articulates above. I believe in “freedom” and I will fight to my last for “freedom for all” and I pray you will also. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

How do you define and live "Freedom"? Year 4 Day 64

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 64

“We all share a supreme devotion to the hard-won freedoms of the American people. Yet to be worthy of retaining our freedoms we must not lose our understanding of the essential nature of freedom. Freedom means more than mere emancipation. It is primarily freedom of conscience, bound up with inner allegiance.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 14)

I am not sure that the first sentence above still holds true. To “share a supreme devotion” means to “consecrate”, to be loyal to, to hold dear, “the hard-won freedoms of the American people”. In today’s America, we are witnessing the smashing of these freedoms, some by a sledge hammer or chain saw (thank you Elon Musk) and some by a 1000 little cuts. “Consecrate” brings to mind a ‘religious’ connotation and, while it is important in my opinion to have a spiritual connection, every drop of blood shed for this country’s freedom from the Civil War through WWII is a showing of this “supreme devotion”. Yet, according to people who witnessed Trump’s musing about the military, calling them losers, this devotion is no longer valued in the MAGA America. The Republican controlled Congress also has lost their “supreme devotion to the hard-won freedoms of the American people”, even the ones they fought for! Remember it was a Republican, President Teddy Roosevelt, who was called the “Trust-buster”; a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves; a Republican, Ronald Reagan, who told Gorbachev “tear the wall down” and would never call a dictator ‘his friend’.

The focal point for me of the wisdom above is: “we must not lose our understanding of the essential nature of freedom. Freedom means more than emancipation. It is primarily freedom of conscience, bound up with inner allegiance.” As we are approaching Passover in 6 weeks, as we read in the weekly Torah portions about what is happening after our exodus from Egypt, we are reminded that “freedom” is an event. It happens for the first time in the Jewish story at Mount Sinai. While we call Passover “Z’man Heyrutanu”, the season of freedom/liberation, the Passover experience of leaving Egypt is simply and only liberation. Freedom does not occur until we reach Mt. Sinai when we proclaim our “allegiance” with and to God. With our “allegiance” to and with God and one another, we are able to make “free-will moral choices” and without “allegiance” to something greater than ourselves, we are not-a simple and complex way of being. Yet too many people believe that “Freedom” means only “emancipation” which is very ironic as those people, like Trump, MAGA, Project 2025, etc want to enslave everyone else to serve them, to pay for their lifestyles, to grovel at their feet, as displayed on Friday in that horrific, embarrassing scene in the Oval Office by Vance and Trump and then the ass-kissing by Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and other Republican officials. How far we have fallen from the experience at Gettysburg: “We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.”

“Freedom of conscience” is what was given to us at Mount Sinai. It was given to us in the form of Torah, of the stories as well as the “path to walk down”, aka Halacha. Without the knowing of what is right and good, without the ability to choose something other than our self-serving, self-centered, base desires, there can be no “freedom”, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel today. We also learn that each of us has an inner knowing, that every human being is endowed with the “spirit of God” just as Adam and Eve were in their creation. Without an “inner allegiance” to the words spoken at Sinai, without an “inner allegiance” to the Bible, to the Constitution, we easily and quickly sink into the abyss of mis-information, the abyss of believing the “big lie”, the abyss of ‘the one with the gold rules’ rather than caring for the stranger, rather than “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, rather than seeking truth. Of our own ‘free will’ the American people voted in as President a person who told us who he is, a narcissistic egomaniac, and who told us he would be a dictator on day 1. Rather than having “allegiance” to the “conscience” of America, rather than having “devotion” to the Constitution, the current ‘leaders’ of America are devoted to themselves, have “allegiance” to money and power, have jettisoned the words and demands of the Bible so they have lost their “conscience” and pay no attention to the call of their inner lives.

We the People have to stand up, we have to march, we have to protest, we have to show our “conscience”. We have to call out our “devotion” to principles that match the call of our souls, of our inner life. We have to engage our “conscience” in all of our affairs. We have to recall the Sinai Experience, we have to recall the experiences of Egypt, of Assyria, of Babylonia, of our wandering throughout the 1700 years between the loss of Jerusalem, the crucifixion of Christ and the American Revolution. Only when we won our “freedom” from England could we begin to dream of being free, only when the Constitution was amended and ratified could we begin to live into the freedom of choice, the freedoms of religion, press, assembly, protest, and speech. It is up to We, the People to call upon Congress, to call our State Houses, to march in the streets, to donate any and all causes which support our “hard-won freedoms”. It is up to We the People to stand up for the stranger, the needy, the poor, the widow and the orphan. We, the People are being called to assemble, we are being reminded of what happens when the ‘king’ allows his second-in-command to take a wrecking ball to the people who helped make Shushan great again, who helped save Egypt, who assisted Ferdinand and Isabella, who stood with Lenin… We, the People are the only ones who can preserve what our ancestors, our founding fathers, our parents and grandparents fought for in WWII-“freedom of conscience, bound up with inner allegiance”.

I have fought against the bullshit of Trump, MAGA for most of my life-as a kid I couldn’t stand that rich ‘assholes’ were more important than good people, they had more say and sway. As a person in recovery, I still can’t stand that this is true and my Rabbinate is all about helping people find their “inner allegiance”, their inner freedom. As we approach the Season of our Liberation, I think about what I am truly loyal to, not just what I say I am  loyal to. I have remained loyal to the principles of Judaism, I have stayed loyal to my “Sinai experience” in a jail cell in Dec. 1986, I have stayed loyal to the people who helped me, I have stayed loyal to the call of my soul. Not perfectly and mostly. I live into the “freedom of conscience, bound up with an inner allegiance” to something greater than myself and I feel a little freer each and every day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

How are you going along with the societal norms of fatalism and inertia? Year 4 Day 63

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 63

“Judaism is forever engaged in a battle against man’s deeply rooted belief in fatalism and its ensuing inertia in social, moral, and spiritual conditions. Abraham started in rebellion agains his father and the gods of his time. His great distinction was not in being loyal and conforming, buy in defying and initiating.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 14)

Reading these words, thinking about the world in 1958 and now, I am fearful that “Judaism” is losing its “battle against man’s deeply rooted belief in fatalism”. We are witnessing the destruction of the norms of democracy as we have known it, the destruction of the defense of the constitution as we have seen administrations protect it before, the cruelty of a wannabe “mafia don” and his henchmen who are using him for their gain, for their power, and will kill him when they succeed, just like in the movies and real life. “Don Trump” learned nothing from the betrayal of “Sammy the Bull” it seems and, most importantly, the ‘christian’ nationalists selling of their fatalism, “christian” idolators selling “fatalism” and the “inertia” that comes along with it to their ‘flocks’ has led so many people to be deceived sheep who are happy to have their medicaid slashed, their social safety nets destroyed, their freedom’s greatly limited so the “don” and his ‘capos’ can enrich themselves-after all we all know that the “family” has to ‘wet its beak’ at the cost to the masses!

What is so deeply saddening is that the words above were not heeded in 1958 nor subsequently and we are paying for our ignoring them now. The bill has come due and, just as the Israelites in Egypt, we still think we are immune from the consequences of not paying our debt, not protecting freedom “to all its inhabitants therein”, and our slow-walking into servitude. This is so apparent in the ways the ADL has ‘gone over to the other side’ by defending Musk, setting up a fund that is investing in Tesla, Amazon, etc so it can stand up against the myriad of anti-semitic assaults on Jews in America. It could be called ironic, I call it fucking ridiculous that the ADL is willing to support and defend a Nazi sympathizer, a racist from South Africa and his companies in order to ‘make money’ which they say is going to fight the very core of this asshole’s being! Give me a break!! Not to be outdone, an Orthodox group Israel365 is honoring that “great zionist” Steve Bannon-an avowed white supremacist! Somehow, these frumma Yidden (strict Jews) , these “grossa machers” (big shots) have twisted Torah, Bible, Jewish History into such a pretzel, that they believe people who act like the Pharaoh and his courtiers did in the first chapters of Exodus, people who adhere to a way of being that has resulted in terrible experiences for Jews are “our friends”!!! Talk about “inertia in social, moral, and spiritual conditions”! WTF???!!

I am trolled by people who believe the bullshit of Israel365, Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL and other right-wing Jews, who believe the mendacity of Bibi and his gang of thugs, and I say-God Bless you and I pray every day for your eyes to be opened before it is too late. It is a tragedy when we realize not only that our heroes and people we count on to protect and defend our freedoms, our rights, our faith betray us. Here, we have the people who are telling us who they are, how they will betray us and so many Jews are living in the “inertia in (their) social, moral and spiritual conditions”. We, the People are being called today and everyday by our faith, by our spiritual discipline of Judaism to fight against the “fatalism” being promoted by so-called ‘religious leaders’, by so-called ‘defenders of Israel’, by so-called ‘freedom fighters of MAGA’. It is time for We, the People to relearn the lessons of Abraham’s life. It is time for We, the People to be in “rebellion against the fathers and the gods of his time” and stand up for The Ineffable One, stand up for the way of being the Bible teaches us, stand up and rebel against even God when God is unjust-as Abraham did in Sodom and Gomorrah. It is time for We, the People to say NO to the YOKE OF TRUMP, MUSK, MAGA, BIBI, PUTIN and YES to accepting the Yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven!

There is only one way to do this- let go of our need to be liked, let go of our need to enrich ourselves at the cost of our souls, let go of the voice of perfection that rattles around in our minds, let go of the voice of shame and blame that is a constant companion and gets exploited by the grifters, let go the fears being exploited by the deceivers in order to control us. This letting go of our worst fears means we are no longer controlled by them and no longer can our vulnerabilities be used against us-the ultimate evil practiced by one human towards another. All of the dictators, fascist leaders, communist leaders have used people’s vulnerabilities against them and created an atmosphere of evil and suspicion. We the People have to say NO to these liars and YES to CHOOSE LIFE.

We do this by enhancing our spiritual condition. “Judaism” is a path towards wholeness and spiritual health. It is a way out of our “fatalism” and it doesn’t allow us to live in inertia. Each mitzvah, each “thou shall” and “thou shall not” are for our continued growth and to help us with our poor eyesight. While some faiths promote a fatalism that teaches ‘this is your lot in life and the next world will be better’, Judaism reminds us that we all have choices, we can “proclaim freedom”, we can do T’Shuvah and change, we can repair our old errors and ways, we can welcome the stranger, care for the poor and the needy, redeem the captives, “love our neighbor as we love ourselves”, we can live the hope of the psalmist, the passion of the prophets and the courage of Abraham, we can follow the leadership of Moses and reject the lies of Korach. We have these choices and the only way to make them is to get our own “social, moral and spiritual conditions” in order. We the People are in desperate need of spiritual counseling, not just therapy. We need to have a “Physician of the Soul”, as Maimonidies writes, to help us do a deep cleaning of our spiritual arteries and clear out the plaque that has made our spiritual veins so constricted that the “fatalism” and “inertia” of the mendacious ones sound true! We, the People have the opportunity to take heed to the words above and take the nest right action right here, right now.

I have fought this battle for my whole life and, for a period of 23 years-15-37, I lost the battle and everyone around me, people I never knew were harmed greatly. Since I have accepted and engaged with Judaism on the level Rabbi Heschel is speaking about, I have benefited greatly from spiritual counseling and continue to offer it to another(s) for their benefit and their ability to ward off the liars and idolators. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

What makes lies and loyalty to personalities so appealing to humanity? Year 4 Day 62

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 62

“We are taught to prefer truth to security, to maintain loyalty even at the price of being in the minority. It is inner freedom that gives man the strength to forgo security, the courage to remain lonely in the multitude.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.13-14)

Reading these words, thinking about a seminar being held about Religion in a Free Society, looking at the great people of history, and seeing what is happening today is truly a shock to one’s system and, for people of faith, a betrayal of everything that is holy and good!

The “conventional notion/wisdom” today is to lie and keep lying, to shout the lies from the rooftops, use one’s wits and deception to speak to the lowest common denominator to get ‘our people’ to join in the spreading of lies and misinformation. When the Tea Party was formed, it was because there was a Black man in the White House, not because they actually wanted to govern. The leaders of MAGA have no use for governing, only grifting and creating more wealth for themselves and their cronies. We are watching good people who know better twist themselves into pretzels to defend their wrong doings because rather than “prefer truth to security”, they are preferring security to truth-watch some of the town halls Republican House members are having. We are in grave danger of abdicating the examples, the lessons, the wisdom of the prophets, of Moses, of Jesus for “security” that will turn out to be our ruin.

This situation doesn’t happen just because there is a leader like Trump, Putin,  Bibi, et al, it doesn’t happen because their lies are so wonderful and their ability to baffle us with bullshit is on such a great level. NO, the truth is that these grifters, these liars, these deceivers and dictators/mafia bosses only can flourish when We, the People allow them to, buy into their lies, seek to be deceived, and harbor resentments that get fed by the mendacity of a great deceiver. The real issue is our inability, our unwillingness “to maintain loyalty even at the price of being in the minority.” Our need to ‘fit in’ takes precedence over our call to “maintain loyalty” to something greater than ourselves. We are watching the same story over and over again, human beings sacrifice their loyalty to principles, to values, to the foundational wisdoms and freedoms that our ancestors had when they formed the ancient lands of Israel, Judea. The prophets railed against the deceivers of their times, they forfeited their own “security” to speak truth to power, they knew they were in the minority and they spoke out anyway. The examples of the prophets need to be spoken about and studied in all times and especially now: their is a call in everyone’s inner life to speak truth, to live in truth and this need is greater than our need for security, because without truth We, the People are never secure. Please allow this to sink in.

FOMO is a real thing today-fear of missing out- and this way of being gives us cover to deceive ourselves into going along to be with the ‘in-crowd’, with the ‘power-brokers’, to have ‘a seat at the table’. Yet, it also, usually, requires us to let go of our loyalty to spiritual truths, spiritual practices, the foundational principles of faith and the Bible. Trump, Putin, Bibi all are laughing up their sleeves at the ‘religious’ people who flock to them and call them ‘savior’, ‘precursor to the messiah’, ‘sent by god’, and other such bullshit. The MAGA masses are slowly learning the truth about the 2025 project that Trump denied knowing about on the Campaign trail and has implemented in these first 45 days with reckless abandon. When their Medicaid is cut, when their Social Security is raped, what will they say-these ‘loyalists’? Their votes come from feelings of betrayal because they believed that as white people(for the most part) they would always have privilege over ‘those people’ and the ‘jews’ in charge would be put in their place, etc. I tis because of the Religious Establishment who have engaged in deception and lies, in hatred and bigotry that these untruths have been allowed to flourish over the centuries, here and around the globe. The Religious Establishment of all faiths have twisted the Bible to their needs, they have bastardized the stories, made perfect heroes out of flawed people, taken phrases out of context and made religion a burden of bullshit rather than the beauty of truth, wisdom it is.

We, the People must return to the ways of the prophets, to the ways of Jesus, to the ways of Rev. King and Rabbi Heschel, the ways of the Hassidic masters, and all of the great spiritual leaders before and since. These entail speaking truth to oneself as well as to another(s), seeing what is true and right, what is really happening that is not true and right and speaking out about it. We, the People, have to do our own T’Shuvah, seeing where we have fallen out of truth, where and when we do not “maintain loyalty” and amend our ways, find the path to freedom through truth and loyalty to principles. We find our “inner freedom” by doing our own Chesbon HaNefesh-our accounting of our souls and this “inner freedom” leads to the outer freedom of speaking up and out, not falling for the deceptions of another(s), being more concerned about “truth” than “security” for without being true to oneself, there is never any security; we are always in fear of being found out! “Maintain loyalty” to the call of one’s inner life, to the call of our higher consciousness is the path of freedom, it is the path of our ancestors, it is the path laid out for us in the Bible and every time one of our ‘heroes’ forgets this-disaster happens. King David is a prime example of this as are the Kings that followed him leading to the ‘lost tribes’ and the destruction of the Temples. Is this really the stories We, the People want to keep engaging in over and over again? We, the People of this moment can change our narratives and the lies we tell ourselves, will you?

I live in truth and when I am not in truth, or I am not sure of being in truth, I feel it in my guts. I am troubled and loud, sometimes accusatory, and I have to do my own tshuvah to find out my part in whatever is happening. I still react and blame first at times and then come back to “maintain loyalty” with the principles I accepted and have helped me grow into being a better human being. It is difficult to not go along with the majority and I know I am in the minority and accept that living in truth is the only “security” that is truly available to me. All other “security” is smoke and mirrors. I am grateful for Governor Newsom granting me a Pardon on Wednesday evening and I am grateful to and for everyone who supported this pardon with letters and love. I am firm in holding onto truth, even when it proves me wrong and to maintaining loyalty to principles as the path to inner freedom. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

Freedom is the ability to choose, to act, to love and a constant obligation! Year 4 Day 61

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 61

“He is told to abhor self-complacency, to enjoy freedom of choice. He has been given life and death, good and evil, and is urged to choose, to discriminate. Yet freedom is not only the ability to choose and to act, but also the ability to will, to love. The predominant features of Jewish teaching throughout the ages is a sense of constant obligation.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 13)

In the words bolded above, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that “freedom” is more that our ‘doing our own thing’, being ‘free’ to do as we wish. Rabbi Heschel’s use of the word “ability” is interesting to me. I hear him asking us to realize our “ability to choose and to act” doesn’t mean do what we want to do, it means we have “the ability to will, to love”. In other words, any actions that go against our “will”, our intuitive minds, our soul’s cravings is probably not true “freedom”, hence the last sentence above. Living in “a sense of constant obligation” could be anxiety producing, (look at how many Jews go to therapists:) and in is, the essence of “freedom” according to my reading of the Torah. After the Israelites/slaves left Egypt-they went from being slaves to completely doing what they wanted to, they had no ‘instruction’ manual, they were being led by Moses and, given how many people were on that journey, the people who were not right in front didn’t hear much from him directly-it was a game of telephone. It was only when we reached Mt. Sinai, where the Aleph of Anochi was ‘spoken’ that everyone heard the essence of the Ineffable One. It was only at Sinai that our “freedom” began. Up until then, we did not have choice, we did not know any different that to be ruled by our emotions, by our rational thinking, we were even afraid to dream so as to not be broken hearted once again. Once we accepted the way of decency, morality, ethics, spirituality, we gained the “ability” to make free-will moral choices; which had been impossible up until then.

This is an important point in our ways of being. Just like a child who doesn’t know what is good and what is not good, the Bible shows us that people need to learn about “will, love” as actions of “freedom” not rebellion. We are able “to choose and to act” as assholes, as pernicious, as deniers, liars, grifters, we are able “to choose and to act” as oligarchs, as dictators, as idiots, as addicts, as, as, as…! Yet, this is not the “freedom” of one who has “a sense of constant obligation”. This was a radical experience for the Biblical human being that occurred after Sinai and throughout the wanderings in the Desert. Holding on to this radical experience, this inheritance has proven difficult for Jews and non-Jews alike. Jewish people have called obsessive exacting attention to detail over the 613 commandments fulfilling their “constant obligation”. I disagree, in Genesis Rabbah, we are taught that “every day God makes new laws in the Heavenly Court” - why are we bound by the ones from 200 years ago?

“The ability to will, to love” is the “constant obligation” that makes us free as I immerse myself in Rabbi Heschel’s words above. Of course, the goal is to fuse our will with God’s will, to surrender our need to be right to the spiritual truths and forces that hover over us at all times. Yet, even the ‘religious’ zealots have forgotten this goal, as the Talmud teaches us the Rabbis told God to fuck off when God showed signs that the Rabbi they were in opposition to kept being supported by God’s signs in the Tanour Shel Achni story. This is, unfortunately, a common action by human beings ever since. In the desert, there were wrong choices and actions and there was acknowledgment that they went against the will of God, the Rabbis of the Talmud and many ever since, have bent the will of God to meet their will instead of the other way around, as have most people. Instead of asking ‘where is/was God’ in Germany, Rwanda, Bosnia, on October 7, 2023, we should be asking where were we? Why did We, the People not take the next right action, why did We, the People not listen to the calls of our souls, the messages of people around us who told us to get out, to stop stirring the pot of hatred between peoples, to stop funding Hamas’ terrorism, etc? These are questions that no one wants to respond to, because it shows how enslaved we are to our emotions, to our rationalizations, to our lies.

We, the People are being called to live into the “constant obligation” of ensuring “freedom” for ourselves and for humanity in today’s quotation and in today’s happenings in our world. We, the People have to renew our sense of “constant obligation” to mean we are needed, we are wanted by the force of the universe to ensure that “freedom” is not only proclaimed throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein, “freedom” that is in concert with the 10 sayings, with the ways the Torah lays out using our lived experience to these paths. “Freedom” is not doing life the same way life was lived in Ancient Judea, nor in the ways that caused the destruction of the Northern Kingdom nor the loss of the Temples, Judea and made us wanderers once again from 70AD till 1948. “Freedom” is our “ability to love” one another whether we like or agree with one another. It doesn’t say “like your neighbor”, it doesn’t say agree with one another, it says to “love our neighbor as ourselves”. This is a “constant obligation” that is rarely fulfilled, unfortunately. We, the People are being called to stand up for the “freedoms” the Bible gives to us, the ability to “make Free-Will Moral choices” as Rabbi Twerski teaches, the “ability to will” so that our will becomes like God’s will as Rabbi Tarfon teaches in Pirke Avot. We, the People need to come together once again, we need to re-visit the Sinai experience this Passover-not as a historical fact, rather as a call to action. We, the People in our preparations for Purim have to remember there will always be those out to kill us, either literally or spiritually-are you listening BIBI? We, the People, have to gather at Passover to once again be like the Rabbis at B’nai Barak, planning the revolution against the new Roman Emperor and his minions-Trump, Musk, Putin, Bibi and how we are going to once again ensure that a “government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth”? Otherwise, since the Revolutionary War, all those brave men and women who died for our freedoms, all the immigrants who faced brutal conditions on ships and once they landed in the “golden Medina” have all died in vain and this is the greatest desecration of God’s name and the height of Avodah Zarah, idolatry!

I fight to ensure that I keep it fresh, I keep using the principles to fuel my “constant obligation” and it brings me joy, a feeling of accomplishment, a sense of failing forward. I am living in “freedom” of choice, actions, will and love more each day! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

The Anxiety and Demands Freedom of Choice brings - Year 4 Day 60

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 60

“He is told to abhor self-complacency, to enjoy freedom of choice. He has been given life and death, good and evil, and is urged to choose, to discriminate. Yet freedom is not only the ability to choose and to act, but also the ability to will, to love. The predominant features of Jewish teaching throughout the ages is a sense of constant obligation.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 13)

The phrase “self-complacency” is defined to mean: “a strong sense of satisfaction with yourself especially when this prevents you from having sympathy or empathy for another”. WOW, can you imagine living like this?! We see this all the time and here is Rabbi Heschel some 60+ years ago, calling us out on our behaviors. We encounter so many people who live in this manner-even those who are not so happy, so wealthy find they have a “strong sense of satisfaction” with what they are doing  and are kept down by society, by someone else-hence the blame game never ends. When our elected officials living in self-complacency, as they are right now, they think nothing of passing a resolution to cut the services to the poor, to the needy-after all, these are ‘god-fearing men and women’ who read their Bible every day and nothing gets through their thick shields, their souls. Rather than “enjoy freedom of choice”, many people would rather stay in their self-complacency. This is the bane of our existence-the belief that “only I can fix it”, because buying into the self-complacency of another leaves us open and vulnerable to the whims, the horrors of their behaviors with no ready defense against it, as we have seen throughout history.

Yet, “freedom of choice” seems to produce undo anxiety in people. We are a species who do not want to be told what to do by some God and we are willing to be sheep to the shepherds that have presented themselves like; Attila the Hun, the Pharaohs of Egypt,  the Emperors of Rome, Ferdinand and Isabella, Hitler and the Nazis, Stalin, Putin, Ayatollahs, Trump, Musk, Bibi. Look where being sheep has led us-only to destruction, despair, war, and then, finally, to revolution and a new opportunity to “enjoy freedom of choice”. As Rabbi Heschel says above: we “have been given life and death, good and evil” which is found in Deuteronomy 30:19. The call is to “choose life” which entails freedom to find out we made the wrong choice and repair the damage we have done because of it, change our ways, learn from our mistakes and have a plan not to repeat them again. Yet, those who self-complacent and those who are spiritually immature that follow them like lap dogs, don’t believe in their ability to be wrong, admitting they make a mistake is anathema to them and, these are the people who have led humanity into great wars and massive destruction. And people hear the same things over and over again from Attila til now and “when will we ever learn”, a Pete Seeger refrain, is the question We, the People have to ask ourselves.

We are also being called “to choose, to discriminate” which is an important coupling of ideas. Discriminate is defined as: “recognize a distinction; differentiate” and perceive or constitute the difference in or between. In Hebrew, the word for discriminate also means to examine, to test, to check, as in “check one’s heart”. In the words above as in Deuteronomy, we are being told that to “enjoy freedom”, to “choose”, we also have to know what we are choosing. While it is within our power to choose evil, while it is within our power to go along to get along, the mandate, the demand from God, from our Higher Consciousness is to “choose life”. This means we are being “discriminate” in our choices, we are letting go of our “self-complacency” which we need to “abhor” otherwise the magnetic pull seems so strong we are unable to resist, and we need to be guided by the principles of freedom-community, love, concern for one another, caring for the needy and poor, healing of the sick, accompanying the dead, celebrating the bride and groom, seeing the basic goodness of being in people and rebuking them when they are not living up to these principles as well as experiencing someone rebuking us as love and deep faith in our ability to be better, to live into our divine image, to our soul’s calling.

Throughout history “to discriminate” has meant keeping people out, putting people into camps and groups that don’t deserve the same as we do. From antiquity till now, this is how people have ruled and kept order-making an outside bad guy so no one will challenge my authority, my ruling. We see this with making ‘migrants’ vermin, Palestinians ‘animals’, Jews ‘vermin, blood poisoners, nazis’, Ukrainians ‘war-mongers’, etc. When people speak like this, when the progressives paint white males as the enemy, when white males paint civil rights, freedom of choice as evil doings by ‘those people’ they are purposely not using their powers “to discriminate” and are deep in their “self-complacency.

We, the People are being called, our inner strength and maturity is being ‘tested’ in this time as it has been for our ancestors in their times. 100 years ago, during the “roaring 20’s, there were undercurrents of “evil”, of “self-complacency” happening that no one paid attention to, that were considered ‘lunatic fringe’ that came to power in the ’30’s and spread throughout the world-remember the German Bund, Lindbergh praising Hitler, Father Coughlin, Henry Ford and his Protocols of Zion? We are witnessing similar hatred and power grabs by Trump, Musk, the so-called Republican Party, Putin, Orban, Xi, Bibi, etc and it is one of our “enormous responsibilities” to stand up and say NO. We, the People have the opportunity to do T’Shuvah for the errors of our ancestors, to learn from their mistakes, to fail forward from 100 years ago. We, the People have within us the ability and the desire to CHOOSE LIFE, we have the command to do this in the Torah, now we need the courage to follow the call of our souls, the longings of our hearts and the knowing of intuitive mind-making our rational mind a servant of these three entities instead of the leader. This is the challenge for us, to live in wonder, radical amazement, “to be maladjusted” to conventional wisdom and see what truly is so we are not fooled again, we do not follow the leader to meanness, to hatred, to evil.

I have dedicated my recovery to “enjoy freedom” and “to choose, to discriminate”. I am not always right-I learn, I fail forward, doing a little better the next time. I refuse to shut up about what I see, I refuse to become deaf to what people see in me, I continue to CHOOSE LIFE. I will always fight the despot, the evil in myself and in another-it is hard and not always wanted and I continue to do this. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

Are you accepting the "enormous responsibility" that comes with being human? Year 4 Day 59

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 59

“As a free being the Jew must accept an enormous responsibility. The first thing a Jew is told is: You can’t let yourself go; get into the harness, carry the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. He is told to bear loads of responsibility.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 13)

Reading this, immersing ourselves in these words, thoughts, wisdom only makes the actions of Jews, of all people of faith who believe that ‘trump is the messiah, Bibi is god’s instrument of justice and restoration of Israel’ are idiots, and have thrown off “the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven”! Rather than “accept an enormous responsibility to speak truth to power, to stand with the voiceless and powerless, to care for the stranger, to feed the poor, to extend dignity to all human beings because they are created in the Image of God, Trump, Bibi voted with a dictator that kills people just because. They voted against a country fighting to stay free while proclaiming the right of Israel to defend itself against terrorists. Yet they both are celebrating the greatest terrorist of our time: Vladimir Putin! They both voted with Iran-that great democracy and friend of Israel, to destroy Ukraine, where many ancestors of Jews were from both in Israel and America. There are many Hasidic dynasties from Ukraine, Reb Noson, Reb Nachman’s scribe, the Twerski family, etc all come from the Ukraine so the betrayal by Bibi and his ‘frumma yidden’ (orthodox jews) is all the more horrific. These assholes, these liars, these ‘keepers of the flame’ have taken one another out of “the harness”, thrown off the “loads of responsibility” they are called on to carry, and rejected the “enormous responsibility” that comes with being a Jew, that comes with being human!

What is happening in America, in Israel, around the globe is atrocious and odious. The inability of people, especially people who claim to be ‘the faithful’ to not see the warning signs of the Bible, to not see the similarities in history, to rejoice is ridiculous.The enslaving of a people, to celebrate the cruelty shown to the needy, the poor, the orphans and the widows as well as the stranger, is beyond words. The alliances with dictators like Orban, Putin, Xi, Kim Jung Un by the Unfaithful is enraging to people who celebrate our ability to “carry the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven”. Watching the Republican elected officials in Washington DC go along out of fear of reprisals from the Proud Boys and/or Oath Keepers reminds me of Benedict Arnold! The party of Lincoln, the party of Reagan is the party of Putin via Trump and Musk, Miller and Bannon and the ‘unfaithful’ anti-religion people calling themselves ‘christian nationalists’ are loving this change. Likud, the party in Israel of Begin, who made peace with Sadat, has become the lover of dictators, the lackeys of Putin and Trump-all the while believing their own lies that they are in charge and god wants them to hate the poor, mistreat the Ger, the stranger in their midst, pour salt in the wounds of the hostages’ families, allow the hostages to die in Gaza rather than make this deal happen 450 days ago.

In the Tractate Yoma on page 86b, it says:”Reb Meir says Great is repentance(T’Shuvah), for one person’s T’Shuvah, the entire world endures. As it is said: I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely for my anger has turned away from him”(Hosea 14:5). It doesn’t say “from them” rather “from him” because he repented everyone is healed. While it has a hint of Christ in this statement from Reb Meir as my friend and teacher Danny Maseng points out to me, I hear the words above echoed: we are “told to bear loads of responsibility” and what we are seeing right now from the Far Right Jews, the MAGA crowd, the supposed ‘conservative’ groups is the throwing off of responsibility-“some people say”, “I was told”, “I heard” are the clean-ups on Fox News, from Trump, from his Press people who, like almost everyone else is hired for their looks, for the ass-kissing not for their expertise. How can Marco Rubio look himself in the mirror when he supports the very dictator, the very system that his parents fled from Cuba?? How can the Hassidic Sects support the very system that killed so many of their own in Ukraine and Russia??

We, the People have to get enraged, we have to tell the trolls to shut the fuck up, we have to stand up for the voiceless and powerless, we have to change our governments back to democracies, back to the foundational values and principles of our founding. Israel was not founded to be a theocracy, America was founded because of people seeking religious freedom and both were the places where people seeking freedom, opportunity, change came to in droves. We, the People have to take on the “yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven” and pull together to push the charlatans, the idolators, the Desecraters of God’s Name out of power. We, the People have to accept the “enormous responsibility” that comes with being human, that comes with living a spiritual life, with being a partner of God. We, the People have to “get into harness” and pull together carrying the heavy load of “Proclaim Freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”(Lev.25:10). We, the People are being honored with the call to “rebuke your neighbor”, to “not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor”, to not “bear false witness”, to “not murder the soul of another”, to “not make false images of God”, etc. All of these commandments from the 10 sayings, from the Holiness Code are meant to guide all people of faith and spirit to reject the lies of the False Prophets and speak the Truth and NOW IS THE TIME!

I am enraged, my grandparents came from Ukraine, my nephew was a Peace Corps volunteer there. Zelensky has fought off the paper tiger that Putin is and is being ‘rewarded’ by Trump and Bibi with betrayal, with venom and vile. I know this way of being-I acted in similar ways prior to my recovery-I took advantage of good people for my own gains. Since 1987, however, when I first began to accept “the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven”, when I began my journey of T’Shuvah - return, repentance and new responses- I have run to be responsible for the good and for the not good I have done. I bear “loads of responsibility” in living free, I have to honor the journey of my grandparents from Russia/Poland and the Ukraine to give me a life of freedom and possibility by living the best I can in this moment. Both of my grandfathers were members of Workman Circle, both fought for freedom and decency in their own ways, both treated everyone who crossed their paths with respect, both sent money to relatives in Poland, in the Ukraine even during the war-whether they could afford it or not. From this lineage, I am over the top with shame and embarrassment at what the heads of two countries that I love are doing to democracy, to loyalties, to allies, to us. Please join me in being outraged and fighting back. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Entitled or Obligated- which is your modus operandi for life? Year 4 Day 58

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 58

“Every child is a prince; every man is obliged to feel that the world was created for his sake. Man is not the measure of all things, but the means by which to accomplish all tasks.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 13)

In the Jewish liturgy there is a prayer, Avinu Malkeynu which translates to “Our Parent, Our Sovereign” which, I believe, is the foundation for the first phrase above. Thinking about this prayer, it shows how much Judaism thinks of the human being and of God. God is sovereign, aka higher consciousness, power greater than ourselves, prime mover, whatever one calls the creative energy in the universe; and human beings are in the palace, we are children living in the palace, we are royalty and we have a purpose to fulfill. Each of us, as the Talmud teaches, has infinite worth and dignity, equal to everyone else in worth and dignity, and, finally, we all possess unique worth and dignity-we all are different and have unique qualities that separate us from one another while uniting us because we need one another’s uniqueness to ‘finish the job’. These two ideas are meant to, in my opinion, fuel the life of the Jew and non-Jew. Knowing we are all “princes and princesses” gives us a sense of duty, a sense of responsibility as it is used in the Jewish tradition-not entitlement! While there are many Jews who see their status as entitlement and create havoc, antithetical actions, because of their ‘entitlement’ status, this is not the intent of the first phrase above. It is a bastardization of the teachings of the Bible, of the Talmud and it is a sin against God.

The second half of the first sentence above is a tricky one. In fact, it can and has led to great catastrophes perpetrated by the very people who are supposed to understand the meaning of this phrase, who are supposed to be living examples of the wisdom, beauty and awe of this concept, yet they don’t. Instead, the rich, the royalty, the learned use this phrase to keep the masses in line, to invent the “prosperity gospels”, the validation for occupying the West Bank, taking of Ukraine, wanting to take Greenland, Canada, etc.  Pastor Joel Osteen pays himself an annual salary of $54,000,000 from his church profits. Donald Trump’s idea is for America to take Gaza and develop it while the Palestinians who lived there are dispersed to other lands-like the Assyrians did with the Jews, like the Holy Roman Empire did in 1492, like so many countries have done to the Jews throughout the millennia. Vladimir Putin claiming that Russia was attacked by Ukraine and Trump, some Republicans going along with this LIE now, etc are examples of how this beautiful teaching, this grand idea can be abused, bastardized, and prooftext for evil!

The real meaning of the second half of the first sentence above is that human beings have an obligation to experience the world as being created for their sake in order to use their uniqueness, their talents to improve it-not rule it! This seems to have escaped the Clergy who preach it, the powerful who abuse it, the rest of us who willingly fall prey to the lies of the Osteen’s, the Prosperity Gospel pushers, the Bannon’s, the Miller’s, the Vought’s and 2025 projects. People seem to forget wisdom of Rabbi Simcha Bunim of P'shiskha who used to say that: “everyone should carry two slips of paper with them. On one we should write, “For me the whole world was created” and the other should say, “I am but dust and ashes.” We have to look at them when we change pants each day, when we reach for our money, for our keys, etc-i.e at least a few times a day. It is time for We, the People to demand the leaders of the world, the leaders of our faith traditions return to living an obligated life rather than an entitled life! We the People must change our ways, deciding to be an active participant in our life, in the life of our cities, states, countries and no longer allow the atrocities that these entitled bastards are perpetrating, those in the past that have become ‘ho hum’, those in the present and the ones in the future. It is way past time to put “throw the bums out” and we have to see this as one of the infinite tasks which we are measured by. It will not be easy, it will be frustrating, painful, dangerous, it will entail going against the grain, standing firm in the face of ridicule, an onslaught of hatred, possibly going to jail (think of Alexei Navalny) and even death. However as Patrick Henry said: “Give me liberty or give me death”.

We the People are being called to our obligation to live up to and into the lessons and actions of our ancestors, using the errors of our Biblical figures and in our history since the Bible was canonized. These lessons include the knowledge that the Maccabees defeated King Antiochus IV, Kings Saul and David protected the kingdoms of Judea and Israel (yes they were separate for a time before the great split) from the Philistines primarily, the American colonies defeated the British, the Baal Shem Tov and Hassidism prevailed over the objections of the ‘mainstream’ Jewish community leaders, Israel defeated the Arab Nations that attacked it in 1948, 1956, 1973, etc. We, the People have to demand the end of the reign of terror of King Donald, Co-King Musk, Putrid Putin, Bad Bibi, etc. We, the People have to rise up against the Reprehensible Republicans who are acting entitled instead of obligated. We, the People have to stand with and for one another’s uniqueness as badges of honor, recognize the princely nature of all human beings, all genders, all colors, all races. We, the People are being called in this moment to stand with one another against the arrogance and entitlement of the rich and the people in power. We are being given strength and purpose in the words above. To paraphrase Socrates: “An unobligated life is not worth living” and to paraphrase Malcolm X: “an obligated life is painful”. Both of these statements are true and We the People need to live into them both, walk thru the pain and reach the joy of being a “prince”, of fulfilling our need to be “obliged” and make our corner of the world better. We, the People need to answer the question: what were doing while the world burned, while the Fascists, the Deceivers were ruling? God forbid we say we did nothing. We the People also have to remember the words of Rabbi Tarfon in Pirke Avot 2:16: “We are not obligated to finish the work, neither are we free to desist from it”.

I believe it is time, past time to get into action! I have lived an obligated life for the past 36 years, I lived an obligated life for my first 15 and I was obligated even in my 20 year hiatus from decency in all my affairs. I believe in the royal nature of every human being, I believe we are all obliged to live into our infinite worth and dignity and to treat one another dignity. I also know I fall short and when I do there is T’Shuvah to get back on the path. I am screaming to everyone DO YOUR TSHUVAH and get on the path of being spiritual warriors and lets save our corner of the world together. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark