Easy and endless opportunities to for evil are all around us - Year 4 Day 157

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 157

“The experience of the easy and endless opportunities for evil and the awareness of the dreadful danger, threatens to outweigh all delight of living…This essential predicament of man has assumed a peculiar urgency in our time, living as we do in a civilization where factories were established in order to exterminate millions of men, women, and children; where soap was made of human flesh. What have we done to make such crimes possible? What are we doing to make such crimes impossible? (God in Search of Man pg. 369)

These words, published in 1955 haunt me, and hopefully us, in this moment. Be it in Iran, Israel, Russia, China, the United States, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, etc “the easy and endless opportunities for evil” abound. We are witnessing this phenomenon again and again. What seems to be missing in many of We the People who are supporting the heads of evil, ‘Satin’s missionaries’, is “the awareness of the dreadful danger, threatens to outweigh all delight of living”. Because of their unawareness or willful blindness to the “dreadful danger” of “evil”, because of their love of their “evil” ways and see them as “very good”, those We the People who voted, go along with, profit from the “evil” being perpetrated by the leaders of the countries above, the leaders of industry who practice “evil”, unethical, immoral ways of ‘it’s just business’, the leaders of communal institutions, all the way to the parenting and educating of our children, experience a “delight of living”! How upside down is our world??

When the resistance comes from the rest of We the People, who have not drank the kool-aid of Trumpism, of evil, of prosperity gospel, of mendacity and indifference, it will be successful. We have learned that politicians are ineffectual against “evil”, mendacity,  indifference, etc because they are practitioners of all 3! In the 1930’s politicians were cooperating with the German Government to spread disinformation and who can forget “America First” which supported Germany and Hitler while pretending to be for America by staying out of the war. The politicians hunted and tortured people who they believed were communists in the Hollywood community and others while themselves taking bribes and money from lobbyists for ‘pet projects’. The opportunity to speak truth, to be kind and merciful towards Ethel Rosenberg was ignored and the ensuing evil of putting to death a known innocent woman and mother speaks to the “evil” of Roy Cohn, the DOJ, the Judge, and the President! And all of these people ‘slept like babies’ when the physical deaths of innocent people, the spiritual torture of people who had different political views, the career ending spectacle of people they disagreed with were on their conscience!

Yet, today we are doing worse! In the name of ‘Jesus’, lies are being told, graft is happening, our democracy is being threatened by a bully, a liar, an idolator and PAGAN named Russell Vought, J D Vance, et al, dictators are being revered, democracies are being abandoned, our allies for over 80 years are being called our enemies and Vlad, MBS, Bibi, Viktor, Kim, are being loved by the Republicans under Trump! WTF??? As Joseph Welch asked Joe McCarthy, we have to ask ourselves and these PAGANS: “Have you no decency?” While the people leading the parade of “evil” and indifference, who are masters of mendacity and deception, will say NO, the hope of this asking this question is for all of us to take a breathe, to stop for a moment and consider our spiritual condition, to give ourselves the opportunity to have a spiritual awakening and respect our power and inclination to “run after the majority to do evil”as we learn in Exodus 23:2. Yet, these ‘good bible loving folks’ purporting to be christian and jewish, continue to violate this command and, instead, do everything they can to go against the second teaching in this verse: don’t join with the many to pervert justice through false testimony. Really, these ‘good christian folk, these ‘ultra religious jews’ who are worshipping idols are going to be the role-models for our children, We the People are going to let them spew their bullshit, practice their Avodah Zarah, their idol-worship and follow them to hell? WTF, I ask again!

In responding to the first question above posed by Rabbi Heschel: “what have we done to make such crimes possible” We the People have to look at our selves, we cannot point the finger to ‘those people’ because we have installed, allowed, elected, gone along with ‘those people’ in order for them to have the power to lead us to “such crimes”. We the People are being called to account for our actions and inactions, once again. If it seems like doing our own accounting is a theme of Rabbi Heschel’s, at least as I hear him calling out to us, it is. In the Jewish tradition, taking a daily accounting is built in to our faith, to our way of being. Just as we have to celebrate our victories, we have to look at the ways we have “missed the mark”. Both are crucial to our continuing spiritual growing and uplifting our ethical standards and practices. Joseph Welch’s question to Joe McCarthy is relevant today just as it was then and it is for We the People to respond to. We the People can not hide behind the veil of ‘I didn’t realize’, ‘I didn’t know he would do this’, and other such bullshit when Vought in Project 2025 and Trump on the Campaign Trail promised to be “evil”, promised to bastardize the religious tenets and foundation of ethics, morals, freedom, etc. and We the People allowed them to get into power. “What have we done to make such crimes possible?” We the People have abdicated our obligation to hear  and speak truth to power, We the People have allowed ourselves to be enslaved by our fears, our self-deceptions and the lies we tell ourselves so we can believe the lies and deceptions of another! We the People have to do our accounting of our souls, repair the damages to our inner life and then repair the harms the we have brought to our world and to our descendants’ lives!

As one who committed crimes against humanity in a much smaller way and scale, I am no less responsible than anyone today-with one exception: I continue to do T’Shuvah, I continue to take an accounting, I continue to celebrate my victories and repair the damages when my negative inclination wins the moment. I have dedicated my recovery and my living to being an example for my daughter, my grandson, my nieces and nephews, and the people I encountered when I was the Rabbi at Beit TShuvah.  I believe in the truth of Torah, I believe that We the People will hear the words of the prophets, follow the actions of Jesus, and not only speak truth to power, we will, like Moses, redeem the people who are enslaved, help people save themselves from their inner slavery. People do it for me every day, I do it for another(s) every day and I know you do and will continue to also. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Willful blindness or acute awareness to what is happening within your spiritual and moral life? Year 4 Day 156

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 156

“Said Rabbi Isaac: Abraham may be “compared to a man who was traveling from place to place when he saw a palace in flames. Is it possible that there is no one who cares for the palace he wondered. Until the owner of the palace looks at him and said, ‘I am the owner of the palace’… The world is in flames, consumed by evil. Is it possible that there is no one who cares?” (God in Search of Man pg.367)

These words, especially the last two sentences, published in 1955-some 70 years ago-describe where we are in our world right now. This is not to say that we should know that evil ruling is cyclical and will end on its own, it doesn’t-just think about the 50+million civilian deaths in World War II! What is key for all of us, I believe, is the description of the “owner of the palace” and what is happening right now.

The “owner of the palace” doesn’t seem to notice that “the palace is in flames”, he just responds “‘I am the owner of the palace’”, doesn’t ask for help to put out the “flames “because he is willfully blind and/or so unaware of what is that the “palace is in flames” that he doesn’t even know to ask for help. This is where many of We the People are at right now, here, in Israel, across the globe are unaware of how much in “flames” “the palace” is. Not just the Israel-Iran war, not just the Military on the streets of American Cities, not just the devastation by Russia of the Ukrainian sovereignty, cities and people. NO, what is really “in flames” is the moral fiber of human beings. What is really “in flames” is the fundamental teachings of the Bible, the spiritual corpus callosum of humanity. What is “in flames” is our connection to something greater than ourselves and to doing good for no reason other than it is the next right action to take.

The Ayatollah is a BAD GUY-Full Stop. And, we cannot focus our attention solely on him, on his repressive regime, on his religious fanaticism, lest we lose sight of where we are, who we are becoming and our own foibles, repressions, fanaticism. Ben G’Vir and Smotrich are no less fanatical than the Ayatollah, Bibi is no less ruthless than Trump, Cain-White is no less an idolator and charlatan than either the Ayatollah or Ben G’VIr. And, We the People are no less responsible for the destruction of compassion; kindness; loving our neighbor; loving, caring for, and welcoming the stranger; being holy as the Bible teaches us, commands us and demands of us than the Iranian people are for the actions of the Ayatollah. The issue for me today is how We the People continue to look outside of ourselves for both the problem and the solution-as we say in AA; “it is an inside job”. As soon as I make someone “the other”, I am separating myself from him/them and giving me a scapegoat for my issues, for my anger, for my foibles, and rather than grow my spiritual life, rather than work to put together the disparate parts of myself, I can blame “the other” for all my problems. Rather than look at my greed, my insatiable thirst for power and control, prestige and wealth, it is easier to accuse “the other” of that which I am guilty of-just ask Goebbels, Miller, Trump, Bibi, the Ayatollah, Vladimir, etc. This is an old song, it began with Adam in the Garden of Eden and We the People keep believing, erroneously, that this is a good strategy because it does work for a while, and it gets tiresome and ‘der fuhrer’ must be replaced, killed, etc. Theodore Parker, an abolitionist Minister, said in 1853, “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one….and from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice”. These words were adopted by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and have been quoted many times and used to encourage, salve and give respite to the “freedom fighters” of this generation.

We the People need to respond to the question Moses poses in Chapter 10 of Exodus, “how long will you refuse to humble yourself before God”,(Ex.10:3)  and hear the advice of Pharaoh’s courtiers and ministers: “how long will this one be a snare for us, are you not aware that Egypt is lost”(Ex.10:7). We the People are being called to “humble ourselves before God” not before another human being-no one is better nor worse than anyone else, we all have equally infinite worth and are unique. We the People do not bow down to Trump, nor Bibi, to Vlad nor Ayatollah because We the People are holy! And, We the People have to “humble” ourselves to God’s Will. This means, as we learn in Pirke Avot and in AA, that we “turn our will over to the care of God” and/or we “nullify our will before God’s Will so God’s will becomes our will”. We the People are being called to see how our lives-which are our “palaces are in flames” and put out the fire by connecting to one another, connecting to something greater than ourselves, end our incessant desire for fame and fortune, grow our ability to “love your neighbor”, “love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”, seek justice, be righteous, don’t steal, murder, covet, lie, whore yourself. While these seem like simple tasks, human beings have proved over the millennia that they are not.

We see the myriad of ‘good christian folk’ in the Trump orbit who violate all 10 commandments-beginning with believing Trump is Christ or Moses, aka ‘the redeemer’. We witness on a daily basis the lies, the murdering of spirits, the coveting, the whoring that goes on with people like Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, Tom Tillis, etc. Yet, We the People keep electing them, supporting them and not demanding that they DO THEIR FUCKING JOBS! We the People are the “owners of the palace” and we keep watching the “flames” get larger and stay unaware because we are wearing blinders, we are people who would rather believe the lies we are told, the self-deceptions that make us ‘feel good’ than face the truth, see how “the palace is in flames” and heed the words of Rabbi Heschel, Rev Barber, Pope Leo to grow our decency, enlarge our spiritual paths, and no matter what we think or feel - BE HUMAN!

I have always seen the “palace is in flames”, I just didn’t do anything to put out the fire, rather I made a decision to add fuel to the fire which brought me to prison, again, and to recovering my core decency, my humanity and has allowed me to be redeeming my life and helping others redeem theirs. It is not a one and done, at least for me. I have to work everyday to stay alert and aware of the myriad of places within me that could burst into “flames” at any moment because of my being inattentive to them. I have to grow spiritually and morally each day and I have to keep my eyesight 20/20 when it comes to seeing truth, acknowledging my responsibility, and not just blaming “the other”. I do have the obligation to call out the wrongs of another so they can repair them and fix the flaw within them that allows them to continue to harm. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

"Are you aware of "the mystery of evil in human life" or are you oblivious to it-willfully or unwittingly? Year 4 Day 155

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 155

“Niebuhr reminds us that “there is a mystery of evil in human life to which modern culture has been completely oblivious”(Interpretation of Christian Ethics… “Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time”(Amos 5:13). But Niebuhr is not prudent. The road to disaster is paved with pleasant illusions, and the way to deal with evil is not to ignore it.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.128)

Having finished Rabbi Heschel’s talk on “Race and Religion”, I am turning to his writing on Reinhold Niebuhr’s views on evil. It seems appropriate as we head into the summer months, having received Torah and on our way to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with a stop at Tisha B’Av, the commemoration of the destructions we have caused by our inability to be aware of evil in our midst and in ourselves.

The words from Niebuhr make a mockery of Herbert Spencer’s belief that “evil perpetually tends to disappear” from “Evanescence of Evil”. His certainty in “redemption through progress” is another fallacy that Niebuhr’s words above and the actions of humankind has uncovered. While Spencer’s beliefs and thoughts had merit and, in a world where spiritual progress, moral progress and education is in the forefront of everyone’s being, they could come true. We the People, however have to deal with what is, not what we would like it to be, hence living into Reinhold Niebuhr’s words is crucial for We the People to combat the evil that is tearing at the fabric of our humanity, that is crushing the spirits of people in every walk of life, that is shitting on God’s Will and replacing it with the will of the evil, the will of the PAGANS, the will of ‘der fuhrer, il duce, the don’ whatever you want to call the assholes in the White House, in the Kremlin, in Hungary, in Riyadh, in Jerusalem, … they are evil, they practice evil, they promote evil and they love evil-all the sycophants around them, all of the people who pull their strings, their ‘allies’ are evil as well. They use the words of the Bible, they use common everyday language to accuse others of what they are guilty of, they use racism, Jew-hatred, Islamaphobia, fear of ‘the stranger’, ‘the alien’ to usurp the ethical and moral teachings of the Bible, of the Koran, of the New Testament. And, We the People have been oblivious to it, either unwittingly or willfully blind to it, with the latter probably the truth.

Let’s look at what happens when we are “completely oblivious” to the “mystery of evil in human life”. Bibi is elected again, Trump is elected again, with both being known for their grift and graft, their senseless hatreds and their hating the widow, the stranger, the poor and the needy! They both get elected again as ‘savior’ from ‘those people’. While the far left is no better, in my opinion because they go too far as well, finding the middle ground, electing people who are at least 10% away from both ends of the continuum, finding and following people who know what is right and good, who know how to respect the dignity of every human being while arguing with these same human beings as  to what the next right action is indicated is crucial, if We the People are going to open up our eyes and see what is! The more I immerse myself in the words above, the more enraged I become with We the People and especially with myself!

“Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time” is spoken by Amos when he is lambasting the people of Israel for their unmitigated evil in the presence of God, of one another. Jesus’ words were spoken at the time of Rome being in charge of Judea, Moses stood up to Pharaoh, Nathan to King David, the prophets to the kings and wealthy, John Hancock to King George, Sharansky to Brezhnev, etc-so being “prudent” may be safe, it doesn’t help to stem the wave of evil that is washing over us from those of We the People who want power, control, wealth and to be Pharaoh. It is the job of the rest of We the People to end our obliviousness to the “mystery of evil” that resides “in human life”. To do this, we first have to find the “mystery of evil in” our life.

This is the most important aspect of fighting evil. It is the message of the prophets, it is the message of everyone who speaks of evil. Dr. Garrett O’Connor, of blessed memory, told a story of his residency at Johns Hopkins where an Austrian Psychiatrist was one of the supervisors and he spoke of his obsession with the Eichmann Trial. He said he had to watch it, no matter the time difference because it kept asking him the same question over and over again: “Where is the Eichmann in me?” Where is the ‘clerk’ in any of us that just goes along with evil for fear of rocking the boat, for fear of being ostracized, for fear of losing out, fear of missing out? To deny that this exists within us, within all human beings, is the root of our being “oblivious”. This denial, this unwillingness to look inside of ourselves, to do our T’Shuvah, our inventory, our amends and change our ways, is what paves “the road to disaster”, they are the “pleasant illusions” which allow us to “ignore” the evil within and the evil around us. We the People are witnessing this phenomenon again with Trump, Bibi, MBS, VLad, Viktor, etc. We the People are watching Miller, Noem, Holman, Sen. Mike Lee promote violence against their political opponents who they have cast as ‘enemies of the state’ rather than respecting them as human beings with different opinions as Sen. John McCain taught all of us to do. We the People are in desperate need of heeding Reinhold Niebuhr’s words, this is the same Reinhold Niebuhr who gave us the Serenity Prayer, only his version says “change the things which should be changed. Being “oblivious” to “the mystery of evil” is one of the things that We the People should be changing. As Hillel says in Pirke Avot: If not now, when?”

I have been searching my inner life for the evil within since I was a kid. I knew I was different, I couldn’t stand the lies and I made up lies for myself. I hated the bullshit of bowing down to the rich and I wanted to be rich so others would bow down to me. I found the “mystery of evil” that I was “oblivious” to was my incongruence, my two voices that I thought should be unified and I chose to follow the evil inclination more often than not. Then I was awakened, then I met Rabbi Silverman who introduced me to Rabbi Heschel and I could no longer be oblivious to my inner evil, to the lies I told myself. These past 38+ years have been a daily wrestling with my desire to be oblivious and my need to be aware. I know the “mystery of evil” in my life and I have, for the most part, found ways to transform the energy of my evil inclination into doing the next right thing, doing something good for another. In not having resentments, I am able to accept people for who they are as well as accepting me for who I am. I like the me I have come to know and that I am becoming. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Is "Righteousness" a feeling or a demand for living? Year 4 Day 154

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 154

“Righteousness as a mere tributary, feeding the immense stream of human interests, is easily exhausted and more easily abused. But righteousness is not a trickle, it is God’s power in the world, a torrent, an impetuous drive, full of grandeur and majesty. The surge is choked, the sweep is blocked, yet the mighty stream will break all dikes.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 99-100)

Sitting here at my computer in the early morning hours each day, reading, immersing myself in and allowing a wave of Rabbi Heschel’s spirit to wash over me is both exhilarating and exhausting. It is uplifting and disturbing, it is an experience that is both ridiculous and sublime. The words above, as do most of what Rabbi Heschel writes, to me, is the quintessential example of living in the tension of the polarities of life, the both/and rather than the either/or.

When We the People become more intent on “feeding the immense stream of human interests”, we are in danger of losing our humanity, our freedom, our ability to “Choose LIFE”, as Moses exhorts us to in Deuteronomy. Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdoaf, is not a suggestion, it is a call to action, a describer of how we are to live our lives in the “pursuit of righteousness”, not in the pursuit of satisfying our every ‘need’ or desire. Yet, as we are witnessing and have learned from our history books, human beings seem to believe that every itch needs to be scratched, every desire needs to be fulfilled, every opportunity to ‘get mine’ needs to be taken-even when to do so is detrimental to themselves and/or another human being! 100 years ago, we watched and did nothing as the lies of the National Socialist Party in Germany were being spread and we know the outcome of that inaction. Today, as the MAGA and TRUMPISM lies are spread by the PAGANS in Churches and Temples, in Congress and on Fox NOT-news, in social media, etc it seems to overwhelming and exhausting to combat them all. When Mike Lee, a Senator from Utah makes fun of Democrats being killed, when Stephen Miller spews his hatred and is lauded by the ‘right-wing’, when Trump’s tariffs are hurting everyone and his ‘big, beautiful bill’ is going to harm even more people, we witness the truth of the words above: “righteousness…is easily exhausted and more easily abused.” This is the challenge and the dilemma we are facing, once again. We faced it with WWII and the German Bund, Father Coughin, Charles Lindbergh, we faced it with the House committed on UnAmerican Activities and Joe McCarthy, we faced it in the 50’s and 60’s in the Civil Rights Movement, in the 60’s and 70’s with the Vietnam war protest movement and “righteousness” prevailed precisely because both the faithful and the unfaithful knew it has a power greater than the words and actions themselves.

We the People are being called upon to stand for our principles and beliefs, stand against the onslaught of lies and schemes, tricks and magic of mendacity, of willful blindness, of “accusing others of that which you are guilty of”. We the People are bing asked to let go of our old ideas of trying to persuade people who have ‘drank the kool-aid’, people who are under the ether of believing the demagogue, the autocrat, the wannabe Mafia don, and just stand against them, without hatred, without malice, with compassion that comes from the pursuing of “righteousness”. We the People are being counted on to pry the fingers that are choking “the surge” and unblock “the sweep” so that, as Amos prophesies, the “mighty stream” of “righteousness” will flow freely and powerfully over those sad unfortunates. History has shown this to be true, it was true in Germany, in Japan, in Italy, and it can be true here, in the Middle East, and across the globe. It will take, however, a concerted and consistent effort by We the People!

Abraham, Isaac, Moses, the Prophets, the Judges, the Psalms, Proverbs, the Books of Ruth, Song of Songs, and throughout the Bible all are examples of “righteousness” coming to save the day. Mount Sinai was an experience of pursuit of “righteousness” when We the People said “Na’Aseh V’Nishmah”, we will do and we will understand.” Our judicial system in the Bible, it is the foundation for English Canon Law and the U.S. Judicial system, in my opinion, with the main difference being that “righteousness” is not necessarily ingrained in our system. In Deuteronomy, 16:18, we are told to ‘judge with “Mishpat Tzedek”, “justice and righteousness”, we are told in the next verse to not be partial to one side because of money, prestige, knowing them, being of the same tribe, etc because doing so would “upset the plea of the just”. Sound Familiar, folks?? This is exactly what is happening today, John Roberts and his Court of Clowns have trashed the esteem and the “righteousness” of the Supreme Court by their myriad of decisions that have “upset the plea of the just” because they are deciding based on their ‘conservative’ (aka prosperity gospel ‘good christian folk’ bullshit), and not on the law, not with “righteous justice”, they are not pursuing righteousness nor justice, they are pursuing their money, their popularity amongst a certain set and they are paying back the favors that got them to the Court in the first place. Hence, the need for We the People to demand, to protest, to keep the pressure on Congress, the Courts, so we can defeat the Fascists in the White House, the Ass-Kissing Weak Sucks in Congress, and the bullies like Joe Rogan, Steve Bannon, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, et al. This is not for ourselves we are doing this, it is for our neighbors, for our descendants, for the stranger and the needy, the poor and the orphan here now and will be here later. Just as people left Egypt for their children to have a better life, just as people came to America for the same reason and still are coming to America for this reason, We the People have to ensure that “righteousness, righteousness” is pursued and elevated a little more each day.

I have been pursuing “righteousness” because it is a “torrent, an impetuous drive”. It overwhelms me and I become so focused on it, on doing the next right thing, on giving people the opportunity for a ‘do-over’ as people have given me. I know the “grandeur and majesty” of living in “righteousness”, of pursuing it, of using it to connect to “God’s power in the world” and to connect to the force of the cosmos that keeps me alive. I continue to pry the hands that want to “choke” my voice off my throat, I continue to clean the “sweep” so I don’t confuse my will for what is good and right. It ain’t easy and it is exhilarating and exciting, uplifting and energizing. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Erosion of the Rock and the Mountain that hides true Justice - Year 4 Day 153

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 153

“No rock is so hard that water cannot pierce it. “But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place; the waters wear away the stones”(Job 14:18f). Justice is not a mere norm, but a fighting challenge, a restless drive.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 99)

While the words above are absolutely true, as we have witnessed it takes a long time in some cases for the “water” to “pierce” the “rock”! Yet, as we see in Alaska, once the glacier begins to recede and humans keep pouring more and more water, carbon, screwing the climate up, the glacier recedes quicker and quicker. Were it only so true with human beings. As I immerse myself in these words and the times we are in, I reflect on what it took for the Pharaoh to be worn down, 400+years of enslaving a people, 10 plagues that ruined his country and the people he was ruling over, and even then he could not let go, he had to chase the slaves he freed to the Sea and watch as his chariots, drivers, horses were drowned, destroyed. This is the problem with humans who become like “a rock”, who believe they are “the mountain” that is so strong and ‘right’ that they are above everyone else, above God, above Christ, etc. Justice is what they determine it to be based on their whims, desires and hatreds.

We have seen this movie play out over the millennia, from Pharaoh to Putin, from the Assyrians to the Ayatollah, from Nero to Trump/Bibi and We the People do not seem to learn from the reflection and knowing of history. Maybe we should not put autocrats, wanna be dictators, unjust people as our leaders, maybe we should not be having this type of person running our government, making new laws, being justices because they allow themselves to be blinded by bribes, ‘party loyalty’, etc. Maybe, We the People should follow the ways of King David and look at our own foibles so we can make our amends, change our ways and, maybe then we will stop admiring the ‘strongman’, stop needing ‘daddy to take care of us’, no longer engage in ‘retribution’, senseless hatred, and allow the waters of spiritual health to wash away the stones in our hearts and the ones covering our souls. Maybe, just maybe, We the People will hasten the crumbling of the mountain of injustice that we have built because of our fears, our prejudices, our bias, our victimhood, our need ‘to get even’, etc. The world is a dangerous place now, it always has been and safety only comes when one is willing to surrender to their spiritual knowing; whether one follows the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Koran, Eastern Spiritual disciplines, they all lead to the same place-justice, love, righteousness, compassion, truth as I heard the Dalai Lama say to a bunch of clergy people gathered to hear him.

“Justice is not a mere norm, but a fighting challenge, a restless drive” is the key to fighting the bullies, the path to ending our own need/desire/willful blindness for an autocrat. Just as Iran doesn’t need the Ayatollah, democracy doesn’t need Trump! Just as Russia doesn’t need Putin, America doesn’t need Stephen Miller. Just as Hungary doesn’t need Orban, Israel doesn’t need Netanyahu. What each of these entities need is: JUSTICE. When one allows an autocratic asshole to be ‘in charge’, they bring with them sycophants and evil people who truly believe they alone know what is good, right and just-not even Jesus’ words and deeds are examples for these ‘good christian folk’ nor are the teachings of the Bible-where King David has to repent for his sins, where he listens to the words of women and follows their advice-have any impact on those ‘good jewish folk’. All they care about is power and how to leverage power for their own gain, not for justice, not caring for the poor, the needy, the stranger as Jesus did, as Moses taught-just caring about themselves and how much can I get FOR ME!

While this is a global issue, especially with what is happening in the Middle East, all of a sudden Trump is trying to get the glory of Israel’s actions, it begins with each of us, as individuals, as families, as communities, and then our circles keep expanding, it just doesn’t begin with finger pointing. We the People, I believe, are being called to account, called to look at our own practice of injustice, our own indifference to the injustices around us, our unwillingness to meet the “fighting challenge” of Justice, complacent about what is passing for “Justice” right now in our Courts, Supreme Court, Congress, homes and places of work and worship.

Rabbi Heschel speaks about “indifference to wonder” being the “root of sin” and “indifference to evil” being worse than the evil itself. We saw this in the 1930’s with the worlds attitude towards the Nazis and their “Nuremberg Laws”, their propaganda, their military buildup, etc. The indifference to the evil of Nazism, the indifference to suffering, the indifference to the plight of the people on the ship the St. Louis, the indifference of the Immigration Department, the indifference to anti-semitism in our government agencies, the indifference to ….made World War II a necessity, because we could not, would not allow the “water” to “pierce” the “rock” that is our soul, nor would we allow “the rock” to be “removed from its place” covering over justice, righteousness, mercy, truth, love. This is the task before We the People. “Tear down that Wall Mr, Gorbachev” is a call that needs to be changed to ‘Tear down the mountain covering your soul, Mr. Human Being’, ‘Remove the Rock covering Justice, Truth, Love, Mercy and Righteousness, Mr. Jew, Christian, Muslim, etc’. We can only do this when we admit to the ways in which we have been indifferent. Only when we see where we have missed the mark can we get ourselves back on track to BE HUMAN, to “fight” for “justice”, to live into the “restless drive” that a life of being just, seeking justice causes us to live in.

I know the “rock” and the “mountain” that covers our hearts, our souls, our goodness and our sense of justice. They wear away, I am living proof of this truth, and the light of truth, spirit, “justice”, love and righteousness along with compassion flow out of us. While I am not “nice”, I know that I am kind because I believe in and practice “justice, justice, you shall pursue” in my daily affairs. I am loud and bombastic about injustice, a trait that I learned from my father, z”l, and one that I pray I will never lose again. Because the “rock” and “mountain” caused not only my indifference to evil, they allowed me to practice evil! Hence, whenever I get close to those ways, whenever I am in the presence of indifference, the deception by another, I react loud and strong because I refuse to be seduced by the likes of Netanyahu, Trump, et al. I refuse to go along with ‘those real jews’ or ‘those good christian folk’ who deny the teachings of Jesus, of the Bible. They are kryptonite to me! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Justice, Righteousness are principles that define us as Human Beings - Year 4 Day 152

Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 152

“In the words of prophet Amos(5:24): “Let Justice roll down like mighty waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” A mighty stream, expressive of the vehemence of a never-ending, surging, fighting movement-as if obstacles had to be washed away for justice to be done.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.99)

Happy Father's Day to all Fathers! Happy post-No Kings Day to my fellow protesters, Happy Birthday to the American Army, and sending prayers to the families of the Minnesota State Representative, Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark along with prayers of healing to State Sen. John Hoffman, his wife, Yvette, and their families who were targeted by a killer-much because of the climate that has been established by Trump, by ICE, by Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, et al.

Many of us have heard the words of Amos before, whether we knew it came from him or not. Thinking about what we are going through today, here in America and around the globe, I am struck with how personal a statement this is. While it is easy to point our fingers at ‘those people’, don’t get me wrong Trump and his thugs need to be pointed out and voted out, it is much more difficult and important to look at ourselves. How are we, ‘the defenders of justice’ in need of the “mighty waters” of “Justice”? How are we, ‘the good people’ in need of “righteousness” cleaning us up with “mighty stream”?

I rail about what is happening here and abroad in the macro sense and I attempt to find the solutions for the issues we constantly confront in the micro, personal realm of We the People. Thinking about the words above, jumping into the “mighty waters” and the “mighty stream” allows one to be cleansed of the negative thoughts that creep in, the evil that worms its way into the goodness of being we all strive to achieve, the slyness of the Yetzer HaRa. We all need to be looking in the mirror and checking to see what “the man in the glass” is reflecting back to us, not just what we want to see, not just live in the self-deception of “our righteousness”. We all know many a do-gooder who loses their way because they believe they are fighting for “truth, justice and the American Way”, like Superman and forgetting that each of us has our own Kryptonite, each of us has our self-deceptions, our blindspots and our arrogance. We see this on display today just as the prophet Amos was confronted with it in his time. Amos, unlike the Republicans of today, confronted the injustice within him so he could confront the injustice before him. This is the challenge facing all of us today. Are going to just point our fingers at “them”, and not look at ourselves? Are we going to keep denying our own need to have the “obstacles” “washed away for justice to be done”? Herein lies the salvation and the trap of being human.

We the People are aware of the ways in which sociopaths, autocrats keep the chaos going so they can continue to be unjust and not righteous in a myriad of ways and areas. Trumping up a crisis in Los Angeles, sending the ICE ‘masked men’/goons, the National Guard and the Marines is Trump’s way of getting the Senate to fuck over We the People with his ‘big, beautiful bill’ that will mortgage the future of our children, medicaid to millions, seek to screw over the Seniors who need medicare and find a way to fuck those of us who collect Social Security-which is NOT AN ENTITLEMENT. We paid into it for years and we counted on the promise of a democracy to be fulfilled. However, as long as there is chaos ‘over there’, the belief and proof is that the autocrat can do anything ‘over here’. The only way to stop this raping of our country is for We the People to make sure we are not raping “justice” and “righteousness” in our daily affairs. Hence, the need to jump into the “mighty waters” and be carried down the “mighty stream”.

It is not as scary as one may think, it is about surrender to a higher truth, higher power, higher logic, higher consciousness. Rather than take shelter from the rain, use the powerboat to navigate the stream, I hear the prophet Amos and the descendant of the prophets, Rabbi Heschel, saying it is time to ride the waterfall near you so one can be pushed and pulled, one can have the inner arrogance and surety washed away. Our blindspots, our adjustment to conventional notions and mental cliches have to be cleansed from our being for us to be able to truly fulfill the dictate: “justice, justice, you shall pursue”(righteousness can be substituted for justice per the Hebrew)(Deut. 16:20). In the Bible we are told to be careful not to take bribes if we are a judge, not to allow our feelings of pity for the poor to influence our decisions as well as our wanting to cozy up to the rich for these ways will blind us to justice and righteousness, JOHN ROBERTS, Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, etc. It is only through the “never-ending surging, fighting movement” of these strong waters and streams that we can become clean enough to judge each case on its own merits and not with an eye towards our agenda, someone else’s agenda; judge them according to God’s agenda, according to what is right and just. This is the goal of human beings and it does take “mighty waters” and a “mighty stream” to begin the process and continue to visit both of these cleaners often because We the People become blind quickly. The Klan is alive and well in the MAGA movement, the National Socialist Party is thriving in MAGA, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is the banner of Trump, Lutnick, and the billionaire class of sycophants and knee-benders. OY, do we need these “mighty waters”, “mighty stream” right now!!

I have needed and been blessed to have these “mighty waters” and “mighty streams” wash over me, cleanse me, and set me on a path of learning, living and constant vigilance. Because I was subjected to both the “waters” and the “streams” at the same time, I was able to hear the words of Rabbi Heschel personally, I was able to find solutions to my issues in the personal language and teachings of the Bible, I have been able to ‘keep my side of the street’ pretty clean because I have continued to have these vehicles of Truth, Justice, Righteousness, Love wash over me daily. There are spots that they miss, of course, and as I continue my living into the principles more and more, I find new and subtler ways of letting and welcoming these waters to cleanse me and steer me on a more forward, more just, and more righteous path. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

"Groaning, afflicted by Fear, Frustration, and Despair" - Year 4 Day 151

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 151

“Mankind lies groaning, afflicted by fear, frustration, and despair. Perhaps it is the will  of God that among the Josephs of the future there will be many who have once been slaves and whose skin is dark. The great spiritual resources of the Negroes, their capacity for joy, their quiet nobility, their attachment to the Bible, their power of worship and enthusiasm, may prove a blessing to all mankind.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 99)

These words, spoken in January of 1963, about a seemingly different issue are as resounding today as they were then and We the People need to hear them with an open heart, an open mind and a determination that echoes Lincoln’s words “a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal… testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” We the People are in need of hearing the “groaning” of our souls, the same “groaning” as the descendants of Jacob living in Egypt groaned after the death of the Pharaoh and the new one was harsher! We the People are being called to hear the “groaning” of the person next to us without regard to race, color, religion, political affiliation nor sexual preferences-just the “groaning”! To hear the “groaning”, we have to hear and acknowledge the “fear, frustration, and despair” that is within us and in each and every human being. To hear the “groaning” we have to seek to alleviate the “fear, frustration, and despair” that is is the hearts old the Pharaohs of today, not encourage them to act out on these destructive impulses and feelings, as they are wont to do. The strike on Iran was done, seemingly, without consultation with Israel’s allies, and more death, destruction and cruelty will follow-be it by Iran, be it by Israel. Netanyahu is seeking, like Trump is doing in Los Angeles, to create new things for people to worry about so his power isn’t threatened, nor is what his real goal is not seen nor thwarted by We the People. Rather than hear their own “groaning”, deal with their own “fear, frustration, and despair”, people like Bibi and Donny, as well as their supporters, want to ‘make them go away’ by dominating a group of people whom they have targeted as ‘the enemy’. Rather than seek to honor this “new nation conceived in Liberty”, rather than live into “Proclaim Freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”, the easier softer way for demagogues, for autocrats, for people who seek power for its own sake, is to demonize someone else, to “accuse others of that which you are guilty of”, to engage in “ethnic cleansing” under the guise of ‘illegal immigrants’, or ‘those criminals who thrown a bottle and deserve a bullet for doing so’.

In the late 1950’s a Black Preacher named Martin Luther King Jr. stood up and out as not only a leader of the Civil Rights movement, not only a relentless voice for nonviolent resistance to evil, to immoral behaviors, he stood up and out as a witness, testifying to the passion, “power and enthusiasm” of worship, he stood up and out to testify to the beauty and importance of “attachment to the Bible”, and his capacity for joy was so contagious that millions of people, especially young people-both white and black- joined his movement and the Civil Rights period gained strength, the Freedom Riders were formed, this conference happened and the meeting of Rabbi Heschel and Rev King created a new bond of friendship, kinship, respect and love between Jew and  Christian, between white and black, between southerner and immigrant. Both of them knew of the power of Pharaoh literally and from the Bible, both experienced the prejudice that comes from people like Donny and Bibi, like Bull Connor and George Wallace because of their unwillingness to hear the “groaning” within themselves nor the “groaning” of people around them who they had pledged to help. S

We the People have so many opportunities to honor the words on the Liberty Bell, to honor the words of Lincoln, to honor the service of our soldiers in the many wars that we have fought to preserve our Union, to honor the outstanding elected officials who fought off the John Calhouns of the 19th Century and the German Bund of the 1930’s as well as the Insurrectionists of Jan. 6th 2021. We the People have to hear and deal with our “fear, frustration and despair” so we do not give into them. “Despair” in the Hassidic movement of the early 19th Century was considered the worst ‘sin’, because when one cannot experience joy, when one is so stuck in the quicksand of “despair”, our eyesight becomes so out of focus that we just continue to sink further and further in hopelessness and despair-like the descendants of Jacob did in Egypt. We the People can and must deal with our fears of ‘the bully’, our “frustration” that freedom isn’t happening fast enough, and never allow ourselves to sink into “despair”.

We the People have to join with and recognize the “Joseph” whom may be Black, Brown, Muslim, Jew, Christian. It is not a parochial issue. Israelis need to do this as much as we Americans do and until we are willing to become color-blind, religion-blind, and care more about the freedom of another, care more about following the Bible’s admonitions of caring for the powerless and voiceless, of not using positions of authority to enrich ourselves, not perverting justice, not stealing from the poor, of caring even for our enemies well-being, we will continue to ignore our own “groaning” and that of another human being and eventually wake up like the descendants of Jacob did in Egypt-enslaved by a Pharaoh “did not know Joseph” so there was no need to honor the descendants of the person who saved Egypt. Just as there is no need to honor the descendants of the people who were brought here against their will to be slaves, or honor the hard work of the immigrants from Latin America who pick our fruit, work our fields, do the jobs ‘real Americans’ refuse to do-be they here legally or not, Donny, et al see no need to honor the very Constitution they swore to uphold, Bibi sees no need to honor the Declaration Of Independence of Israel nor to honor the Judicial System, he believes in perversion of Justice against the dictates of “Justice, Justice (aka Righteousness, Righteousness) you shall pursue”.

I see the uprising of We the People in the Indivisible group, in the bond between Chris Murphy and Cory Booker, Rabbi Sharon Brous and Bishop William Barber, in the numerous protests. I see the fear of Donny and Bibi towards these protests because they do not want We the People to come together just as George Wallace and Dick Nixon didn’t for fear of losing their ‘grip’ on their power. I fought in the 60’s against the war and for Civil Rights, I lost my way and succumbed to the lies of power and money, of anger and despair, so these words resonate within me and I have healed the “fear, frustration and despair within me and help and helped another(s) do the same. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

What will it take for We the People to end the "age of moral mediocrity" once and for all? Year 4 Day 150

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 150

“History has made us all neighbors. The age of moral mediocrity and complacency has run out. This is a time for radical commitment, for radical action.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 99)

If only these words had taken hold back in January of 1963! If only We the People would have demanded this way of being from our elected officials in any time since then, maybe we would not be where we are today. The words of prophets, great teachers, thinkers, of bold ideas don’t die with the people originating them, they have a life of their own and when they carry on, we know their veracity, their validity and they come from a source much greater than greed, power-seeking, injustice-they come from  love, holiness, elevated thinking and living. Yet, even knowing this, knowing the words of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “dream” that people will be judged on the content of their character not the color of their skin are from God, We the People still ignore them, trample them and/or allow another to trample them.

In the Bible, Pharaoh is asked: “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before God”(Ex.10:3) by Moses and then his own courtiers, advisors, ask: “How long will this man be a snare for us…Do you not know that Egypt is destroyed?” (Ex. 10:7). We the People need to read and reread what happened, the plagues brought about because Pharaoh, the regular citizens of Egypt refused to realize the destruction that was happening, just as many of us refuse to today!! Unfortunately, “the age of moral mediocrity and complacency has” NOT “run out”. It is alive and well, seemingly thriving and growing if one watches FOX NOT-NEWS, if one listens to the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Israel, the Presidents of Russia, Hungary, India, etc. What is so unbelievable to people of faith-not the fakes and charlatans, not the idolators and PAGANS, is we know where this story ends, we know that Egypt is indeed lost, we know the Greek, the Roman, the Assyrian empires all fell because of “moral mediocrity”, hell, the Rabbis teach that both Temples were destroyed because of “moral mediocrity and complacency”, because the poor were used and abused, because there was senseless hatred amongst the people, because the stranger became unwelcome, etc. Sound familiar America? Sound familiar Israel where the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible is studied in every school??

How have we fallen so far in 60 years? How have the angry white men and passive white women taken over the country and brought back a new kind of “Jim Crow” which they will use to institute the old “Jim Crow” laws against people of color, Jews, Muslims, anyone ‘not like them’, anyone who is not a ‘good christian nationalist folk’. These ‘good christian folk’ like Vance and Trump, Bondi and Cain-White are at odds with the Pope who is calling for the words and deeds of Jesus to be their guide! They are at odds with the words of the Prophets, of the Torah, of the very words on the Liberty Bell! Yet, some of We the People are still worshiping them, reveling in the “moral mediocrity and complacency” that has taken hold here and in Israel. As we say, WTF?? We have reached this bottom once again, there are those of We the People who believe that this bottom is the warm blanket they use to wrap themselves in so they are safe, not realizing that America is already lost. The dream, the goals laid out in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the ways of being a beacon, the promise of Lady Liberty, the words “give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are dying, being kept on life-support by a few rather than the many. We are told “don’t run after the majority to do evil” so how much the more so should we not run after the minority to do evil? Yet, following Trump, Musk, Bibi, Smotrich, seems like a good thing to many people-enough to keep electing them even though they are telling us their plans and their cruelty. Again, WTF????

We the People have to make this moment, this “time for a radical commitment, for radical change”. We the People are being called upon to learn from our earlier mistakes, to do a proper T’Shuvah for the errors of our ancestors, to set a new course of action-one that takes seriously the prophets call, Moses’ call to: “do justly, love mercy, walk in the ways of God”. Not the god of vengeance, the god of killing everyone, because these verses are the ones we are to DISOBEY, as Rabbi Harold Shulweis, z”l, teaches in his book, “Conscience: The Duty to Obey and The Duty to Disobey(2008), rather walk in the ways of God who calls for us to “LOVE the stranger” 36 times in the first 5 Books of the Bible , to “proclaim FREEDOM…to ALL the inhabitants” in the land, to care for the poor, the needy, to redeem the captives, to know that our neighbor is to be loved like we love ourselves, etc. This is the God of the Bible, this is the thrust of what we are to do and what we are to obey. I say this in the face of much pushback from people like Jonathan Greenblatt who has decided the Anti-Defamation League can defame people who protest what Israel is doing in both Gaza and the West Bank, I say this because if doing the next right thing was not of utmost importance to God, to the humans who copied the Bible, who included Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs in the Bible, who did not take out these ways of living together in harmony, why would we be reading them each and every week? The challenge for We the People is to make a “radical commitment” to live in the ways of Godliness, as Rabbi Shulweis taught over and over again. The challenge of We the People is to make the “radical change” of living ethically, morally and spiritually rather than self-seeking, narcissistic, and with mendacity. I pray we are up to this challenge, otherwise, the words spoken to the Pharaoh will, once again, come true in our lifetime!

I am so saddened by what is happening, listening to Pam Bondi, RFK Jr. Trump, Miller, Holman, I am left to wonder what happened to the “country I love”? It is not really that strange to me because I lived a grifter’s life, I lived a drunk’s life, I was a criminal, and I knew better, I allowed “moral mediocrity” to make it okay to do things that were morally and ethically wrong, that were spiritual bastardizations of the principles I was taught. This is what my recovery has been all about, I continue to rail against the injustices being wrought in the world and I continue to ask We the People to change because the assholes like Trump, Bibi, Miller, derive their power from We the People and it is incumbent for We the People to take the power away from people who do not act in the best interests of We the People, justly, lovingly, kindly, compassionately, and truthfully. This is what I am recovering; integrity, wholeness, my purpose, my passion, my voice and my message. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Violence, Desecration, Arrogance, Blasphemy - the ways of the Fascist, the Autocrat, - Year 4 Day 149

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 149

“An act of violence is an act of desecration. To be arrogant toward man is to be blasphemous toward God.” ( Insecurity of Freedom pg. 98/99)

I wonder each and every day what makes someone like a Paula Cain-White, a Itamar Ben G’Vir, a Bin Laden, when we are reading the same texts and worshiping the same God, Allah, Jesus, whatever name one wants to use for the Ineffable One. Stephen Miller’s beliefs and tactics would have made it impossible for his grandparents to come to America! Trump’s grandfather was a PIMP, I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree:). The words above cause me, and hopefully you, to shake with a determination to end the desecration of God’s Name by these idolators and charlatans who wrap themselves in the Bible, who claim to be the ‘holy rollers’ and ‘inheritors’ of the different spiritual traditions when they are just grifting PAGANS! I like using the word Pagan to describe them because Pagans have no real spiritual corpus, no congruent spiritual philosophy only one that suits them as they make their shit up, as they bastardize the holiness of our rich spiritual traditions from Judaism to Buddhism and everything in between.

“An act of violence is an act of desecration” describes what is going on in both America and Israel, Russia and Gaza, where indiscriminate acts of violence are being perpetrated ‘in the name of the people’, ‘for the good of the country’ when in reality the ‘holy people’, the ‘good jews, christians, muslims’ are perpetrating them for their own power and greed. Trump’s ICE raids are meant to stir up protests and then, somehow miraculously, he predicts there will be violence-not that he and his MAGA’s, who believe George Floyd died from a tumor, would instigate the violence posing as protestors! That is as ridiculous as thinking that Jan. 6th 2021 was an insurrection done by supporters of Trump’s BIG LIE or that Mike Pence wasn’t threatened by these rioters with hanging and/or that the Capital Police were not attacked and injured-how rIdiculous of anyone to believe those patented untruths that those “libtartds” are spreading!

The greatest “act of violence” may be the assault that Trump and his MAGA THUGS, his MAGA PAGANS on TRUTH. In Judaism we say “Adonai Emet”, “God is Truth”. Ergo, any “act of violence” on the TRUTH is and “act of violence” towards God as well as towards humanity. Isn’t it time for We the People to stand up for and with TRUTH? Isn’t it time for people who are not PAGANS, who are not necessarily ‘religious’ in the way this word has come to be defined and who would want to be considered ‘religious’ according the Osteen who wants your money or Smotrich who wants you to heel under his orders? Rather I am speaking the the “religious” people who follow a moral code, imperfectly as it/they may be, the “religious” people who believe in decency, who act in loving ways towards another human being, who care for the poor and the needy, who welcome and love the stranger, who believe that our goal is to “love your neighbor as you” and want to “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all it’s inhabitants therein”. In other words, I am calling out to everyday people who want to improve their daily lives, live in harmony with what they know to be true and right and who will not be blinded by the lies and the bribes of Populism, of MAGA, of Autocracy, of Fascism. We the People I am speaking to can and must stand with TRUTH, stand with a “power greater than ourselves”, find, live, and stand with communities that share our values of morality and decency, reverence and awe, wonder and radical amazement. We the People are being called to end this “act of violence” by putting the perpetrators in jail, by taking the power away from the liars and deceivers and throwing out the weak, scared, mean-spirited people in Congress like Mike Johnson, Jim Jordan, et al who are willing to say any lie to get elected, willing to fuck over their very constituents to please ‘big daddy Trump’, and willing to end democracy for their greed and grift. Isn’t it time for We the People to protect and preserve, to defend and nurture our Constitution, our Freedoms, the Promise of what America can be?

Is there anyone more arrogant that Netanyahu, Trump, and the cast of characters that have aligned with? Listening to Hegseth, RFK Jr., makes one want to PUKE! These two and the rest of the ‘cabinet’ as well as Miller, Holman, Patel, etc are such ‘good christian/jewish folk’ that they continue “to be blasphemous toward God”. Their arrogance is on constant display and, unfortunately, is celebrated by the brain-dead, spiritually bankrupt, spiritually ill people who follow them and keep electing them. Their brand of fascism is so seductive, their hatred of anyone ‘not like me’ is so persuasive to a certain group of people who feel ‘left out’, who just want to ‘stick it to the libs’, who have been kept down by ‘those people’ in the stories they tell themselves that their core sycophants will never leave them. Of course these are the very people who are getting it up the ass by Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ and are being screwed over by Bibi’s deals with Qatar and his graft and grift. We the People are being called to speak TRUTH TO POWER, we are being called to HEAL THE SPIRITUAL MALADY of our fellow human beings, we are being called to HONOR GOD’S NAME and FOLLOW GOD’S WAYS so we can END the blasphemy towards humanity and God. This is the call for us today and every day, this is what the NO KINGS protests are all about, restoring the Glory to God’s Name and to God instead of glorifying the PAGANS, instead of glorifying the violence and arrogance of Trump and MAGA.

“It is not our obligation to finish the work nor are we free to walk away from it” as I interpret Rabbi Tarfon in Pirke Avot 2:16. I know the desecration and blasphemy that I have wrought when I was/am arrogant and/or violent. I also know how often my actions and ways have been called “arrogant and violent” when they were my way of standing for and with TRUTH, when they are my way of seeking clarity as to what is TRUTH and what is either my self-deception or the deception by another(s). I am well-aware of my tendency to go from 0-60 in 2 seconds when I am confronted with mendacity, with evil, with lies, I know it stems from my years of living in these realms and how much respect I have for the pull of these ways, just as I have the knowing that the people still believing the BIG LIES of Trump and MAGA, are spiritually ill as I was when I was engaging in the same types of behaviors. I also know the power of We the People, of community to heal the wounded and welcome the stranger as I have had this experience as well, hence my dedication to paying my good fortune forward, living in gratitude and obligation. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Fear of God, hurt and humiliate a human being(s)? Year 4 Day 148

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 148

“The concern for the Negro must be an explicit tenet of our creeds. He who offends a Negro, whether as a landowner or employer, whenever as a waiter or salesgirl, is guilty of offending the majesty of God. No minister or layman has a right to question the principle that reverence for God is shown in reverence for man, that the fear we must feel lest we hurt or humiliate a human being be as unconditional as fear of God.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.98)

The events that are unfolding in America with Trump focusing our attention on Los Angeles in a made-up false narrative so he can stop the heat from his fall-out with Elon Musk, so he can stop the negativity around his ‘big, beautiful bill’, and continue to steal and grift, cheat and lie, while he works hard, as did P.T. Barnum, to keep our attention off his mendacity, his indifference, his evil doings is his ‘strength’ and his ‘super-power’. For decades Trump has focused the Press on his bullshit and his double-dealings and they lapped it up, for the past decade We the People are paying the price for this ridiculous behavior by the tabloid press including, of course, Fox UN-News. Than he has the backing of “ministers and laymen” is a blot on all of us. That the same people who go to church and synagogue, mosque and temples supported, and still support these horrific ways of being, antithetical to every spiritual principle of every spiritual discipline is beyond understanding for me. “That the fear we must feel lest we hurt or humiliate a human being be as unconditional as fear of God” is not just Rabbi Heschel’s thoughts, it is the thoughts of Moses, of the Hebrew Bible, of Jesus, of the Gospels, of Mohammed. The issue is, of course, what do we do when the “minister or layman” bastardize the texts and the teachings for their own greed and grift, for their own power and fame? A correlating issue is what do we do when these same “minister or layman” promote “hurt or humiliate a human being” as being done in God’s name!?!

That we are, once again, going through a time when to “hurt and humiliate a human being” is seen as a ‘good thing’, a ‘patriotic duty’, a ‘godly mission’ is horrifying to many of We the People. That it is not horrifying to all of We the People is even more tragic. Yesterday I quoted from Proverbs about giving food and water to our enemy, how can these ‘good christian, jewish, muslim, etc folk’ twist the minds and souls of people to come around to seeing Jesus as a dictator, as an authoritarian? How can they see God and the Hebrew Bible as “vindictive and vengeful”? Because they want the power and prestige, the wealth and fame that comes with ‘being #1’, they want to control and become the modern day’s Pharaoh and his Courtiers, they believe they have the right to rule because of their skin color, their christianity, their superior intellect, their capabilities to do evil at every turn without a care. These Pagans have no “fear of God” because they have violated every one of the 10 Commandments, beginning with the 1st-“thou shalt not have any other gods before me”, by making themselves into gods. Just as the cause of the flood can be traced to “men of renown” taking girls and having sex with them whenever they felt like it, that the flood was caused by the “Hamas”, in Hebrew meaning, “violence”, the plague we are experiencing in America and in Israel can be traced to our spiritual malady, our violating what we know to be true in favor of “retribution”, in favor of “hurt and humiliate a human being”. This is the tragedy we are facing, the plague being mendacity, violating basic spiritual principles, making god over in our image.

We the People must stand up against the Spiritual Rape of human beings, the Spiritual Rape of democratic values, the Spiritual Rape of freedom. Like Pharaoh in the Bible, like the “money-changers in the Temple”, the “minister or layman” that supports what is being done by Trump, Miller, et al, by Netanyahu, Smotrich, Ben G’Vir, et al, has decided that they(either these charlatans or the people themselves) are god! We the People have to bring back “that old time religion”, the one of Moses and David, the Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs, the Gospels, etc. We the People are being called to order, called to service, called to stand for and with God, to stand for and with those who these “minister or layman” continue to “hurt and humiliate”. We the People have the wherewithal to stop the Spiritual Rapes delineated above-full stop. We the People have the wisdom to know the truth of what the Gospels say, what Moses taught, what the Prophets tried to lead us to: FREEDOM and SERVICE to something greater than ourselves. As Hillel says: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me”-which I understand as a call to know oneself and stand for the principles of decency, kindness, justice, mercy, and love- he goes on to say: “If I am only for myself, what am I”-before we had diagnosis of sociopathy, narcissism, we had Hillel teaching us that I am not human if I don’t care for another human being, if I allow people to be “hurt and humiliate”, I am no better than the people of Judea who ‘caused’ the destruction of the 2nd Temple because of senseless hatred. We the People can and must demand of our elected officials that they stop their “senseless hatred” , their “hurt and humiliate” of people, ‘not like them’ in color, socio-economic status, etc and stop being BOUGHT by the PAGANS of “populism”.

There can be no “fear(awe) of God” when Paganism is allowed to rule. There can be no “fear(awe) of God” when mendacity is the name of the game. I know this because I lived a mendacious life for 20 years. I was afraid to ‘do it right’ because I was afraid of failing, I was afraid to “turn my will over to God” because I had been abandoned by my father’s death. Instead, I turned to the criminal life, the life of ‘getting mine’. It is a terribly hurtful life to those whom I was in contact with. I hurt family, friends, the stranger and everyone in between because I became the embodiment of mendacity, of “being only for myself”. This knowledge still pains me some 38 years after beginning my return, my T’Shuvah. I know Trump, I know Miller, I know Vought, I know Clarence Thomas, I know John Roberts, I know Jared Kushner, because I acted like them when I was “out there” and I also know they, like me, know better and are choosing to be Spiritual Rapists and associate with people like MBS and other Pharaoh-types so they can form their own brotherhood. That We the People are going along with and validating their cruelty, their ‘sinfulness’ is what amazes me. I pray for all of us to have a Spiritual Awakening like I had in a jail cell in 1986 and follow it up with study, spiritual counseling and a commitment to spiritual growth as well as living a life of T’Shuvah, imperfections that get corrected when we become aware. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Upholding the Majesty of God or "Offending the Majesty of God" - Year 4 Day 147

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 147

“The concern for the Negro must be an explicit tenet of our creeds. He who offends a Negro, whether as a landowner or employer, whenever as a waiter or salesgirl, is guilty of offending the majesty of God. No minister or layman has a right to question the principle that reverence for God is shown in reverence for man, that the fear must feel lest we hurt or humiliate a human being be as unconditional as fear of God.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.98)

Remembering these words were written in January of 1963, at a time of unrest and concern about the “Negro situation” both for the Pharaohs who wanted to ‘keep blacks down’ and the people who believed in freedom for all, are a demand for us living in 2025! We are witnessing the destruction of Freedom of Assembly, the destruction of Freedom of the Press, the destruction of Due Process, the destruction of the Constitutional safeguards, the destruction of the Rule of Law, and, if the “christian nationalists” have their way, the destruction of Freedom of Religion! The concern for the Immigrant, legal or not, the concern for the people who disagree with the PAGAN, GRIFTER in the White House, is no longer “an explicit tenet of our creeds” according to Paula Cain-White, John Hagee,  Joel Osteen and the rest of the PAGANS who have taken up residence in this administration. Joni Ernst’s “Jesus Christ is my personal savior” is not the Jesus found in the Gospels, not the Jesus as Pope Frances and now Pope Leo XIV.  These ‘holy rollers’, these ‘good christian folk’, these ‘serious jews’, are “offending the majesty of God” on an hourly basis, their clerical idolators support them and We the People must stand up louder and stronger, if we are to live into the wisdom, the spirit, and the demand of the words above. These demands, these calls to action are not Rabbi Heschel’s, they are the calls and demands of the Bible, of the Torah, of the wisdom acquired throughout our history and reflect the lessons learned. “In a place where there are no humans, be human” is a teaching from Rabbi Hillel, (Avot 2:5) where he also says “a brute is not sin-fearing nor an ignorant person pious”. So, FOX NOT-NEWS, how do you explain your supposed ‘good christian values’ platform? So, Trump, Vance, Vought, how do validate your ‘good christian actions’? So, Lutnick, Wytkoff, how are you validating your ‘love of judaism’? All of it is LIES, they engage Mendacity at it’s highest levels. Yet, We the People moan, cry and DO NOTHING! Or We the People go along with them, are indifferent to their shenanigans and/or stay willfully blind! OY VEY! We have seen this movie over and over again and we refuse to believe our eyes, we refuse to understand the implications of these behaviors and we continue to engage in “offending the majesty of God” by our actions and inactions. WAKE UP PEOPLE!

Watching National Guardsman in Los Angeles reminded me of Kent State, Ohio State in 1970 and other college Campus’ when they were called out to ‘quell the riotous students’ who had the temerity to stand up against the Vietnam War! The Protestors who burned a car, who threw bottles at Police are WRONG- Full Stop. Blocking the Freeway, not so much as a peaceful protest, remember the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama? Blocking traffic is not a violent protest, it is as non-violent as one can get and still make a point, Mayor Karen Bass! Seeing how the Police kept backing the people up into a corner and engendered the responses of bottle throwing, etc is another way of “offending the majesty of God”. Not seeing the immigrants as human beings, as deserving of dignity and common courtesy, not seeing people as infinitely worthy and honor their humanness, is another way of “offending the majesty of God”, and we continue to find new and more despicable ways of “offending the majesty of God” in the ways we treat our fellow human beings and the ways Trump, Cuomo, Musk, Vought, Miller, Holman, Bannon denigrate real victims by claiming they are the ones suffering! Rather than live with “reverence for God” by showing “reverence for man” we are witnessing, ONCE AGAIN, the desecration of God’s name, the rejection of God’s presence by these “good christian, good jewish folk” by their disrespect and disregard of human beings that are not ‘like them’, meaning rich white men and/or their wives.

We the People are being called again and again to live the “tenets of our creeds” instead of the tenets of idolatry, of PAGANISM. We the People are needed to stand up and stand with the downtrodden as the Bible reminds us. How important is reverence for God? It is so important that the Bible tells us to return our enemy’s lost ox or donkey(Ex 23:4-5), “if you enemy is hungry, give him food to eat and if thirsty, give him water to drink”(Proverbs 25:21), and “Love your neighbor like you”(Lev. 19:18). Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible are we told to hate our enemies, not even Amalek! Yet, We the People are being bombarded with Hate Messages from the government, from the PAGAN PRIESTS, MINISTERS, IMAMS, and RABBIS who are the lackeys for autocrats and other Freedom Deniers. Rather than “proclaim Freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”(Lev: 25:10), We the People are witnessing Proclaim slavery throughout the land and to all the inhabitants I don’t like says MAGA! We the People need to march and protest this Shabbat at the NO KINGS PROTEST, we need to constantly call Congress and speak out against the ‘big beautiful bill’ that is “offending the majesty of God” and showing Irreverence for God and human beings. We the People are being called upon to fight like hell to protect the Freedom that our fathers, grandfathers, ancestors “gave their last full measure” to protect and defend. Rather than having a draft-dodger like Trump desecrate the memory of our fallen soldiers and the ones who have died since they served, rather than have Pete Hegseth deny the truth of the service that women, people of color, Jews have contributed, We the People have to stand up and say ENOUGH! We need a NO MORE LIES protest as well as a NO KINGS protest!

I am worked up about the happenings and I have hope after watching Good Night and Good Luck” the play starring George Clooney. Being reminded that We the People have been here before and returned to our basic goodness of being gives me hope, of course, the Republican Senate had some balls against McCarthy which this one seems to not have. Yet, I believe “we shall overcome someday”, I am praying that day is soon. I am enraged that Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, defames people who protest against Israel’s action in the Gaza War as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations! What a sellout, he decided to suck up to the Republicans?!? I cannot support them anymore. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

How do you deal with Injustice? Year 4 Day 146

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 146

“What we need is the involvement of every one of us as individuals. What we need is restlessness, a constant awareness of the monstrosity of injustice.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 98)

I have been thinking about what keeps me writing this blog, what We the People are getting from it and I know it strengthens my resolve to be more human, more humane in my daily living. I pray it does this for you, the reader and I hope these daily readings inspire you to living your best life as well as find more of Rabbi Heschel’s writings or the writings of anyone who moves you to mature, nurture and grow your spiritual life.

Today’s quote is one that speaks to all of us in our core. We are told in the Bible that “bribes blind the eyes of the just”, that we should appoint people as judges who are wise in knowledge and wise in spiritual wisdom, in other words, people who will not sell their souls for a piece of gold. People who will not allow themselves to dishonor the call to “Justice, Justice, Justice (righteousness can be substituted here) you will pursue. This acknowledges that we will never be able to achieve complete justice, we will never be able to accomplish the perfect justice of the Ineffable One, yet we have to be in pursuit of it and, this will never happen if we have whores and bribe takers as our judges, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts!!

The words above demand of us to get involved. We the People have to stop wringing our hands and moaning about what is and follow the dictate above: “what we need is the involvement of every one as individuals.” This is not a time for the faint-hearted, this is not a time to think that someone else will save you, this is not a time for believing that the Redeemer will come, we have tried these different modalities throughout history only to find out it takes US to make a difference, it takes US to revolt and rebel to and for the cause of Justice. Our Declaration of Independence says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Each and every person is responsible for these words, not just the people who wrote them, each and every one of us is called upon to live into these words, these ideas, these principles and, as we can see with our own eyes Trumpism is NOT, the “retribution” tour of Miller, Bannon, Trump, Vought is NOT living these principles, Bondi, Patel, RFK Jr., Lutnick, Wytkoff are NOT caring about justice nor righteousness, just what lines their pockets and keeps the “don” happy. Rather than speak truth to power, they speak lies to the public so they can keep power! It is very apparent that under these PAGANS, under this TREASONOUS regime, this “Form of Government” has become “destructive of these ends”!

We the People need to be more restless, not less. “Restlessness” has to become our way of being rather than apathy, rather than the root of negativity; Indifference. Each and every one of US has to let go of our not wanting to ‘rock the boat’, not wanting to get involved, deceiving ourselves with “it is those illegals” and not the good folk, etc. Each and every one of US has to look in the mirror and ask ourselves what religion, what spiritual tradition promotes the hatred, the brutality, the injustice of treating the stranger like an enemy? What have We the People become that we allow “the monstrosity of injustice” to be perpetrated in our name, in the name of ‘freedom’, in the name of democracy? Give me a break.

The words above apply to America, to Israel, to countries and people across the globe. Each and every human being is commanded: “Justice, Justice, you shall pursue”, each and every individual receives this as an individual, it is not in the plural form. Each and every one of us is reminded that without justice, we will not live and inherit the land. While our justice system has never been perfect, it has been abused and prostituted by the Roberts Court for the past 20 years! Staying silent, going along to get along, fearing the retribution of Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Trump, Miller, is not the way of the spiritual life. We the People have Abraham, Moses, the Daughters of Zelophad, King David, Tamar, Abigail, Deborah, Miriam, Nathan, Elijah, and the rest of the Prophets as our examples of people who did not, would not abide by the “the monstrosity of injustice”. We have our founding fathers, for all of their imperfections, and they had plenty, writing the Declaration and the Constitution enshrining justice, and the amendments that have followed which have enshrined justice and equality even more-women’s right to vote, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, etc. We the People know the power of “restlessness” and the good that comes from it. WE CANNOT STOP NOW! It doesn’t matter who is in charge, every leader has to be responsible to We the People, Bondi, Patel, Miller, Trump, Vought, all our responsible to us-not the other way around, Congress serves at our pleasure and when they are not upholding and defending the words of the Declaration, the laws of the Constitution, We the People have the right and the duty to “to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”  The time is at hand and We the People are being called-will we answer?

I have railed against the “monstrosity of injustice” since I was a child because my father did and both my grandfathers did. I lost my way for 20 years and, even then, I was aggravated when I saw injustice happening. Since my spiritual awakening, lies, deceptions, injustices drive me CRAZY and, sometimes inappropriately, I cannot hold it in. I have fought for the dignity of human beings for all this time, with the people themselves who deny their inherent dignity and worth and with those who cannot see the reflection of the divine in themselves nor in another. I haven’t won popularity contests and, in the end, it does not matter because I am able to live with myself, I am able to live life with openness and love. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

How are you honoring the "grain of prophet" within you? Year 4 Day 145

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 145

“Let there be a grain of prophet in every man! Our concern must be expressed not only symbolically, but literally; not only public, but also privately; not only occasionally, but regularly.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 98)

The more I read and immerse myself in these teachings, thoughts, demands, of Rabbi Heschel, the more I am able to appreciate the “Insecurity of Freedom”. As we witness the ‘chain saw’ that Musk took to our way of life and the wrecking ball that Vought and Trump are taking to the Constitution, this “insecurity” looms larger and larger, hence the power, wisdom and call to action of the words quoted above. We are all descendants of the Prophets just as we are descendants of Adam, Eve, Abraham, Sarah, Issac, Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel and Leah. Ergo, we all have “a grain of the prophet” in us, we all have the words of the prophets, the words of Moses, the words of Jesus “in our hearts and our mouths”, as Deuteronomy teaches us. We all have within us the “fire in the belly” of Jeremiah, the anger of Amos at seeing what is being desecrated, the knowing of Jonah that each of us, no matter what our crimes have been, can and will be forgiven if we are sincere in doing T’Shuvah. We all know the words of Isaiah rebuking the Priests who are to serve God and the People and in reality are serving themselves and those in power because they are churning like bile in our throats. Granted, many people have so divorced themselves from the truth of their souls, their intuitive mind and become idolators at the altar of the rational mind, yet even those people have within them “a grain of the prophet” that is lying dormant and needs to awoken.

I believe this is the reason for the second sentence above. It is the job and the joy of We the People to awaken the “grain of the prophet” in people who are lost and spiritually ill. That they have lost their moral compass’ and their spiritual arteries are clogged with so many lies and deceptions is a call for compassion. There is no greater compassion than waking a human being up to the call from God, to the call of their souls, to teaching them how to hear, listen and understand the ways of their inner life. This mitzvah may be the highest one, it is certainly like the highest rung of Tzedakah according to Maimonidies where you teach someone a trade, give them a job so they don’t have to take charity, rather they will add to the charity fund. So too with awakening someone to the call of their souls, to the truth of their inner life and an awareness of their deceptions and lies they are telling themselves, it is, in my opinion, the greatest gift we can give and receive because it leads to our reconnecting with the Ineffable One and the spirit of the universe, it causes us to rise up to our higher consciousness.

Today is D-Day, 81 years ago, the Allies stormed Normandy Beach with 4414 of them dying, 2500 of them U.S servicemen. Because FDR expressed his concern about Hitler “literally”, the Nazis lost the war. Because FDR did not allow the lies and deceptions of Charles Lindbergh, Father Coughlin, Henry Ford to sway his concern and commitment to the call of Jesus to do whatever he could to relieve suffering and God knows the people of Europe were suffering. While he wasn’t perfect at this, as evidenced by turning away the St. Louis, he gave the go-ahead for the D-Day invasion so the Allies could begin to truly ‘break the back’ of the Nazi war machine. His “concern” was expressed “literally” and he did this “publicly” as well as “privately”, and he spoke of these concerns “regularly”. The same is true of MLK, of Samuel and John Adams, of George Washington, of Alexander Hamilton, of Abraham Lincoln, of John F. Kennedy, and so many more. While none of these people are saints, they were not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, they show us how to rise above the mendacity and self-deception that enters our inner life, that influences our rational mind, so we can reach our intuitive mind, our higher consciousness. Our gratitude for their sacrifices can only be expressed by our guarding of the Freedom they died and fought for.

Just as January of 1963 called for these words and actions to be spoken and done, so too does this moment and hour. We the People have to get over our fears of speaking truth to power, we have to rise above our self-interests and engage the “grain of prophet” that is within us. We the People are being called to march and protest the ‘installation of Trump as king’, We the People are being called to stand up to the bastardization of Justice, the bribing of the wise, the bullying of our justice system, the installation of PAGANISM rather than Democracy, the practice of IDOLATRY rather than FREEDOM OF RELIGION. It is high time for We the People to call up our inner Malachi, our inner Ezekiel, our inner Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Jonah, Amos, Micah, and especially Nathan who spoke truth to King David and rebuked him harshly and lived! Listening to Rabbi Sharon Brous on a TV interview last night one’s “grain of prophet” as given ample ammunition to awaken, she was brilliant, passionate, and spoke truth. This is the  examples we have in front of us, these are the ways We the People are called to live. Our outrage at the treatment of the stranger has to be regularly expressed and demonstrated, our anger at the lies and breakdown of our democratic ways have to be expressed “publicly and privately”, we can no longer be afraid to speak out and up. Our very existence as we know it is at stake, what we leave to our children and grandchildren is at stake, the legacy we leave behind is at stake. Most of all, the “insecurity of freedom” is in our hands to either preserve freedom or allow it to be swallowed up by the mendacity and deceptions of evil!

I know the “fire in the belly” of Jeremiah, I know the anger of Amos at injustice, I also know the strong pull of selfish desires, of retribution that is on display as a triumph by Trump and his thugs. Being a person who wanted ‘retribution’ because of my father’s early death, I am ashamed of my actions and embarrassed by my inability to have the concern voice, my soul’s knowing voice be louder than the ‘retribution’ voice. In my recovery, I have kept the anger I had before and I have found the “grain of prophet” that lives within me and helped many others do the same. It is joyous for me to show my concern “publicly”, “privately”, “literally” and “regularly”. This way of being for me is usually messy and unruly, blunt and not “nice”, always spoken from my soul and in truthfulness, showing kindness, compassion and love. This is how I love the stranger within me, the one outside of me and love all humanity. It is how I live my T’Shuvah, my recovery, out loud and very loudly. Knowing the fragility of freedom, I do all I can to preserve it each and every day.  God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

How often do you take an accounting of your soul to ensure you are heading true north? Year 4 Day 144

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 144

“Daily we should take account and ask: What have I done today to alleviate the anguish, to mitigate the evil, to prevent humiliation? Let there be a prophet in every man!” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 98)

I keep wondering how We the People allowed ourselves to fall back into self-serving and self-centeredness, the eye disease of racism and the curse of fear of another/different human being. We the People, at least a majority, came together in the 60’s and 70’s to bring about Civil Rights, the End of the Vietnam War, we toppled one of the best domestic Presidents, LBJ, because of the War in Vietnam and look where we are today. We the People, at least the majority that brought about Social Security, an end to the Depression(albeit through WWII), defeated fascism in Europe and here at home, have allowed the Nixon-Gingrich-Tea Party-MAGA/Trump MINORITY to revel in the “anguish, evil and humiliation” they bring about daily. WTF?? And where are Jeffries and Schumer? Who is going to be the Moses, Jesus to lead us out of the slavery We the People have willingly and without hesitation walked into? The parallels with the Exodus story are just too much, the harsh labor Black people, Brown people, have suffered through in this country is a foreshadow of what is to come because We the People allowed misogyny, prejudice, apathy, indifference, self-deception to rule us rather than “take account” and stand up for what is good, what is healing, what is uplifting, what is soothing.

Many people believe I am being political in my writings and I AM NOT! Not in the usual way, at least. I am being as political as the prophets are, as God is, as the great philosophers and thinkers are because the Bible tells us how to deal with one another. It teaches us to rebuke our neighbors when they are missing the mark and for us to be rebuked when we are missing the mark which expresses the faith the Bible has in humanity, that we will hear and correct our errant ways, that we will be remorseful for the harms we cause and we will experience one of the greatest attributes of being human, empathy. The Bible believes and teaches us, holds us accountable for our errors, not for punishment rather for our improvement, the alleviation of “the anguish” we have caused another and God by our missing the mark, and our plan “to mitigate the evil” our errors have brought about. “Evil” is not all-encompassing, it is not forever, and to not acknowledge the “evil” we bring about in the world is to deny the force of our actions, just as we bring goodness and holiness into the world, or uncover the holiness and goodness that is here waiting to be discovered, so too do uncover the “evil” that lurks in the world, that has been with us since human beings were created/evolved. Is it political to hold our elected officials accountable for their errant ways, is it political to rebuke them as the Bible tells us to do? Is it political to remind all of us of the importance of living the 10 sayings that we just received anew this past Sunday night/Monday morning? I think not, I believe these are spiritual and moral issues that we have left to the politicians and, as Rabbi Heschel says in his interview with Carl Stern, politicians lie!

As I sit in the words above, I keep thinking about the difference between what is happening in America, in Israel, across the globe and what we are being called to do above. “Take account” is anathema to Bibi, Trump, Lutnick, Orban, Wytkoff, Miller, Kushner, et al, unless it is to “take account” of their bank accounts and net worth! Paula Cain-White, Joni Ernst, Joel Osteen need to learn about Jesus and his life from Pastor Rick Warren, Bishop William Barber, from my friends Najuma Smith Pollard, Mark Whitlock, and John Pavlovitz. Bibi, Lutnick, Wytkoff, Miller, and Kushner need to learn about T’Shuvah from Rabbi Heschel, from Rabbi Abraham Twerski, from Maimonidies. The people I am rebuking so I “don’t bear guilt because of them” are in need of help, they need to “take account” a true Chesbon HaNefesh, an accounting of their souls and ask for forgiveness for the ways they have brought about “anguish, evil, humiliation”. These three ways of being inhuman, of being unholy, of desecrating God’s name are the way these people are living and calling it Good, calling it Holy, calling it the ‘most humane actions ever’, the “big beautiful bill” by the “beautiful people”.

BULLSHIT and We the People have to stand up and call it out. We the People have to “take account” and see how our silence is adding to “the anguish” promoting “the evil”, and celebrating “the humiliation” of humanity by these PAGANS! It is time for We the People to “take account” and do our T’Shuvah for allowing these idolators into the secular temple called the White House, the Capitol building. The Republicans and Democrats who are not stopping “the anguish, the evil, the humiliation” are desecrating God’s name, desecrating the Declaration of Independence, desecrating the Constitution they swore to uphold, desecrating each and every one of the 10 Commandments that they want displayed in schools for kids to see and live by while they create “the anguish” gin up “the evil”, and relish in “the humiliation” they are engaging in. Can you imagine Jesus, who said: “he who is without sin, cast the first stone” applauding the “humiliation” that the PAGANS in Israel and America spew to their ‘base’ and they lap it up like trained seals! Can you imagine the prophet Amos extolling the “evil” of hating the stranger that the PAGANS in America and Israel revel in? Can you imagine King David, after his T’Shuvah for Uriah’s murder, cheering on the “anguish” of people who are about to lose their Medicaid and Social Security? This is why We the People have to stand up on June 14th and proclaim NO KINGS DAY that day and every day in America, in Israel. We the People have to do the work necessary to “alleviate the anguish, mitigate the evil, to prevent the humiliation” that we have either engaged in, watched from the sidelines, deceived ourselves wasn’t really happening.

I promoted these three terrible sins often prior to recovery, I still have engaged in them in the past 38 years, I am sorry to say. I have made my amends and I stand proudly in my inability to follow “the script” of political correctness and ‘half-truths’ that people so glibly engage in. I am not political, ask anyone who knows me-I am a bull in the china shop, I cannot stand mendacity in myself, in another human being. I can’t stand what passes for religious education and prayer, I can’t stand what is happening in the “Land that I love”. I recommit to doing what I can to “alleviate anguish, mitigate evil, prevent humiliation” in all my affairs. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Worshipping at the feet of Pharaoh, being worshipped because you are a Pharaoh? Year 4 Day 143

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 143

“The greatest heresy is despair, despair of men’s power for goodness, men’s power for love. It is not enough to exhort the Government. What we must do is set an example, not merely to acknowledge the Negro but to welcome him, not grudgingly but joyously, to take delight in enabling him to enjoy what is due him. We are all Pharaohs or slaves of Pharaoh. It is sad to be a slave of Pharaoh. It is horrible to be a Pharaoh. (Insecurity of Freedom pg.98)

At the first reading of the words in bold above, one could easily argue that Rabbi Heschel is seeing the world through a black/white lens, an either/or way of living rather than the both/and that most of his writings embody. Yet, immersing myself in the words, knowing his history in Poland, Germany, I realize he is reminding all of us of our power, of our inclination, of our sinfulness towards, in his time, Blacks, in our time everyone who isn’t a ‘good old boy/girl, aka a good white christian’. The anti-semitism on the left that is being exploited by the anti-semites on the right is overwhelming and, a money-making machine. The anti-muslim on the right is countered by a whitewashing of what happened on Oct.7th, 2023 and a call for annihilating the State of Israel. The anti-Catholic rhetoric of the current administration is only surpassed by their bastardization of Jesus’ teachings and ways.

These words are not accusations as much as descriptors, there are many among us who have hardened their hearts to the plight of the poor, the needy, the stranger, the widow and the orphan. They are so excited to make those of us “not in the club” of the super-rich their slaves and their minions. Isn’t this what we are seeing happening right before our eyes with Trump and his ‘big beautiful bill’? I believe that Trump and his sycophants like Mike Johnson who claim to ‘love Jesus’, live in some kind of world that sees cruelty as holy, good as bad, harming the poor as following Jesus’ ways, and everything they do will bring about the Messiah-Oh Yeah, Trump is the Messiah for Johnson and the Republicans in Congress and the MAGA in the street. Is there a better example of Pharaoh than Joni Ernst and her callousness to her own constituents when she said, “we are all going to die” and then follows it up with her “tooth fairy” comment ending with a call for people to “accept Jesus as your lord and savior”! The hardheartedness of Ernst is pretty unbelievable, especially as a Senator for her entire State, a veteran, a woman- just goes to show us how correct the sentences above are.

We the People however cannot blame “them” for the situation we find ourselves in. Just as in Egypt when the Israelites were more numerous and mighty than the Egyptians and they fell for the oki-doke of Pharaoh, We the People willingly elected Donald J Trump to a first and then a second term, We the People chose to be under the thumb of a person who told us he would be a Pharaoh, We the People chose to allow a person who promised retribution and chaos back into power and We the People chose to be “slaves of Pharaoh”. This is a reality We the People also have to face. While many of us can go on and on about whom we voted for, enough of us who believe in democracy, who believe in “man’s power for goodness, men’s power for love”, did not show up and vote. So We the People are stuck with the Pharaoh of our choosing and stuck being his slaves! The worst thing about this predicament is that for many of us, we will not experience personal enslavement, personal fallout from the ‘big, beautiful bill’, so we can easily ignore the effects of Trump being Pharaoh and Miller being his Goebbels, with Lutnick being his Goring, and Loomer his Eichmann, Wytkoff his Ribbentrop- of course I am mentioning all the Jews who bow down, kiss his ass and fuck everyone else for the “Sake of the Pharaoh”. There are many others like Bannon being his Borman, RFK Jr. his Mengele, etc.

The sadness we must experience because of our being “slaves to Pharaoh” is not to defeat us, rather we must have this experience so we can taste the bitterness of our complicity in our own demise. We must, as we do each year at the Passover Seder, not allow the memory of the bitterness of being a “slave to Pharaoh” to diminish, hence 3times a day we remember “leaving Egypt”. Three times a day we remember our commitment to love God with everything we have which necessitates NOT loving the Pharaoh! Yet, even these reminders have not kept We the People out of slavery, out from under the thumb of Pharaoh Trump and his Courtiers; Miller, Bannon, Musk, Loomer, Wytkoff, Kushner, Lutnick, Zeldin, etc. That there are Jews who help the Pharaoh is both unbelievable and totally believable-these Jews choose money and power over being Jews, they choose to live OUT OF the teachings of Torah, of the Bible and proclaim their fealty to Israel and against anti-semites while they practice the greatest acts of Anti-Semitism possible-Unwelcoming the Stranger, hating the stranger when we are told to “love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”. That these Jews are mini-Pharaohs is despicable, it is horrible and it is indefensible.

I am railing on and on about this because each day I witness more and more Pharaohs surfacing, globally, in our governments-state, local and federal, and in our communities, in our families, in our work places. When people cannot earn a living wage, when they have to have two people in the household working two/three jobs a week to make rent and necessities we are witnessing Egypt. When people impose their “political correctness” upon everyone so no one gets their feelings hurt and they can be on the “progressive side” which is as repressive as the far rights, we are witnessing Egypt and Pharaoh. When we treat each other with disdain and look down upon ‘those people’ from our perch in our exclusive Country Clubs where we can ‘blackball’ someone we don’t like from entering and/or make it so expensive to join that the “riffraff”, that came out of Egypt with the descendants of Jacob and who joined with them to make the Israelite nation, can’t come near them-all the while extolling one another for their ‘charity’ work on behalf of the very people they won’t associate with! If this isn’t a prime example of “it is horrible to be a Pharaoh” then I don’t know what is. We the People have to be aware of the Pharaoh’s on the left as well as those on the right and FIGHT AGAINST BOTH OF THEM! I have been a Pharaoh and I am living my T’Shuvah for this way of being each and every day. I have been a slave to Pharaoh and am acutely aware of the many disguises of Pharaoh, in retrospect of course. I implore all of us to take off our blinders, live into Exodus from Egypt each day and say NO to the PAGAN Pharaoh’s in our lives. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Are you Rich, Strong, Wise and Honored? Year 4 Day 141

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 142

“The greatest heresy is despair, despair of men’s power for goodness, men’s power for love. It is not enough to exhort the Government. What we must do is set an example, not merely to acknowledge the Negro but to welcome him, not grudgingly but joyously, to take delight in enabling him to enjoy what is due him. We are all Pharaohs or slaves of Pharaoh. It is sad to be a slave of Pharaoh. It is horrible to be a Pharaoh. (Insecurity of Freedom pg.98)

I shake my head every morning reading these words of Rabbi Heschel, spoken and written some 60+ years ago as well as those written 50+ years ago. According to the Rabbis, prophecy ended with Malachi mid 500’s BCE and I disagree with them - imagine that. I believe we have had many prophets since then and the Rabbis were afraid of the prophets, they were afraid of losing control as the Tanor Shel Achni story in the Talmud portrays and they were afraid to have their own foibles brought out into the open, possibly. Yet, the words above are the words of the prophets, they are the words of the Torah, of the Bible. They are the words that define one of Judaism’s revolutionary characteristics; loving the stranger, loving the person whom you want to be afraid of, loving the person whom you want to enslave so you can be ‘master’. We are witnessing the opposite of the first sentence in bold above; we are seeing our Government trash this foundational principle of the Bible and of the Constitution/Declaration of Independence of our country. Rather than “welcome” the stranger, the Black, Brown, Jewish person, we are unwelcoming them all in subtle and not subtle ways. When it comes to the stranger, we see the masked ‘deportation gestapo’ of Homeland Security who are approaching their task as if they are in a war zone-which is exactly what the FASCIST PAGANS want to promote as their idea of practicing ‘good christian values’!!

Ben Zoma, in Pirke Avot(Chapters of the Fathers) says: “Who is rich, one who rejoices in his portion, aka-wants what one has, Who is honored, one who honors others, Who is wise, one who learns from everyone, who is strong, one who controls his inclinations.” In dealing with our prejudices and biases, these words are, I believe, paramount to being able to follow the Will of God, not the will of PAGANS, not the will of our narcissistic inclinations, not the will of our rational minds. When one is able to want what one has, we are able to rejoice in the portions that others have as well. This doesn’t mean we don’t keep striving, au contraire, it means we are no longer defined by what we have, how much we have, rather we define ourselves by our spiritual condition, by our humanness, by “loving the stranger”, by helping someone become self-sufficient as Maimonidies teaches in his levels of Tzedakah.

An interesting facet of the racism of the South is how many people were raised by their Black nanny’s, hired help. It was fascinating to watch the interaction between whites and blacks on a personal basis and the interaction on an institutional basis. One cannot treat another with prejudice and malice when one lives “who is honored, one who honors everyone”. Honoring everyone, at its basic level is to recognize the infinite worth and dignity of another human being who is, by definition, created in the same Image of God which you are! Honoring everyone is to acknowledge the need we, as individuals and as a community, have for the uniqueness of another human being’s talents and gifts. Honoring everyone also includes appreciating, welcoming and enjoying the wonders produced by another human being. Honoring everyone is making sure they have a seat at the table, they are not denigrated for their ideas and thoughts, and, as the Talmud shows us, incorporating the vision, wisdom, ideas and thoughts of everyone gives us a more robust and wider perspective of what is!

When We the People choose to “learn from everyone” we acknowledge our need to learn, we acknowledge our own foibles and insufficiencies, we acknowledge our need to “welcome” “joyously” the fruits of the Black, Brown, Jewish, Muslim human beings and help them “enjoy their due” from the products of their labors. We saw the reverse of this in the 50’s and 60’s when white musicians used to “cover” the music of Black artists and get paid more. Learning from everyone is not a put down of ourselves, rather it is another way of living the Bible’s lessons and teachings. Learning from everyone is a way of “loving our Neighbor” and “loving the stranger”. Learning from everyone is a pathway to leaving our prejudices at the trash heap of bad ideas, which grows larger and larger as we age:). Learning from everyone allows us to learn to respect and engage with people we thought we would never have anything to do with and inspires gratitude and respect for another human being.

Finally, when We the People are strong, it is not in the ways the current President describes strength. Anyone can be a bully, anyone can flex their muscles and try and scare people, confuse them with insane ideas and actions that are here today and gone tomorrow, it takes a person of true strength to “control one’s inclinations”. “Control one’s inclinations” allows us to see the value and kindness of another human being, it allows us to welcome the aid and assistance another can offer, it engenders cooperation and collaboration, it tamps down our oversized egos and helps us live in proper measure. “Control one’s inclinations” is the pathway to being heard and clearer when one is communicating difficult information, revolutionary news, and when one is standing up for God’s Will in the face of the PAGANS and charlatans who are desecrating God’s Name. Being “strong” is not a physical trait, although we have made it so, rather it is the trait of living into the Torah we accepted on Sunday evening and yesterday, it is realizing the contradictions and hearing the prophets’ words so we can continue to discern when the authors/scribes of the Bible let their ego’s go unchecked, when they were unable to be “strong, wise, honoring, or rich”. We the People have, each and every day, the opportunity to do a Tikkun, a reconciliation, a repair, of the the scribes/authors of the Bible’s missing the marks in their xenophobic manner. In turn, this will allow the fanatics to no longer have a “leg to stand on”!

I have worked hard to rejoice in another person’s joy, I have not always done so good with controlling my inclinations nor emotions. I still hate mendacity and am working on doing a better job of communicating this. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

Does "despair" still dwell among you, with you? Year 4 Day 141

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 141

“The greatest heresy is despair, despair of men’s power for goodness, men’s power for love. It is not enough to exhort the Government. What we must do is set an example, not merely to acknowledge the Negro but to welcome him, not grudgingly but joyously, to take delight in enabling him to enjoy what is due him. We are all Pharaohs or slaves of Pharaoh. It is sad to be a slave of Pharaoh. It is horrible to be a Pharaoh.

These words which were the opening address at The National Conference on Race and Religion in Chicago in January 1963, marking 100 years since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, are more relevant and important for us to hear today than they were even then-and they were pretty important then!! “Despair” is the “greatest heresy” comes from deep within Judaism, from the 4th chapter of the Bible when God asks Cain; “why are you angry, why has your face fallen? If you do good, it is accepted, if you don’t, sin(negativity) couches at your door, it desires you much and you can master it.”(Gen. 4:6-7). These words confirm that negativity, “despair” are part of the human condition and they can be overcome. To give in to “despair” is to deny this basic truth, to deny one of the firsts teachings in the Bible, it is to “choose”(“heresy” comes from the Greek word “hairesis” which means choice) to deny this basic truth, to deny our ability to choose, to deny what makes us human, according to Rabbi Abraham Twerski, who says what makes us human is our ability to make “free-will moral choice”. “Despair” is a choice, chemical depression is not, “despair” as I am hearing Rabbi Heschel is a spiritual condition, a spiritual malady that we can recover from and “master it”. It takes a lot of spiritual work, it means we have to grow and mature our souls, it means we have to stop believing “what the mind can conceive, man can achieve” and “I think, therefore I am”. Rather, we need to learn/relearn that our “intuitive mind is a gift” and our “rational mind a servant”, using the servant to serve the gift rather than making the servant the arbiter of the gift and our actions. We need to learn/relearn that our higher consciousness, our soul’s knowing stands has a greater view of what is, they have the eyes looking forward, looking back and seeing what is in this moment and the wisdom and understanding to discern the next right action to take. Living in spiritual healthiness, spiritual maturing, is the best antidote to “despair” because anything else allows the Bastards to Win! The Bastards being the people who want to deny We the People the rights that our Flag represents, the rights that are enshrined in our Constitution, the rights that are the goals waiting to be fulfilled of the Declaration of Independence. Giving into the despair that comes in waves when we see the bastardization of religious values, of democratic norms, of freedom itself is the greatest sin because, these sinners want to ‘win’ and make us believe we cannot master them, even though the Bible they promote tells us so. We the People are being called as we were in January of 1963 to stand up, to rule our despair and take the energy to fight back against the sins of the people in power and the sins of their followers-the denial of freedom, the denial of the “unalienable rights” in the Declaration of Independence.

Tonight begins Shavuot and, in many homes, communities people will study all night In preparation for Receiving the Torah. The words “Na’Aseh V’Nishma, we will do, then we will understand” that the Israelite people said to Moses are the words we need to say tonight, tomorrow and everyday. Judaism is not a dogmatic way of living, it is not about the rituals as the Prophets remind us, it is about the heart, it is about our actions. Hence, giving into “despair” is a total surrender to mendacity and to some “Pharaoh” that we know well and have escaped from before (remember the Haggadah). Yet, too many people commit this “greatest heresy” by giving into the lies of Trumpism, the bullshit by Hegseth, the bastardization by Bondi, and the idolatry of Paula Cain-White! Rather than be angry at the people who “still want to believe” in the goodness and rightness of these autocrats, we should have Rachmones, compassionate pity for them because they are so pathetic they don’t even know how much despair they are in nor how to “master it”. Rather than seek responses from God, from the Bible (New Testament) they are being bamboozled by the misinterpretations of the fundamentalist Preachers, Priests, Rabbis and Imams who continue to insert and purposely hide the import of the words “Love the Stranger”, “Proclaim Freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”, “One law for the Citizen and Stranger alike”, “Love your neighbor as yourself”, etc.

When we said “Na’Aseh V’Nishma, we will do and then we will understand” at Mount Sinai, it was a commitment for all ages, for all of us the descendants of those who stood at the foot of Mount Sinai, with trembling awe to hear and accept the words ‘spoken’ there. Each of us had a different experience, a different understanding of what was being said, ergo: we will do it and then we will understand. This is not a ‘blind faith’ way of being, rather it is doing something with our eyes wide open so we can learn and improve, we can experience and understand, we can make the necessary changes that different moments call for and our prejudices and bias’ will not stop us from taking the next right action. “Despair” no longer lives at our address once we receive, accept, and live into the Torah from Mount Sinai-it is a visitor for many and it cannot live with us, it will not rule over us when we live into the ways of being human found in the Torah, found in the examples and teachings of Jesus. CAN’T HAPPEN!

“Despair” has never been a friend of mine, in fact when it has visited I have become even more over the top in fighting it. I have gone to war with “despair” in my work to help another overcome their desire to give in to and say “fuck it”, “what’s the point”. I have watched in horror and sadness the people I have not been able to help kill themselves literally and/or figuratively. “Despair” is antithetical to me because I wake up each morning grateful to be alive, even at my lowest, I believed change was coming. In my recovery, I know change is coming, I know the secret to living well is “this too shall pass” and to be aware and alert to the “sin” of “despair” so I can “master it”. I will be learning with a few friends tonight going over what Torah says about Ruth, about the experience at Sinai and how to live a little better from this moment to Shavuot 2026. God Bless and stay safe, Hag Sameach, Rabbi Mark

"Abraham, Moses, the Prophets, the Christian Gospel" versus despair - Year 4 Day 140

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 140

“There are those who maintain that the situation is too grave for us to do much about it, that whatever we might do would be “too little and too late,” that the most practical thing we can do is “to weep” and to despair. If such a message is true, that God has spoken in vain. Such a message is four thousand years too late. It is good Babylonian theology. In the meantime, certain things have happened: Abraham, Moses, the Prophets, the Christian Gospel.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 97-98)

These words have been heard throughout the millennia, “it is too little, too late”, “let’s put on sackcloth and wail because nothing good will happen,” “woe is me, woe is we” and other such laments. There is an entire book of the Bible called Lamentations written about the destruction of the 1st Temple and read on Tisha B’Av each year. Yet, in Judaism, we take one day to lament all the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people except for the Shoah. I was taught that Tisha B’Av is the day we remember and repent/change our ways because the Temples were destroyed because of our behaviors, not caring for the poor and the needy, not welcoming and loving the stranger, senseless hatred amongst the people, taking advantage of the widow and the orphan, putting a stumbling block before the blind, cursing the deaf, ad nauseam. Yet, to their credit, the Rabbis began a “House of Study” in Babylon during the exile that became a great center of Jewish learning, the returning Judeans built the 2nd Temple, although maybe they should not have, in order to give the Kohanim their power back without the Kohanim taking responsibility for their spiritual and communal crimes. Even the laments of the prophets ended with the hope that upon our T’Shuvah, our return to Godly Principles and living righteously, we would come back.

There are many people today who are lamenting like the the Israelites did in the desert and at the Sea, “did you bring us here to die, why did you not leave us in Egypt, with the fleshpots to eat out of…” The Israelites, in their moments of despair had euphoric recall, imagining things as they were not! Just as people today, want to romanticize the “good old days” of Andrew Jackson, of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. They want to rewrite history so what is going on now is a return to “those good old days” which were replete with racism, xenophobia, screwing over  the workers, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, etc. The people in charge today want us to believe they are saving us from unions, from cheats and fraudsters, from being ‘on the dole’, etc. Therefore, give more money to the rich in tax cuts, make it harder for the poor and lower middle income people to get good medical care, screw over the seniors who depend on Social Security because they kept their end of the promise and this government doesn’t want to honor their commitment, and ‘don’t worry, the richer becoming rich is good for your poor schmucks’ and the tariffs are wonderful and beautiful. And they call themselves “good christian folk”!!!!

Rather than live into the “Christian Gospel” these PAGANS are following the Babylonian playbook, the Roman playbook, the authoritarian playbook. They have supposed Goebbels’ in their accusing everyone else of doing what they are actually doing. They have made the “stranger” an enemy instead of loving and welcoming them, they have made us suspicious of our neighbors, afraid to speak out about the abuses happening for fear of being shunned and, eventually, hunted and charged with one of their ‘trumped’ up charges. This makes many of us “weep” and go “to despair”. This is a carefully orchestrated campaign that many people think is just willy-nilly. Trump actually knows exactly what he is doing, following the script Roy Cohn taught him 50-60 years ago, and making us completely off balance so we cannot get our bearings nor can we organize properly. Trump has been a grifter forever and he has manipulated the press, the courts, the bankruptcy laws, and everyone else for his benefit all the way up to promising to screw everyone over as a ‘retribution’ for the people he is screwing over now. The most obvious result of “despair”, of “weeping” of “wailing” is the people doing these actions will believe anyone who promises to “be your retribution” without discerning the truth of their words or the content of the character, nor the qualities of their soul.

We the People are being called back to reality with the words above. The reality is that “Abraham, Moses, the Prophets, the Christian Gospel” are the antidotes to Trumpism, to Bibi-ism, to hatred, “despair”, “weep” and “wail”. We the People have the solutions to the issues facing us today, we have always had them since the Bible was first disseminated in ancient Canaan, and “your mission, People, is to USE them to combat the worst traits of humanity from continuing to ruin peoples’ lives, to denigrate the Image of God that resides in every person, to end the senseless hatred being promoted. Read the words and see the actions of Jesus and, for those of the Christian faith(Vance, Vought, TRUMP, et al) live them instead of living the opposite of Jesus’ ways. For Jews, read the words of the Torah, the Bible, and hear the rebukes of the Prophets, do your own T’Shuvah and repair the damage you have wrought by being like ‘those people’, who “blesses him/herself in their heart saying, I will have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart”. We the People are being called once again to Stand Up, to Repent and Return so God can “heal our backsliding and take us back in love”. We the People have the power and the path to refute and repel the despicable ways of the people in power today, we have the spiritual teachings to lead us in rising up against the tyranny we are experiencing from the Prophetic literature and all the descendants of the Prophets through the ages who have stood up. We the People have the examples of the Civil Rights and Vietnam War protest years. We the People must do something so we combat the despair that couches at our door.

I have had moments of despair, I know the overwhelming power of it and, have rejected living in despair, because as Reb Nachman teaches; despair is the worst sin. Nothing good happens from sitting in despair, it is, in a way, joining the enemy by humiliating ourselves and denigrating ourselves. We are all divine reminders, we all have infinite dignity and NO ASSHOLE is going to take this truth from me. I have, at times, damaged my dignity by my own actions and it has never been ‘because of someone else’, it has been, is and always will be because I made the choice to tarnish my dignity. As I see the many times I did, I am shaking my head and know that those are in my rearview mirror because I am more aware and protective of my dignity and worth, ergo, NO DESPAIR! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Forming the "clay" that is your life or deforming the shape? Year 4 Day 139

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 139

“Life is clay and righteousness the mold in which God wants history to be shaped. But human beings, instead of fashioning the clay, deform the shape. God needs mercy, righteousness; His needs cannot be satisfied in space, by sitting in pews, by visiting temples, but in history, in time.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 97)

There is a prayer we say on Yom Kippur called “Ki Hinei KaHomer”, we are but clay” and the words above remind me of this prayer. In the prayer we acknowledge and thank God for fashioning us like a potter fashions clay and here Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that we have to allow ourselves to stay in the mold of the clay. Working with clay as I have been for the past couple of years, I know that the clay has a mind of its own and without ensuring the mold is closed up, wrapped up tight, the clay will become misshapen and not at all like the design, idea I began with!

In the words above, we are being reminded of what our mission in life is: take life and make it righteous, ensure mercy and justice prevail and serve something larger than ourselves. Yet, as we see every day in our own actions, in the actions of those around us, and, with the current trend in governing, in the actions of the TRUMP CRIME FAMILY, both literally and the Crime Family he has fostered and created in his years of grifting and have joined him in raping the government, cheating his supporters, and stealing from governments across the globe, the deforming of the image of both human beings and God. This has to stop! We the People have to return to the words of the Bible, return to the morals that brought about the Declaration of Independence, return to the words “LET FREEDOM RING” as a call to action. Patrick Henry is credited with saying: “Give me liberty or give me death” and too many of us have chosen to die a little at a time, to give up the morality and the ethical way of living that brought such prosperity to America, that gave us the impetus to win the war against Fascism in 1945 and yet, 80 years later, in our own country, Lindbergh’s spirit, Father Coughlin’s caricature of Jesus is alive, well and fast-growing! WTF??

We are given one task, to make our corner of the world a little bit better. Reb Nachman teaches about the world being a garden and each of us has a small plot of the garden that we are to tend, grow, take out the weeds that always and continually grow, and be nourished by the fruits of our labor. Of course we need to share and barter our production so we can get the nutrients found in another’s plot. Reading the words above, immersing myself in them, ensures that I find the question they are the answer to and using the metaphor of Reb Nachman, I have to ask myself what weeds have I allowed to grow and overgrow my garden, my plot of the world? How have the weeds disguised themselves as fruits and vegetables so I don’t notice them? How is my self-deception causing my neighbors’ plots of land to become overgrown and disguised as well?

Trump and Project 2025 are the wake-up call for our nation, Bibi, Ben-G’Vir and the gang of thugs are the wake-up call for Israel, Putin, Orban, etc are the wake-up call for the world. Yet, until We the People demand of ourselves to return to “fashioning the clay” in the image and mold that God is providing; righteousness, mercy, kindness, justice, love; we will continue to go down the path that Hitler began 92 years ago. That the ‘bund’ is alive and well again is astounding on one level and ‘duh’ on another. We the People allowed “The Family” to run the National Prayer Breakfasts for years and they spread their anti-equality, no freedom for workers, bastardizing Christ’s words theology throughout the U.S. Government. We the People did nothing when Nixon was a crook in the 1950’s, elected him in 1968 knowing who he was, gave free rein to Gingrich in the 1990’s and then, the piece d’resistance, elected Trump in 2016 and 2024! What a great job the weeds We the People have allowed to overtake our garden have done at deceiving us and how great our own self-deception has been.

We the People must re-constitute the clay we have been misshaping! We the People are being called to action by our current situation, by the cries of those who are being harmed by these fascists, by the call of our own souls. We the People have to stop stuffing our ears with cotton so we don’t hear the cries of another, so we don’t hear the cries of our souls, the cotton has been in our ears far too long. For some of us, whose parents, grandparents are immigrants, what is happening to people seeking refuge should be abhorrent! When the St. Louis was turned away from America and Cuba, almost 1000 people’s lives were put in jeopardy and almost 1/2 of the 620 passengers who returned to the Continent were killed, 288 were taken in by Great Britain and were saved. Yet, America, “the land of the brave and the home of the free” denied freedom, life, liberty to those 900+ people seeking a “port in the storm” that was Hitler’s Germany. We the People have heard the rhetoric of cutting Medicaid, Medicare, privatizing Social Security, for years and now, faced with the reality of these things happening  and hurting the poorest and the most needy being done ‘in the name of christ by those good christian folk’ We the People must demand an end to this nonsense. We the People must stand up to the weeds we have allowed to grow, the deceptions we have bought into and the lies we have been telling ourselves. Watching criminals be pardoned because they can pay to play, witnessing the rounding up of a child with cancer who is an American citizen, etc has to wake us the fuck up and RESPOND TO GOD’S CALL for righteousness, mercy, justice, love, compassion, etc. We the People have to answer to ‘the person in the glass’ each day and without taking action, without standing up and weeding our country of its poisonous growth, we will never be able to face ourselves nor our children/grandchildren when the question is asked: “what did you do when evil began to rule”.

I know how hard it is to get the clay back into the mold, the shape one wants both literally and figuratively. I have had to reshape my life more than once. One shape as a kid, another after the death of my father, another after the weeds became so overgrown, I couldn’t tell the difference between them and the fruits. Once again when I was in prison the 2nd time and I have continued to reshape my living given the different weeds I have allowed to grow. I know the self-deception that allows me to see the weeds as flowers and each day I take my weed killer out so I can cut down, unearth the ones I see today. This is a daily exercise and it helps me keep my garden growing and my clay in the proper mold. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Smug, complacent, vapid, foolish vis a vis religion is demanding and God is challenging- Year 4 Day 138

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 138

“Humanity can thrive only when challenged, when called upon to answer new demands, to reach out for new heights. Imagine how smug, complacent, vapid, and foolish we would be, if we had to subsist on prosperity alone. It is for us to understand that religion is not sentimentality, that God is not a patron. Religion is a demand, God is a challenge, speaking to us in the language of human situations.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.97)

Rabbi Heschel’s description of the ways in which haters and their followers behave and the results from same would be humorous if not so true, so repetitive, so happening in this moment! The vapidity, foolishness, smugness of Mike Johnson and the Republicans makes the Democrats like Bernie Sanders, AOC, seem like they are amateurs! That this way of being has ruled our politics for so long is what is sinful, destructive, and the pathway to where we are right now. While Trump, Project 2025’s Heritage Foundation and the rest of the PAGANS in charge right now are definitely guilty, we are all responsible! Remember Rabbi Heschel’s words: “In a free society, some are guilty all are responsible.” We the People have to stop pointing fingers outwardly only, we have to look at the three fingers pointing back at us.

The way Trump and his thugs are using religion, him proclaiming how much he loves god at one of his rallies on Monday, is disgusting and the fact that We the People are not demanding of our religious leadership and institutions they scream from the rooftops that he is a PAGAN, that they are misrepresenting religious behaviors, religious life, religious tenets is unbelievable! Another area of We the People shirking our responsibility to Truth, to Justice, to Mercy, to “walk in God’s Ways”. God, Jesus Christ, Allah is not the Patron Saint of criminality and these ‘god-fearing christians’ like Trump, Cain-White, Bondi, who wear their crosses as a badge are guilty of the crimes of cruelty instead of justice, of imprisoning the stranger rather than loving the stranger, of putting stumbling blocks before the blind, cursing the deaf instead of not doing either. They are guilty of “suspect your neighbor” instead of “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”, they are “false witnesses” each time they open their mouths instead of not being “false witnesses”, they steal at every opportunity, they “covet” anything that someone else has, they whore themselves for money and prestige, and they revel in murdering the souls of as many ‘enemies’ as they can. This is not done in the name of GOD, it is done in the name of greed, of contempt for principles, in the name of Pharaoh. Just as in the 1930’s Germany, we have seen this picture before, what We the People have to realize is; with social media, with their studying of what went wrong with Hitler and his thugs, the Puppeteers behind Project 2025 are smarter, more devious, and better equipped with more hatred, more greed, more power-seeking hubris than at any other time in history. These PAGANS make the Roman Emperors look like punks.

There was a song: “Gimme that old time Religion” and the lyrics say: “It was good for the Hebrew Children, it’s good enough for me…makes me love everybody, it’s good enough for me”. In the Desert, as we are in the last few days before Shavuot and receiving the Torah, (and living in the desert now), We the People, are being reminded, just as there was a demand in the gift of Torah at Mount Sinai, just as there is a demand in our receiving Torah each year, just as the Bible itself is replete with demands to be human, “religion is a demand”! It demands we raise our self up to the standards it sets for us so We the People can live life free from the burdens of slavery, for us “to do T’Zedakah, righteousness/charity, so we can leave the corners of our fields for the poor and the needy to have food and dignity. “God is a challenge” that lives us each day, every moment, nudging our conscience to “do the next right thing”, the prophets were God’s mouthpiece in an attempt to bring to the forefront our guilt in straying from the principles of holiness, the foundational principles of how to live together without hatred, with as little strife as possible, with a sense of obligation and purpose of making our corner of the world a little better. This is what “religion demands”-not the pap of comfort and bullshit, not the idolatry being spewed by these ‘god-fearing christians, jews, muslims’!

We the People have to make a choice: are we going along with the PAGANS, are we going to be smug, complacent, vapid, and, possibly, rich; are we going to hear, heed and live into “religion is a demand”, worship “God is a challenge”? Doing the latter doesn’t negate God’s love for us, in fact it proves how much God does love humanity. Each of the ways delineated in the Torah, that we accepted at Mount Sinai with “we will do and we will understand” the doing comes first, is how to live in the light of spirit, the glow of the “holy spirit” being reflected on the face of the human being we are with, treating them as a precious infinitely worthy and dignified human being. Of course it is easy to misinterpret the Torah for one’s own use and greed, power and whitewashing, because it is “speaking to us in the language of human situations”. Abraham was wrong in not arguing for his son Isaac-no matter how much the commentators try to clean him up. Jacob was wrong in his treatment of Esau, especially when Esau came to welcome him home; Jacob’s guilt was too much for him to accept Esau’s kindness. Judah’s guilt is admitted by him just as David admits his. These “human situations are the key for us to live by-not the clean-ups, not the misinterpretations that empower evil, that give strength to the cruel. We the People are being called to change the trajectory of the United States, of Israel and to promote and “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”!

I have experienced Torah as a path to wholeness since Rabbi Mel Silverman z”l, taught it to me in prison some 38 years ago. I receive Torah each day, seeing something new and bold, understanding it differently and more poignantly. I am enraged at how my colleagues of all faiths are pandering to the newest cruelties, the newest evils of those in power now. In the ways they are acting I hear their denial of the Shoah. While they give lip service to it, they also are coping much of the German playbook; “accuse others of that which you are guilty of”, “weaponizing government to destroy opposition”, etc. I accept the demands and challenges that God and religion give me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark