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Having "the ability to fulfill what God demands", it is not too hard for you, "it is in your mouth and in your heart" Year 4 Day 197

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 197

“In stressing the fundamental importance of the mitsvah, Judaism assumes that man is endowed with the ability to fulfill what God demands, at least to some degree. This may, indeed, be an article of prophetic faith: the belief in our ability to do His will. “For this commandment (mitzvah) which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off… But the word is nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thous mayest do it” (Deut. 30:11-14).” (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

These words above are at the core of Jewish survival throughout the millennia, no matter what we have been subjected to as a people, no matter the hatred, the slavery, the being regulated to certain work, to certain ghettos, to certain annihilation, we have prevailed because Jews, religious or not, have accepted this “article of prophetic faith” and, to the best of our ability, when the chips were down, returned to our core vale of seeking “to fulfill what God demands”. Without this “article of prophetic faith” why else would we not have succumbed to the call to join Christianity? Why else would we have not ‘gone along to get along’? Why else would we have, to this day, believed in our ability to fulfill our unique task of “being a light unto the nations” (Isaiah 49:6)? Without this fundamental “belief in our ability to do His will” and hearing the call from Sinai, Judaism would have ceased to be. And we are still here! At least for this moment. Reading this, hearing Bibi and Donny cry like little babies over their lack of popularity among the populace they are leading because of their lack of wanting “to fulfill the what God demands” and instead want to make God to fit their image, ie Idolatry, should make us all take a beat and ask ourselves this question: “is what is happening really “what God demands”? Is taking over Gaza, is quashing democracy, really showing “our ability to do His will”? OF COURSE NOT!! So how did We the People get here?

We the People arrived at this moment because we have not taken seriously what it means to be “endowed with the ability to fulfill what God demands”. We the People have sought out shrinks, pills, protests, higher education in order to avoid the questions that are within our inner life. We the People have engaged in the promulgation of ‘rational thinking’ to the utter death of spiritual knowing, We the People have not headed Einstein’s teachings about the intuitive mind and only applaud those who use their intuitive mind to create big things, big business, make a lot of money, etc. We the People have not nor are we today seeking “to do His will”, no matter how much we wrap ourselves in the false narratives of the Bible we are spewing, no matter how much lipstick we put on the PIG of our Idolatry! That Israel, a nation of people who have been subjected to the worst of societal hatred, would say that Arabs are not human, would believe they have the right to destroy an entire area and take over people’s homes, deny a homeland to another people is INSANE and Disgusting.

The Rabbis and those ‘good jews’ who study all day and are on the dole while the People of Israel go to war for them, pay taxes for their benefit, can send these same people to be killed in Gaza, to be maimed in the West Bank, to suffer moral injuries beyond repair in some cases, is a CRIME! These criminals have to be put on trial and sentenced to prison so they can no longer infect the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Why, you may ask? The reason is these “people who should know better” have not circumcised their hearts so “the word” is no longer “nigh unto thee”. The reason is they have used their “mouth” to spew lies and have, like the priests in the Temple in Ancient Israel and Judea, turned to idolatry, doing rituals and hurting people, God doesn’t want their “checklist of mitzvahs”, God wants their hearts and their minds, God wants us to fulfill God’s demands, not the ones people make up and proclaim our ‘in the name of god’.

We the People are the last hope of Jewish thought, living in “the Jewish way”. “It is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off”, rather it is within us at all times. This is the greatest inner war we wage, knowing what is right, knowing what “God demands”, having a desire to fulfill it and being talked out of it by societal pressure, by the lies and hatred of Trump, et al in the USA and Bibi, Smotrich, et al in Israel. We the People have to “girdle up our loins” and, like David, go out an battle Goliath, the giant in front of us that is demanding we surrender/give up to the negativity in the world, hence denying the power of God, the existence of Adonai. We the People are being called to do what we are created to do, make Justice, Mercy, Love, Kindness, Holiness, TRUTH, the foundation of our living. We the People are being asked to repay the debt of being freed from Egypt by ensuring that no one else has to suffer at the hands of modern day Pharaohs like Trump and Bibi. We the People are the last bastion of hope that human beings will always know they have “certain unalienable rights, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness” and We the People are being called to ensure these rights never “perish from this earth”!

It took being arrested AGAIN, in December 1986 for me to “circumcise my heart” and learn that “the word is nigh unto thee”. Since I began this journey with Rabbi Mel Silverman in early 1987, since I began to immerse myself in the Bible and prayer book my brother sent me while in prison, I have made it a point to hear what is being said to me each day a little better, a little clearer, a little stronger. Each day I do the best I can to “fulfill what God demands” and my life is so much better for it. Love, Justice, Truth, Kindness, Mercy, Holiness are the bedrock of my living and I have more joy than I could ever have imagined. This is why I continue to rail against injustice and idolatry and will never stop! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Loving Life because one can do charity and be holy! Year 4 Day 196

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 196

“Jewish tradition, though conscious of the perils and pitfalls of existence, is a constant reminder of the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good. We are taught to love life in this world because of the possibilities of charity and sanctity, because of many ways open to us in which to serve the Lord.” (God in Search of Man pg. 377/8)

Immersing myself in these words and thoughts, I realize that the exodus from Egypt was so much more than slavery will end, so much more than surrender to God takes a strong heart and will, so much more than just receiving the 10 Sayings, it was the gift of “grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good”. Hence, we are taught to “love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”, to “not hate the Egyptians”(because they took us in when we were desperate), to help our enemies, to “be holy”, etc. Yet, we are witnessing, once again, the destruction of “the good”. We are witnessing the deconstruction of what is good, charitable, sanctified and what is evil, miserly and unholy while our freedom burns up and our country is quickly becoming a fascist nation. Isn't it time for every person of true faith, of good faith, to rise up and say NO to these PAGANS? Isn’t it time for every person who believes in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, to stand up and shout NO to these Idolators, these Fascists, these Autocrats? In the words of Rabbi Hillel, “if not now, when?”

We the People have sat on our asses for far too long. We the People want to bemoan what is happening and we did nothing to stop it, when we could have. Mitch McConnell you are a despicable human being-I know there is a soul in your, I know you have Ruach Elohim, the spirit of God within you and you continue to act like Pharaoh did in Egypt, with a false ego and arrogance. To the Republican Senate, your inaction is atrocious and your ceding responsibility to Trump and his THUGS is CRIMINAL! While all of this is true, the ultimate responsibility lies with We the People!


Rather than see the myriad of reminders “of the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good”, We the People have allowed liars, cheats, grifters, fascists, to take over our land. We the People have been deceived by the lies we have been telling ourselves and the mendacity spewing out of the mouths of Trump/MAGA world. We the People became so ‘woke’ that we stopped seeing another human being, just ‘ideals’, only ‘cause of the month’, strictly, ‘what are the optics’. In our institutions, in our governing, in our families, “what’s in it for me” became the way of world a long time ago and We the People stopped seeing “the possibilities of charity and sanctity…of the many ways to serve the Lord.” Instead, as we see with the Charlatan Prosperity Gospel liars, many of We the People have decided it is time for ‘the lord’ to serve us! The Orthodox Jews who take verses from the Bible that they know were added at the time of Ezra or later as ‘the holy grail’ which allows them to not be charitable, to not sanctify the tenets of the Bible, to not see the “many ways open to serve the Lord”, rather they, like their good friends the ‘prosperity gospel christians’ are treacherous, unholy, and continue to commit Hillul HaShem- desecration of God’s name.

Damn it! We the People are being called by the thoughts and teachings above to get our shit together, to remember the words of Hosea: “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge”(Hosea 4:6) and Hosea 14;2,5: “Israel, return to the Lord for you have stumbled in your iniquity…I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely”. The “charity” spoken about above is the ways in which God has dealt with our harlotry, our whoring ourselves to the ‘better deal’. We the People are given the opportunity to “return” so we don’t have to wander about anymore, so we don’t have to keep harming our souls and the myriad of souls around us who suffer from the “iniquity” in which we not only stumble, We the People seem to revel in and roll around in like a pig in shit! I use the term “pig in shit” for all the Fundamentalist Idolators because it is not kosher, in keeping with the un-kosher way they live. Kosher means fitting and proper and the ways in which We the People have handed power over to the mendacious ones, the ways in which We the People have once again whored ourselves for a few pieces of silver, Mr. Lutnick, Mr. Zuckerberg, and the rest of the Jews and true Christians in the government and Congress, are examples of Hillul HaShem-desecration of God’s Name. We the People are better than this!

I am thinking about how I also rolled around in shit for so many years and knew better! This is the tragedy of our times, most of us know better and sink into the quicksand of uncharitable behaviors, false piety, and put blinders on so we don’t see the “grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good.” This is the most profound ‘switch’ I had in the jail cell in December of 1986. While ending my drinking did not happen until December of 1988, my recovery began in that jail cell in Van Nuys, Ca. As Amazing Grace says” I once was lost, but now am found, was blind and now I see”. Ever since that fateful day, I have kept following a path to freedom, a way of being that continues to open my eyes to “the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good”. I live with charity and holiness in my heart and my actions to the best of my ability each and every day-I fall short, I am human, and my passion to see “the many ways open to us in which to serve the Lord” has never wavered, in fact, it has grown stronger and I have less patience with the Jewish Institutional world that wants to keep dampening the passion and truth of the Bible by their harlotry, their refusal to admit their stumbling. This is the only way I can move forward-knowing my stumbles, correcting them and moving on. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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The power of evil and the reality of good coexist in our lives- Year 4 Day 195

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 195

“The power of evil does not vitiate the reality of good. Significantly, Jewish tradition, while conscious of the possibilities of evil in the good, stresses the possibilities of further good in the good.” (God in Search of Man pg. 377)

“Why bother, what’s the use, nothing will ever change, the cheaters always win, etc” are common refrains of people who experience powerlessness and believe they have no voice. “What does my vote count for” is another one of these cliches people spout and, as we can see, from the millions of people who voted in 2020 and did not in 2024! When one believes that “the power of evil does” “vitiate the reality of good”, these common self-deceptions have great power and lasting influence on everything they do. What is also interesting are the ‘institutionalist’ who believes their own bullshit that they are serving the greater good while allowing “the power of evil” “vitiate the reality of good”. Both groups of people continue to live in their own lies, the lies and deceptions of another and society as a whole. Hence the importance of the thoughts above.

“The reality of good” is the 6th creation in the Bible. We learn that heaven, earth, water, darkness, light are created and with light comes “good”. The rest of the Bible are stories and lessons, paths and commandments on how to ‘come into the light’ and do “the good”. Sometimes we get there and sometimes we don’t, which is what makes the Bible so riveting for me, looking at the pitfalls that our ancestors(being people who came before us-real or imagined) dealt with them. Learning how to find the good and engage in it, seeing how the “power of evil” easily worms its way into the good and we are blindsided by it some time. The Bible, in my opinion, is not looking for purity, it is not looking for perfection, it is a book, a gift that helps us deal with the reality that “darkness was over the face of the deep”, “there was chaos and emptiness” and “the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters”. All three of these descriptions are still at play in our lives, all three are necessary for creation to happen, all creation involves the evil inclination as well as the good inclination, it is our mission, our ‘job’, to not let “the power of evil” “vitiate the reality of good” in our personal, professional, political areas of living.

Rabbi Heschel is not speaking from some lofty place, he is not giving us theories and platitudes, he is giving us the wherewithal to battle “the power of evil” “in the good”. He is reminding us of a tradition that doesn’t claim perfection, doesn’t focus on our being sinners from birth, rather it is a tradition that teaches we learn how to allow “the power of evil” “vitiate the reality of good” through laziness, through greed, through self-deception, through a myriad of lies, deceptions being perpetrated upon We the People by PAGANS and fascists, by autocrats and ‘good people on both sides’, by white supremacists and fanatical ‘religious’ people masquerading as ‘servants of god’ all the while being servants of self. We the People are witnessing “the power of evil” throughout the globe, here in the USA, in Israel, China, Russia, Hungary, North Korea, etc and it is UGLY! “The power of evil”, however gains its foothold because We the People have forgotten that “the spirit of God hovers” over us, and this spirit, this power is our only weapon against “the power of evil”. It is the only path to finding and living “further good in the good”. We do not learn this in religious school, we do not learn this in regular school, we are beating our children into submission so they can ‘get ahead’, ‘doing it for their own good’, ‘it hurts me more than it hurts you’ and other bullshit we tell our children and ourselves.

It is way past time for We the People to return to our primordial way of being-seeking the good, using the knowledge gained from eating the “fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil”, and not repeating the same errors as the people described in the Bible, as the people in our history books, as the elders in our families, as the people around us who are more interested in power than good, more concerned with optics than truth. The challenge that Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above gives We the People is mighty and powerful, it is daring and bold: stop buying the lies of societal norms, live in radical amazement; the maladjustment to cliches and notions, “go for yourself/to yourself to a land I will show you” which is the land of our souls, of our inner lives so we can cope with “the power of evil” and enhance the “good in the good”. We the People have the opportunity each day to make a decision to serve the “good” or succumb to the “evil’, it is an hourly, moment by moment challenge and We the People have to be more clear-eyed as to the differences between the good and “the evil” that disguises itself as “good”. Case in point, anytime We the People allow the travesty of injustice, of inhumane treatment of another human being, racism, anti-semitism, hatred, hardening of the heart to prevail in ourselves, in our families, in our governments to happen and continue. When We the People celebrate the lack of mercy and empathy, when we invite and applaud tyranny, we deny that “good” can prevail, and we deny “the power of evil does not vitiate the reality of good”.

I have railed against “the power of evil” for all my days and I succumbed to it because I was overwhelmed with grief, anger, and loneliness. My soul was bereft when my father died because I knew I was all alone, no one got me. Hence, I did the best I could to let my daughter know I saw her and got her. I have done the same with the people I have encountered since my recovery began in a jail cell. I have continued to speak truth to power, to validate the reality of people and to call bullshit when I see it. I am engaged in battle with “the power of evil” within me and outside of me, it is never-ending and invigorating, and brings me closer to people, to God, to the universe. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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Exempt or not exempt from "dealing with evils" -which side are you on? Year 4 Day 194

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 194

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

Today is Tisha B’Av-the ninth day of Av when we commemorate all of the “evils” that have befallen the Jewish people. Many say this day is the day of remembrance of the “evils” within us as individuals and as a people that we did not deal with and, instead, allowed to percolate and become a way of interacting with the world> Hence going directly against everything we are told in the Bible not to do! The sentence in bold above is so vitally important to the mental and spiritual health of both each of us as individuals and citizens and strangers in the various countries and as global citizens. What many of us call “evil” are nothing more than personal bias’ and prejudices, what we perpetrate unto families, loved ones, people around us and the world from these bias’ and prejudices are the “evils” that Rabbi Heschel is speaking about, as I am hearing him today and in the context of both the time he wrote these words and in the context of today. One of the wonders and awesomeness of prophets, sages, shamans, spiritual giants is their words are eternal because they are speaking of the human condition-be it Ticht Nacht Han, the Dalai Lama, Jesus, Moses, the Psalms, Proverbs, Martin Buber, the Baal Shem Tov, etc- and they all teach us how to deal “with evils”.

“Evils” are, to me, any actions that go against the dignity of a human being, anything that seeks to lessen one group over another, any action that goes against the dictate to “choose life”, the command to “be holy”, the seeing of even our enemies as human beings who need us to remind them of their inherent holiness and connection to something greater than themselves. “Evils” are what are perpetrated upon humanity by soul-suckers seeking power and fame, wealth and spewing hatred. It is not enough, however, to blame the Hitler, the autocrat, the head of the snake, We the People have to see our culpability in putting these “evil” people in power, We the People have to look at our own complicity in perpetrating the “evils” that are happening before our eyes. When we look to the Bible, we can see that it was not just the priests, the royalty, the wealthy who were being pagans, it was We the People as well-read the words of the prophets. One of the “evils” that many people are not speaking of is going along with the insertions that Ezra and his gang of returning exiles put into the Bible so they could engage in their xenophobic and racist behaviors, as my friend and teacher, Rabbi Hazan Danny Maseng is teaching me. It was  another missed opportunity to deal “with evils”. Throughout the millennia the times We the People decided believe we are “exempt from dealing with evils” and this has brought us to the edge of destruction, to the brink of being locked in Egypt forever, and it has taken a war to free us from the prison of “evils” that we seem to constantly want to visit!

We the People, today, have to end our wishing and hoping, our ignoring and hiding from the “evils” that surround us. We the People, right here, right now, have to renew the covenant we made at Sinai, we have to live the gratitude for being alive and having the strength to resist these “evils” that Trump, Netanyahu, their thugs, their grifters, their Pagans are perpetrating upon all of us. We the People have to, like the daughters of Zelophehad in the Bible, speak truth to power no matter how fearful we are, no matter how impotent we think we are! Like those brave women, We the People have to deny the misogyny that the Rabbis have perpetrated upon us. We the People have to deal with the “evils” of racism, xenophobia, grifting, treating people like 2nd class human beings, etc. We the People have to stop believing we are “exempt from dealing with evils” and get off our asses and DO SOMETHING! We the People are being called today, by the words above, by the remembrance of all the harms that befell us because we were not “dealing with evils” when we could have and when we should have-at the first sight of them, when they began to raise their beautiful head and it is imperative that We the People stop seeing beauty and see what is behind the ‘beauty’, stop seeing ways to ‘get ahead’ and see what lies ahead on that road. It is time for We the People to live into the words of the third paragraph of the Shema: “don’t scout out after your heart and your eyes because you will whore (yourself) after them”!!(Numbers 15:39). Scouting out “after our heart and our eyes” is the main road to our being part of We the People, who like our ancestors before us, turn a blind eye to corruption and senseless hatred, who see another as ‘a mark’ for us to take advantage of, who curse the deaf and put stumbling blocks before the blind and call it ‘freedom’. As Pete Seeger asks: “When we ever learn?”

As one who has both perpetrated “evils” and had them perpetrated upon me, I know the power of Rabbi Heschel’s words viscerally. I am living my T’Shuvah for the evils I engaged in and will for the rest of my life. I am aware, usually, when I get close to these terrible old behaviors and I am constantly seeking to use the energy from what “my heart and my eyes” are scouting to DO GOOD. It is difficult some moments because the “evil” disguises itself as good so often. I deal with the “evils” within me each day as well. I remember that this day, the present, is a gift and I am responsible to not squander it, to use it to connect, to learn, to be an example, and, on some days, to veg and recharge my own batteries. I know that “dealing with evils” takes a great deal of inner work and being able to say NO to myself and to another human being. I practice this daily and I don’t pay attention to the desires that will allow me to “whore” after them, diminishing my humanity and dignity. This is my daily challenge. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Humble, cleansing, helping-the rewards of doing a Mitsvah - Year 4 Day 193

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 193

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

WOW! What an amazing description of what a “mitsvah” is and what it does for each of us internally and the world externally. This definition reminds us that “the mitsvah” is not a burden, it is not to be checked off, it is not even a ‘religious’ act, as I am hearing Rabbi Heschel today. Rather, it is a deeply personal gift to oneself, to the people around us, and to the universe bringing healing, repair, goodness, kindness, truth, love, justice, mercy to a society that: is unforgiving, except for themselves-the powerful, the wealthy-, see’s weaponization of the “rule of law” as something that is within their purview, believes anything they do is legal, right, and beyond reproach while everything ‘their enemies’ do is illegal, fraudulent, and deserves scorn. They all believe in their sovereignty, their being above the law, above morals and ethics, and, ultimately, above God as God’s will is written in the Bible, in the Gospels, etc. Would they learn to do a “mitsvah” and have the experience delineated above!!

Rabbi Heschel’s first phrase above says so much: “the humble single act of serving God” reminds us and teaches us that we are not called to follow a systematic way of life, that the dogmatic path is just not what God wants. The prophets tell us this, it is apparent in the words of Moses in Deuteronomy most of the time, and the Rabbis themselves argued about what different sentences meant, how they could ignore dogma when it didn’t fit their moral sense of right and wrong. “Single” comes to remind us that what we have is this moment, this opportunity and there will never be another moment like this nor a time wherein this particular “mitsvah” is needed like it is right now. It takes great humbleness to perform a “single act of serving God” which one can only obtain and maintain when We the People stay “grounded” in what we are doing and in the service of something greater than ourselves(for those who just can’t believe in the word “God”). “Ground” is the Latin root of “humble” and it could change how we can be humble and not portray ourselves as “lowly, modest”, etc. Rather, I hear the demand from Sinai, the call from Rabbi Heschel, to stay “grounded” in our lives, in this moment, to act with dignity and grace, staying “grounded” in the love of doing the next right action, the love of God and our being able to “get to” fulfill the covenant with one another and God.

The ideas in the first sentence above are so simple, such ‘duh’ moments that they seem to elude We the People. When We the People allow Trump and his grifters, Netanyahu and his PAGANS, Putin and his thugs, etc to rule us, how can any of us say we are living into a “mitsvah”? When Smotrich and Ben G’Vir call for the extinction of the people of Gaza, for the exile of the Palestinians in the West Bank, how can they claim it is for the ‘love of god’ that they are acting? How can one believe that ‘Donald Trump is the anointed one of the lord jesus’ when he continually acts in direct opposition to Jesus’ words in the Gospels, when he is the one who is doing the crucifying rather than being the one crucified-no matter how much he whines and blames. Rather than “helping man”, these PAGANS and charlatans are helping only themselves, they are continually lying and deceiving We the People and we are allowing it-so We the People also are abandoning “serving God”! It is time for We the People to get our act together and stop buying the bullshit of liars, the mendacity of power-hungry white supremacists, the tearing down of democratic values, the annihilation of the rule of law, both secular and Biblical by the fascists in charge!

All of which brings us to the last path of the first sentence above: “cleansing the self”. We can only make right the lies and deceptions, the mendacity and harm we have wrought or stood idly by while it is happening by first “cleaning our side of the street”, as we say in AA. “The mitsvah” is the path to engaging in our own house cleansing, it is not something we can hire someone to do for us, oh you rich and powerful people, it is not something we can deny we have done without greater damage to one’s inner life which leads to drastic horrors in our outer life-just ask the Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. Ask Hitler’s accomplices and enablers, ask the people who have stood up and taken the blows and did it “God’s” way. When we engage in “the mitsvah” and allow it to cleanse our inner life, we get a new lease on being, we get to repair old damages internally and to those we have harmed. We the People get to return to our “acorn” as James Hillman writes; return to “the self we were created to be” as Thomas Merton teaches, turn/return to living in “radical amazement” as Rabbi Heschel lives for us to emulate. All of which is to say that only through “cleansing the self” can we return to being grounded in our purpose, in our passion, grounded in authenticity, responsibility, and love.

I know these ways of being as I have been on both sides of the coin, I know the terrible toll mendacity causes on the people around me and on me. I know the healing power of “cleansing the soul” through the “humble single act of serving God”, and the joy and uplift that comes to my soul, to my being when I am “helping man”. Even though the pay may be a lot less living in God’s world, the rewards are off the charts!. I know living into “a mitsvah” brings a healing and light that, to me is the “hidden light” of the first day of creation. This is the payoff from doing a “mitsvah”, even T’Shuvah cleanses us so every one impacts our being able to serve God and humanity. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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Are you aware of "the tragic predicament of the world" right now? Year 4 Day 192

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 192

“Evil is not only a threat, it is also a challenge. Neither the recognition of the peril nor faith in the redemptive power of God is sufficient to solve the tragic predicament of the world. We cannot stem the tide of evil by taking refuge in temples, by fervently imploring the restrained omnipotence of God.” (God in Search of Man pg. 377)

At first blush, the words above could be seen as a source of despair, how can We the People challenge “evil” to a duel? How can we be so arrogant as to believe we can meet and overcome the “threat…challenge” of evil? Yet, this is precisely what Rabbi Heschel is saying/hinting at in the words above. In fact, he is going so far as to say, and I am paraphrasing,: stop calling out to God and do something yourself! He is also, at a time in history that many people call ‘the good old days’-when white supremacy was flourishing, when making ‘those people’ the enemy (thank you Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy), when women ‘knew their place’ and so on! The MAGA movement is nothing more than returning to those days, to the hatred of Gingrich, the fascism of Lindbergh, Coughlin, et al, and the belief that “white makes right” and ‘vengeance is mine sayeth the Drumpf’.

That “the tragic predicament of the world” was not known, not spoken about during the early 1950’s is criminal, the “tragic predicament of the world” right now is spoken about, just not doing anything about it. The Congress has failed in their sworn duty, the Supreme Court has failed in it’s sworn duty, many in the media are surrendering and paying tribute to ‘the don’, Universities are bending the knee as our law firms and business’. It is a total collapse of checks, balances, freedom, obligations, belief in the democratic way of life. And, We the People sit around either cheering this debacle not realizing we are going to get fucked by ‘our people’ or wringing our hands and muttering to ourselves, sending money to candidates who, even if they win, will be bought and paid for by some ideology or lobbyist. Public Service is almost non-existent because our ‘public servants’ are serving their own agenda of getting re-elected, rising up in the hierarchy, serving the agenda of the people who send them money, clothe them so nicely, etc. AOC is no more trustworthy than Mitch McConnell as she has proved many times over-her ‘progressive’ agenda is anti-semitic and she is proud of her and her ‘squad’’s hatred of Israel and Jews! Yet, we are not allowed to say this because she is ‘on the right side’ of the continuum, holding these leftist values that are so near and dear to the far left and those of us in the middle, those of us who know that life is not black and white, are left standing out in the cold from both extremes.

Rabbi Heschel, of course, had deep “faith in the redemptive power of God”, so what I hear him saying to us today is stop sitting on your hands, stop standing on the sidelines, meet the “challenge”, stop the “threat” of “evil” because only we can. I also hear him in today’s context, telling not to take “refuge in temples” because, like the prophets before him, he saw the corruption, the desecration of God’s name in temples, churches, mosques just as we see it today. Our Church leaders like Paula Cain-White, other ‘prosperity gospel liars’, the ultra-orthodox, the rabbis and clergy who are preaching that Palestinians are ‘not human’, the Imams who exhort their followers to blow up buildings, bus stops, etc ARE THE EVIL we are facing in the world and We the People have to call them out.

We the People have to “cry out to God” as our ancestors did in Egypt. We the People have to immerse ourselves in the Bible until it becomes part of us, until we see ourselves in every chapter, finding the question that this text is the answer for in this moment. Rather than pick it all apart, be in the text, see yourself as all of the Biblical characters, redeem the captive that is being held inside of you. We the People have to meet the ‘evil inclination” we are born with and transform the energy to do good. We the People have to continue to do our T’Shuvah and see where we hit the mark and where we miss it-not to beat ourselves up, rather to improve. We the People have stop our misguided hope/belief that ‘someone will save us’, that “God will save us”. We the People have to return to our evil and good inclinations, putting them together with the evil serving the good, so we can meet the outside “threat”, through ‘winning’ the inner “challenge”. It ain’t easy! It is not linear! It is doable, it is guaranteed to work by the prophets of old and throughout history. Rather than ask “where is God, where was God”, we are being told to ask: “where are you”, where am I”? Only when We the People stand for our authentic self, only upon rising to the “challenge” of Torah, truth, kindness, justice, mercy, love will we be able to hold “evil” at bay and transform it.

I know this to be true as it is my story. I know the “threat of evil” because I lived in it. I am going to Florida next week and I will be officiating at the 50th Wedding Anniversary of my best friend from childhood. I introduced him to his wife and I am thinking of how much of their lives I missed because I succumbed to the “challenge” of evil instead of meeting it. I know how much I gave away by becoming the very thing I always knew was a “threat”, “evil”. I can’t dwell in the sadness, in the muck, I have to move forward and be in this moment. Today, as I have for the past 38+ years I meet the “challenge” of evil and, while not always overcoming the “evil”, it no longer is the address I live at and my T’Shuvah is ongoing. I am joyous each morning to meet the “threat” and the “challenge” of today, knowing I will encounter “evil” and have a new response that is one grain of sand better than yesterdays! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Goodness needs the will of God and the freedom of man-how are you living in both realms? Year 4 Day 191

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 191

“Values are not eternal ideas, existing independently of God and man. If not for the will of God, there would be no goodness; if not for the freedom of man, goodness would be out of place in history. Greek philosophy is concerned with values; Jewish thought dwells on mitzvot. (God in Search of Man pg. 377)

Rabbi Heschel is reminding us of a crucial life lesson: “values are not eternal ideas”, they come from God and are executed by human beings. It takes “the will of God” and “the freedom of man” to bring them into this world. I hear him reminding us that they are not subjective as well. Values, such as “goodness” are not open to question, as the Greek philosophers and other philosophers like to do, thereby rendering the action called for by a value impotent. There is, or should be, no debate, no discussion of how to fulfill the value: “Love the stranger”. This is not a subjective value that only applies to ‘certain’ people-it applies to all of us because, while not eternal, the “values” God has given us are universal.

While each and every one of us has a different experience of “God”, there is only ONE GOD, as we recite each day in the Shema which also tells us that we are part of the oneness of God, hence our need to “nullify our will before God’s will so God’s will becomes our will” as Pirke Avot teaches us. We the People have to surrender our need to be right, our need to define the undefinable, to explain the Ineffable, and accept that our experience of the Ineffable One is as valid as the next persons and, as we learned at the Red Sea crossing and at Mount Sinai, each being has a different experience of both God and the experience of ‘meeting’ God “face to face”. Again, the Oneness of God is not in question for the Jew, the message of God is not in question for the Jew, what the Jew questions, or should be questioning, is: how do I fulfill the message, how do I live the values, what do I do with my free will, etc.

The difference between “Greek philosophy” and “Jewish thought” as Rabbi Heschel delineates is the difference between witnessing trauma and evil and, as Martin Niemoller says so eloquently, saying “I was not a …” and I am my brother’s keeper, I cannot “stand idly by the blood of” any human being. The fulfilling of a mitzvah, however, is not a scorecard, it is not a check list, it is an engagement in the moment we are living in and seeing what the next right action is, even if that action is to sit on one’s hands. While not every fight is everyone’s the fight in front of me is mine to discern and either join or stop, it is not to be indifferent. “The will of God” is “for the freedom of man” to be used appropriately and at all times. It is not to be robots, it is not to be automatons, it is not to be animals and it is not to be angels, the “freedom of man” is to learn how to make the next right choice, to do the next right thing, the emphasis being on next. We are not capable of perfection and this Greek myth, along with their endless discussion of values, are just bullshit and ways to avoid the hard work of the “mitzvot” that “Jewish thought” calls for. We the People will never be perfect, We the People are not supposed to be perfect, We the People are not God. We the People are able to achieve wholeness, We the People are Godlike, made in the Image of God, partners with God in completing the creation, growing into “the soul we are created to be”, finding passion and purpose. We the People need the “mitzvot” to help us in all our endeavors remembering we have no fucking idea if we are ‘doing it right’ and there is no ‘there there’, we are on a journey and the destination is, as Abraham is told: “to a land(place) I will show you”.

We the People have been engaged in the Greek way of living for far too long, I believe. We the People have lost the ability to discern truth from lies, fact from fiction because we have freely chosen to listen to the mendacious ones, to go along with the grifters, to let go of our “intuitive minds” so we can be a servant to the worst, so we can twist ourselves into pretzels in order to “Be in the “IN Crowd” and ‘get ours’. Netanyahu, Smotrich, Vought, Miller, Trump, Vance are no more interested in what God has to say about “goodness” than the man in the moon. It is way past time for We the People to heed “the will of God” and use “the freedom of man” to serve God’s will instead of the will of the autocrat, the fascist. It is time for We the People to demand of our elected officials they fulfill their duty to “protect and defend the Constitution” rather than protect and defend their asses, their unjust, inhumane, enslaving actions because “the president wants it” as they are wont to whine. The Republicans in Congress have gone along with the fascists in the White House like good German Soldiers-bravo John Thune, Mike Johnson. The Supreme Court has gone along with the fascists as well rendering their oath to “follow the law” mute and their vow to “protect and defend the Constitution” toothless and meaningless. It is up to We the People to turn to the Bible and “proclaim freedom throughout the land”, to remove “the stumbling block before the blind” to end the cursing of the deaf that is happening, to “rebuke our neighbor and not bear guilt because of them”. We the People have to demand better from these PAGANS in Washington than Emil Bovee as a Federal Judge-a Jew who twists values rather than fulfill Mitzvot, like Lutnick, Miller and the rest of those ‘good jews’ who work with the fascists in power.

I have been obsessed with the difference between the “Greeks” and the Jews for a long time. I have written about it, I have preached about it, and I say again-Judaism is not concerned with my feelings, I don’t need to take a leap of faith to be a Jew, I do have to “take a leap of action” as Rabbi Heschel says in order to fulfill the myriad of “mitzvot” in front of me each day. This is my quest and my dream-to see them, to do them, to grow from them. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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"Life is human as well as divine" Human beings are more than just "a value to society". Year 4 Day 190

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 190

“Life is human as well as divine. Man is a child of God, not only a value to society. We may explore things without God; we cannot decide about values without Him.” (God in Search of Man pg. 377)

The more I re-read this chapter, the more I immerse myself in these thoughts and teachings, the more I understand the depth of Rabbi Heschel’s compassion, care, kindness, and faith. Along with this understanding comes a ‘hearing’ of his demands, prophetic vision and speech, and his unyielding belief in the potential of human beings to be human. This is not some ‘airy-fairy’ thought Rabbi Heschel had, rather it is based in his loyalty, his commitment to the ideas and ideals found in the Bible.

Realizing that we are both “human as well as divine” is an important first step in our returning to the ways of the Bible, to the victories of humanity found there as well as the numerous times we ‘missed the mark’ which are also found there. Rather than give into the societal norms, which don’t deal with the “divine” nature of every human being, Rabbi Heschel is calling us to face the truth about We the People, that we are both. This is a difficult proposition for many of us, we don’t want to acknowledge the “divine” we have within us, we are loath to grow deeper into our authentic self through realizing the “acorn”, the raison d’être of our creation and living into it. We the People know we don’t get ‘points’ from society for living into goodness, justice, kindness, truth, love if we don’t make a ‘killing’ from it, if it doesn’t give us power over the people what good is it, most people in power are asking today. Public Service is looked upon as either a great grift or, if you are not grifting, you are just stupid and an ‘idealist’. We have left the days of the Peace Corps being a national treasure and entered the time of being looked upon by our elected officials as scum and with scorn.

In our society today, truthfully forever, many more people see life as “human” and do not regard the “divine” nature of human beings. Hence without attention, without nurturing, without nourishment, our “divine” nature begins to shrivel and wither, becomes almost undetectable and no longer a factor in our decision-making because all that is important is our “value to society”. Our entire ego system is dependent upon being ‘liked’ on Facebook and other Social Media sites, our egos are in constant need of outside attribution with Trump being the best example of this need and far from the only one! Rather than live into the teachings of Christ, those ‘good christian nationalist, prosperity gospel folk’ keep fleecing the pockets, the minds, and the souls of their flock for their greed and to serve ‘der fuhrer’, Donald Trump and this is what is passing as religion!! OY, VA VOY!! Judaism is not doing much better when Chabad and other Ultra-Orthodox groups claim that Oct 7th was God’s punishment to the Jews for not taking Gaza and the West Bank from the Palestinians and throwing them out of their land, again! When these same people along with the far-right Likud members led by that paragon of virtue, Benjamin Netanyahu, believe that Arabs are ‘not really human’ we see the same rejection of our “divine” nature as with ‘those good christian folk’ above.

We the People are being called from Mount Sinai to stand up for God, to stand with God, to deny the lies and mendacity of society that all that is important for someone to be human is their worth, their “value to society”. We the People have a unique opportunity to set things right again, maybe for the first time, and recognize one another as “divine” reminders, as Images of God hence reflections of our divinity and we a reflection of theirs. We the People have to fight like Hell to institute: “Freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein” as a norm not just a slogan. We the People are being asked to rise above the bullshit we have been fed since infancy by ‘societal norms’ and live into the “radical amazement” of being led by God, live into the core of our authenticity, our souls. Taking this journey down, rather than trying to ‘reach the heavens’ is crucial if We the People are to regain control of our destinies, recapture the hallowed halls of government, and clean the Temples, Churches, Mosques of the “money-changers, the idolators, the PAGANS that are currently defiling some of our most sacred spaces. When these assholes defile our sacred houses of worship, our hallowed halls of freedom and democracy, the defilement of the human soul is beginning and most of us don’t even notice it. Listening to the people who are most at risk from the PAGANS in charge and their blind loyalty is scary, is unbelievable, is dangerous, and is the real walking to our deaths because these people have lost their connection to their “divine” nature, to God and only believe what they are told, not what they see, hear, smell, touch. We the People have to do something and do it NOW otherwise we are guilty of “standing idly by the blood of our brothers and sisters”. Isn’t it time for We the People to stop wringing our hands and Get Into ACTION?

My action today is to support the people who support We the People and to stand up to those who support “the 1%” only. Is it any wonder, given society’s obsession with success that the “1%” want to stay on top? They worked hard to get where they are, they unwittingly buried their “divine” nature so deep they can’t even hear its call. I know this experience, I had it without being in the “1%”, I had it because I thought that is what would make me okay. Only through shoveling through the shit I placed upon my soul, only by going deeper into my inner being could I find my authentic self and this is what I am writing about, this is what I speak about and this is the way I work to negate the Trump/Bibi/Orban/Putin way of being. Standing up for and with We the People is what God wants and what we need. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are we living as entitled human beings or as people who "Owe" a debt for life? Year 4 Day 189

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 189

“We do not wage war with evil in the name of an abstract concept of duty. We do the good not because it is a value or because of expediency, but because we owe it to God. God created man and what is good “in His eyes” is good for man.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376/7)

In the world in which we live, the ideas above seem absurd. They are laughed at by the MAGA, the Trump Circle, the Prosperity Gospel people, they are abused by the Ultra Religious parties in Israel and Bibi uses these ideas to wage war with “good” in every part of his Prime Ministership now and before. Yet, what is a person of faith to do? We cannot let the PAGANS determine our fate, we cannot allow the idolators set the parameters of observance, we cannot lay down in front of the moving train and allow what “we owe to God” to be ignored and plundered. It was never and is not now ‘okay’ to let the bastards win! We the People have to return our world to some sense of stability, some way of being that is constantly wrestling with “evil”, that is willing to stay on the battlefield of war between “the good” and “the evil”. It is imperative for We the People to remember this is not personal goal, it is not a personal win/lose situation, this is war for the soul of humankind, it is a war for the superiority of God, it is the war between Moses and Pharaoh and this war is both macro and micro.

“An abstract concept of duty”, “a value, because of expediency” are not long term solutions. The idea of “abstract” is that it can be changed, mis-interpreted, bastardized and turned into the exact opposite of what our duty is. “Values” seem to change on a dime and “expediency” only lasts a second. What we are left with, if we choose to acknowledge it, is what “we owe to God”. Herein lies the challenge, the rub, the ‘out’, the fertile soil of idolatry and mendacity. This is what we are facing today, as we have throughout the generations of humankind being on earth. We are witnessing a “duty” to get revenge, to ‘get even’, to humiliate another group of people based on their skin color, based on our fear of them gaining power and acting towards us as some of us have acted towards them. Expediency is what is being used to decimate the principle of justice that has been integral to the growth of this country and Israel. Rather than give people due process, both countries are putting people in jail and prison, with the U.S deporting them to other countries without the benefit of a judge, jury, checking on their status as legal or illegal, citizen or green card holder. It is more expedient for an autocrat, a fascist leader to make a scapegoat out of a group, in this case once again it is racial, as this group are Hispanics. In Israel the Ultra Orthodox and Likud far right-wing, led by the fascist opportunist Netanyahu, who are claiming that Palestinians (and by extension all Arabs) in the West Bank and Gaza are less than human! The idea that a Jew would scapegoat another people after millennia of being scapegoated is so disgusting, I want to throw up! Yet, we see it happening because they are not “waging war with evil” no matter what these Fascists in Israel and the United States say, they are waging war with Good, with the Holy, and, ultimately with God! Rather than acknowledge what “we owe to God”, the current trend in both Evangelical clergy and elected officials is to lead their flocks in the path of hatred and believe they are owed, that god is giving them their due and it is because of ‘those’ people that ‘our kind’ has suffered. This old saw is the same tone as what is used against Jews and it is tiresome, deadly and, unfortunately, effective.

WE THE PEOPLE  are being reminded that we are debtors, not creditors, that we owe and we are not entitled, that there is an objective “good” and we learn what this is when we study, immerse ourselves in the Bible. When we accept the truth and wisdom of the Bible as eternal without worrying about the ‘factual basis’ of the stories. When we accept the teachings of how to live well and how we failed to live well with the consequences of both being on display. When we accept that we are like the prophets and the priests who the prophets railed against, when we live into the destruction that we wrought because of senseless hatred and mistreating the stranger, the widow, the orphan and the poor. When we realize we were liberated from Egypt and at Sinai we accepted the Covenant as our repayment for being liberated, that we accepted the yoke of freedom and learned to be free is hard work, then we rejoice in repaying our debt, we are ecstatic to learn and lean into “the good”. We have a new found serenity/clarity because we know what God wants from us, we let go of the false idols we have worshiped in the past, we realize the more we have, the more we get to give to help another, and we appreciate the talents and purpose of each person we meet rather than be in competition with them. This is the Jewish battle plan against “evil” and, one day, when we all live into it, “evil” will be defeated once and for all, until then, we have to battle it one day at a time with the resolve of the prophets, the hope of the Israelite slaves freed from Egypt and the strength of King David.

I know that I owe, I know how large my debt is and I know I can never repay all of it! I keep up with the interest most days and on really good ones, I lessen the principle a little. I keep my doing of “evil” to a minimum and continue to do my inventory daily. I keep working to be one grain of sand better each day and I have filled more than a few sandboxes over the years. I have made errors, I have caused pain and suffering and I have made my amends. I work hard to forgive those who have harmed me and are unable to make amends to me. Those who do, I am eager to re-establish connection. I pray for all the people who are stuck in their shit. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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“Seductiveness of Vice” or “the joys of the mitsvah” we get to choose each day where we want to live- Year 4 Day 188

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 188

“The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30). How do we receive that quality, that power? “With every new mitsvah which God issues to Israel, He adds holiness to them.(Mehilta)”(God in Search of Man pg. 376)

The first sentence above is true and it is not believed by many people! The Biblical person knew this to be true and, as we witness in the stories of the Bible and throughout history, found it difficult to always know and live this truth. This truth has eluded humankind throughout the millennia as it does for many of us in this time. Society has, instead, practiced the opposite, believing “the seductiveness of vice” is so overpowering, so rewarding and the mitsvah is a burden, a yoke, an obligation that only ties us down and enslaves us. Because dogma has become so important in every faith, in every nation, it seems as if “vice” is the only way to break free. It has been called “teen-age rebellion”, getting ahead, Caveat Emptor, etc as ways to cloak giving into “the seductiveness of vice” into something ‘normal’ and, in many cases, ‘good’. This is how far we have sunk into the quicksand of mendacity, into the grips of deception, into being enslaved by our ‘rational minds’ and forgetting “to not scout out after the desires of our hearts and our eyes because we whore after them”(Numbers 15:39.

Instead of heeding this call, instead of immersing ourselves in the last paragraph of the Shema, many Jews ignore it and this is a tragedy that has been with us for the millennia as well. The Temples were destroyed because we did not heed this command, this truth and, instead, believed “the seductiveness of vice” was actually the next right thing to do! We see it happening today as well, both in Israel and in the U.S. with Jews in power spouting words and doing deeds that are reminiscent of the Pharaoh, of other despots and calling it holy!! This is the tragedy of our time, this is the denial of the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s first sentence above, it is a denial of all that is Holy in the Bible and a denial of the word of God to all of us from Sinai. Yet, these PAGANS keep saying how ‘this is fulfilling the word of god’! Have you ever noticed how people of God never need to ‘prove’ the truth of their words or deeds, they only quote the Bible and speak about how to care for the poor, how to live free, how to be a mensch?

Of course, this type of behavior is not limited to Jews, the ‘good old boy christian nationalist’ like Mike Johnson continually engages in “the seductiveness of vice” and calls it holy. The ‘fine prosperity gospel preachers’ like Paula White-Cain preach hate, preach how fine grifters are, how holy it is to take advantage of the poor, etc and say ‘I heard it from the lord jesus’! We are not witnessing a revolution of faith, we are witnessing a revolution of idolatry, of paganism, of the worship of power and money. This is antithetical to what the Bible teaches, preaches and to what Jesus said and did. Any society that doesn’t welcome and love the stranger, forgetting they were strangers in the land of America, as Jews “were strangers in the land of Egypt”, doesn’t care for the poor, the needy, the widow and orphan, cannot claim any kinship to God-full stop! Yet, we keep hearing how ‘holy’ these liars are, how ‘godly’ it is to kill people in the West Bank and Gaza, how ‘those people’ are poisoning the blood of our people, how we have to throw out the constitution that our elected officials swore to “serve and defend from enemies foreign and domestic”. It is ironic that, like in all dictatorships, the people who swear to “defend and protect” are the very ones to shit all over the very ideals and ways that made it possible for them to be free to screw the rest of us over!

We the People are being called by the words above and the times we are in to “return to God” who “will heal our backsliding” and “take us back in love”! We the People need to return to the ways of our ancestors who fought to make Israel a nation in ancient times, who fought to bring into being the Magna Carta, who fought in the Revolutionary War, who fought against slavery in the Civil War, who fought for the freedom of people in World War II, who fought for the Civil Rights of all people in the 50’s, 60’s up till today. We the People are necessary to be part of the fight against “the seductiveness of vice”. We the People have to fight “vice” with the only thing more powerful, “the mitsvah”. At every juncture, We the People have to ask the question: “what is the next right action to take here?” It will differ in each experience and we have to continue to fight for what is right and good, we have to engage in going against what our neighbors are saying, we have to discern truth from lies, fact from fiction and live into the dictate: “You shall be Holy” with each and every action we take, knowing we will stumble, knowing we will fall short of perfection, setting our sights on being 51% decent in every interaction so “the mitsvah” overtakes “the seductiveness of vice”.

I am well aware of “the seductiveness of vice” and I know that it begins with the lies I tell myself. I know the power of these lies, I know the power of the deception by another(s) that leads to whoring after my heart and my eyes. I know the power of being led by a pied piper of “vice” who makes so much ‘sense’ that I became overwhelmed with the lies I told myself and the lies I was being told and “vice” became “holy”. This is “the seductiveness of vice” that overtook my life for 20 years and being at my family reunion has brought up how much time, joy, and love I missed out on and took from my family! We are all good now and this is due to the “joys of the mitsvah” that I have engaged in with them and they have lived for so long. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Raising ourselves to “a higher level of existence” or not - Year 4 Day 187

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 187

“The Biblical answer to evil is not the good but the holy. It is an attempt to raise man to a higher level of existence, where man is not alone when confronted with evil. Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)

“Holy” in Jewish thought and practice, as I understand it, means “elevated, separated and connected”. This is a crucial foundational idea, principle in living Jewishly, I believe. In order to “raise man to a higher level of existence”, We the People need to elevate ourselves and one another. We the People are being called to do more than we think we can, we are being called to raise ourselves up from our baser, animal instincts and live into the “intuitive mind” that Einstein speaks of and use our “evil inclination” to do good, to be holy. Since we are created in the image of God, since we have within us the spirit of God as Genesis chapters 1 and 2 teach us, we are more than capable of elevating ourselves to the level of being human. This is the challenge we face each and every day, in each and every interaction-will we rise above our false egos, our rational minds which are self-centered and narcissistic or not.

While “the good” is crucial to our actions and as a way of being that “departs from evil”, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel this morning, they are not enough to truly change our level of living. It is living up “to a higher level of existence” that will enable us to have a daily practice of doing “the good”. Living at the level of “the holy” separates us from the powerful urges and desires to get even, to be cruel, to hate your enemy, to ‘win at any costs’, to separate ourselves from “the good” instead of from “the evil” through our rationalizations such as “everyone else does it”, “it’s just business” and other such lies we tell ourselves. “To raise ourselves to a higher level of existence” we have to separate ourselves from the rationalizations we use, from the lies we tell ourselves and the various deceptions that have become ‘normal’ in our society. Rather than obfuscate the truth, we have to shout what is true and real from the rooftops. Rather than ‘go along to get along’, we have stand up and speak truth to power. Rather than hate our enemies, we have to find ways to love them while fighting “the evil” they are perpetrating. Separating ourselves from our lower and baser instincts is not to say they are without merit because, of course, it is a both/and. We use these baser instincts to build buildings to house and shelter ourselves and another(s), to make medical breakthroughs, to love, to marry, to have and raise children in their own image, etc. AND, we can only really do this when we separate ourselves from “the evil” within.

Connection is the path to doing this. “Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil” and only through connection with “the light” can we be infused and consumed by “a power of love”. This connection begins at birth and, if we nurture and feed our hunger for connection with God through living into the Covenant, we continue to grow this connection and increase our “power of love” in order “to overcome the powers of evil”. It is not easy, it is not a one and done, it is a slow slog through the muck and mire of societal norms, it is a constant “maladjustment to notions and ideas” so we never see the same moment in the same way. Connection is “we will do and then understand”, it is following the Biblical dictates of the “holiness code” to feed the poor, welcome the stranger, pay people a living wage and on time, to not take advantage of another because of their vulnerabilities, to show faith in another by rebuking them when they are on the wrong path thereby showing our belief that they can be “holy”. It means we will not impugn the dignity and value of another, to not hate another, even our enemies, in our hearts, to find a higher level of love for ourselves so we can love another.

We the People are being called every day to “be holy” by the voice of the Ineffable One and we have to hear this call that is deep in our soul. For far too long we have been trying to ‘reach the heavens’ rather than growing deeper, as James Hillman writes, growing deeper into our true and authentic selves, growing deeper in our spiritual life. As I am understanding today’s quote, it is imperative for We the People to end our fascination with the lower self, end our constant need for a ‘bad guy’ to blame for our natural inadequacies, end our need for absolute power. It is way past time for We the People to bask in “the light of the face of God” which is our primordial and natural state of being. It is time for We the People to once again tell the Pharaoh inside, the Pharaoh of societal norms to LET MY PEOPLE GO and leave the Egypt of “the evil”.

I know the power of evil, I also know that only by “living in the light of the face of God” was I able to leave it, to unshackle myself from its tight grasp and subtle ways of holding me captive. I had to come face to face with myself, with my actions, with my tears, with my dreams and my evil in order to return to the basic goodness of being that is deep within me. Only by doing this excruciating work of “the dark night of the soul” as St. John of the Cross coined and describes Jacob’s encounter with “an ish” prior to meeting Esau. I had to wrestle with both the Jacob and Esau in me so I could use Esau’s strength to overcome Jacob’s deviousness. It is a hard journey that, truly, never ends and I continue to wrestle with these two archetypes. Living at the level of “the holy” allows “the good” to win out most of the time. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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How do you “DO GOOD” each day so you can “depart from evil”? Year 4 Day 186

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 186

“To the Jewish mind, evil is an instrument rather than an iron wall; a temptation, an occasion, rather than an ultimate power. The words of the Psalmist, Depart from evil and do good(34:15), contain the epitome of right living. Yet, it seems that Jewish tradition believes that the right way of departing from evil is to do good; putting the accent on the second half of the sentence.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)

The words in bold, the last sentence above, are crucial for our understanding of what We the People were told at Sinai and are being told every day by the Voice that still speaks to us. In today’s world, we are witnessing the bastardization of “DO GOOD” and we are all made smaller by not living what our soul, our higher consciousness call out to us to do. As Rabbi Heschel says: “virtue pays and crime pays more”. When our elected officials believe that they can do whatever they want, they can usurp the norms of “good”, and declare as Richard Nixon did: “if the President does it, then it must be legal”, we are in an autocratic, tyrannical state. When the clergy go along with these “evil” actions, the dictates of the Bible become nothing more than suggestions which are to be interpreted and twisted to fit their desire for power and wealth. When people of faith blindly go along with the PAGANS to do the bidding of the rich and powerful, we are in desperate times.

We the People are being called by the words above, by the Biblical norms to say NO to the societal bullshit we are witnessing, and by our silence, by our going along to get along, participating in. This is true of both the right and the left, it is true whenever we seek to ‘be right’, wrap ourselves in a ‘false purity’, and no matter how these actions are wrapped in ‘biblical dictates’, We the People have to stand up and follow the words and deeds of the prophets and speak truth to power and raise up the poor, the needy, the stranger. This is what the Bible calls for and this is the inheritance, the way of being we Jews have been chosen for!

Being chosen is not some ‘get out of jail free’ card. It is a mission and a purpose and the purpose and mission of being a Jew is to “do good”, no matter the cost, no matter the ridicule, no matter the prejudice, no matter how much we are hated. I would suggest that this is the foundational reason there has been, is, and will be so much Jew hatred in the world. Our ancestors demanded that the kings, the priests, the wealthy see their status as an obligation rather than a privilege, that the people never forget their inherent dignity and worth, and that We the People live the promise of God that each of us can use our unique talents and energy to make our corner of the world a little better each and every day.

“Do good” is not a bumper sticker, it is found in a dogma, it is a daily way of being the best human being we can be in the moment we are in. It is to make community a place for all people to gather, for all people to share ideas, argue with one another to figure out what the next right action is, it is a place where people belong rather than have to follow some dogmatic way of reading, seeing, living the Bible’s ways to “do good”. Leviticus chapter 19 is called the “Holiness Code”, it begins with “you shall be holy because I, Adonai, am holy. What an outrageous statement, it is calling upon every human being to be reminders and agents of God, not ourselves. It is calling upon We the People to see our divine image every morning in the mirror, to see the divine image of another in every interaction. “Do good” is to “love the stranger”, it is to “redeem our kinsfolk”, it is to “erase the margins” as Father Greg Boyle teaches. It is to care for the poor, it is to treat the ‘lowest’ of society as reminders of God. It is to stand up for the powerless and the voiceless, it is to not cheat our laborers, to not put our fingers on the scales.

We the People have to demand that society no longer puts “a stumbling block in front of the blind” nor “curses the deaf” anymore. To do this, We the People, have to ensure that each person has the same opportunities to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, it is not a purview of just the rich and powerful. We the People are being called upon to deny the whims and wishes of the extremes, to call bullshit on the constant swinging of the pendulum from one extreme to another and demand that everyone gets to be educated and trained, to find their particular niche in the world and live free. We the People are being given the gift of standing up and “do good” by rejecting the evil ways of ‘societal norms’, the degrading of any group of people so another group can gain, maintain power for themselves. We Jews have to lead the way because this is the birthright we are given, this is the gift given to us when we were “brought out of Egypt”, this is the mandate we received from Moses when he told us “Choose Life”!

I write this today from Philadelphia, the birthplace of the United States. I am taking my grandson, Miles, to see Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, etc. I will explain to him that my grandfather made the journey from oppression to this land so he and his descendants could be free. It is a gift that, for a while, I spat on and a gift that I have come to cherish, revere, and live into. I certainly missed the mark many times and I hit the bullseye so many more. I am not the worst of my actions, though society likes to make us think we are, my legacy is that I rose above them to “do good” no matter how I felt, no matter how my rational mind and ego wanted more, I have given more than I received and in doing so, I have received so much more than I ever thought possible. “The reward for a mitzvah is a mitzvah” has been the light and the truth I live by. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Doing good at any and all costs or shading the truth 'when necessary'? What do your daily actions show? -Year 4 Day 185

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 185

“To the Jewish mind, evil is an instrument rather than an iron wall; a temptation, an occasion, rather than an ultimate power. The words of the Psalmist, Depart from evil and do good(34:15), contain the epitome of right living. Yet, it seems that Jewish tradition believes that the right way of departing from evil is to do good; putting the accent on the second half of the sentence.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)

While this quote is particularly speaking of “the Jewish mind”, the thoughts, ideas and demand is not limited to Jews. Most people get overwhelmed in the face of evil, we are so susceptible to fear of evil, fear of the authoritarian that we are unable to face both our fears and the evil inside of us and outside of us. The authoritarian fear probably comes from childhood, “father know best” and “spare the rod, spoil the child”, along with “because I said so” experiences. The command to honor your mother and father does not mean to go along with them when they are wrong, “au contraire mon frere”, it means to not correct them in public, don’t sit in their place, don’t try and be their clone, rebuke them in private when they are screwing up, go to the Rabbi, priest, police if they are abusing you, etc. This commandment, according to “the Jewish mind” doesn’t give the parents the right to do anything and everything to their child including treating their kids as if they are their investment because each of us is accountable to and invested in by God - not humans!

Ergo, when one knows and understands that “evil is an instrument rather than an iron wall” it is much simpler to deal with evil. It isn’t easy nor is it quick, and it is simpler. Knowing that the “evil urge” within every human being is tamable, is transformable, gives us the “job” and the power to face and confront our rational minds which want to ‘be in charge’ and, instead, help the “intuitive mind” win the war, and it is an inner war between our rational minds and the evil they see as good and our intuitive minds and the evil they see and transform it so the energy and insight is used for good! This is the power of “the Jewish mind” whether one is Jewish or not, it is the power of seeing “evil” for what it is: powerful, overwhelming, cunning, baffling, and “an instrument…, a temptation, an occasion” and it is not “an ultimate power”. Knowing this, belonging to this type of community, be a faith community or an intellectual one is of no consequence, is crucial to our being able to live into the wisdom of “the Psalmist” quoted above.

The words before the quote above are:”keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking guile”(Psalms 34:14), the words that are at the end of the Amidah and we say/pray 3 times a day. The words after what is quoted above in the same verse are:”seek peace/wholeness and pursue it”. To “the Jewish mind” therefore, this bullshit of loving Trump, of following Bibi, of believing the lying Rabbis and the Idolatrous ministers who are catering to these two who believe cruelty, evil, grift, etc are good and We the People must help them see the light. We the People are being called upon by Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom, his spirit, his actions, to STAND UP, to BE COUNTED, to, as Isaiah says: “BE A LIGHT UNTO THE NATIONS!

And, We the People can only do this if and when we are ready and willing to accept the challenge of Godliness, the challenge of pursuing wholeness/peace, the fulfillment of the covenant at Sinai. Mount Sinai was an earth shattering moment because in this moment, We the People had the experience of being free, of belonging to something so much greater than ourselves that we were overwhelmed and didn’t hear much, and, even though we had no idea what it all meant, We the People instinctively knew that we had to take action before understanding and the power of Sinai, the spiritual energy that was infused in us, that we discovered within us was so great, so powerful that in that moment, in that experience, We the People knew Truth. Because We the People are aware that we cannot think our way into right acting, that our intentions, while good for most of us, are not enough to overpower, to control the “evil” within us. For that we need help and that help is found in taking action, in doing good, because doing good is the training ground for transforming the “evil” urges within us to do the next right thing instead, to use it’s energy to “pursue peace” as the Psalmist says, to “keep your tongue from evil” because evil speech is the precursor to evil actions, be it said out loud or to oneself, the power of evil speech has caused much pain, sorrow, death, famine, hatred, oppression, wars, etc throughout history. Hence the need for We the People to listen up, to take action and to reach out to those less fortunate in spirit as well as material ways. Bibi, Trump, are spiritually sick bastards, the people around them as as sick if not sicker-the question We the People have to ask and answer:”are they as far gone as Pharaoh was?” If so, we have to see them destroyed and we have to take whatever action is necessary to restore freedoms, liberty and ‘the American Way’.

Having been a sick bastard, my gratitude to “the Jewish mind”, which I always had and ignored for far too long, is boundless. I know the power of “departing from evil”, it is the freest I ever was and it is what keeps me free today. Pursuing wholeness and Shalom, has given me an outlook on life that I never had during my ‘using’ years. I am able to see clearly what is good, what is right. I am able to wrestle with my negativity and help my better angels prevail. I am more willing to stand up for my principles and my lips no longer NEED to be “speaking guile”. This is the gift of Sinai and we all need to re-experience it so we can all be free! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living in the "real world" or living the Ideals of our ancestors, like freedom, kindness, truth-which way do your actions say you choose? Year 4 Day 184

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 184

“Ideals have a high mortality rate in our generation. Contemporary thinking looks like a graveyard of discredited ideals. With his moral efforts man, it is felt, can build castles in the air. All our norms are nothing but desires in disguise.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)

This was published in 1955, imagine Rabbi Heschel’s words today!! We are witnessing the destruction of ideals on a minute by minute basis by ‘true Americans’ and ‘real Jews’ if we are to believe Trump and his gang of PAGAN thugs as well as Netanyahu and his practitioners of Avodah Zarah, idol worship. Our ideals of democracy, our ideals of how to live together with our differences, celebrating the diverse skills, talents, ideas and ways of every individual, honoring the divine image in each and every person seem to have been or are being crushed. Isn’t this the ultimate evil-making We the People into sheep, into instruments of the wealthy and the greedy, soldiers in a war that we do not want nor did we ask for, beggars begging for scraps at the tables of power and parishioners receiving lies rather than truth, spiritual death rather than spiritual growth from the Clergy who, rather than serve God, serve themselves and their ‘masters’? This is where we find ourselves some 70 years after Rabbi Heschel warned us and cajoled us into understanding the issues of his day which are the issues of our day, which are the issues of every day throughout the history of humankind.

Since the Garden of Eden humans have been unable to hold onto and fulfill the ideals of the Bible, of our ‘better angels’, of morality. Cain killing Abel, the “men of renown” taking any woman they wanted just because they could(sound familiar), the violence(Hamas) that led to the Flood, the inter-family conflicts of our patriarchs and matriarchs, being enslaved in Egypt, wandering in the desert with gratitude not always being present, inter-tribal fighting, and finally dying to give a new generation a chance at being free. Even they screwed it up and we Jews, have been wandering ever since-yes we have a homeland, Israel, and we are still wandering in the “graveyard of discredited ideals”, the ideals that have been crushed by Netanyahu and his gang, the ideals that have been bastardized by the ‘rabbinic authorities’ in right-wing Israeli society, the ideals that the IDF used to have and don’t seem to anymore, the beliefs that Israel was safe from an Oct 7th type of attack. The ideals of “love the stranger because you were a stranger in Egypt”, “rebuke your neighbor and don’t bear sin because of him/her”, “circumcise the foreskin of your heart”, “do justly, love mercy, walk in the ways of God”, etc. We Jews are still wandering in the desert and graveyard of our ancestors simply because we are unwilling, too stiff-necked to find ways to have a strong enough heart, a willing enough spirit to surrender to the will of God instead of the desires of our false ego. We the People are the ones who have gone along like lambs being led to slaughter with the PAGANS and Idolators, the bastardizers and charlatans who laugh at the ideal of democracy, who spit on the ideals of religion, and who cheer at their cruel and evil actions. This is how far we have fallen in the 70 years since Rabbi Heschel wrote these words.

We the People are the only ones who can pull the rip cords so we can have a softer landing on firm ground. Firm ground in this case is the ideal of democracy, the ideal of spiritual growth, the ideal of seeing the divine image in every human being, the ideal of refusing to do evil in order to satisfy some urge, some desire that is not an authentic one, rather it is a manufactured one by societal norms/conventions and/or our (ir)rational minds. We the People need to stop with our airy-fairy “castles in the sky” and get down to tachlis, brass tacks! We the People are being called to live into our higher consciousness, to stop allowing our (ir)rational minds to override what we know in our gut, what our inner life knows to be true and good, right and holy. We the People have to, like our ancestors before us, say to Pharaoh: LET MY PEOPLE GO to serve Adonai, not some wannabe autocrat, some fascist loving asshole. We the People have to say to one another LET’S GO, we can leave Egypt because we have within us the power of spirit, the power of good, the power of resilience, the power of decency, the power of truth to propel us through our fears of conflict, through our fears of confrontation, through our fears of rocking the boat. The boat we are in right now is sinking, the “norms” of the current ‘ruling parties’ “are but desires in disguise” and We the People are the only ones who can stop the boat from sinking, who can resurrect the ideals of Moses, of Jesus, of Mohammed, of the Buddha. We the People have the power, the path and the strength-our question is do We the People have the willingness?

I think of the ideals that I jettisoned as a teen-ager and I am sick over it. I think of the ideals I have held to in my recovery and I am proud of it. I know that my actions are not perfect and I know I have not always lived up the my ideals, the ideals of faith and recovery, spiritual health and truth, AND I know I have done my best. I have put the welfare of another before mine many times, I have been part of a life-saving, soul-enhancing organization, I have preached truth to power and power to the powerless, I have given voice to the previously voiceless and learned with some of the greatest minds in the world-people who have been to hell, like me, and come back. I have learned that this world with all its flaws is the place of my work and I know that my job is to be the best me. My norms have evolved from that teen-age boy’s egotism to serving another as the greatest act of freedom, kindness, truth and fulfilling the will of God and me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Winning at any and all costs, winning is the only thing or Care for the stranger, the poor, the needy - Year 4 Day 183

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 183

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

Reading and re-reading the words above in bold I am reminded of the story of King David, Bathsheba, Uriah and the prophet Nathan. Nathan tells David a story of a rich man who steals the only thing the poor man has, an ewe, so he can offer a meal to a traveler without it costing him anything. David is enraged and wants to kill the rich man and then Nathan says: “That man is you” and David puts on sackcloth and repents. David the King forgot to have “the fear lest we hurt a poor man must be as deep as the fear of God” and life changed for him for quite a while afterward, his connection to God was diminished, not by God but by his inability to keep his personal covenant with God. This is the daily challenge we all face, keeping our personal covenant with God so we keep our spiritual connection to the universe, to our higher consciousness, growing, thriving and open.

When Mike Johnson, the PAGAN, the Idolator, the false ‘christian’ proclaims that if you want to know his politics, read the Bible, we know he DOESN’T READ IT! When the evangelicals like Joni Ernst proclaim their ‘loyalty’ to Jesus Christ, we know they ARE DISLOYAL! When Ben G’Vir and his thugs proclaim they are ‘torah jews’, we know they read a different Bible than the rest of us because they pick out obscure inserts that go agains the main thrust of the Torah and they are the epitome of “he that oppresses the poor blasphemies his maker”! Rather than learn from King David, rather than hear the and immerse themselves in the numerous times of how to love the stranger, care for the poor, give dignity and aid to the needy, rather than “redeem your kinsman”, rather than “love your neighbor as yourself”, these PAGANS continue to say one thing and do another, speak with “forked tongue” and, in the case of Netanyahu, say one thing in English and the exact opposite in Hebrew. The chutzpah of these assholes is undeniable and unbelievable, the buying of their deceptions and bullshit by We the People is unfathomable.

How we got here is important and not as important as how to we return to living decently, living in a free society once again, living in and with “reverence for God”? I believe Rabbi Heschel’s words above are one of the ways to come back to living in God’s will and God’s light, returning to the spiritual nature we are born with and the personal covenant we all have been given at birth. Each of us has a different calling, each of us has our own unique spiritual mission, personal covenant. We are not being called to compete and compare with one another as the words above indicate, we are being called to help one another, to not give in to our negative urge to ‘win at all costs’, to fuck over the little guy because the rich are in so much need of more tax cuts, more money, more de-regulation, more polluting, more screwing with the Ozone, more investment income and less taxes, they should never have to “pay their fair share” because they are rich. Like King David in the story above, Trump, Vought, Bezos, Vance, Johnson, Ernst, et al believe it is good and right for the rich to steal from the poor so they don’t have to have any skin in the game when a traveler comes to visit, so they don’t have to support the very country that has made it possible for them to be rich, that they are not responsible to the journey their ancestors made to come to the United States so they could have a better life. No, instead of doing the next right thing, they blame the very class of people their ancestors were, they do to another group of people exactly what was done to their ancestors when they came here. “What is hateful to you do not do to another human being” is an antiquated saying to the PAGANS like Ben G’Vir, Netanyahu, Smotrich and the Rabbis and Jews who clap for them and support them. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” has been transformed by those ‘good christian nationalist folks’ like Johnson, to “fuck the poor, the needy, the stranger” and use them for personal gain.

We the People have to renew our personal covenant with God, we have to renew our spiritual commitment to do the next right thing, we have to leave the Egypt of callousness and cruelty. We the People both here in the USA and in Israel have to stand up and rebel against the fascists like Vance, Netanyahu, Miller, Katz, and the rest of their gang of thugs. We the People have to restore within us the trembling awe, the fear that leads to “know before whom you stand” so we grow into the truth that every person is a reminder of God, that everyone, even Trump, Netanyahu, are created in the Image of God and, We the People have to “come to Pharaoh” and if their divine image is so buried, their egos are so inflated they will not listen, then they have to drown in their own “red sea” and We the People have to redeem our kinsman, welcome the stranger, “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”. We the People are being called to stand for and on the Spiritual Principles that the Bible gives us, to live our Spiritual Principles our loud and, in today’s world, very loudly. Will you answer this call?

I have been very loud over the years, as both a con man and a recovering person. I cannot “stand idly by the blood of my neighbor”, I can’t be ‘politically correct’, I believe everyone is entitled to freedom, and we have to rebuke one another so we don’t bear guilt and maybe they awaken their personal covenant. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Standing in Awe of one another vis a vis Being Cruel to one another - Year 4 Day 182

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 182

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

“Reverence” comes from the Latin word “revereri” which means “stand in awe of”, so the first sentence above is really speaking about our ability to “stand in awe” of God and one another. The Hebrew word would be Yirah-awe/fear and while many people see these two words as opposites, I see them as complimentary and necessary for a true experience of both God and humans. While this is not a ‘new’ concept that Rabbi Heschel thought up, it is a concept that needs repeating daily by each one of us. We the People are in desperate need of “standing in awe of” one another rather than standing in contempt, standing in deceit, standing in cruelty towards one another. In fact, as ChatGPT tells us, there is a great difference between the words “towards” and “of”. Of means belonging and towards indicates direction, attitude. We cannot say We the People, exclude the “stranger among us” and say we are a ‘christian nation’ because the Bible teaches us to “welcome the stranger”, to “love the stranger”, to “have one law for the stranger and citizen alike”. Jesus hung out with the lepers, the poor, the stranger, he welcomed everyone because he knew, just like the Biblical figures knew that “without reverence for man” there cannot be “reverence for God”.

It is crucial for our spiritual growth, for our continued existence on this planet that We the People engage in “love of man” as well. Without love of human beings, we cannot love ourselves nor God. I am using human beings rather than humanity because it is not enough to say ‘I love humanity’, or ‘I am a humanist’ because as we have seen, possibly said and done, one can love the idea of humanity and hate people, one can love the idea of humanity and be cruel to ‘those people’, one can speak of ‘love of god’ and deport a person to South Sudan without the benefit of due process with some of We the People not saying a peep! When we engage in the second sentence above, it becomes impossible to act with the cruelty which we have seen happen in our lifetimes, we have learned about in history, we have engaged in ourselves, we have condoned by our leaders, we have stayed silent and willfully blind to as a ‘protection’. We the People stand guilty of ignoring the truth, the demand, not immersing ourselves in the truths above.and in the truths of the Bible, New Testament, etc. We the People are being called by the situation at hand, by the times we are in to make the same hard decisions as the prophets made.

We the People are being called to stand up and fight for the dignity of every human being. We the People need to hear the demand to “Be Holy because I, Adonai, am Holy” from Leviticus 19:2. We the People are being reminded that no one is greater than another human being ‘in the eyes of God’ nor should they be ‘in the eyes of human beings’, that every human being is created in “the mold of Adam” and therefore we all have “infinite dignity, equal dignity, and we are all unique-there is no one else like us” as Rabbi Yitz Greenberg taught the Ziegler Rabbinical Students in Summer 1997. As Rabb Adin Steinsaltz, z”l, teaches /writes in 13 Petalled Rose each of us has our own unique purpose, our own “acorn” as James Hillman writes in Soul’s Code, which makes all this comparison, competition, cheating, grifting, ‘low-self esteem’, ego-maniacal, narcissistic ways of being, the bowing low to ‘der Fuhrer’ RIDICULOUS and a BLATANT example of AVODAH ZARAH-IDOL WORSHIP.

Which brings us to the ‘religious leadership in some faiths, in some sects: they are the BLASPHEMERS, they are the PAGANS, they are the IDOLATORS, not We the People, it is the leadership of some Evangelical Christians, some Evangelical Orthodox Jews, some Evangelical Radical Muslims, that has forgotten that “there is no reverence for God without reverence for man” and one cannot condone the killing of innocent men, women children and say one has “reverence for God”. One cannot lock people up for seeking a refuge, a sanctuary from the abuse, the torture of their home countries, following in the tradition of the Puritans, the French, the Portuguese, the Spanish, the English, the Chinese, the Irish, the Italians, Germans, Jews who sought refuge in America from the extreme conditions they were suffering in their countries of origin.

We the People have to once again “hear the voice at Mount Sinai”, We have to once again seek to be part of the “oneness” that we end the Shema prayer with, belonging: in Godly actions, in our love for one another, in our awe of one another, in our treatment of one another, in holding one another accountable for our good actions as well as our not good ones. We the People are being reminded of our task to “be a blessing” as descendants of Abraham, to “wrestle with God” as our name Yisrael means. We the People need to change the trajectory of our descent into making the world a living hell and go deep into ourselves so we can raise up our daily living and our world to the image that God gives us in the Bible.

I have been in awe of people whether I like them or not, most of the past 38 years. Sometimes I have been in awe of their stupidity(my impression) and sometimes in awe of their brilliance, in awe of their loyalty to principles and in awe of their loyalty to the con/grift. I have stayed loyal to the principles of the Bible for the most part of these years of recovery and I stand in awe and love of human beings so I can love God. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.2

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Seeking Oneness with God, with Self, with Another human being - Year 4 Day 181

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 181

“In the light of the Bible, the good is more than a value; it is a divine concern, a way of God. This is the profound implication of the oneness of God: all deeds are relevant to Him. He is present in all our deeds.” (God in Search of Man pg. 375)

All of our lives most of us seek “oneness”/wholeness. We proclaim, in the Shema prayer, Adonai Ehad, God is One, yet we may not have a true understanding of what “oneness” truly is. Dwelling in this idea of “oneness” presented above by Rabbi Heschel gives us a picture that doesn’t have everyone in sync with one another, doesn’t have all of us locked arm in arm with one another, doesn’t have Am Yisrael Chai as the only chant, it is teaching us that “oneness” with God, with one another comes from adhering to “a divine concern”, to attaching ourselves to “the good” as “a value” above all others. This, of course, flies in the face of both Religious and Governmental leadership for the millennia, since King David’s time, I believe. “The good” as the supreme value, as “a divine concern” places upon all of us the burden, the yoke of caring about what is happening in the world around us and what is happening in our inner world. The “profound implication” of this way of being, that “all deeds are relevant to God”, that “He is present in all our deeds” is overwhelming! Just as God was present in Pharaoh, so too is God present in the evil/wrong deeds we commit, I use evil to signify willful actions and wrong to signify unwitting actions.

If We the People truly want to find “oneness” rather than just being perpetual seekers, we have to begin with making “the good” “a value” above all others. We the People have to end our willful blindness and our lack of spiritual, moral maturity; we have to stop putting the servant(our rational minds) ahead of the gift(our intuitive minds) and live into what we know in our soul, what our kishkas are telling us. Rather than being self-serving and self-seeking, rather than being self-centered, “oneness” calls upon us to be part of something greater than ourselves. “Oneness” requires us to surrender our inflated ego, our need to be right and our ‘political correctness’ and engage in what is right, what is good, what is “a divine concern”, ie being human. Since “all deeds are relevant to Him”, it is time for us to stop saying and acting “it is my life and I can do whatever I want to”. While this is true since we are given free will, it is a lie that belies the gift of free will. Just as with everything we have, free will is a gift, not an entitlement, it is to be used in conjunction with our intuitive mind, in tune with and as a means to “the oneness of God”, not as something that serves our greed, our sense of fascism, our need to be right, our desire to be the power of the universe.

The evil that surrounds us today is a direct result of not heeding Rabbi Heschel’s words which reflect the spiritual truths of the Bible, the call and demand of the prophets, the words and deeds of Jesus in the Gospels, etc. The willful actions of Trump, Vought, Vance, Miller, Netanyahu, the IDF, Smotrich, et al are selfish and self-centered, they do not believe in God of the either Bible, nor do they seek “oneness with God”. They do not even seek “oneness” with one another, ‘how can I use you today to get more for me’ is their only concern. They wrap themselves in the language of holiness, in the language of religious fervor, and they are LYING PAGANS! The ‘clergy’ who support them are the same as the Priests who oversaw the destruction of both Temples, those lying PAGANS who sucked up to power and money rather than serve God, rather than seeking the “oneness with God” that the prophets begged them and the People Israel to do. The assholes in charge now in the U.S.A. and in Israel mistake the fact that “He is present in all our deeds” to mean approval of the evil they perpetrate which, of course, is the exact opposite of what is being said. God being “present in all our deeds” reminds us that we cannot hide, we have within us a voice, a power, a spirit that seeks to help us do the next right thing and find our ways back to decency, to justice, to mercy, to walking humbly with God once again.

We the People have to demand of ourselves first and then our leaders a return to having the same “divine concern” for “the good” that God has. We the People need to reinvigorate our spiritual health and clean out our spiritual arteries so we can find God “in all our deeds” and realize that the deeds of another, especially of leaders, are “relevant to Him” and to US! We the People need to re-attach ourselves to the spiritual force in the universe which changes lives, as President George W. Bush said to a group of us: “God entered my heart and I didn’t have to drink”. When We the People allow God to enter our hearts, when we “circumcise the foreskins of our hearts and stiffen our necks no more”(Deut.10:16), our lives change and so do the lives of the people around us and around the globe. When We the People make a decision to be part of the “oneness of God”, we fulfill the Shema prayer and our lives are never the same nor are we at ‘peace’ because the injustices, the lack of mercy and kindness, the bastardization of “the good” by both evil doers and wrong doers makes us walk the floors at night. This is the way of the prophets, this is the way of God crying out each night “my children are in exile” and this is the way to making “the good” the supreme value for all.

I knew God was present in my evil and wrongs, today’s teaching solidifies this truth and explains why I could never commit fully to evil and how I kept getting caught! I could not ‘kill’ God being “present in all my deeds” and this is what saved me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living "the Good" in all of our affairs - Year 4 Day 180

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 180

“In the light of the Bible, the good is more than a value; it is a divine concern, a way of God. This is the profound implication of the oneness of God: all deeds are relevant to Him. He is present in all our deeds.” (God in Search of Man pg. 375)

Living into the enormity of these teachings and words above is the goal of humanity, as I am understanding and hearing Rabbi Heschel this morning. His voice is in my head each and every day; morning, noon and night and it is a disturbing voice, a voice that is both a cheerleader and a critic, a loving, caring, demanding, unwavering, voice that continues to implore me to do one grain of sand better and to stop giving into the negativity that seeks to overwhelm me. Rabbi Heschel’s voice awakens the prophetic voice inside of me and, hopefully, you as well so We the People will accept once and for all time that “the good is more than a value” and we will “teach it to our children, speak of this when we walk on the way, when we lie down, when we rise up…” as the V’Ahavta prayer demands of us. This is an example of the “deed” of prayer, to take action on the words we say rather than just mumble them, sing them with no understanding or kavanah of what the prayer is asking of us, what the implications of ignoring the prayer are, and to pay attention to the experience of prayer “making us worthy to be saved” as Rabbi Heschel teaches.

“The good is more than a value; it is a divine concern” is an outrageous statement, it is a ridiculous statement to many; in Greek and Roman mythology, the gods have no concern other than fucking with human beings and their own selfish narcissistic desires. In other pagan religions the idols are made of clay and call for human sacrifices, fucking in the fields with the holy prostitutes so there is a good crop, etc. Only in the Bible do we learn that “good” is “a divine concern”, only in the Bible do we hear the demand to “Choose Life”, which is to choose good. We are being reminded that God has a stake in what we do, God has an interest in human beings that goes way beyond any ‘need’ of God, it is the concern of a parent that their child finds their way in the world, that they find their “Soul’s Code” as James Hillman writes about in his book of the same name. The outrageousness is that most people think that God is ‘some guy in the sky with a long white beard’ or Jesus on the Cross, or, or, or because they cannot wrap their heads around the idea that God is an abstract entity, that God is indefinable, indescribable, is the ineffable One. I believe we have raised idiots when it comes to spiritual maturity and growth, spiritual knowledge and insight because the Religious leadership hasn’t given We the People the benefit of their doubt that we are sophisticated enough to experience God as an abstract entity and still be faithful. How sad and ridiculous as well as elitist!

If only the Religious Leadership would study Rabbi Heschel, would immerse themselves in the Bible, would take seriously that “the good is more than a value; it is a divine concern”, then instead of spiritual midgets, We the People, all the people regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, would be spiritually educated, would be connected to the Source of all and truly be able to fulfill the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” and the “stranger” in our midst would be welcomed and embraced instead of feared and incarcerated. Were “the good is more than a value” be fully embraced by the Religious Leadership, we would not have the strife, the wars, the senseless hatred that is happening right here, right now. While many of We the People are well aware of the truth that “the good…is a divine concern” it is way past time for We the People to demand from our Religious Leaders and from our elected officials that they accept, live into and learn how to practice this eternal truth. It is way past time for We the People to throw these Charlatans, these PAGANS, these deceivers, these grifters the hell out of office, keep them away from power and throw out all of their co-conspirators, these ‘good christian folk’ who have cut the aid package that has saved millions of people from dying from AIDS (Pepfar) and many other important needs of We the People! When the elected officials and their appointees don’t care about We the People as this administration constantly shows and the Congress is too cowardly to do the next right thing, when they live and act as if “the good” is just another value which can be spun, when they fail to live, act and surrender to “a divine concern” and yet continue to talk about how much the Bible rules their daily living, it is way past time for We the People to stage another “Boston Tea Party” and dump these lying assholes, these grifting punks, these mendacious PAGANS out on their asses!

I cannot keep quiet nor can I speak in politically correct ways. I don’t care that the progressives think me a boor, that the conservatives think me a radical, because “a divine concern” is more important for me to follow than being liked, being fit for ‘proper society’. I can’t go along to get along, I realize that I am not able to compromise on principles, on values as I did before my spiritual awakening. I have, of course, compromised at times and it has been acid in my stomach, angina in my spiritual arteries and veins, and a tremendous war within and I lashed out at another(s), usually those I love most, when I couldn’t deal with the compromises I was making. I am not built to compromise, to shade, to wait when I perceive, see, experience, know in my bones that “a divine concern” is being violated, ignored, bastardized. I did these very same actions in my life prior to recovery, prior to my spiritual awakening, I witnessed ‘the good people’ violating, ignoring, bastardizing “a divine concern” and be leaders at the Temple, in business, in government and it was too much for me then and I succumbed to their way and since 1987 I refuse to do this again. “The good is more that a value; it is a divine concern” so it has to be mine and I continue to wrestle with me and you to make this happen. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Is Prayer mystical or magical? Does doing a mitsvah, the next right thing, change you ? Year 4 Day 179

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 179

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

Rabbi Heschel’s definition of “a mitsvah” above says it all to me. Doing “a mitsvah” cannot be done by rote any more than prayer should be done from memorization and become routine. When people are accosting people in the street to ask “are you Jewish?, did you wrap Tefillin today? Let me wrap it for you”, they are not fulfilling a mitsvah, no matter what you are told, they are fulfilling a check list! They are not sensing “His presence” in what they are doing, they are only showing off their ‘devotion’. The people who are being ‘wrapped’ in Tefillin may think there is something magical/mystical happening and without the experience being a “prayer in the form of a deed”, without the commitment to continue doing it and wrapping the Tefillin in the morning as we are told to do, it is a magic show that denigrates the “mitsvah” and cheapens our tradition.

The same is true in Christianity, in Islam, in Buddhism, when one is promoting and/or looking for a magic show, the essence of the faith, of the spiritual path is lost. Hence, these ‘good christians’ and ‘good jews’ who are promoting and perpetrating great harms against Latinos, Blacks, Jews, and Arabs are FULL OF SHIT! They are not fulfilling “a mitsvah” as they claim; they are not living Christ’s values, teachings, actions as they claim; they are living out their fantasies of power and prestige, money-grabbing and autocracy. They are living in self-deception and spewing out deceptions to We the People so fast and so furious we don’t have time to debunk one because there come in droves, these deceptions. Whether it is in politics or in the street, in the Church or the Synagogue, any time and every time ‘magic’ is used to ‘convince’ people of the primacy of der fuhrer’s position, to ‘convince’ people of the ‘rightness’ of the preacher’s words and ways, we are witnessing and experiencing the opposite of what “a mitsvah” is, the opposite of “a prayer in the form of a deed” and this is the tragedy of our time because most of We the People are unable to discern the difference.

In Judaism there is a prayer for just about everything! In immersing myself in the words above, I realize the Rabbis did this so that “prayer should be part of all our ways”. If we are constantly reciting a prayer upon seeing rainbow, an ugly person, a national park, the Grand Canyon, Old Faithful, upon eating and drinking, then were are really living the V’Ahavta prayer: we are loving God with everything we have, we are speaking of the teachings, the miracles, the mitzvahs while we are walking on our way, we are never forgetting that we are not the end all/be all, and we are constantly affirming our position as beings who are compatible with being a partner of God’s, we are actively seeking and making our corner of the world one grain of sand better each day. Making “prayer” a “part of all our ways” is to take life seriously, to realize our “destiny is to aid and serve” as Rabbi Heschel teaches. It causes We the People to be a little more deliberate in our actions, to be a little more disciplined in our ways of being and a little more aware of what is around us, beauty, holiness, ugliness and unholiness. “Prayer should be part of all our ways” is the antidote to willful blindness and indifference to evil, “indifference to the sublime wonder of living”. We cannot be blind nor indifferent when “prayer” is a “part of all our ways”. Living into this phrase will help us discern the lies from the truths that we tell ourselves and that we hear from the mouths of those ‘good christian folk’, those ‘good jewish men’ etc. This is the antidote to evil and ugly-making “prayer” a “part of all our ways”!

Before you complain, I don’t believe in prayer, look at the last sentence of this quote. “Prayer” is not about saying some words by rote and routinely, “prayer” is about action, it is about doing the next right thing, it is about being engaged in the activities one is doing and participating fully in THiS MOMENT. “Prayer” is not something done with our lips alone, it is an action that consumes our minds and our hearts, it is an action that reminds us of our station in life-infinitely worthy and dignified, equal to all and unique/different from everyone else. “Prayer”, in this sense, gives We the People the vision to see what is ahead, the spiritual sustenance to weather and defeat the fascists in our midst and the Pharaoh that resides within us. “It must always be on our minds, in our hearts” gives each and every one of us the ability to hear the call from Sinai, to respond to the cries of the Jews, Palestinians, the Hispanics, the Blacks, the Asians, etc-every minority that the fascists in charge of our Nation and Israel want to blame for all our troubles, want to discriminate against and want to deport from “the land of the free”! “Prayer” is what makes We the People know we cannot “stand idly by the blood of our neighbor” and, as Ben Franklin taught, hang together or we will hang separately, cause the fascists in charge want to split us so they can divide and conquer. “Prayer” as described above will not allow this to happen!

I do the best I can to live these words each and every day of my recovery. I am loud, abrasive and dedicated to prayer, to the inner wisdom of “a mitsvah” and a better person because of living this way! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Doing the next right thing, doing what I want to do to get ahead one leads to good, one leads to evil - Year 4 Day 178

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 178

“We are never alone in our struggle with evil. A mitsvah, unlike the concept of duty, is not anonymous and impersonal. To do a mitsvah is give an answer to His will, to respond to what He expects of us. This is why an act of mitsvah is preceded by a prayer: “Blessed be Thou…” (God in Search of Man pg. 375)

WOW!! What good news-“we are never alone in our struggle with evil” makes facing “evil” less scarier and more doable for many of us. Yet, at the same time, most people feel alone in their “struggle with evil” because they feel like hypocrites for doing “a mitsvah” and saying a “prayer” while knowing that 5 minutes ago they were overcome by their urges to do something that was not “a mitsvah” and, in fact, was wrong, bad, “evil”. This incongruence, this cognitive dissonance makes many people reject the first sentence above and the rest of the words above. They don’t realize that every human being is flawed, every human being is incongruent, every human being has an urge to do “evil” and the reason “evil” doesn’t dominate people is because they know they are “never alone in our struggle with evil”. We have the Bible, the New Testament, Koran, Buddhist teachings, etc. We have the mitsvah which obligates us to continue the “good fight” to overcome the myriad of urges and rational reasoning that lead to doing “evil” and convincing ourselves that every thing is upside down so we can live with the cruelty and ruination we are causing.

“A mitsvah” is personal, very personal. Some people are able to ‘mail it in’, do “a mitsvah” and not be touched by it, not be changed by the experience, they can even just do “a mitsvah” as a checklist, something to check off and the same is true of prayer-just going through the motions and call themselves ‘religious’, ‘pious’, ‘the keepers of the flame’, and other such lies, mendacities and bullshit. This is not what we are learning above. Since “a mitsvah” “is not anonymous and impersonal”, we have to make sure that we know what we are doing, we have to broadcast doing the next right thing-not for egotistical reasons-so another human being knows what the next right thing to do is, it is a way of teaching humanity about service, about obligation that represents “I GET TO DO THIS”, about the deep personal satisfaction one receives upon looking at the good they have done for another human being, for “His will”, and the knowing that, in this moment, I have responded “to what He expects of us”.

This is why the lies about Jesus, about the “stranger”, the demonizing of another group of people for one’s personal gain, the injustice being served up on a platter, the lies and cruelty shown to We the People in the ‘big bullshit bill’, the arming of a secret police that rivals the Gestapo, the Russian Secret Police, etc is so disturbing to people of faith-real faith not the IDOLATRY that Vought, Osteen, Pence, Bondi, Trump, promote. “A mitsvah” cannot be done in earnest by PAGANS, they may make a mistake and do the next right thing once in a while, and it is either a mistake or a calculated strategy to ‘look good’ so they can pick your pocket somewhere else. What is happening in our country by those ‘good christian nationalist, white supremacy folks’ is NOT what the Bible teaches! It is not what the Torah teaches, no matter how loud Ben G’Vir screams and the ‘orthodox’ Jews yell about the West Bank and Gaza being ‘given to us by god’ to prove their point of superiority-sounds like a playbook used before by those who have persecuted and tormented Jews!

What is happening in the United States, in Israel is criminal by Biblical Standards, in my opinion. These two governments, in the name of We the People are throwing gasoline on democracy and democratic norms, lighting the match like the burning of Jewish Books, Torah Scrolls, Tallis’, Skullcaps, etc on Kristallnacht! How could this have happened? Simple-when one doesn’t recite “a prayer” before doing something, one’s heart, mind, spirit cannot be in alignment, there can be no kavanah, no heart pointing and soul controlling our actions. When one does ‘a mitsvah’ for their own sake and not because this is “what He expects of us”, it is a selfish action that precedes more and more selfish acts and they are done under the guise of protection, retribution, fairness, caring, etc. These selfish acts that people like Netanyahu, Trump, et al perform under the guise of “a mitsvah” are actually acts of cruelty, acts of going directly against “His will”, never responding to “what He expects of us” and abdicating our position of being God’s partner because these PAGANS have decided they know better than god, they are idolators and non-believers kissing babies for show, being prayed over by other PAGANS and everyone is having a big laugh at the expense of the very people Jesus hung out with, the very people the Torah, the Bible tells us to take care of! Then, to have this evil “preceded by a prayer: Blessed by Thou…” by Cain-White, Osteen, Hagee, et al is AVODAH ZARAH- IDOLATRY to the Nth Degree! Yet, many of We the People buy into this bullshit, have put blinders on to what is true and real and merrily go along with cruelty, fascism, racism, which leads to the ruination of our Great Nation because we are no longer “conceived in liberty”, we are no longer concerned with Justice, Mercy and could care less about “walk humbly with God” because they believe to their core that they are god- these ‘good christian, jewish muslim folk’!

Having been a PAGAN for 20 years, from 17-36, I know of what I speak. Having been dedicated to “His will” and “to respond to what He expects of us” for the past 38, I choose LIFE, I choose the “mitsvah” as the way to go because I never have to look over my shoulder, I never have to worry. Being part of a community, a group of friends reminds me I am “never alone in our struggle with evil”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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