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The Myth of Perfection - A Societal Lie, a Controlling Myth- Year 4 Day 212

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 212

“Should we, then, despair because of our being unable to retain perfect purity? We should, if perfection were our goal. However, we are not obliged to be perfect once and for all, but only to rise again and asian beyond the level of the self. (God in Search of Man pg. 402)

Since today is the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul, it seems fitting and proper to think about, write about and engage in the work of cleaning our souls of the schmutz we have laden them with and the lies, self-deceptions we have allowed to enter, grow and flourish in our minds. This is the month the Rabbis dedicated to getting ready for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the month to prepare ourselves for the gift and grace of forgiveness, and begin the new year ‘clean’ for at least 30 seconds:)

“Despair” is not a feeling/emotion/state of being that is congruent with living Jewishly. Certainly feeling dejected, upset, at “being unable to retain perfect purity” is “normal”, “despair, however is not a part of the covenant we made at Sinai, it is not an address for anyone who recognizes and lives into their spiritual self, their mature self to live at. “Despair” is defined as “the complete loss of hope” and comes from the Latin meaning “down from hope”. As a descendant of  Adam, as a descendant of Abraham, as a descendant of Judah, of the prophets, of King David, there is way for any of us to rationally nor spiritually live in “a complete loss of hope”. Hence the phrase: “hope springs eternal” because as long as there is breath in We the People, we have the opportunity to do T’Shuvah, to repair, to amend, and to have a new plan moving forward.

We cannot do this as long as we buy society’s lie about “perfection”! There is no such thing, because as human beings, we continue to grow and learn as we see in the Bible. Because we are human, not divine, we, sometimes, have to learn and re-learn the same lessons over and over again. Isn’t it time for We the People to stop buying into this lie? Isn’t it time for We the People to cease our relentless and futile ‘race to the top’, our insane obsession with “perfection”? Yet, we seem incapable of living in “radical amazement”, we seem to prefer “adjustment to societal notions and ideas” rather than see the world through “a new pair of glasses” each day. No two moments are the same, no experience in the Bible is repeated exactly the same, isn’t it time for We the People to live into the newness and the beauty, the challenge and demand of this moment rather than continue to try and re-capture some euphoric recall of ‘the way it used to be’? Isn’t it time for We the People to end our obsession with “Make America Great Again” and admit that while America has done great things, We the People still have a ways to go in our maturity, our growth as individuals and as a nation?

What is being shown to us, in this moment both in Israel and in America, is when “perfection” is “our goal”, leaders, autocrats, fascists will continue to seek to deceive us, to make We the People believe that “only I can save you”, “I am your retribution”, “those foreigners are poisoning the blood of our people” and other such lies and mendacities. When leaders continue to bellow out their “perfect” actions, their “beautiful bills”, their “I can solve this conflict”, etc. What We the People have to recognize and realize is the true nature and consequences of the myth of “perfection”.

As We the People begin this month of Elul, let us begin with letting go of the myth of “perfection”. Let’s look in the Bible and acknowledge-no matter what the Rabbis and commentators mendacious comments are- that NO ONE IS PERFECT, none of the ‘heroes’, none of the people in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, etc approach “perfection”. Since the Bible is a guidebook, a road map for how to live well, maybe We the People should follow the examples of King David who, upon being told of his errors and/or recognizing them himself, did T’Shuvah, made amends, changed his way, his thinking, maybe We the People should see ourselves as descendants of Judah who could not only admit his guilt and error, he could proclaim that a woman is “more righteous than me”! Yet, We the People buy into the lie of the Greeks and the Romans, the Rabbis and the Priests, that somehow, we are ‘supposed to be pure and perfect’. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we are, this is a man-made myth so “the leader” could control the people, so that Pharaoh could sit on his throne without worry because he is “the son of Ra”, that Christian Nationalism is the proper way to govern because “Christ ordained it” even though the proponents of this way of being do nothing that Christ did and they are only using the Name of the Lord in Vain. We the People must stand up against this bullshit, this idolatry, these PAGANS right here, right now!

Only through doing the “work” of Elul, doing the inventory of my life, can I get clean enough to truly experience the joy and relief of Yom Kippur. I have to go back and see the things I have forgotten, the people I did not realize I harmed and make my amends, see the changes I need to make and those I have already made. I am engaged in this work this year as much as any other year because my imperfections are relentless and never ending. I make the amends I need to whether there is any acknowledgment by the other person of their part-this is not my business and I have no expectation that anyone else will reciprocate with their own TShuvah. When they do, it is pure joy and re-connection. I continue to let go of the myth of “perfection” and it is hard when I am playing bridge, golf, etc. This year, I commit to be less harsh with myself and with you re: our imperfections and more loving of them, of you and of myself. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you hiding from the "envy, pride" that "continue to prowl in the dark? Year 4 Day 211

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 211

“After all our efforts and attempts to purify the self, we discover that envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark…Should we, then, despair because of our being unable to retain perfect purity? We should, if perfection were our goal. However we are not obliged to be perfect once and for all, but only to rise agains and again beyond the level of the self.” (God in Search of Man pg. 402)

This first sentence above is so crucial to our well-being and our being human! Too many of We the People continue to deny the “envy, pride” that continues to “prowl in the dark”. I do love this phrase because it captures the experience of most of We the People. It doesn’t matter how many times one goes to church to pray and to confess, it doesn’t matter how many times one goes to Temple for the daily Minyan and does TShuvah one day before one dies, which means everyday, it doesn’t matter how many 10th steps one does as part of their recovery program, “envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark.”

It is precisely because this statement is universally and consistently true and part of every human being that “society” has demanded purity.Christianity demands “perfect faith” because we are ‘born in sin’. Orthodox Judaism demands an adherence to dogma and doing the mitzvahs as a ‘to-do list’ rather than as an act of love, kindness, truth, compassion and justice. Islam demands the same perfection going as far as making heroes out of murderers like suicide bombers! While these ‘practitioners of the various faiths make the case for how to get rid of envy and pride, We the People know that it is impossible to do this. As the Maggid of Mezritch is said to have told his disciples when they asked how to choose a new Rebbe upon his death; if someone tells you they know how to eradicate the “evil inclination” he is a liar and a fraud.

Herein lies our issue. We the People are so stuck in our despair, in our neediness, in our self-deception that we have chosen leaders(?) who are only interested in their own welfare. In the United States and in Israel, the majority parties/coalitions are hellbent on serving their false selves and damn the cost to anyone else. “Proclaim freedom throughout the land” has been co-opted and changed to Proclaim fealty to the MAGA, to the ‘re-taking of all of the land Israel is supposed to occupy’ and hell with democracy, to hell with justice, to hell with love, to hell with loving the stranger, to hell with mercy, kindness and TRUTH! I ask you and me WTF???

How did We the People drink the juice after knowing about Jonestown? How did We the People elect liars and cheats, grifters and fascist autocrats knowingly and, evidently, lovingly? How is this in keeping with any spiritual discipline? How is this being a good Christian when the people in charge deny, defame another human being because they are not ‘like us’? How is this being a good Jew when the stranger is starved and bombed because “those people” are not ‘like us’? How is it being a good human being when the MAGA cheers the inhumanity shown towards any human being and/or group of people for no reason other than “I am in power so I can do anything”?

It all is possible and defendable when, like the elite and powerful people in Ancient Israel, We the People would rather worship at the altar of greed and avarice than see the Divine Image in every human being. We the People have made a conscious decision to “do unto others” what we would never want done to us. We the People are engaging in actions that are “hateful to us” so we do them to another human being! Both go against the teachings of the Bible, the actions of Christ, the railings of the prophets and We the People, like those who have come before us and done the same thing, truly believe we are going to be exempt from the logical consequences of our behaviors.

Living like this is possible because “envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark” recesses of our memory, of our inner life and they, not our souls, not our higher consciousness, are in charge of our actions. We the People are joining with ‘der fuhrer’ to justify these horrific ways of living in the name of ‘christian nationalism’, in the name of ‘it is good for the jews, good for Israel’! We the People have made a decision to ignore the gifts of confession, TShuvah, Daily Inventory for the ‘joy’ of being part of the in-crowd. Howard Lutnick, a man who did not die on 9/11 while most of his company did, is part of the team who promote, extol and engage in the cruelty we see happening. This man, who profited greatly from democracy, who’s ancestors fled someplace so he could grow up in freedom, is gleefully taking part in denying the same to anyone else. DU BIST A YID? You are a Jew?? OY! Yet, this is what happens when “envy, pride continue to prowl in the dark.”

I know this place and I still see how “envy, pride” do push-ups and try to get me to buy into their bullshit. I get angry at injustice, at betrayal, at forgetting those who we owe debts of gratitude to, at mendacity, at cruelty, etc. I just don’t allow myself to indulge in and be overwhelmed by the negative thoughts and ideas that “continue to prowl in the dark.”. It takes a daily spiritual program, daily growing one grain of sand better, connections to the people who love me and letting go of those who don’t. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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"Grandeur of Cosmic Reality" or "self-centered Ego, Speciousness of Rewards" -Which do you follow? Year 4 Day 210

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 210

“There are moments when we are all awake to the grandeur of cosmic reality, in the face of which the unworthiness of self-centered thinking, the speciousness of rewards, and the eagerness of vanity fill us with shame…Shame, shocked at the misery of an overloaded ego, we seek to break out of the circle of the ego.” (God in Search of Man pg. 402)

It is evident that Rabbi Heschel is an optimist! After being in Nazi Germany during the rise of Hitler and his gang of thugs, seeing what was happening in the Soviet Union, witnessing the Anti-Semitism, Racist way of being in America, he still believed in the words, the experiences, the teaching above! It is also evident that he believed greatly in the power of We the People to “break out of the circle of the ego”! Maybe because he witnessed the remorse and repentance of the German nation, maybe because he knew of the resilience of the survivors, maybe because he believed in the goodness of being that is to be found in every human, he was able to know and believe that “there are moments when we are all awake to the grandeur of cosmic reality”.

This first sentence above is the experience that every recovering person knows well and is incapable of truly describing. Becoming “awake to the grandeur of cosmic reality” is the moment when we no longer need to use anything to escape, when all our escapes, money, power, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, prestige, fame, etc don’t help us anymore. It is the moment when we are overcome with both “the unworthiness of self-centered thinking” and the awe, power and beauty of ‘seeing’ the source of “cosmic reality” face to face. Be it Moses, or Jacob, King David or the Prophets, Jesus, Mohammed, and/or  any one of We the People coming face to face with the “cosmic reality” is a cause for consternation and elation-the truest and most exquisite  both/and experience! Yet, too many of We the People make the fatal decision to ignore this “grandeur” to buy into the societal lies and mendacity that the “cosmic reality” isn’t true in the ‘real world’ because of the fear of the people in power losing their control, much like Pharaoh in the Bible, much like King Saul, and all of the Kings the prophets railed against. For many of We the People coming face to face with our own “unworthiness”, with our own “speciousness”, with our own “vanity” is too hard a pill to swallow, so, like Bibi and Donny, Vlad and Viktor, we blame everyone and anyone else for what is happening, we “accuse others of what we are guilty of” just like Josef Goebbels taught and did. Forgetting where this way of being led the Nazis and Germany to, forgetting that the BIG LIE is a paper tiger and will eventually fail.

It is up to us, We the People to end the reign of terror that people who are unwilling to have the experience of “the grandeur of cosmic reality” affect them. It is up to us, We the People to look in the mirrors, to come face to face with, admit, and change our own “unworthiness of self-centered thinking” and remember the ways of the Bible which teach kindness and love for the stranger, the widow, the orphan, which teach care and compassion for the hungry and the poor, which teach justice for all, which teach that freedom, holiness, connection are the basics for living well and all of us are endowed with “unalienable rights” and none of us are meant to be slaves to another! It is up to us, We the People to let go of the false rewards being dangled before our eyes by society. We the People have learned throughout history that these rewards are both fleeting when we ‘receive’ them and, usually, are only dangled and never given to us lowly servants of the powerful.

When We the People “awake to the grandeur of cosmic reality”, it is imperative to build on these moments, not have them continuously as that is just not reality. The goal is to build upon these moments, as Rabbi Heschel teaches, loyalty to the experience of “cosmic reality” and loyalty to our response to this experience are what makes up faithfulness. We all are faithful to some experience, most of us are faithful to the lower experiences of self-centeredness, rewards, vanities, power, hate, fear rather than being faithful to the experience of “the grandeur of cosmic reality”. It is hard to stay in this game because of the pulls of the ego, the pulls of society, the fear of looking stupid, the reality of being alone, the disdain thrown at one who is loyal to the prophets vision and actions, to the ones who stand out and above the people wanting power and prestige, fame and fortune, who are not willing to “break out of the circle of the ego”. Each of us falls prey to these ways of being and it takes a spiritual discipline to help us return to “the place our soul was meant to be” as Thomas Merton says.

I know both of these experiences well. In looking back, I can say that I stayed loyal to my own experience of “cosmic reality”, not perfectly and I never allowed it to fade into the ether. I have an ego/drive that I have used for good most of the time, sometimes falling prey to “vanity”, “unworthiness”, and “speciousness”. Each time I have fallen prey, however, because of my own spiritual work or the love of someone telling me I have erred, I have been able to return to the the ways of being able to “break out of the circle of the ego” that work for me-study, writing and other forms of action-which always entail helping another human being. It is a lonely road at times for me, I know I am not an easy person to be with or be around because I hear a call and am unable to ‘tone it down’ so I am loud, abrasive and, to many obnoxious. To me, I am just living my soul’s calling out loud. I walk this road not because I ‘want to’, but because I am “awake to the grandeur of cosmic reality” and this is the road that has my name on it. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Enchained to your drives, out of proper measure in your actions? Year 4 Day 209

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 209

“The less willing we are to resign ourselves to our being enchained to the ego and the more deeply we understand that ultimate meaning is found in deeds composed on the margin of the self, the greater is the chance of release at least for a moment. And it is the moment that counts most.” (God in Search of Man pg. 402)

While I am not a proponent of Freud, within each human being is a drive; call it ego, call it good inclination, call it evil inclination, call it higher consciousness/lower consciousness, whatever one wants to call it; it is imperative that we all acknowledge this drive. This is the drive that makes vaccines possible, that cures polio, that allows us to be loving, welcoming, kind, caring. AND it is the drive that allows us to be cruel, self-centered, narcissistic, deceptive, make war, and enslave another for our benefit and their detriment. This drive, whatever one calls it, is the drive of a Martin Luther King and a Donald Trump. Hence, “the less willing we are to resign ourselves to our being enchained to the ego” is reminding us to get the fuck out of the Egypt of narcissism, get up out of the burden of self-deception, leave the “sin” of believing someone can save us, and take the next right action.

We are, once again, witnessing the extremes of “our being enchained to the ego” and, for at least half of We the People, we are not participating, we are ‘innocent bystanders’ watching our freedoms fall, seeing the enslavement of people around us, and believe we are powerless to stop it from happening in this moment! The truth is, we are powerless to end it, we are powerless to stop it right here, right now AND this doesn’t mean we stop trying, this doesn't mean we stop fighting. Just as we are told in the Talmud that if we are planting a tree and someone says the Messiah is here, finish the planting before going to see if it is true, so too, do We the People have to keep fighting this autocracy for our children and children’s children. We the People were given a country that believed in, fought for, died for and promoted freedom, democracy, goodness across the globe, even when we couldn’t achieve it completely here. Now, we are the country that promotes lies, deceptions, chaos, cruelty, and slavery across this land and the world. All because enough of We the People elected a group of people who are so “enchained to the ego” they cannot see truth, they cannot care about another human being, they are immune to the suffering around them and these are “the good god-fearing people’ who are proclaiming Jesus is their Lord and Savior, Moses is their teacher, etc. I am enraged at the lies, at the bastardizations, at being at the whim of someone “enchained to the ego” and enslaving us! When We the People are unwilling “to resign ourselves to our being enchained” the awareness of our understanding of “ultimate meaning”. The greater our uprising against the chains of “the ego”, the greater the likelihood we will take the next right action, experience relief from the enslavement by the ‘drive’ that is killing our spirit and taking our freedom of choice away from us. This is exactly what happens in addiction, we make a choice, become enslaved by our choices and find we don’t have the power, on our own, to make any different choices and we are walking around like a robot, answering to the call of our enslaver, our Pharaoh, be it drugs, alcohol, gambling, Trumpism, Fascism, Bibi’s ways, etc. This is the root of our issue today, yesterday and tomorrow. The drive is implanted within us, it is ours to transform or be transformed by it, this is our daily choice, this is our daily task.

As Rabbi Heschel is teaching above, it is in “the deed” that “release” comes, if only “for a moment”. Yet it is more than “release” and relief for the moment that we experience, it is strengthening our ‘other drive’, the one that helps tame the worst of the ego, yetzer HaRa, narcissism, etc. “The deed” that is “composed on the margin of the self” is “the deed” that goes beyond the letter of the law, it exposes and brings to light, to the forefront for all to see, the spirit of the deed as well. This is where and when “release” leads to relief and to change, to redemption. Too many of We the People read the Bible for ways to validate their cruelty and, as my friend and teacher Rabbi Hazan Danny Maseng is teaching me, these parts are inserted by people 1000’s of years ago who had an agenda that is in line with “the enchained ego”, the drive that wants to promote cruelty, hatred, slavery, etc. As Rabbi Harold Shulweis, who’s memory and teachings are a blessing to us all, teaches, there are times to obey and times to disobey! What is most important, in studying the Bible is to immerse oneself in the words, in the experiences, see oneself in each chapter, each ‘character’ of the Bible. What is important in studying the Bible is to remember KINDNESS is more prevalent than cruelty, that cruelty is added and not “Godly”, that we are warned by the Ramban, that we can easily be “scoundrels within the boundaries of the way”, hence the message: “You shall be Holy because I the Lord am Holy” (Lev. 19:2). Since we are created in the Image of God, we can be holy, we can overcome, if only for a moment, the chains of any and all drives out of proper measure and return to our authentic way of being human.

It is a tall order, getting even, fighting fire with fire seems so natural and rational. Yet, it is more important that I break these chains,  I achieve “release at least for a moment”. I have been doing this more and more and I am still a work in progress. I know I am not “enchained to my ego” anymore, I give into it at times, I just am not a slave to it anymore. I still get angry/hurt/upset when people are unkind to those who have helped them and to the stranger, etc. I will never stop railing about this and I don’t have to “get even” anymore-I can give Divine Pathos to them because it is so sad they forget the people who helped them live. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Optics or Truth, "Getting ahead or living with conscience which is a greater influence in your daily living? Year 4 Day 208

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 208

“There is great merit in knowing our subtle hypocrisies, in our having no absolute faith in our faith, in our sense of shame and contrition. The sting of shame is the only pain the ego cannot bear and the only blow that may cause its forces to shrink and to retreat, and contrition is the saving heart of our soul. Remorse stands higher than sacrifice.” (God in Search of Man pg.400)

I am finishing off this quote with the last sentence because of how important it is for We the People to remember and take action on this teaching.

From Amos (5:22-24) we learn: “Though you offer Me burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; nor will I regard the peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not listen to the melody of your lutes. Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Who cares about sacrifices that have no meaning for the one bringing them? Who cares about attendance at High Holiday Services for those who come late and leave early, for those who are adamant in their refusal to be moved not to tears, but to ACTION? Justice and Righteousness are not feelings, they are not thoughts, they are actions that need human beings to fulfill. So, Paula White-Cain, John Hagee, Joel Osteen, if you want to know what a true Pastor in Christ looks like, look at Bishop William Barber. So, Ben G’Vir, Smotrich, all you ‘good jewish orthodox folk’ if you want to know what a real Rabbi does, look at Harold Shulweis, z”l, look at Sharon Brous, look at Shai Held, and leaders in both ‘religions’ need to stop lying to themselves about what is important to God, to humanity.

From Hosea (6:6) we learn: “I desire love and kindness and not sacrifices, the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Love and kindness are more important than anything except justice and righteousness-they are on a par with one another. Yet, rather than show that to one another we are, once again, in a time of senseless hatred towards one another. Sure, they pass the plate, they give their money, they get buildings named after themselves, or do it themselves as in Trump’s case, yet they do not have a spiritual practice of “love and kindness” towards another human being who is different from their crowd. In today’s world, Trump doesn’t show kindness and love towards anyone because everything is a transaction-nothing more, nothing less. One cannot fulfill God’s desire for “love and kindness” through transactional living.

Isaiah teaches us (1:13, 16): “Bring no more vain offerings… I cannot bear iniquity along with solemn meeting. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean stop your evil actions from before my eyes, cease to do evil.” The question for We the People from Isaiah is: when will we “cease to do evil”? When will We the People wash away the shmutz and the lies, the mendacity and the self-deceptions from our living and return to the Sinai moment, when we did have a knowing of God, a moment and experience of higher consciousness? When will We the People end our belief in idols, our willingness to buy the bullshit of another and listen to the truth that resides in our hearts, in our souls? Finally Micah comes to remind us (6:6,8): With what shall I come to before God and bow myself before God on High? Shall I come before God with burnt offerings, with one year old calves?… God has told you, what is good and what God requires of you, human; do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.”

The solution is simple, really; “remorse stands higher than sacrifice.” “Remorse”, unlike “sacrifice” cannot be mailed in, there is no way to fake it or go through the motions of “remorse”. Yes one can say “I’m sorry” a million times and not mean it, however, “remorse” entails making things right, repairing the damage, having a plan not to repeat the action, etc, ie TShuvah!  It isn’t easy as we say in AA, and it is simple. Justice is one of the greatest actions a human being can take and when we don’t do justly, we have to have “remorse.” To “love kindness” one has to be in truth with themselves and with another human being, again, one cannot fake it which is why just ‘giving money to clean me up’ is the worst sin any institution can do. In the Talmud, we are cautioned to not accept “money that is not kosher”, money that was gotten through any type of meanness, subterfuge, theft, etc. Yet, unfortunately, religious and non-profit institutions the world over accept and clean the reputation of scoundrels through accepting their donations as free-will offerings and rationalizing it by saying “it will allow/enable us to do the good work we do in the world” not understanding the taint they have put upon themselves and their institutions. Like the sycophants who follow Trump along, when we buy into the lie that “sacrifice is good” we are on the precipice of becoming the whores that Isaiah, Micah, Amos and Hosea are speaking to.

I know the pull of this type of idolatry, I made many ‘I’m sorry’s” throughout my early years. Only upon learning what TShuvah is, when I was in prison at 35, did I begin to be able to live into the actions the prophets charge all of us with. I am saddened that still today, most religious education is focused on ritual, on ‘sacrifices’, on dogma, on Israel, rather than on the inner life of the individual student, parent, congregant. I am proud that during my tenure at Beit T’Shuvah I was able to provide people with the tools to “love kindness”, “to do justly”, “to walk humbly with God”, to “let justice roll down like the waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”. I am honored to have been a shepherd for many and show them “the doorway to a richer and more meaningful life” and so grateful they all help me to live the same way. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Ego strength, Ego Weakness, Soul Strength, Soul immaturity- Year 4 Day 207

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 207

“There is great merit in knowing our subtle hypocrisies, in our having no absolute faith in our faith, in our sense of shame and contrition. The sting of shame is the only pain the ego cannot bear and the only blow that may cause its forces to shrink and to retreat, and contrition is the saving heart of our soul. Remorse stands higher than sacrifice.” (God in Search of Man pg.400)

In the sentence bolded above lies the great issue of our time and of all time. “The sting of shame is the only pain the ego cannot bear” is absolutely true. Our issue, the issue for all of human history, is “the sting of shame” usually results in anger, resentment and a ‘need’ to “get even”, hence the “I am your retribution” phrase that Trump spouted was so universally applauded by his sycophants, his loyalists and the rest of the unaware people who believed him! Unfortunately, in a society   where people refuse to reflect on their everyday actions, refuse to believe they can be wrong, absolutely believe with complete faith and reasoning (no matter how skewed it may be), only they are right, only they can save the rest of us, there is no place for self-reflection nor for a cultural reflection. There is only space for absolutism, for either/or, binary thinking. Binary thinking is my way or your way, or as is popular, my way or the highway if I am in power. This is the antithesis to being able to have “the sting of shames the only pain the ego cannot bear and the only blow that may cause its forces to shrink…” And this is the way of humanity forever!

Adam blamed Eve, Cain denied everything regarding Abel, Noah got drunk, Abraham listened to the wrong voice, Jacob was a conman, a liar, and one who could not truly form attachments of the soul,  Joseph and Judah grew into being human because of their experiences. The Israelites/slaves who were part of the exodus from Egypt kept screwing it up and blaming Moses, whomever. Samuel blames the people for not putting his grifting sons in charge after his death, Saul is beset by jealousy and fear, David is plagued by his sex addiction, Solomon by his ‘holier than thou’ attitude, etc. We see what happens when “the sting of shame” is put upon our President and his band of thieves - they sue the people speaking the Truth, they try to lock them up while extolling the people who attacked the Capitol and Police officers on Jan. 6th!! We are so upside down many of We the People wonder if we will ever be right-side up and right sized again.

Look at what Trump has done to Ukraine-they are the victims of Russian aggression and Trump, like a good Comrade, is blaming the victim-just as he blames the victims of hate and sexual abuse who come here illegally to save themselves, just as he blames the victims of Jeffery Epstein for making it uncomfortable to be a sexual abuser, like he is! His response: LASHING OUT, making it all about himself, blaming and persecuting the victims, using the military in ways that only autocrats do. What is the response from the Congress and the Courts=CRICKETS. These ‘fine christian folk’ don’t believe in “contrition”, they don’t believe that their “ego..forces (need) to shrink and retreat”. Only everyone who isn’t with them, only those who are ‘agin’ them need to be in “contrition” and need their “ego..forces to shrink and retreat” because everything they do is “Beautiful”, it is “right”, it is “their retribution”! Just ask anyone who cannot look at themselves and they will tell you-“ain’t my fault”!

What are We the People to do? Make our ego’s, our desires, our way of being right-sized! Our thoughts and our actions need to be monitored and guided into the ways of decency, truth, justice, mercy, love, compassion because, as we can see throughout history, these values, these traits are in very short supply at times and the autocrats, the monsters, the evil move in and make many of We the People believe their bullshit because of their “silver tongues”. That clergy of all faiths and disciplines endorse their lies and idolatry is the stuff the prophets railed against and, because We the People don’t read and immerse ourselves in the Bible, we let those LYING IDOLATROUS clergy tell us what it says, is criminal! Rather than learn ‘what to learn’ in religious school and in secular school, we should be teaching our children HOW to learn, how to discern truth from lies, fact from fiction, how to train our inner life to not continue to feed us lies and to stop hiding from our flaws, our imperfections. Understanding that our imperfections are what make us unique, knowing our infinite value and worth, realizing every human being has something to add to the world and our job is to find what only we, as an individual, can add and help the next person find and add their unique gift. This means no more ‘I am the best’, I am the ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE YOU, bullshit, no more buying the lies and deceptions of another nor the ones you tell yourself. This only happens when We the People allow “the sting of shame” to force our “ego” to shrink and retreat”, when we realize “contrition is the saving feature of our soul” and we live into our contrition so we can change our ways and change the world.

I have been living in contrition for 38+ years. It is hard, I fight it at times, I have fallen and still fall  prey to my deceptions and lies during these years and “the sting of shame” does bring me back to self-reflection, accountability, and TShuvah. I am saddened by the people who are unable to allow “shame” to bring them back to center, to make them whole and human again. I am blessed that it doesn’t take as much of a sting to wake me up anymore and I realize that the people who have resisted making their amends are so weak in their way of living that they cannot acknowledge “the sting of shame” nor can they allow their “ego” to “retreat”. I am so grateful I learned this lesson early on and keep learning it what I forget:) God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living in Truth and Awareness - Living in Mendacity and Obliviousness- Year 4 Day 206

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 206

“There is great merit in knowing our subtle hypocrisies, in our having no absolute faith in our faith, in our sense of shame and contrition. The sting of shame is the only pain the ego cannot bear and the only blow that may causes its forces to shrink and to retort, and contrition is the saving heart of our soul. Remorse stands higher than sacrifice.” (God in Search of Man pg.400)

The first sentence above is crucial if we are to find our authentic self and not continue on in the societal norm of hiding from one’s “acorn” as James Hillman writes. When we are engaged in the societal norms and cliches, in the “winning” that society “rewards”, we are living false scripts and not engaged in becoming “aware of our inner enslavements” nor are we willing to look at, much less, acknowledge “our subtle hypocrisies”. Listening to Trump and his cronies, Bibi and his gang of thugs, Putin and his sycophants, it would seem as if We the People have given up on “the great merit in knowing our subtle hypocrisies” and joined in the self-deception and mendacity that seems so prevalent in this moment. This way of being is anathema to all three Western Faiths as well as to the Eastern Spiritual disciplines as well. Yet, those ‘good christian, jewish, muslim folk’ who spout hatred and blame upon everyone else, never being responsible for their actions, seem to not have learned this truth and this practice in their churches, mosques, temples, synagogues!

They seem to be practitioners of the most “subtle of hypocrisies”; the inability to practice what one preaches, the bastardization of the basic spiritual principles, a denial of what Godliness/Holiness entails, and a deliberate decision to march to the beat of their Yetzer HaRa, their evil inclination. While Rabbi Heschel uses the word ego, he is speaking in the vernacular of his times and in a way most people can understand. The word “ego” is, I believe, meant to convey the parts of us that are more interested in self promotion than in promoting Godliness/Holiness; the parts of us that run to deceive another, that roll around in mendacity like pigs in shit, etc. When this is the determining factor of our living, one is blind to the “subtle hypocrisies” and defames anyone who points them out. Like the prophets, We the People who are standing up to the tyranny of Trump, the deceptions of Bibi, the lies of Putin, we are lambasted by their sycophantic followers, their cult guardians and it is not an easy way to live. Trump sues anyone and everyone who doesn’t ‘kiss the ring’, ‘bend the knee’ and suck his … These lawsuits, if the Courts are true to justice, are frivolous and still expensive to defend. Plus, Trump has convinced some Law Firms, including the one Doug Emhoff works at, to deny representation to ‘those people’ who seek to defy the autocrat, ‘der Fuhrer’, the Capo d’ Capo. That these cult followers, leaders, guardians include Jews, Muslims, Christians, Catholics, is an abomination!

While it is true to speak out and point out the lies and deceptions of the people in power, it is, after all, a very Jewish way of living when one reads the Prophets in the Bible, it is more important that We the People seek to know “our subtle hypocrisies” as well. Without seeing the ones we practice each and every day, without seeing how we can have solidarity with the Palestinian plight and not Condemn October 7, and Hamas’ terrorism is a “subtle hypocrisy”. When we are more interested in the rights of one group, ie, identity politics, than we are with another, “one law for the citizen and stranger alike” no longer applies. When we can call one group of people “not human” we deny the commandment: “love your neighbor like you love yourself”. When we seek to “rid the country of the vermin who are infecting the blood of our people” as Trump copied from Hitler, we are denying: “love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”. When we seek to enrich the rich at the expense of the poor, when we seek to criminalize the plight of people who are homeless, we are denying: “the infinite dignity and worth of every human being because we all come from Adam”(Rabbi Yitz Greenberg).  For those of We the People who are followers of ‘der Fuhrer’, I would ask you to look at your “subtle hypocrisies and those of your fellow people as well as the ones that Trump, Vought, Miller, Lutnick, Vance, et all have as well. For those of us who are in the “opposition”, I would ask us to look at “our subtle hypocrisies” as well and stop having the ‘holier than thou’ attitude of those “progressives” like AOC, Bernie, etc.

When the left and the right are in agreement as to their purity, when neither one can admit their flaws, their failures and seek to learn and grow, then we are witnessing “absolute faith in our faith” which is another fatal flaw! When neither the left nor the right can see the “shame”-which is defined as: “a feeling of distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior”-in their actions, they will never engage in “knowing the subtle hypocrisies” they engage in. When We the People deny our need for contrition-“the state of being remorseful” for the wrongs and foolish behaviors we have engaged in-we deny the truth of our actions, we are so deep in self-deception, we are so addicted to our mendacity, we are risking our future, the future of our children and the freedom so many of our ancestors died for. Isn’t it time for us to do our inventories, isn’t it time for us to let go of our armor and realize we are not so fragile that we are unable to admit our errors and repair them?

I have been in this process for the past 38 years, I was saved by being locked up and I spread the GOSPEL of “subtle hypocrisies” not being the answer and “contrition” being good for the soul, returning us to our natural state of grace and covenantal love between one another and God. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Awareness of the "taints in our virtues" and the "tinge of idolatry in our worship" Year 4 Day 205

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 205

This is how we must begin in our effort to purify the self; to become aware of our inner enslavements to the ego, to detect the taints in our virtues, the tinge of idolatry in our worship of God.” (God in Search of Man pg. 401)

One of the great teachings of Judaism, of the Rabbis-whom I have many arguments with:)- is the teaching of T’Shuvah. Most of us think about this or hear about this only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Yet, Rabbi Eliezer teaches in the Talmud, tractate Shabbat 153a, that we should do T’Shuvah one day before we die and since no one knows the day of their death, we should do it every day. Without this practice, the period of Elul, which we will enter in 8 days, this month of preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is meaningless and these “Days of Awe” lose their importance and the strength they imbue us with to have the courage to do the next right thing.

In Proverbs 1:7 we are taught: “The awe of God is the beginning of knowledge and fools despise wisdom and knowledge” and the words in bold above remind me of this truth and the folly we are living in today. Rather than “detect the taints in our virtues”, people today point out the “taints” in another person so they do not ‘have’ to look at themselves. In this culture of ‘perfection is the standard’ not the goal, the standard, any “taint” is viewed as a defect which then leads to being vulnerable to attacks by “them”. The old adage “the best defense is a good offense” is alive and well, used and abused by the idolators who pose as ‘religious’, the PAGANS who proclaim their allegiance to Christ, to Adonai, to Allah.

We the People are suffering through a Pandemic that is a greater threat than Covid-19, in my opinion. This pandemic is called “christian nationalism” and is led by people like Doug Wilson, who is Pete Hegseth’s pastor and thought leader. This brand of “christian nationalism” believes women should not have the right to vote, that only ‘christians’ should hold office, that the United States should jettison the Constitution in favor of a Christian Theocracy that he devises, probably alongside of people like Paula White-Cain, Joel Osteen, John Hagee, etc. We the People have to stop listening to and giving any credence to these charlatans who constantly and consistently bastardize the words of Christ, the words of Moses, and refuse to “detect the taints in” their “virtues”, only accuse the rest of us, Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, LGBTQ+ non-people of having “taints”. These assholes along with the ‘real jew’ Rabbis and their followers are infecting this country, Israel, and the world with a way of being that has to lead to destruction because it always has. These “fools despise wisdom and knowledge” and We the People who are following them, who are nodding our heads to their vile speech, their idolatrous ways, to their desecration of God’s name, are responsible for “the taints in our virtues” that we are unwilling to detect. We the People have to engage in the practice of T’Shuvah that Rabbi Eliezer teaches right here, right now, because we are circling the drain of what it means to be human, we are not so slowly losing our humanity, our commitment “to do justly, love mercy and walk in the ways of God”(Micah 6:8). We the People are being reminded of this way of being by the words above, by Rabbi Heschel’s teachings.

While I am not so concerned with how we got to this point, usually, I do realize that many people need to know the path that led us here so we don’t go down it again and there is great “virtue” in this. It is simple, really, just as the people in Ancient Israel and Judea reached the pinnacle of inhumanity to humanity, We the People are closing in on it quickly and, very possibly, surpassing it because of “the tinge of idolatry in our worship of God”. The prophets kept telling the people, the priests, the wealthy and ruling class that God was not interested in their rituals, in their sacrifices as long as their hearts were uncircumcised, as long as their actions towards one another showed disdain for another human being, as long as they continued to believe their own bullshit that they were ‘better’ than those who were ‘lower’ than them, that they were the ‘entitled ones’ who could lie with impunity and, like the “men of renown” found in Genesis, they could fuck anyone and everyone without any consequences.

These people that we read about in the books of the Prophets are alive and well today! They are living next door to us, they are elected to office and are governing us, they are sitting around laughing at the idiocy of We the People who bought their lies, who are so into our own self-deception that we could not perceive their deception of us, and how they are getting rich off the backs of the poor, the stranger, the needy and then calling themselves “Good Christians”, “the Real Jews”, “True Muslims”!!! WHAT THE FUCK!! We the People have to do  our own work to “purify the self”, to remove the “tinge of idolatry in our worship of God”, to “detect the taints in our virtues” and, most of all, end our self-deception, stand up for Godliness, live into our innate Holiness, act as a reminder of God, as a divine need, and see the Image of God in everyone else, honoring it, and speaking to it so there is a change someone else will do their T’Shvuah and then We the People can change the world.

I have fought against the Doug Wilson’s of the world forever, I have been a grifter and hated myself for it. I have refused to “detect the taint in my virtues” and suffered for it in my soul. These 38+years of living in the light bring me to this moment with joy and fear, with hope and worry, with “awe of God”, “wisdom and knowledge”. I can’t abide by the Doug Wilsons, the Hegseths, the PAGANS and Idolators, the grifters and fascists of today so I continue to clean my side of the street and mourn for those who are unable to clean theirs. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Inner Enslavements, Purify the Self, do these mean anything anymore? Year 4 Day 204

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 204

This is how we must begin in our effort to purify the self; to become aware of our inner enslavements to the ego, to detect the taints in our virtues, the tinge of idolatry in our worship of God.” (God in Search of Man pg. 401)

The first phrase above assumes a way of being that does not seem to be in vogue these days with Clergy nor with We the People! Who is truly putting forth an “effort to purify the self” in our world? Certainly not the President of the U.S nor of Russia, absolutely not the President of Hungary nor his ‘good friend’ the Prime Minister of Israel. Nor is most of the Clergy we hear about interested in engaging in the “effort to purify the self” because they are gaining so much power, prestige, money from staying in their “inner enslavements to the ego”! This is the war we are in and, unfortunately, it seems as if we are losing one battle after another. While it looks bleak, we have to remember the Union Army wasn’t always doing so good in the Civil War and they made a comeback. The descendants of Jacob were in a wee bit of tsuris(trouble) before they were redeemed, Christ was crucified and on and on. Because of these ‘victories’, We the People of authentic faith in God, in the Ineffable One, in the God of Moses, of Jesus, of Mohammed, cannot fall into despair and debilitating depression.

Today’s ‘leaders’ in social media, in government, in business, in our courts, in law firms, in universities all give us a wide-open look at what happens when “our inner enslavements to the ego” take over our lives. We the People become whores, prostitutes, we kiss the big fat ass of Trump, et al and then we go home and brag about how smart we are because we ‘got a deal’ from Trump that he will never honor just as he has never honored any deal he makes when it doesn’t suit him anymore. We the People are living under the terror of Roy Cohn, Trump’s mentor. The man who electrocuted Ethel Rosenberg while knowing she was completely innocent, the man who helped Joe McCarthy in his reign of terror and intimidation, the man who denied being a homosexual and publicly shamed gay people while privately being gay, this is who taught the Grifter In Chief, the Liar in the White House, the scared asshole who hides behind the National Guard and the Army to show how strong he is, everything he knows! And, We the People voted an insurrectionist into office, We the People gave him and his cronies who never think about making an “effort to purify the self”, who never think about their “inner enslavements” because their egos are so false and so large all they care about is feeding them!

We the People have to stop being led around by the nose by these PAGANS, be it the clergy who support these assholes or the assholes themselves, be it the elected officials who pledged loyalty to the Constitution and are only loyal to Trump and getting re-elected or to John Roberts and his court of ‘constitutionalists’ who are giving away the country, democracy, and freedom to an autocratic wannabe dictator! We the People have “to become aware of our inner enslavements to the ego”, to money, to power, to the lies we tell ourselves, to our self-deceptions and to the deceptions of another(s). We the People are being called upon to stand up and redeem ourselves and our neighbors from the horrors that Trump and his partners are putting us through; be it what is going on in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Los Angeles and Washington DC with sending the National Guard and Army to be police?! WTF!!

We the People have to demand of ourselves an authentic accounting of the Soul, a “fearless and searching inventory” of “inner enslavements” so we can do our T’Shuvah, make a new plan, renew our covenant with God, with our higher consciousness, and have new responses to these Domestic and Foreign Terrorists running various governments. YES, Trump, Miller, Vought, Vance, Lutnick, Netanyahu, Ben G’Vir, Orban, Putin, and their cronies are TERRORISTS! We the People, because of our obliviousness to our “inner enslavements to the ego” are supporting Terrorists, Law firms who kiss the ring, Universities who kiss the Ass, and Bimbos who are running the very institutions meant to preserve our democracy which they are trying to annihilate! Bondi, Patel, McMahon, etc don’t believe in the agencies they are running, RFK Jr., a disgrace to his father’s name and memory, wants to deny the science that has saved 100’s of millions of lives over the years and this is who We the People put in charge!! They are in charge because We the People have been unwilling to do the work to “become aware of our inner enslavements to the ego”!

I have spent the past 38+ years peeling away the layers of “inner enslavements” which caused me to live in terrorizing ways. As a drunk and a criminal, I was a terrorist, just as all people who are not in recovery are. Rabbi Heschel’s words hit home with me in very personal ways and they hit home for everyone who is willing to “become aware of our inner enslavements to the ego”, to everyone who is willing to search out the Chametz, the bread that has leavening in it, the puffed up parts of our egos which we do every year at Passover. With Yom Kippur only 48 days away, the beginning of Elul only 7 days away, it is time for us to begin to look at the actions which impede our “effort to purify the self” and take these next 48 days to do exactly this-“purify the self”. This is the work I do every year at this time and every day as well. I am enraged at the state of the world and the loss of democracy-while I am not directly effected yet, as I said to someone yesterday; I am a person of faith, when you are being targeted, I am effected, when you are in fear, I am here to stand with you and help you. This is what being a person of faith means, this is what the Bible directs us to do. This is the gift of being human. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you engaging in Redemption or are you retarding your redemption and the world's? Year 4 Day 203

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 203

“The world is in need of redemption, but the redemption must not be expected to happen as an act of sheer grace. Man’s task is to make the world worthy of redemption. His faith and his works are preparations for ultimate redemption. (God in Search of Man pg. 380)

“Redemption” is an overarching theme in the Bible. It comes from the Latin meaning “to buy back”. We call God the “redeemer of Israel” in our prayers and in immersing ourselves in the Bible, we experience the “redemption” of so many, beginning with Cain. Cain ‘kills’ his brother Abel (Abel in Hebrew means mist) and then complains to God about his consequences and God guarantees he will not be killed, even though it is supposed to be “a life for a life”. Cain is redeemed by God. Cain’s soul, his very life force is “bought back” by God. We see this often in the Bible, someone screws up, cries out to God and God “buys back” their soul and restores them to life, a life, hopefully, of mitzvahs, of doing the next right thing. As is said above, however, this act of redemption is not done out of “sheer grace”, rather it only happens when the person(s) needing redemption participate in their own redeeming either by crying out like Cain did, admitting their errors as Judah does, and/or doing both and bringing their offerings to the priests in the Bible and now, doing T’Shuvah so we can return and be nearer to God who redeems.

What is most striking is the time in which these words were written, early 1950’s. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, after bringing an end to the pinnacle of man’s inhumanity to man, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that our redemption is not complete, it is not an entitlement. Redemption, having our souls “bought back” is a partner ship between God and us, that begins with us. This is the crux of our issue, Rabbi Heschel knew that human beings are loath to admit their errors, We the People are more like Jacob than Judah, We the People are more like Korach than King David; admitting our errors is like drinking poison because doing this acknowledges our imperfections and We the People so desperately believe we should be and must be perfect. What a lie we are telling ourselves and what a lie being perpetrated by societal norms and cliches. This lie is killing the freedom that leaving Egypt and accepting the Torah at Sinai promises, this lie is killing the spirit of the individual, it is a denial of “all men are created equal”, that no one soul is inherently worth more than another, We the People all have “certain unalienable rights” no matter the color of our skin, the religion we adhere to, the political party we affiliate with. This is the only way “redemption” can even begin.

Alas, what we have going on now is none of these prerequisites for “redemption”. These ‘good christian folk’, these ‘saviors of Judaism’, these ‘real muslims’ have done more to bastardize “redemption” than any non-believer. These PAGANS keep supporting the worst of the worst for political offices so they can manipulate them, ‘own’ them, get their agendas through and crush the spirit of freedom, bastardize the 10 Sayings we received at Mount Sinai, crush the spirit of Christ. Instead of hastening “redemption”, these charlatans are retarding “redemption”. Instead of “being a light unto the nations” as Isaiah tells us to be, these assholes are darkening the world, shutting out the Or HaGanuz, the hidden light of God/the first days of creation, so we walk around in darkness and, instead of raising one another up, instead of doing what will “make the world worthy of redemption”, these so-called ‘people of god’, are crushing goodness, truth, justice, mercy, and love.

We the People are being called upon each and every day to “make the world worthy of redemption”. We the People are asked to do one act of T’Shuvah each day, one act of redemption for ourselves and one act to redeem another. The Bible teaches us to “love the stranger”, “love your neighbor”, “righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue”, “do justly”, “redeem your kinsman”, “don’t stand idly by the blood of your neighbor”, etc. The Bible is not asking for perfection! On the contrary, it is asking us to be one grain of sand better each day, to do our amends, to repair the damage to another and to our soul, to learn from our errors and the errors of another, to not repeat our same mistakes over and over again. We the People are able to bring about “redemption”! We the People are capable of repairing our corners of the world so the Messiah doesn’t have any work to do when she/he arrives and the Messiah will only congratulate We the People on the wonderfully imperfect job we have done to bring about “redemption”. When We the People commit and follow through on our covenant with God, when We the People take the next right action, when We the People practice our authentic faith(s) out loud, when the Bible (or whatever spiritual text you engage with) becomes our road map to living well, We the People have done our part to bring about “ultimate redemption”!

I have been living in the world of T’Shuvah for 38 years, it is a hard world to live in and it is the most freeing world to live in. Not needing to be right, knowing when I am and when I am wrong, gives me a freedom that I sought for the first 36 years of life. My life’s work is dedicated to “redemption” of both my self/soul and the souls of those I encounter. I am not soft-spoken, I am loud, I am abrasive, because I know what is at stake: the life of the individual, the family, and the community that becomes infected with the lies that “a leopard doesn’t change its spots”, and the writing off of people who make mistakes as ‘lost souls’. I believe in the possibility of “redemption”, I work hard to help people redeem themselves with the help of God and the people around them. I am GRATEFUL for my mission and love my purpose. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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The Problems of Evil -breaking the law and the "radical problem of "the evil drive" - Year 4 Day 202

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 202

There are two problems: the particular sins, the examples of breaking the law, and the general and radical problem of “the evil drive” in man. The law deals with the first problem; obedience to the law prevents evil deeds. Yet, the problem of the evil drive is not solved by observance. The prophets’ answer was eschatological. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel…not like the covenant I made with their fathers…I will put my law within them and I will write it upon their hearts.”(Jeremiah 31:31-34)

I keep wondering at Rabbi Heschel’s insight and prescience in awe and amazement. In the early 50’s, when it seemed like life was good, baby boomers were being born, WWII had ended in our victory, the UN was functioning, Israel was a new country, and here he is railing on and on about “the evil drive” and “the particular sins”. I say it seemed like ‘good times’ because he writes “the law deals with the first problem; obedience to the law prevents evil deeds”. We the People know that even then-if one was black or Jewish the law was different for ‘our kind’. We the People know that the law has been overtaken by Trump, his lies, his liars that stand with him, and now, the military is being used in cities across the nation because he wants to be dictator. Instead of the Courts standing up to this autocrat, John Roberts and his pussy-whipped friends on the Supreme Court are acting like slaves to Trump saying “yes massa, yes massa, whatever you want massa” instead of standing up for the Constitution, instead of standing up for truth, instead of being truly Good Christians and caring for the poor, the needy, the stranger as Christ did!

We the People are fucked! Rather than having any solution to “the first problem” or “the problem of the evil drive”, in today’s world, in Israel, in Russia, in America, there is no “problem of the evil drive” because it is celebrated, it is on full display and people are bowing down to Trump, Bibi, Vlad because they have given them permission to no longer sublimate their “evil drive”, instead they are being urged to “let it all hang out” and be as cruel as possible. Rather than live in the covenant made at Mount Sinai, Jew and non-Jew alike are worshiping at the altar of the modern day version of Baal. Rather than follow One God, the Ineffable One, the clergy of today and their flocks, their patrons are following the gods of money, power, cruelty, evil, hatred, injustice, etc. This is what ‘religious observance’ has become, this is the reason people young and old have rejected ‘religion’ and, along with this rejection, they are rejecting morality, humanity and holiness. People are not ‘happier’ living this way, they are just no longer struggling to do the next right thing because doing the next right thing leaves one open to ridicule and the cruelty of “the evil drive” that is running rampant in the world. We the People are being called to serve a higher calling than the “evil drive”, a higher standard of living than “the examples of breaking the law” which we and so many others are engaging in.

The question that the words above pose: Are We the People willing to act on the “new covenant”, to live the morality that has been written “upon our hearts”, to live up to and into “my law within them”? All of this has happened, the “new covenant” is no different than the old one, really, it is what Moses says in “The word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart that you will do it”(Deut. 30:14)! The issue is not if “the new covenant” has happened, the issue is not ‘it will come to pass when the Messiah arrives’, the issue is not ‘how will I know what to do’. The issue for We the People is are we willing to take the next right action based on what we know in our hearts, in our souls, in our bones to be true, right and moral? Are We the People going to act as if the Messiah has already arrived and is just awaiting some human kindness to reveal itself? Are We the People going to stop wring our hands, talking out of both sides of our mouths, stop worrying about optics, end our nauseating need to ‘look good’, ‘be right’, ‘follow the party line of the extremes on both ends of the spectrum’? Are We the People going to stand up, rise up and live into the words that God “writes on our hearts”, “puts in our mouth”, honor and cherish “the law within them”? This is what We the People are being called to do, this is how We the People avoid walking into a slaves existence as we did in Egypt, as they did in Russia, as they are doing in Hungary, as Netanyahu wants to happen in Israel, as happened in Nazi Germany? We the People have to use our prophetic voices, insight and wisdom to call out these “evil drive” experts who are using ‘the law’ like Hitler used the Nuremberg Laws. We the People have been given the Bible, have been gifted with “the new covenant” and now is the time to use them to live better and to make our world better.

I keep thinking about the Liberty Bell and Leviticus telling us to “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”(Lev.25”10). I keep wondering what has happened to “the land that I love”, what happened to “stand beside her and guide her”? What happened to being “the home of the brave”? I know the power of “the evil drive”, I know how to “break the law” and get away with it, I did this for over 20 years, I did it when it didn’t serve me because the urge was so strong. Once I let the “evil drive” dominate me, it was tough putting that Genie back in the bottle. Yet I did and I have-through living into “the new covenant”, through living the what is “written upon my heart” and speaking, doing “the law within me”. It ain’t easy, it doesn’t make me popular, the phone ringing much at all anymore and I will not change, I will not whore myself for any reason, not fame, fortune or being liked-I did this before and it almost cost me my soul. I pray that We the People will stop giving into the lies of today and ground themselves in the TRUTH of the Bible! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are your Daily actions based on what you 'can do' or what you are commanded to do? Year 4 Day 201

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 201

“Judaism would reject the Kantian axiom, “I ought, therefore I can”; it would claim instead, “Thou art commanded, therefore thou canst.” Judaism, as we have said, claims that man has the resources to fulfill what God commands, at least to some degree. On the other hand, we are continually warned lest we rely on man’s own power and the belief that man, by his power alone, is capable of redeeming the world. Good deeds alone will not redeem history; it is the obedience to God that will make us worthy of being redeemed by God.”

“God helps those who help themselves” is an old saying and in light of the teaching above, I believe has some relevance to how we live. While Kant’s theory is wonderful and better than Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am”, Judaism’s claim as said above by Rabbi Heschel, is better for society. “I ought” is too easily bastardized into narcissistic desires and inauthentic needs, I believe. Being “commanded” is more difficult to bastardize and there are too many ways to point out the lies and subterfuge of those who twist being “commanded”. It is an unbelievable idea, in many ways, that We the People have “the resources to fulfill what God commands”! It is even more unbelievable how often and with how much might we twist these commandments into our own pretzels so we can do what we want, when we want, how we want, and to whom we want.

When the Clergy, when the ‘religious’ do everything in their power to cover up their evil, their cruelty by saying ‘this is what the Bible tells me’ we are in danger of using “the resources to fulfill what God commands” to satisfy only our false ego, our surge for power, and our desire to sublimate many groups and aspects of We the People so it no longer is God whom we are serving, rather it is only our false selves, our inauthentic egos, our puffed up Pharaoh within. This is the reason “we are continually warned lest we rely on man’s own power and the belief that man, by his power alone, is capable of redeeming the world.” We see this over and over again, our desire ‘to be saved’ has stretched from baptism and Mikvah, from circumcision and the Eucharist, to believing the lies of ‘der Fuhrer, of the autocrat, of the despot, of the Pharaoh. When history and the Bible, the New Testament and the Korah warn us all of the pitfalls of following the leader blindly, when we read the prophet Nathan telling King David how he has sinned, when we immerse ourselves in the words of the prophets who are constantly telling the people and the leadership TRUTH, how is it possible for We the People to continue to buy this same old bullshit that has led to ruin for thousands of years?

It is possible because we are suffering from an epidemic called: Spiritual Bankruptcy. Worse than the Great Depression, worse than the financial collapse of 2008, the Spiritual Bankruptcy that has overtaken We the People threatens our very freedoms, our way of life, the seat of democracy. And too many of us, like Nero, seem to be fiddling while the Republic burns! We are so spiritually sick that at least one-third of We the People still believe the lies of Trump and welcome Project 2025, cheer at ICE raids and believe they have the ‘right’ to own, shoot, and, if they want to, kill people with AK-47’s! We the People are so spiritually bankrupt that 1/3rd of us still cheer at the cruelty, applaud the Grifter in Chief and his cronies who are raping and robbing all of us! We the People are so spiritually off-kilter that 1/3rd of us believe that Trump, Miller, Lutnick, Vought, Vance, et al, are the messengers of Christ, with Trump being the Messiah! While I don’t think many Jews think he is the Messiah, there are many Jews who believe his lies, his arrogance, his lust for power is ‘good for the Jews’ while he surrounds himself with anti-semites who love Israel and hate Jews! We the People are so spiritually bankrupt that we have replaced the will of God with the will of self. We the People buy the lies and deceive ourselves daily that what we are doing is good, even if the poor, the needy, the stranger, the widow, the orphan suffer-they are doing this for the greater good! Christ did not believe this, Moses did not believe this, God doesn’t believe this, the Bible tells us to do the opposite and too many of We the People are buying the lies and deceiving ourselves because, of course, it is only happening to ‘those people’ and ‘they deserve it’!

Our Spiritual Bankruptcy, our Spiritual illness’ can only be healed by us with the help of God, with the help of spiritual healers, not shrinks. This is not a ‘thinking’ problem, it is not an ‘emotional’ problem, it is not because of some ‘trauma’ that has happened to us. This spiritual bankruptcy, our spiritual illness’ are the result of not being in TRUTH with ourselves and one another. They are the result of our unwillingness to “fulfill what God commands” and instead fulfill what our false self commands. We the People have become addicted to our own power, our own lies and we give power to our Pharaoh within. Rather than find ways to reach one another, we decide what is and we do the best we can to ram it down the throats of those around us so we have the power instead of joining with God, doing the next right thing, replenishing our spiritual bank accounts and using God’s power to redeem ourselves and another(s). Rather than give rise and power to the Moses within us, we have bought the lies and notions of societal norms, which has, in turn, bankrupted us so completely that we cheer Netanyahu’s and Trump’s cruelty, we abandon the Ukrainians who fight for their freedom against a more powerful enemy, which, as Jews dishonors the memory of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters. It is way past time for We the People to repent, to return, to have new responses to these PAGANS-to respond with the Redeeming Power of God.

I have made many deposits and, with all my withdrawals I still have a positive balance in my spiritual bank account. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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Learning to be One Grain of Sand better each day, not denying our frailty and weakness’ - Year 4 Day 200

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 200

“It is true that the commandment to be holy is exorbitant, and that our constant failures and transgressions fill us with contrition and grief. Yet we are never lost. We are sons of Abraham. Despite all faults, failures, and sins, we remain parts of the Covenant. His compassion is greater than His justice. He will accept us in all our frailty and weakness.” (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

These words above lay out the challenge and the hope, the reason that “despair is alien to the Jewish faith”, and the learning of what unconditional love is. Unconditional love, as I hear Rabbi Heschel this morning is not allowing us to do what ever we want and say ‘I’m sorry’ only to do the same things over and over again. It is not, as I am processing this concept today, whitewashing the errors of self nor of another. It is holding ourselves responsible “to be holy”, exorbitant as it may seem. It is to acknowledge our “constant failures and transgressions” so our “contrition and grief” bring us to a new understanding of how to be human and improve our actions. Unconditional love, as practiced by God is to be found in the last two sentences above; when our “compassion” for ourselves and another(s) “is greater than our justice” and when we can accept “our frailty and weakness” and those of the people around us, we are living unconditional love.

This is the challenge for all of humanity since the beginning of time, of our evolution/creation. Yet we seemed to have stopped evolving, we seem to enjoy returning over and over again to our animal instincts, to relish in the fact that “our thoughts are evil from our youth”. Rather than take on “the commandment to be holy”, knowing we will not be perfect and we are on a continuum, We the People seem to have jettisoned any feeble attempts and keep rolling around in the mud of autocracy, the quicksand of cruelty, and we dive headfirst into the deceptions of people telling us good is evil, evil is good, truth is fake and fake is truth, etc. REALLY?! Seeing the world through the eyes of the autocrat, the grifter, it is easy to pick the pockets of We the People because we would rather be deceived, we would rather have someone else to blame than be responsible for our “constant failures and transgressions”. So when Trump blames “the democrats”, when Bibi calls us to hate the Palestinians because they all want us dead, people of little sophistication, people who give lip service to “the commandment to be holy” rather than engage in the depth of what it takes to be in the holiness arena, believe and follow. This is the part of We the People that spurns the unconditional love of God, that is not filled with “contrition and grief” over what they have done, what they have wrought. Au contraire, they rejoice in their cruelty, they throw a party for their transgressions of “the commandments” and their actions totally deny: “we are never lost” because their actions deny the Abrahamic creed, their actions deny Jesus’ teachings, Moses’ exhortations to “CHOOSE LIFE”.

Humanity has learned nothing, it seems, from our experiences up until now. We do not “love the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt”. We do not “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”. We have failed to “have one law for the stranger and citizen alike”. We continue to proclaim “America the Beautiful” and “The People Israel Live”, while our actions deny both statements. The People Israel cannot live when the People Israel go against the teachings, the lessons, the paths of holiness and goodness, the ways of “contrition and grief”, the commandments to be holy and to do T’Shuvah. America is not beautiful when it practices cruelty-be it towards the Native Americans, the Chinese, the Irish, the Italians, the Blacks, the Jews, the Hispanics-cruelty is never beautiful and Trump and the part of We the People that follow him like lap dogs are telling us that cruelty is beautiful and holy!  We have so-called religious leaders praising cruelty as commanded by God both here in America and in Israel-is it any wonder why some of We the People believe destruction is once again upon us because of our own actions. It is the “enemy within” that is destroying us-both the internal evil inclination gone riot of the individual and the external evil being lauded by our elected officials.

The greatest cruelty and the height of denial of God comes from our unwillingness to be in “contrition and grief” over our failures to “be holy”, over our insistence on denying our “sins and transgressions” by justifying them, by proclaiming that ‘our justice’ is greater than our compassion and that we have ‘a new covenant’ that enshrines white people to be the top of the food chain. Rather than engage in T’Shuvah, in repentance, in amends, in seeing the truth, these PAGANS are reveling in their evil by saying “Jesus told me to do this”, “This is the will of God” otherwise it would not be happening, and other such bullshit. We have lost the moral high-ground of our ancestors, we are pointing our internal moral compass in the wrong direction, and the rest of We the People have to get off our asses and not “fiddle while Rome is burning”. We the People are being called, hell we are being commanded to stand up, to speak up, to shut down the evil that is running rampant in our streets, to tell ICE to end these Gestapo tactics, to tell Miller that he has to go to Alligator Alcatraz because his ancestors were not born here, tell Vought he has to face a Religious Court for his Sins against Christ, tell Lutnick that he has to face a Rabbinic Court for his sins against Adonai, tell the rest of We the People that we are not going to take their lies and bullshit anymore. We the People have to demand “contrition and grief” from Bibi, Donny, and the rest of their thugs, We the People have to teach our children unconditional love, how to do T’Shuvah, how to strive towards holiness, how to fail and get back up(resilience), and how to have “compassion be greater than justice” and “accept our frailty and weakness”.

This is the daily task I engage in and I continue to work to “be holy”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Life is precious because of what we can do, not because what we can get. Year 4 Day 199

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 199

The idea with which Judaism starts is not the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man but rather the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do the will of God. There is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah, and precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will. This is why despair is alien to Jewish faith. (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

The first sentence in bold above is unquestionably true, everyone knows “there is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah”, yet everyone is not always willing to do the one needed for this moment and this is the problem that has faced humanity since the times of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. Most of us are unaware that “precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will” and this leads us to seek out the preciousness of life through artificial means, through deceptions, through power-seeking, through enslaving another group/individual, through misogyny, through privilege, through autocracy, etc. Isn’t it sad that the only thing that makes life “precious” to so many is how much money they have, how much power they have, how much they can amass and control? Isn’t it tragic that democracy, the very instrument through which Trump, Vought, Vance, Wytkoff, Bibi, et al gained power is the very thing they are seeking to destroy, the very institution they are seeking to dismantle so they can be in absolute power and crush anyone who says anything negative to them or about them?

How did this come to be? There are a myriad of reasons and a few stand out to me. 1) Since the beginning, humanity has rejected the necessity of looking for “an opportunity to do a mitsvah”, and embraced the false ego-driven lie of ‘look for an opportunity to get mine”, Cain and Abel is the first example, the King of Sodom is another after Abraham returned his wealth and his people to him because Abraham’s nephew Lot had been taken captive. There are many more throughout the Bible and they are there not to point out God’s impotency, they show us directly and unequivocally the results of embracing the false-ego lie of “where’s mine”. Abraham begins with the mitsvah of “making souls”, helping people find their spiritual home, ensuring they live the lives they were meant to and, along with Sarah build community where people belong. Isaac shows us what it means to love someone completely, even if they betray you and lie to you, your love is unwavering as his was for Rebecca. Jacob and Esau represent the two inclinations within us. While Jacob is the ancestor of the People Israel, Esau is the one who shows us what passion, what kindness, what forgiveness is all about. While Jacob needs God to guide him, to show him the way, Esau is the part of us that just knows in his bones what the kind, loving, truthful, next right action to take is. Of course he is passionate and some would say ‘dumb’, I would suggest that he takes every opportunity to do a mitsvah, just as Abraham and Isaac do, just as Moses does, just as Judah does after his encounter with Tamar. The Bible is replete with times and places to do a mitsvah and there are so many people and examples of people seeking to “do His will” and experiencing “precious is life” because they “run to do a mitsvah”.

2) We have been taught what to think, not how to think, as my wife, Harriet Rossetto said to me the other day. We are not being taught to seek our “acorn” as James Hillman writes in “The Soul’s Code”, we are not being given the keys to the kingdom because the Rabbis, the Priests, the Ministers, the Kings, the rulers, the elected officials refuse to trust We the People with power to overrule them, with the power to take charge of our lives and the power to say NO. They are afraid of us, just like Pharaoh was afraid to accept and face God for an accounting of his deeds. Most people are afraid to do a “fearless and thorough inventory” as the 12-Steps call for because they would have to face themselves in truth and “Hell NO, I am not seeking truth, I am seeking validation for my lies and my grift”! We are not taught the how of the Bible’s message, we are taught ritual and dogma, not how to discern which commandments to obey and which to disobey, which verses are inserted and which are divinely inspired. We are not being taught how to discern truth from lies, fact from fiction because then We the People will be able to flex our muscles, argue with the Idolators and the PAGANS, call out the leadership for their Bullshit, and stand for the Ineffable One because so many of the people that said they would, our Clergy, have abdicated their calling so they can gain favor with ‘der Fuhrer’-Trump, Bibi, et al.

There is plenty of shit happening today that can lead anyone to despair and I refuse to go there. Because I know that there is a “mitsvah” to be done, because I know through experience and in my gut that “precious is life” and I seek to find the “mitsvah” that this time and this place is affording me. Because I can always find an “opportunity to do a mitsvah”, because I know the myriad of times the Psalmist felt like giving in to his despair and, instead, he reached up to God and down into his soul to find a path out, to find the pony in the horseshit, to see the beauty and the gift of the moment we are in. I, like you, am the Psalmist, I, like you am the writer of Proverbs, I, like you, am given the Torah and hear the Voice that has never stopped speaking from the top of Mount Sinai to know how to trust what we know to be true and right, take the action that the situation in front of us is calling for without letting fear of ‘what will they think of me’ get in the way. I have spent the past 38 years to do “His will” and because I have been seeking, I am always finding the ways and being found as well. The “opportunity to do a mitsvah” is the path of finding ourselves, finding the truth of another human being and the openness we are afraid of so we can also be found and known. This is the why despair is alien and “precious is life”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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Focusing our attention and actions of "the wonder of creation and doing the will of God - Year 4 Day 198

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 198

The idea with which Judaism starts is not the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man but rather the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do the will of God. There is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah, and precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will. This is why despair is alien to Jewish faith. (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

The first sentence above is true and most of us do not learn this truth about what Judaism is at its core, This is the terrible state of religious education in the Jewish world, the entire Jewish world. While the Orthodox claim “to do the will of God”, it is, when they are actually fulfilling it, a item to check off a list for most, just go to an Orthodox early morning minyan where the men are talking business instead of listening to God, or a Shabbat morning service where the men are more concerned about their ‘kiddish club’ where they drink instead of being in the service. For the other denominations, they teach pap, they go with ‘social justice/tikkun olam, with Am Yisrael Chai/the Jewish People live denoting a togetherness that never was and is not now, and they are not even convinced that God exists so “the will of God” doesn’t always have a strong hold on them.

The fact that Jewish education doesn’t teach the beauty of wonder, the power of radical amazement, the resilience of living a life compatible with being a partner of God’s is criminal. It is, I believe, the real reason that the current younger generation sees no real value in being Jewish, unless there is anti-semitism to make them remember. They want to be ‘citizens of the world’ because there is no compelling reason for them to carry on this beautiful and important way of living. In fact, relegating Judaism to being a “religion” waters down its beauty, its power and its mission!

As we speak “to do the will of God”, we also have to take a critical look at the “will of God” we are choosing. In the Bible, it is evident that Ezra or someone of his time and persuasion inserted xenophobic and racist statements into the text because, as I am learning from my friend and teacher, Rabbi Hazan Danny Maseng, they are in direct conflict with statements that we know come from a source much higher than human rational, self-centered thinking. 36 times we are told to be kind, to love, to embrace the stranger and then, when good for Ezra, et al, we are being told to kill them? WTF! Yet, Netanyahu, Smotrich, Ben G’Vir, et al are using the few ‘kill them all’ texts to validate their greed, their need to kill, their need to show their power and strength! When we are told  about seeing our enemy’s ass wandering we have to take it back to him/her, when we are told one law for the citizen and the stranger alike, when treat the stranger well because your were strangers in the land of Egypt, when “love your neighbor” is the watchword, it is proof that this is “the will of God” and not of some asshole who wants to be God, these statements, the stories of both our rising above our narcissism and failing to rise above it, are proof that the Bible is divinely inspired that the people writing these passages had an experience of higher consciousness that can only be ‘explained’ as an experience of God/higher power.

So, what are We the People to do since we don’t live in Biblical times, since we are so ignorant of the spiritual life we need to live, so deficient in knowing and experiencing “wonder” and radical amazement, so jaded regarding mitzvot and the need to engage in them? We the People are being given an opportunity to “teach ourselves” as the Talmud suggests we do when our parents, when the previous generations fail in their duty to live the V’Ahavta prayer to “teach your children” or as Neil Young sings: “teach your children well”. We the People have to take it upon ourselves to immerse ourselves in the Bible, decide which “will of God” we are going to follow, and find the path of “wonder of creation and the ability of man to do God’s will”. We the People have to take Judaism back from the lazy, power-hungry, sometimes corrupt clergy and lay people including parents, who have reduced this great path for living well to a memorization of one’s Torah Portion and an okay to leave your spiritual education at age 13 when you need it most! We the People are being called to stand on the street corner, to go into the Temples and Synagogues, the Jewish Federations and Community Centers and PREACH THE GOSPEL OF “the wonder of creation and the ability of man to fulfill God’s will”! We the People are being given the permission and the power to help people find “the will of God” that is truthful and not tainted with a human agenda, to lead people to their rightful place as partners with God, to achieve the pinnacle of success; doing the next right thing no matter what or how I feel. In other words, We the People are being called to serve God, to serve truth, to serve with and in love, kindness and pathos.

In my recovery, I have always said: “Fuck your feelings and take the next right action”. I say this because my feelings are not facts and they have, at times before and since my recovery, taken me down a very wrong path. I am pissed off, as you can see, at the ways I was ‘taught’ Judaism and I stayed in Jewish education through my high school years! I did not opt out at 13 and I still did not learn “the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do God’s will”! I did learn the beauty of davening and the fallacy of ‘let us pray’. My rabbinate is all about teaching “wonder”, “the will of God”, radical amazement and truth. It isn’t popular with “mainstream Judaism”, I am not a sought-after speaker, and I do what I am called to do because this is my path of fulfilling God’s will for me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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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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