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Doing all that is within our power to achieve that which is beyond our power - Year 4 Day 232

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 232

“Alone we have no capacity to liberate our soul from ulterior motives. This, however, is our hope: God will redeem where we fail; He will complete what we are trying to achieve. It is the grace of God that helps those who do everything that lies within their power to achieve that which is beyond their power.” (God in Search of Man pg. 407)

These words in bold capture this moment in time, I believe. As we enter the final week prior to Rosh Hashanah, we are 15 days away from Yom Kippur, I know it is essential for We the People to see the path to redemption, the wilderness we need and are able to go through and achieve a new sense of freedom, a freedom of spirit, a freedom from resentments, a freedom to be who we authentically are and a freedom to welcome the authenticity of another human being. The caveat, of course is: We the People have to “do everything that lies within (our) power to achieve that which is beyond (our) power.”

We are living in a moment in time, that has repeated itself over and over throughout the history of humankind; we keep regressing to autocracy, to seeking someone to take care of us, someone to make it right, to beat up our enemies, etc. We seek hatred and destruction rather than community and creativity, we are ensconced in resentment and blaming the ‘other’ rather than honoring the inherent dignity that the Bible tells us all people have. We the People have to demand from ourselves to “love the stranger” as the Bible tells us 36 times in the first 5 Books, we have to “do justly, love mercy, walk humbly in the ways of God” as the prophet tells us, we have to guard against being “ a scoundrel within the bounds of Torah” as Moses Nachmonidies warns us. The paths that our country is on, in my opinion, is the path deeper into the wilderness, deeper into the loss of freedom, deeper into the path the Israelites took to become slaves to Pharaoh.  It is up to We the People to seek the redemption necessary so we are able to, once again, cross the Red Sea and move towards Sinai, accept the 10 sayings and live as free people, honoring the freedom of another, serving something greater than our self-centered desires, jettisoning the practice of following our hearts and eyes whoring after them. We the People can do this, not completely, not once and for all, and we can move forward step by step, little by little and, on Yom Kippur accept the “grace of God” to be clean and free.

How do we do this? It ain’t easy! Yet, it is simple. We the People are being asked, commanded, pleaded with by the spiritual forces most prevalent in the world right now to tell ourselves the truth about our actions, our desires, our passion and purpose. It is called doing TShuvah, an inventory of what we have done well and what we haven’t. This process begins with giving up our claims that we are innocent, we aren’t in every circumstance, it continues with letting go of the lies of society that we are supposed to be perfect-only the Ineffable One is and my wife, Harriet Rossetto, is not so sure this is true:)! Upon doing these first two actions; knowing they will seek to enter our thinking because, after all, we are not perfect; we begin our review of our ways of being over the past year(s). Looking backwards is difficult because, as we know, hindsight can be 20/20, and we see where we actually harmed ourselves and another human being, where we were oblivious to what was going on within us and around us, and what we need to repair within ourselves and with another human being. This is not to beat ourselves up because we know better now, it is an acknowledgment that we did the best we could in the moment given everything that was happening within us and outside of us at that moment, in that experience; unless we planned to do evil and were excited to get over and be king of the mountain! This is not to whitewash what we have done, it is to put it into it’s proper context, to not get into shaming and blaming ourselves nor another, unless it is warranted as a “rebuke, rebuke your neighbor and don’t bear guilt because of her/him”. We the People are also commanded to see the GOOD we have done, relish in our goodness and be grateful for finding places and people to live in community with. We the People are called to see how we have lived spiritually, covenantally, and freely in the spirit of the universe and from our souls rather than our egos! Doing this list is crucial to our own redemption, crucial to doing “everything that lies within our power to achieve that which is beyond our power”.

This is my 38th year of being on this journey through the wilderness of Sin, to being imbued with the power of the experience at Sinai, and the journey to freedom and my proper place. It is a trip to see how far I have come, to rejoice in the good I have done and, while acknowledging my errors, not focus on the shit anymore. After speaking with a dear friend, my writing may be seen as my beating myself up for old errors, and if this is how it came across, I am sorry. In my desire to be in the both/and I acknowledge my imperfections and I am not sorry for them, I rejoice in them because they make me who I am and I think I am pretty cool, good, passionate, and purposeful. My sharing in this blog is inspired by Rabbi Heschel’s words because he shows me where I am not living up to the call of the Ineffable One and I will never “GET THERE”. Redemption is a forgone conclusion, as I understand living Jewishly. When I am kind, just, loving, truthful, forgiving, non-resentful, merciful, compassionate, friendly, welcoming of the stranger and the friend alike, I am living my redemption and living in these ways is the path out of the wilderness to the edge of the promised land, it is the repayment of the debt I owe to God, to the universe, to the myriad of people who have helped me grow into being authentically me. We are all redeemable, no one is beyond redemption to live into this truth and to do whatever is in our power in this moment , so we can “achieve that which is beyond our power”-redemption, community, belonging. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Ulterior Motives, Selfish Desires, Egocentricity or the Redemptive Power of God - Year 4 Day 231

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 231

“Alone we have no capacity to liberate our soul from ulterior motives. This, however, is our hope: God will redeem where we fail; He will complete what we are trying to achieve. It is the grace of God that helps those who do everything that lies within their power to achieve that which is beyond their power.” (God in Search of Man pg. 407)

Reading this teaching after pondering the last sentence of yesterday’s quote: “Whatever we do is only a partial fulfillment; the rest is completed by God” gives us a lesson in humility, which humanity is in DESPERATE NEED OF right now especially. The “American Way” of self-reliance is in direct opposition to those who are claiming that they want a “Christian Nation”, which everyone knows is code for White Supremacy. Yet, if these PAGANS and LIARS were being loyal to the values of Christ, true to the ways of Christ, we would have very different world. This teaching above, as I hear Rabbi Heschel this morning, in this moment, is not about a “religion”, it is about a spirituality that overpowers our selfish needs to be #1, to be the religion, to be the best, to be the smartest, etc. This is the teaching for all of us to live into on this 22nd day of Elul, on this week prior to Rosh Hashanah.

On the High Holy Days, We the People go to rejoice and remember, to forgive and ask for forgiveness, to clean up our side of the street and to be heard and seen. Yet, how can we do this when We the People are still living in the fantasy world of either/or, the imaginary world of “I am a self-made human being”, “I am self-actualized” and other such bullshit. The same is true for all of the ‘religious people’ who claim to know God’s Will so well they should never be questioned. “It is written in the Bible” means nothing because it is also written in the Bible that human beings are to argue with God as Abraham and Moses did, we have a “duty to disobey” as Rabbi Harold Shulweis writes in his book: Conscience; the duty to obey and the duty to disobey. The idea that we do not need to be redeemed because ‘we have already been redeemed at the Red Sea’ is utter bullshit. Each year in the Haggadah we are told: “every one must see him/herself as if they too have been redeemed from Egypt”; we all need to be redeemed and because of our outlandish, outrageous, out of proper measure EGOS, we need to be redeemed often! Yet in a climate of “I am right”, “you need to heel to me”, etc; Trump’s perfecting of this pattern is the quintessential experience of “no capacity to liberate our soul from ulterior motives”. Miller, Wytkoff, Lutnick, the three Jews who may or may not go to Services on the High Holy Days will not hear a word of the prayers they recite, they will not allow anything to penetrate their shells, and this is what passes for being ‘a good Jew’ today; Judaism was never about choosing a political side, it was and is about choosing God’s side and We the People have failed once again to make the best choice in this moment and in every moment-choosing to follow our “ulterior motives” rather than God’s direction. And these three Jews, along with millions of others, here and in Israel, will beat their chests, will use the formula the Rabbis gave us, and believe in their own self-righteousness, the ‘rightness’ and ‘godliness’ of their service to Trump, to fascism, to autocracy while reading the exact opposite in their High Holy Day Prayer book!

We the People have to be fully engaged in the personal work of Elul, whether we think redemption for ourselves is possible or not, whether we believe that someone else can be redeemed or not. We always can have “hope: that God will redeem where we failed”, that upon reflection, we will understand and ‘see’ through our higher consciousness the proper way to be, the best way to make our amends, and the vision for moving forward. This is the essence of TShuvah, this is the path of partnership with God, this is the truth of being human: WE NEED HELP! None of We the People can do life alone, none of We the People can fix everything that ails us, much less all that is wrong/off with the world.

I have been thinking about what it is that stops human beings from doing TShuvah actively and with joy, I think I have stumbled upon an idea. Humanity does not like to admit their errors, it goes against “conventional norms and mental cliches”, it is an affront to our egos and most of We the People don’t know how to admit our errors, rise above our false selves and be truthfully repentant, truthfully needy, and truthfully ask for help with our internal lives. There is a reciprocity of generosity that comes with being in truth with another human being, with God, and there is a debt that we take on also. The debt is to be available for another person who needs to be in truth, to rebuke those who refuse to let go of their lies and falsehoods. The teaching above reminds me that the great lie is “I did it”! The truth is with God’s help, with the spiritual force of the universe, with the help of so many others, I have been able to achieve some great things, I have been of service to God, to another(s), to myself and I am guilty of many errors in judgment, in action, and in thinking. I continue to realize them, I make my amends and I speak truth to people-whether they want to hear it or not. If you don’t want to hear my truthful response, don’t ask me any questions. As I said, I am guilty and I return to my innocent self each time I clean my shit up, each Yom Kippur I get a new start and a clean slate, each day I engage in living well, in growing into God’s will a little more, each day I ensure that love, kindness, justice, truth, compassion are leading the way, it is a good day, I am allowing “God” to “redeem where I have failed” and experience the immense love the spirit of the universe has for me and everyone. I am unique and not special! As the prayer says: We are all children and God is parent to us all. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Confusing Callousness and Cruelty with the Eternal Command - Year 4 Day 230

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 230

“The eternal command, like a saw, is trying to cut the callousness of hearts. In spite of all efforts, the callousness remains uncut. What, then, is the meaning of all endeavor? Rabbi Tarfon said: “You are not called upon to complete the task, yet you are not free to evade it.” Whatever we do is only partial fulfillment the rest is completed by God.” (God in Search of Man pg. 406)

The first sentence above kinda says it all! We are told to “circumcise the foreskin of our hearts” and “the eternal command” is the only way for this to happen. Instead, we are witnesses to “the callousness” being held out as the standard of morality, the standard of a ‘free society’, the goal for all to reach so we can be rich, famous, powerful like Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, and their criminal allies. It is especially galling to read these words above, to know “the eternal command”, when done in truth, in kindness, with justice, mercy, and love is the antidote to “the callousness of hearts” and watch in horror as the liars in chief, the idolators who have the megaphones, preach a message of hatred, callousness and celebrate the cruelest of actions. Charlie Kirk, who is being canonized by the far right and demonized by the far left is a prime example. He claimed to be ‘a good christian’ while preaching a Christian Nationalism that is about as far away from Christ’s life work as possible, he is having praise heaped upon him by Jews, especially Netanyahu, and a traffic circle named for him in an Israeli town while he promoted blatant antisemitism, hatred of people of color, LGBTQ, he opposed the separation of Church and State, seemingly embracing that the United States should be a ‘christian nation’ which has always been good for the Jews-NOT! Yet, because “the callousness of the hearts” “remains uncut”, we see Charlie Kirk-who was killed in the most horrific of ways, who did not deserve to die for his right to free speech-being lionized, having a statue in the Rotunda to him, a bill to allow him to lie in State as if he was a hero, and wonder what good is “the eternal command” if, after all these years, over 3000, the callousness not only remains, it seems to get stronger and stronger, immune to the “saw” of “the eternal command”.

“Why bother”, “fuck it, I don’t matter nor make a difference”, “they(society) are too powerful and have the game rigged” are all thoughts and expressions that We the People use to deny the words of Rabbi Tarfon, the wisdom and truth of what he is saying above. These ways of opting out of “the task” have permeated society for the millennia and we are reaping what We the People have sown through our inaction, our inattentiveness to “the eternal command”. Rabbi Tarfon’s wisdom above is one of my brother’s, Rabbi Neal Borovitz, favorite pieces of wisdom. He has preached it for 50+ years, he has lived it for more than 50 years as well. Yet, We the People, continue to allow “the callousness” to grow, rather than put some “saw” marks in it, rather than use “the eternal command” to weaken the “callousness” a little each and every day. This is the reason that Rabbi Tarfon’s wisdom is so crucial for We the People to stop the cruelty of a Charlie Kirk from becoming the policy of the United States Government which it has become, to stop the mendacity and the injustice of Netanyahu and his gang of thugs from ruining what the State of Israel is meant to be-a light unto the nations, not a pariah among the states of the world! Yet, We the People are adamant in our refusal to live “the eternal command” in all our affairs because we are afraid of being ‘a loser’, afraid of ‘not getting ours’, etc. POOR WE THE PEOPLE.

Please spare us the whining, spare us the response that ‘religion is bullshit’, ‘look at how those religious folks are cruel and mean, hateful and suspicious towards anyone not like them’, etc. “The eternal command” has nothing to do with the ways religions are practiced, unfortunately! This is the problem that We the People have created and only We the People can solve. The first step in recovering the solution is to ask: “what is “the eternal command”? It is simple, it is spoken throughout the Torah, it is in the first of the 10 sayings, “Walk humbly with God”, “do justly”, “love mercy”, because for God to bring us out of the land of Egypt, to remove the binds of slavery, to save us from our inner slavery, we have to participate, we take on the obligation to live into “the eternal command”. “What does it really mean”, people ask. To “walk humbly with God” means to “love the stranger, take care of the poor and needy, to love your neighbor, to rebuke your neighbor”,  it means to be careful to not “be a scoundrel within the bounds of Torah” as the Ramban warns in his commentary on Lev. 19:2. “Do justly” means ensuring that people’s dignity and value is upheld, it means due process under the law, it means the rule of law is of utmost importance and dispensing justice means we have to live into the spirit as well as the letter of the law; “righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue”. We the People will never complete this job, this “task” AND we have to stop our giving up because we will not see it through to completion! We the People, in this month of Elul, have to recommit to doing the best we can in this moment, doing our T’Shuvah each day, improving/learning one grain of sand more every day and stop lionizing HATRED, CRUELTY, RACISM, ANTISEMITISM, and all other forms of autocracy!

This “task” is one I have been on for my entire recovery and, like my foray into bridge, I take two steps forward and one step back. Remembering the wisdom of Rabbi Tarfon is crucial to my truly moving ahead so I stop beating myself up for the errors and seek to ‘finally get it right’. Once again, in my quest for growth and knowing, Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom turns on a light bulb! I am committed to hone my competitive edge without being competitive, to continue to grow and learn, one grain of sand, in every area of my life, on each and every day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living as "a hired servant" or as "Israel", one who belongs? Year 4 Day 229

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 229

“Israel feels a certain ease and delight in the fulfillment of the law which to a hired servant is burdensome and perplexing. For “the son who serves his father serves him with joy, saying, Even if I do not entirely succeed [in carrying out His commandments], yet, as a loving father, He will not be angry with me. In contrast, a hired servant is always afraid lest he may commit some fault, and therefore serves God in a condition of anxiety and confusion.” (God in Search of Man pg.406)

What Rabbi Heschel is saying here is crucial to our way of living. While “Israel feels a certain ease and delight in the fulfillment of the law” may seem farfetched to some, the idea is very important to the way We the People are going to choose to live. There is a tremendous difference between a person who is ‘obligated/has to’ do a task, even a good deed and a person who is ‘obligated/gets to do a mitzvah, even something that doesn’t ‘feel’ good, that seems harsh, like rebuking someone because of their behavior. While both people are doing “the next right thing”, the difference between “Israel” and “a hired servant” is that “Israel” is moved to a higher understanding of living, seeing a higher purpose in their lives and an excited for what is to come, what one is going to learn and grow into; while “a hired servant” is going to stay stuck in resentments, looking for how they are ‘put upon’, how ‘they’ are out to get him/her, and never being able to see past their own selfishness, self-centeredness. I want to be clear that I am not talking about a slave-Rabbi Heschel is very specific in his choice of words, “a hired servant”.

On this 19th day of Elul, entering the home stretch prior to Rosh Hashanah, isn’t it time to take a look within ourselves and determine when we are living as “a hired servant”, as a person who lives as a victim, who constantly is telling everyone how they are right and being put upon, who is resentful and serves with anger and a shield so the mitzvah can never penetrate their inner life, who is unwilling to “circumcise the foreskin of their hearts”. These are the people who have a check-list of mitzvahs they do each day/need to do each day and while they are always smiling when doing them, their inner lives are not changed, their belief system of they do it right and everyone else is wrong, their actions towards the stranger are horrendous, they don’t “love their neighbor” nor are they opposed to “putting a stumbling block before the blind, cursing the deaf, having different weights and measures ‘for the goyim’, etc. We the People cannot overlook the times we are acting in the same ways, albeit nuanced, yet, still “put upon”, feeling “not recognized”, thinking “don’t you know who I think I am”, as a member of AA said to me at my first meeting and then he started to laugh. In our inventory, in our replaying of the video of this past year, We the People are being called by the words above to let go of our “anxiety and confusion” and see ourselves for our flaws as well as our greatness, have mercy upon ourselves just as God has mercy upon us and acknowledge the areas of life that are difficult for us to be in acceptance of, the areas where we still need to compete and compare, the areas where “the next right thing” is “burdensome and perplexing”. If we are to grow along spiritual lines, if we are to experience the 30 seconds of being completely clean in our soul, connected and embraced by the Ineffable One, we must do this work, We the People must see the areas where we are uncomfortable and fearful, resentful and feel victimized.

We the People are also being called on this 19th day of Elul to see and acknowledge when we are “Israel”, when we are fulfilling the Divine’s will with “ease and delight”, when we are excited to see how we can serve another(s) and ourselves in this day, in this hour, in this moment. Rather than being afraid, it is important for us to see how we serve with joy and where we can learn and grow. Living as “Israel” as described above, gives us the opportunity to welcome our imperfections, embrace our errors in judgment and action, appreciate the rebukes we get from another(s), and roll away the boulders that are in front of the blind, speak in sign language to the deaf, not have one set of standards for ‘our kind’ and another for ‘those people’, etc. Living as “Israel”, means to welcome the stranger as Abraham did, meditate and pray for the wellbeing of another as Isaac did, wrestle with one’s negative nature as Jacob did, take care of business and be loving to a mother who hated him like Esau did, hold onto the covenantal love even when our partner hurts us. Living as “Israel” is to live above the fray, to embody “radical amazement”, to keep learning by seeing everything new, by not being tied down by ‘societal ways’, ‘optics’, ‘what we did yesterday/this is the way we always do it’.

This High Holy Day Season, I pray that my colleagues find new ways to transmit the joy of the Holy Days, to see Yom Kippur as “a day like a wedding”, to stop ‘beating our chests’ and start massaging our strengths, to admit our errors out loud-beginning with the Clergy, to have people tell the stories of those for whom We the People are saying Kaddish for at the Yizkor Service, for the Clergy to speak to and about “the holiness that abides in our guts”, that “we are all standing at Sinai”, that “the world depends on us”, that “serve in joy and in truth” is paramount to a good life. Stop being “a hired servant” and start being “Israel”, one who belongs, one who is given a task, the true meaning of “being the chosen people”, and is grateful for the opportunity to serve, to grow and to learn. This is the path my Rabbinate took, it is the path my life took and I am IMPERFECT! I serve in and with joy, I am optimistic about today and tomorrow, I believe in the basic goodness of humanity and I see the evil that is abounding, clothed in the robes of the Clergy-like the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea- and I pray WE THE PEOPLE wake the fuck up! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Privilege, Joy, Preciousness of doing the Next Right Action - Year 4 Day 228

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 228

“Though deeply aware of how impure and imperfect all our deeds are, the fact of our doing must be cherished as the highest privilege, as a source of joy, as that which endows life with ultimate preciousness. We believe that moments lived in fellowship with God, acts fulfilled in imitation of God’s will, never perish; the validity of the good remains regardless of all impurity.” ( God in Search of Man pg. 406)

Immersing ourselves in the words above, in the thoughts and actions above, I believe, is the only path to ending the senseless hatred and violence that was once again on display yesterday in Utah. Charlie Kirk was not killed by a “radical left lunatic”, he was murdered by a sick individual who had easy access to guns and who believes violence is the only way to solve problems. This is not what America has stood for, ideally, constitutionally, for most of our 249+ years. Yet, today, in our country, in our world, suicide bombers, over the top retaliation, assassinations, are happening more and more in schools, in the streets, in Israel, in Gaza. At what point do We the People say ENOUGH!!??

In reading and hearing Rabbi Heschel call to us in love, kindness and truth to stop worrying if we are perfect, we are not! Whew, now that perfection is off the table, we can appreciate the “privilege” of being able to fulfill a mitzvah, a divine need, help another(s) human being. What a wonderful way to see the “yoke of heaven”, “as a source of joy,” a “privilege”, as “that which endows life with ultimate preciousness.” Consider how our lives change when seeing ourselves and our deeds through this lens-forgetting about our inner impure thoughts, forgetting about our less than perfect performance, just living into the sheer “joy” of being alive, the “privilege” of being able to do a mitzvah, a “deed”, and the realization of the preciousness of the moment, the “deed”, and our “life” has meaning and purpose. It is the realization by We the People that We MATTER TOO!

In a society steeped in falseness, awash in optics, demanding perfection since Greek civilization, it is absolutely diametrically opposed to the wisdom and truth stated by the Bible, the New Testament, Rabbi Heschel and so many others. If God wanted perfection, humanity would not have been created. Since we are here, appreciating the “preciousness” of the moment we aer in, being in awe of the privilege to serve something greater than our narcissistic selves, the joy of being free to be who we are, to know our actions matter, to rejoice in the “deeds” of another(s) that give aid and comfort to us and to so many others, is essential! Without living into this appreciation, awe, freedom, joy, we are left with anger, with resentment, with “where’s mine”, with shame. In these states, we seek retribution, blame, winning at all costs, our ‘pound of flesh’, control, power, wealth, etc. The stark difference between what society demands, the “conventional notions and cliches” under which society has operated-white people should rule, wealth is reserved for the few, hate the stranger, suspect one’s neighbor, be sycophants to the powerful, corrupt the clergy, etc- and what the Bible demands-love your neighbor, help the poor, loan to the needy, love the stranger, every human being is infinitely worthy and dignified in their soul and the different talents each of us possess is for the benefit of society, not to be ostracized because of them, and, most of all, speak TRUTH TO POWER! All of these ‘good christian folk’ like John Roberts, Mike Johnson, are perpetrating the societal lies of life, not the Spiritual, Christian, Jewish, Muslim way of living well, of honoring the “privilege”, of realizing the “joy” of doing the next right action, of reveling in the “preciousness” of purpose and meaning!

“One ‘oh shit’ wipes our 100 atta boys” the saying goes and the last sentence above denies this bullshit, this “conventional notion and cliche”. Just as the negativity we wrought doesn’t leave the world, the impact is always embedded in the moment we committed it, the good doesn’t leave either, it will “never perish”. While we may forget it, people may forget it, the universe doesn’t and is better because of the “good” we have done! This is an important knowing for all of us who get down on ourselves, who beat ourselves up because of our “missing the mark”. In this month of Elul this year, it is up to We the People to remember the negative, repair it, put it in the past where it belongs for both the one we harmed and ourselves, have a new path and way of responding to the same triggers that will come up again, and see the good we have done, enjoy the actions that have helped another(s) and ourselves, use them as a step ladder to climb more rungs to do more “deeds” that are “lived in fellowship with God”, “acts fulfilled in imitation of God’s will”. If this isn’t a “privilege”, what is? We the People are needed, called and have the wherewithal to rise above the negativity of perfection to the positivity of service.


I realize that my competitive nature, my impatience with my own imperfections is showing up at Bridge and with Harriet! I realized this fact in the writing today and I will change it- not sure how yet and Harriet will give me some advice along with friends and advisors. It is a privilege to serve, it is awesome to be able to take an action that serves my soul and the soul of another(s), to serve God in ways I never would have imagined possible. It is a constant source of joy, doing the next right thing and not allowing my ego to become puffed up by my actions, in fact it is the opposite. Each time I am in the preciousness of purpose, my ego gets more and more right-sized and I am able to live better. I am so grateful for life, for being able to respond rather than react, for the month of Elul taking the time to see what is good and not good-repairing both. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Selfish motives versus a deed and God- are you aware of this choice which confronts us all the time? Year 4 Day 227

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 227

“Man may be replete with selfish motives but a deed and God are stronger than selfish motives. The redemptive power discharged in carrying out the good purifies the mind. The deed is wiser than the heart.” (God in Search of Man pg.405)

As outrageous and outlandish as the first sentence above may seem, given the history of destruction and cruelty of “man”, it is, nevertheless, absolutely true! So, why, Rabbi, is cruelty and evil abounding in this moment as it has so often in the past, you may be asking/thinking? The facts that “man” is not willing to engage in “a deed and God” doesn’t negate the truth that “a deed and God are stronger than selfish motives”. This is the great issue of our time and of all times: What will it take for “man” to engage in “a deed and God” rather than just living capriciously, living according to his/her ‘needs’ which are really desires and selfishness in disguise?

We Jews have a practice of T’Shuvah and, like the 12-Step recovery programs, we are told to engage in “one day before we die and since we don’t know the day of our death, do it every day”(BT Shabbat 153a). In this month of Elul, we are graced with extra compassion, strength, and mercy so we can confront ourselves and our selfish motives as well as making amends and confronting those who have harmed us. We confront those who have harmed us only to re-connect and re-sew the fabric of our relationship, not to harass nor harangue them. We “rebuke our neighbor so we don’t bear guilt because of them” as we learn in Lev. 19:17). Rabbi Heschel speaks about Repentance being an “unnoticed miracle” precisely because “the redemptive power discharged in carrying out the good purifies the mind”.

What ails society, what is making our world more and more cruel and harsh, is not fatal unless We the People continue to give voice and power to our “selfish motives”! We are not doomed, this is not a moment for despair, it is the exact time to look inside our own souls, do our own inventory and and confront our errors of judgement, our selfish actions, and the harms these have brought to self and another(s). We the People cannot be calling out the evil and cruelty of another(s) without first searching and seeing our own, doing TShuvah for them, and having a plan to not repeat these same behaviors, having a plan to deal the cruelty and selfishness that lies within us, sometimes dormant, sometimes very active, so neither way of being rules us anymore, they become subservient to the “deed and God” rather than being the false god they have become for so many of We the People.

Be it Trump or Netanyahu, Bessent or Ben G’Vir, Lutnick or Smotrich, these men are hellbent on serving their selfish motives, they proclaim their ‘religious fervor’ as a cover for their selfishness and cruelty, for their grift and their power grab. These are not people of faith, these are not people of integrity nor are their followers, their cohorts, their families and friends! One cannot be a Haver, a spiritual friend, to someone who relishes their cruelty, who extols their selfishness and wears their evil as a badge of honor and a symbol of god’s love! With the exception of Trump and Bessent, the Jews mentioned above have NO FUCKING IDEA what this month of Elul is about, they could care less about doing TShuvah and they will walk into Synagogue on Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur certain of their holiness and goodness-this is how destructive “selfish motives” are! It is way past time for We the People to demand an accounting by our leaders for their transgressions instead of white-washing them as the Supreme Court seems to be doing!

We the People are being called by the words above to demonstrate to these PAGANS and WHORES, these CRUEL and EVIL people, the “redemptive power discharged in carrying out the good”. It is way past time for We the People to recognize our own goodness, demand goodness of our family and friends, demand TShuvah from our leaders and hold them accountable and responsible for the evil and the cruelty they have, are and will create! We the People know the truth that “the deed is wiser than the heart” and we have to demonstrate this in our daily affairs. Yes, fuck our feelings, do the next right action, follow the mitzvahs dealing with how to be holy, how to be decent, how to transform our selfishness, cruelty and evil inclinations into servants of the good, of the decent, of the holy instead of the other way around. We the People have to live into the power of “a deed and God”, we the People are needed to be soldiers in the war against God, the war against “the deed”. We the People have the opportunity to stand up for GOOD, stand with the STRANGER, stand for FREEDOM, the question that is being asked of We the People is: “will you do the next right thing, take advantage of this opportunity, and move the redemption of the world forward?

I know the “redemptive power discharged in carrying out the good”, I know how it “purifies the mind” and I know this month has, for the past 38 years, moved redemption forward for me and for those around me. I know that I am far from perfect, I know I make some of the same old errors, I know I have improved, the errors are not as bad, as messy, and I know that I have left the past in the past. I pray for the people who harm me, rather than think about revenge. I rejoice with people who let me know the truth, good and not good, about me, my actions. I know the “selfish motives” are very few and far between now and I know that loving the stranger, my brother, my neighbor is the path of JOY for me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Educating the Will, taking the next right action- is this really so difficult?? Year 4 Day 226

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 226

“Left alone, the soul is subject to caprice. Yet there is power in the deed that purifies desires. It is the act, life itself, that educates the will. The good motive comes into being while doing the good.” (God in Search of Man pg. 405)

I have been captivated by the ideas in these 4 sentences, hence spending 3 days on them! The last two sentences give us the rationale for “the deed”, “the act”. While we have stressed education, ‘morality’, different political and religious agendas, etc, Jewish wisdom from the Torah, from the Bible, stresses “the act” as a way that “educates the will”. It is apparent from Jewish ‘history’ that “the will” has a mind of its own and unless and until it comes under the power of the soul, unless it is subjected to “the deed”, “the will” continues to lead us around according to our whims and wishes, it keeps us “subject to caprice”. There is such power in immersing ourselves in our foundational spiritual text-the Bible-because we learn about “life itself”, we learn how difficult it is to live according to our “will” and live well, be happy, be human.

Listening to the ‘leaders’ of the free world these days is proof of the capriciousness that abounds precisely because these ‘good christian folk’ want to control and make everyone live according to to their “will”, not God’s will! They are not interested in “purifying desires”, they are only interested in having everyone serve their desires, they are only interested in getting away with as much as they can and, of course, being as cruel as they can while enslaving the rest of us to serve their capriciousness. For this sect of We the People, there is nothing, no “act” that “educates the will” because their will continually overpowers God’s will according to the Gospels, the descriptions of Jesus’ actions, etc. It certainly goes against what the Torah, the Bible teaches us-Lutnick, Bessent, Wytkoff, et al. For people like Smotrich, Netanyahu as well they continue to stonewall the truth above that “it is the act, life itself, that educates the will” because, like their good buddies in the US, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Russia, etc, they don’t want their will to be in line with the Divine Will; this would mean they would have to follow a code that eschews cruelty, power for its own sake, grifting, lying, cheating, stealing, murdering- all of the ways they love to gain and hold power! How dare one ask these ‘fine upstanding gentlemen’ who are running these countries to give up what is near and dear to their hearts!

It is way past time for We the People, in what is left of this month of Elul, in these 23 days prior to Yom Kippur, to stop our need to live by our intentions, to wait for the purity of motive to take an action, to worry about what is in our hearts. FUCK THAT! “The good motive comes into being while doing the good”! This is the foundation of Living Jewishly, I believe. Take the next right action no matter how you think or feel has been my motto since my time in Prison. We the People are not judged by God, by self, by another for  thoughts, for motives, only by actions. As the first sentence above states, “left alone…” Actions are the greatest companion for our souls, they shape and mold us, be they good or not good actions, every one we take either moves us closer or farther away from the goal to be human. This is one of the hardest things for most people to believe, to understand, to live into. On both ends of the religious, political, and emotional spectrums, the belief is in being ‘pure’, purity of motives, actions, beliefs, etc. Purity here is a substitute for certainty, be it the far right, the far left of these spectrums, We the People who are on them believe in their righteousness because of their certainty they are right, their way is the only way. Yet, we are taught there are 70 faces to the Bible, 70 ways to understand and live into the text, there are numerous interpretations of the New Testament, so, isn’t it a fallacy for We the People to demand purity from another, to state unequivocally that we are 100% sure ‘my way is the only way’? Yet, too many of We the People are so spiritually bankrupt, spiritually immature, spiritually uneducated that we seek certainty to cover our fears, to give us respite from facing life on life’s terms, from doing the next right action no matter what, from being responsible and doing the TShuvah we need to do, right here, right now.

This is the great challenge of these words, of this period of time: Do the next right action no matter what and stay out of the results. We the People are not to be concerned with how we are received when doing our TShuvah, we are not to be concerned if the other person(s) is so stuck that they cannot reconcile, they are so full of shit they think they are better than God who tells us at the beginning of the Kol Nidre Service: “Salachti, KidVorecha”, “I forgive as you have spoken”! God forgives but those great ‘progressive people’ who care for the underdog can be like stone to someone else and be fine with this contradiction even as they sit in Synagogue on Yom Kippur! Talk about self-deception! The same is, of course, true for the Far Right with their Tzitzis flying all around and killing people in the West Bank, Gaza for the ‘sport’ of it, not because God commanded it!

I have continued to “take the next right action” and do the TShuvah I need to each year since 1987 and my life is richer and more meaningful. I don’t know everyone I have harmed and all the ways I have screwed up because what one person found amazing, another finds disgusting-I only know that the actions I take are what I believe to be the best in the moment, they are always meant to help another person see the truth, and to serve them and the Ineffable One, even when I screw it up-the actions I take are in line with serving the Divine and the errors are mine, capriciousness is all me. It is hard to live this type of examined life and, as Socrates says: “an unexamined life is not worth living”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Which deeds purify your desires and which deeds lead to more avarice? Year 4 Day 225

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 225

“Left alone, the soul is subject to caprice. Yet there is power in the deed that purifies desires. It is the act, life itself, that educates the will. The good motive comes into being while doing the good.” (God in Search of Man pg. 405)

“There is power in the deed that purifies desires”, what a radical statement and one that is amazingly clear and true. “The deed” is the key to this sentence, as we can see throughout history and especially in the present, many people have decided that their deeds, the ones that serve only them, are the standard of purity. After all, we have a person in the White House who truly believes everything he does is “beautiful” and “perfect”, he is aided and abetted by his Vice President, his staff, his thugs, etc. They are using their power to ascertain that their deeds and God’s commands are one in the same! They even have the cover of a Franklin Graham and other Evangelical leaders who have made cruelty in line with Christ’s teachings! WTF???

As I am hearing and experiencing Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above, “the deed” refers to the mitzvahs, the ways of being more human each day, of respecting the dignity of every soul, of finding ways to learn and live with one another. “The deed” is the action we take whether we ‘want to’ or not, whether it makes sense to us or not, whether anyone else is doing it or not. “The deed” is the mitsvah of welcoming the stranger, of remembering what it is like to be a stranger-whether we are the immigrants or our ancestors were, whether we were the one who moved to a new city, state, new school, or not, and we all have experienced being/feeling like a stranger in our own inner life, experiencing the chaos of not knowing, the fear of being ostracized because we speak our truth, of not being ‘cool enough’, etc. We are called to remember what it was like being a stranger in the land of Egypt, being welcomed and thriving for a while and then having TRUMP and his THUGS take the throne and the Israelites became slaves. Does anyone think this incarnation of Pharaoh is going to be any different? Does anyone really believe that this incarnation of Pharaoh is going to open his heart to mercy, justice, truth, kindness and compassion? REALLY??

I keep getting stuck on sentences and I believe it is because we are in the last two weeks prior to Rosh Hashanah, we are in the last stretch of the month of Elul and We the People desperately need to get our houses in order. The only way to do this is by using the “power in the deed that purifies”, engaging in an authentic inventory and process of TShuvah. This means that We the People have to look at our part in every interaction, especially the ones where we feel aggrieved and wounded by another. It is imperative to remember and to live into the truth that “it takes two to tango”. We the People have a part in “the deed” that we are aggrieved by and the betrayals we have experienced. The betrayals I have felt have melted away because I participated in the betrayal because  I “left alone” my “soul” and was lured by ego, by desires, etc. When I am engaged in “the deed that purifies” I will still be betrayed, I will still feel the pain, I just won’t be a party to the wrong, to the harm. My suggestion does our part does not mitigate the responsibility of whomever harmed us to do their own TShuvah, it only gives us clarity and vision on how to make amends to ourselves, how to change our ways so we allow “the deed” to purify “desires”. We the People are being called to do the work of the moment, to educate, grow and mature our souls so we can help the younger generation do the same much earlier than we have and give the third generation the tools, the power, the spiritual health to make their corner of the world better than what we are leaving to them.

Another powerful experience from this sentence is that we are not being asked to not have desires, we are not being told that aestheticism is the ‘proper way’ nor are we being asked jettison personal goals and achievements. Rather, we are being given a path to adjust our desires so they are in proper measure for our authentic needs, so they do not impinge on the freedoms, the rights, the authentic desires of another and they serve to improve our way of living, improve our journey towards wholeness, improve our spiritual, emotional, physical health. This is the reason that doing our TShuvah in this moment, doing the best we can to make our amends, repair the damage to our souls, to our psyche, and finding a new way of responding to the same triggers that will be present in the year to come. We the People are being counted on by so many, We the People are needed by God, We the People are being called to suit up and show up with our best, most authentic selves this Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and it will not happen if we do the same thing we did last year, come for Yizkor, show up late, leave early, sit there like a stone, etc. It is not important what you wear, it is important that We the People engage in the JOY OF TSHUVAH now so we can CELEBRATE THE RENEWED CONNECTION with our souls and another(s) soul  this High Holiday Season.

“The deed” has changed me over and over again. I know that I am a “wandering Jew” and because of the “power in the deed that purifies” I am joyous about it! I don’t need a pulpit, I have this, I have my writing, I have my study, I have my friends, I have you, and I have my Harriet, Heather, siblings, family. It don’t get any better than this. Thanks TShuvah for changing me. Thanks God for giving me “the deed”. Thanks Rabbi Heschel for always speaking to my soul, to touching my fears and giving me strength to move forward. Thanks to the teachers and study partners over the years. Thanks to the learners I have been privileged to learn with. Thanks to the people who have exiled me, and thanks to those who have not. Blessings abound and I love being wrapped in them! God Bless, stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you maturing, educating, hearing the call of your soul and heeding it? Year 4 Day 224

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 224

“Left alone, the soul is subject to caprice. Yet there is power in the deed that purifies desires. It is the act, life itself, that educates the will. The good motive comes into being while doing the good.” (God in Search of Man pg. 405)

The first sentence above is so cautionary because it is so true. We the People, since the beginning of life are subject to the whims and wishes(caprice), desires and eye-candy that come into our minds, our hearts and which we see with our eyes and/or hear with our ears. The major problem in child rearing is the lack of educating, growing, maturing the soul of our children. Hence the statement in the Bible “man is evil from his youth”. We engage in evil precisely because We the People are not educating nor maturing our souls as young people nor are We the People being taught how to by teachers, religious leaders, parents, society. This is the great crime of child-rearing, IMO. Growing the souls of our children ensures they are not “left alone”, their “soul” is not “subject to caprice” so much. Educating and helping our children mature their souls allows for what James Hillman calls “the acorn” to rise up, to grow, so our children will be able to follow the call within them rather than deny their strength, their talent, their gift in order to fulfill the call of their parents, their friends, society, etc. When we force our children to fulfill the call of parents, friends, society, we are not only allowing “the soul” to be “left alone”, we are promoting the capriciousness of life, the disdain for authenticity, the hatred of the good for the sake of goodness.

“The soul” is the storehouse of knowing, the warehouse of goodness and truth, the seat of justice and mercy, the resting place of love and compassion. The first sentence compels us to keep our storehouse at the proper temperature so nothing rots, our warehouse in order so we can ship out what is needed in the moment, to ensure that our seat of justice and mercy never grows stagnant nor becomes based on the capriciousness of politics, agendas, power, and to fluff up the resting place of love and compassion each and every day so we never forget the commandment to “love your neighbor” and “love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”. Rabbi Heschel is telling us to never leave our soul alone! We the People are being reminded that what makes us human, what makes us ‘above the animals’ is our soul, our ability to reason and to know, our ability to speak truth to self and another, to engage with the powerful and mighty as the prophets did, to love and be loved, to be needy and be needed, is our “soul”! And, this is the least educated, least cared for area of life for most of We the People!!

I am on a tear, I know it. This has been a pet peeve of mine since my recovery because I realized my father’s wisdom and my inability to grasp it as “a youth” and the evil I did instead! My father, z”l, spoke to my soul, not my head, he saw me and know me-not the son, the child, rather the soul of me and, in the short time he had, he tried to give me enough strength, wisdom and knowing to not allow my “soul” to be left alone. Yet, it was!  Family didn’t know how and the Judaism I learned did care about my soul being left alone. The problem is the ways in which We the People have forgotten, ignored, bastardized the beauty and simplicity of the wisdom of the Bible and this has to end! Fuck the Pagans and Idolators who claim ‘rightness’ for their lies and power grabs.   We the People have to stop leaving “the soul” “alone”! \

It begins at home, of course, as does almost everything. Prior to naming our children, we are to look in their eyes and see the trait of their soul that is most prominent and name them for a relative/person who embodied that trait or for the trait itself. While some people do this, most of We the People do not. Even those who do, most of them pay no attention to the soul of the child again-until it is too late. Of course We the People send our children to school, to religious school, teach them right from wrong, etc. This, as I am experiencing the first sentence above is NOT ENOUGH! We the People on this 14th day of Elul, in this year of 5785 must do our T’Shuvah for the sin of leaving our souls alone for allowing our souls to be subject to caprice, to whims and wishes, desires of the heart and eyes! This may be the most important TShuvah we make, because this can be the one that sets us on the journey to educate, grow, mature our souls, to sharpen our ‘hearing’ of the call within us, and to wrestle with our inclinations to do wrong, to “scout out after our hearts and eyes”. Ending the capriciousness of our living, maturing and hearing the soul’s call allows us to decipher the “soul’s code” as James Hillman advocates for in his book of the same name. Hearing the call and deciphering our individual soul’s code is the thrust of Rabbi Heschel’s teachings and wisdom, it is the thrust of the Bible and the prophets. When will it become the thrust of We the People? When will we make it the truth of society? When will We the People truly live into “teach them to your children”?

I know the harm, damage, ruin a soul left alone and subjected to capriciousness. I lived it both as the capricious one and as one who experienced the consequences of the capriciousness of another(s). Neither one is good, neither one is right, neither one helps move decency, love, justice, compassion, truth and community. I have spent the last 38 years trying to never leave my soul alone and I have failed at times, I have allowed myself to be maneuvered into a caricature, a patsy, a bully, because “left alone” I was unable to hear the call of my soul in those moments. For all of them, I am truly sorry and I am so much better and I know perfection is not the goal. Living with a companion is the surest way to not allow my soul to be alone and I am indebted to the people who continue to be my teachers and friends, especially Harriet and Heather. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Seeking reward, pleasure, profit or giving undivided attention to this moment, this mitsvah? Year 4 Day 223

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 223

“Whatever our motive may have been prior to the act, the act itself demands undivided attention. Thus the desire for reward is not the driving force of the poet in his creative moments, and the pursuit of pleasure or profit are not the essence of a religious or moral act.” (God in Search of Man pg.405)

“FUCK YOUR FEELINGS, DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING” has been my motto, my call, to people since the beginning of my recovery-because, as Rabbi Heschel says above, the motives don’t matter once we are immersed in the action of a mitsvah. BTW, a mitsvah is not just a ritual act, in fact as the prophets screamed at the priests, it is very easy to make a ritual act into a sin when it is done with divided attention, when it is done routinely and by rote. A mitsvah is an act that helps raise the standard of living for both the doer and the recipient, the macro and the micro. A mitsvah is any act of kindness, truth, justice, authenticity, compassion, mercy-full stop! When we “fuck our feelings and take the next right action”, we are telling ourselves that serving something greater than our egocentric mind, letting our rational mind know it is no longer in charge, and we are greater than the sum of our parts, we can rise above selfishness, cruelty, pettiness and enmity. Rabbi Heschel’s words above are pointing us to a way of living that doesn’t make profit, reward, pleasure, and all other ego-pleasing results the essence of a mitsvah, of “creative moments”.

The pendulum has swung to the far right from the far left in America, in Israel, in much of the world and this swing, like the one to the far left, has left many injured in its wake. It is amazing to me, the same people who complained about the ‘progressives’ (who in my opinion were/are not very progressive with their anti-semitic ways, an old story), are doing the same actions ‘for their side’. Give me a break!! The driving force for both extremes, whether they will admit it or not, is “reward, pleasure, profit” along with power and prestige. Every “religious or ‘moral’ act”, every one of their “creative moments” are driven by these irreligious motives and, because of this, so many of what they do will never last, will never survive the next huge pendulum shift. The issue is not the swing of the pendulum, however, it is how to stop the back and forth from one extreme to another, how to stop these momentous shifts and backlashes. This is where the wisdom above comes to help us, to point us in a direction.

When We the People demand of ourselves truth and authenticity, we begin to filter out the wheat from the chaff, the bullshit from the truth, the self-deception from clear vision. When we give the mitsvah, the next right action, our “undivided attention”, we are unable to seek the results the ego demands, we are unable to put forward the lies and deceptions of a Donald Trump, a Robert Kennedy Jr., a Bibi Netanyahu. These ‘great men of faith’ continually dismiss the importance the mitsvah, of the “deed” by ignoring the harm, the death of body, mind and spirit, the shifting of the foundation of what it means to be human, and the truth of what the Bible, Jesus, say. Rather than acknowledging the call to care for the stranger, to be a healer of the sick, to hold people responsible and not do it cruelly, these idolators hate the stranger, screw over the sick and hold everyone but themselves and their cronies responsible for anything and everything that ‘goes wrong’ before, during, and after their “reign of terror”. Just as We the People are being called by the words above and this month of Elul to look at ourselves, hold ourselves accountable, We the People must hold the leaders we elected-whether we voted for them or not, whether we agreed with their appointments of not, We the People are responsible for them being in office- responsible to DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING NO MATTER HOW THEY FEEL!

We the People can only hold another responsible after we hold ourselves responsible! We the People are being called by Rabbi Heschel, by the universe, by this time of year and by the events that have and are continuing to unfold to STAND UP for what is right and good, for truth and kindness, for love and mercy. We the People have the opportunity to “shuvah L’ Adonai”, return to God, allow God to heal our backsliding, experience the love that God wants to give us, experience the love we want to give and receive to another. Our authentic nature, our “human nature” is to not be alone, to give and receive love, to honor and rest, to stop false images and false words, to support life, to choose life, to restore what has been taken from another, to rejoice in our portion and rejoice in what another has without comparisons nor competitions. We the People are being given ANOTHER opportunity to “get it right” through the “deed”, through taking the next right action, being immersed in the mitsvah, and eschewing profit, pleasure and reward for the sake of our soul and the soul of humanity.

This way of being is not the easiest, it is not the most profitable, it is, however, the most rewarding because We the People can live with ourselves without recriminations, without ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda, thoughts’, without worrying about ‘our backs’, without fear nor favor of another human being. I know this as I have, slowly and surely, grown in giving the mitsvah my “undivided attention”, it is hard, I am always seeking distractions and, this year, I am more committed to discipline and being deliberate, to not being engaged in organizations nor with people who don’t want me around, and knowing where I belong, what I bring and what I need from self, God, family, friends, community. It is a long journey to reach this place and, knowing me, I will fall back. The good news is the more “undivided attention” the mitsvah gets, the less the fall back! I am sorry to all those who have been put off over the years of believing I gave them divided attention, I am sorry to all those who felt slighted by me. I am forgiving those who used this vulnerability against me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Separating, elevating and connecting to authentic self, to authentic people- Year 4 Day 222

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 222

“Serving sacred goals may change mean motives. For sure deeds are exacting. Whatever our motive may have been prior to the act, the act itself demands undivided attention. Thus the desire for reward is not the driving force of the port in his creative moments, and the pursuit of pleasure or profit are not the essence of a religious or moral act.” (God in Search of Man pg.404/405)

The first sentence above is crucial in our understanding of how to transform our inner negativity to serve something greater than just our selfish desires and petty concerns. While Rabbi Heschel is not giving us a guarantee, he is reminding us that doing the next right thing can become a habit and can transform our thinking and feeling. “Serving sacred goals” is the pathway to a “richer and more meaningful life” as I am reading, hearing Rabbi Heschel this morning. What is a “sacred goal”? In the dictionary, we learn that “sacred” comes from the Latin meaning “holy” or Kodosh in Hebrew. Holy, as we have learned previously, means to elevate, separate, and connect. Ergo: any action which elevates We the People, any action which separates us from falling into the abyss of selfishness, meanness, cruelty, and any act which connects We the People one to another is a “sacred goal/act”.

At issue in this first sentence is of course what is passing for ‘religious’ behavior and thought in this era of mendacity and the assault on truth, kindness, love, being human! What we have today in these right-wing ‘religious’ leaders of Christianity, Judaism, Islam are the descendants of the priests of Israel and Judea who offered rituals with no meaning, who wore the garb of ‘holiness’ and acted for their own sake and the sake of the rich and powerful, who were constantly called out by the prophets and who were at the center of the causes for the destruction of not only both Temples, the destruction of two nations, the wandering of the Jews for 1900 years! Is this really the way America and Israel want to be remembered? Do We the People really want to be known as descendants of Judea and Israel who, created in freedom, whose ancestors risked everything to give us an opportunity to be free, who adhere to the Biblical demand: “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”(Lev. 25:10) fucked it all off because we, like Germany in 1932, wanted to have a ‘supreme leader’, a ‘fifth reich’, and become slaves to this autocrat like the Israelites did in Egypt? REALLY??

Yet, Bibi and Donny are prevailing, their thugs and sycophants are dominating the air waves and the social media. They have no “sacred goals”! The only thing they serve is themselves! Yet, We the People are either too stupid, too asleep, or too blind to realize this truth. Bibi wearing a yarmulke, Trump selling a Bible is the same as Putin praying at a Russian Orthodox Church-it means nothing, it is all for show. The sycophants like Wytkoff, Lutnick, Miller, Noem, Rubio all people of ‘deep faith’ are nothing but PAGANS, they are charlatans and deceivers and many of We the People are still applauding them-WtF??

The question that this first sentence is posing for We the People is simple-are we going to engage in actions which elevate us from the depths of self-serving, egotistical desires to serving something greater than ourselves-like the planet, the climate crisis, the welfare of the person in my home, my neighborhood, my city, state, country, world? Are We the People going to separate ourselves from the cruelty being done in our name in America, in Israel, in Gaza, in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar, in Russia, in Ukraine? Are We the People going to connect with our own higher consciousness so we can rise above the desires of our hearts and eyes, are we going to connect with people who believe in FREEDOM, who believe in the dignity of each and every human being, who believe “all people are created with certain unalienable rights among them are life, liberty(freedom) and the pursuit of happiness”? This month of Elul gives us the opportunity to examine ourselves, to see where we need to enhance the good we have done and repair/raise up the not good we have created. It is giving us a “do-over” if you will, because “The most unnoticed of all miracles is the miracle of repentance. It is not the same thing as rebirth; it is transformation, creation…Repentance is an absolute, spiritual decision made in truthfulness. Its motivations are remorse for the past and responsibility for the future. Only in this manner is it possible and valid.”(Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity) We the People are being called to do the work necessary to protect our freedom and the freedom of another, we are being called to take the next right action, to serve “sacred goals” and not selfish ones. We the People can do this! As Moses tells us, it is not too far away, it is in our hearts, in our mouths, in our being! Will you hear the call, will you answer the call, will you do the T’Shuvah you need to so you can, once again, be human in all your affairs?

As most people know, T’Shuvah is the center of my life, my Rabbinate, my purpose. I engage in “serving sacred goals” each and every day, I get aggravated when I see people engage in the cruelty that is so in your face and accepted. Yet, this cruelty is not new, I engaged in it for years as a criminal and a drunk so my “living amends” is to not be cruel and to be truthful. Truth can seem harsh and it is a gift of love and belief, when people call me out they are telling me they believe in me and I can be better than I currently am. While many did it to put me down, to sideline me-that is their motives- I took/take it as a gift that keeps on giving. To those who cannot see their own cruelty because they are ‘on the right side of the cause’, I offer my sympathy and pray you will do this work to see truth and get right with yourself, serve “sacred goals” with the same fervor you serve your self. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Whom is being served by the "deeds" you perform each day? Year 4 Day 221

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 221

“Deeds set upon ideal goals, deeds performed not with careless ease and routine but in exertion and submission to their ends are stronger than the surprise and attack of caprice. Serving sacred goals may change mean motives. For such deeds are exacting. (God in Search of Man pg.404)

Currently, as has always been the case, we are in a war within ourselves and between societal ‘norms’ and spiritual goals/needs. Therefore, the deeds being spoken about here are not deeds to fulfill the needs of ‘der fuhrer’, they are the deeds that are the ideals of the Bible, they are the deeds which make it possible for “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore”(Isaiah 2:4). In this moment, unfortunately, We the People are once again engaged in the battle to make this prophecy a reality or succumb to the “deeds” of the autocrat and his minions. It is a battle for the soul of the country and, more importantly, it is a battle for the soul of each and every one of us. The “deeds” spoken about here by Rabbi Heschel, I believe are the mitzvot which bring about change within the individual and the world which, like the butterfly flapping its wings, changes the rest of the world as well.

It is no accident that so many people from different areas of the country, of the world, discover the simple truths and, eventually find one another through their writings, their speakings. It is not accident that great discoveries which change the longevity, the quality of human life are done in cooperation now that we have advanced communications. The cooperation of people to make important discoveries has added to the quality of life. The men and women who fought for democracy in 1776 and ever since, fight for the “ideal goals” of freedom for all, the “ideal goal” that everyone can leave Egypt and live in their own “promised land”. We the People are once again being called to account, called to look within ourselves and, in this month of Elul: when the forces of compassion, forgiveness, and return are overwhelmingly powerful, We the People are being given the opportunity to look at our “deeds”, seeing which ones served us, which ones served ‘der fuhrer’, aka the Pharaoh,  and which served the Ineffable One. Doing this gives us the vision of when we are lying to ourselves, when we are self-serving and when we are serving more than ourselves which leads to the greatest self-service possible-connection to one another and to the Source.

Listening to the Taskmaster in the White House, knowing Trump is there in response to Obama, “what is a black man doing in my White House”, knowing his “deeds” have nothing to do with “ideal goals” as laid out in the Bible, knowing he lives with “careless ease and routine”, knowing he never does anything in “exertion and submission to their ends” if it doesn’t serve him personally, We the People have to ask ourselves WTF?! How have we fallen so far down the rabbit hole that We the People are allowing the very thing that led to the Boston Tea Party, the “shot heard ‘round the world” at Lexington and Concord, the very ‘deeds’ that led to the birth of this nation? It is bewildering to me, especially since so many ‘people of faith’, ‘good christian folk’, ‘fine, ‘torah jews’, ‘devout ‘muslims’ are leading the charge to imprison, to deny free and fair elections, to tax the poor, the middle class(tax laws, tariffs, etc), and to put the army on the streets of our cities how We the People are standing for this! Yet we are and it is happening right before our eyes; when the same people are asking how could this have happened in Germany 90 years ago-We the People know the answer-because WE THE PEOPLE ALLOWED IT!!

It is hard to do the next right thing all the time, it is difficult to not fall into a “careless ease and routine” when praying, when studying, when working, when living and the first two sentences above come to remind us of this and exhort us to face the hardships of rising above our petty needs, to overcome the difficulties that push us into becoming willfully blind to what is and what is needed. We the People are capable of the “exertion and submission to their ends” because within us is the desire to connect, the desire to serve something greater than ourselves, the knowing of our imperfections and hating the need to hide. ALL YE, ALL YE, Come In Free, the words from the child’s game hide and seek are being spoken from the top of Mount Sinai every day this month and, truthfull,y every month. We the People in this month of Elul are being given the opportunity to come out of hiding, to show our true self warts and all and be accepted, loved and healed as the prophets Hosea and Jeremiah tell us, as the Torah prophecies to us. We the People, however, have to take the first step, We the People have to look at our “deeds” and see which ones served “ideal goals” and which didn’t, which harmed human beings(including ourselves) and which ones didn’t. Then we get to make our amends, both to the people and God as well as amend our thinking and our actions so we don’t repeat the same mistakes; we will find new ones and those are for next year’s Elul.

I have been serving “ideal goals” with “exertion and submission” for the past 38 years, before that I tried and failed often because of fear and immaturity of my soul. I hear the CALL from Sinai each and every day and I continue to uncover the subtle hiding places within my inner life. The wonder of not hiding is the vision I obtain in seeing life and the world, the compassion I experience for the people who harmed me and never made their amends, the people who are stuck in believing assholes like Trump and Bibi. I don’t need to prove my mettle anymore, I know who I am, I know “organized life” can barely tolerate me and I am at peace with me, with you and with the world. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Deeds carry us away, Transport our Souls- Year 4 Day 220

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 220

“It is the deed that carries us away, that transports the soul, proving to us that the greatest beauty grows at the greatest distance from the center of the ego.” (God in Search of Man pg. 404)

Rabbi Heschel’s words above assume a way of being that seems to be foreign to many of We the People. This way is to be immersed in the deed one is performing, immersed in the moment one is in, and be changed by our own actions and reflections on our actions, be changed by our interactions with another human being, be aware of the impact of our “deed” upon another, upon God and upon ourselves. This is not the way of the current trend in our society, nor has this way of being been able to prevail throughout the millennia. Yet, it is at the very heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Being moved by one’s actions is, I believe, at the heart of the Eastern traditions as well-meditation and action raise us to a higher consciousness and better actions. Rabbi Heschel teaches that “prayer will not save us, it may make us worthy of being saved”. Spending my day in prayer and study is USELESS if I am not living what I learn out in the world, if I am not motivated and changed by the prayers I am saying, if I cannot see the reflection of the good and not good I have done through the introspection that prayer provides for me. Hence, the need for “the deed”.

Rabbi Heschel is speaking truth to We the People, as he always does, and his words and teaching demand being aware, immersed and present in the moment and in “the deed”. It is imperative that we stop living a rote life, stop doing life without thinking, end our incessant need to be on our phones, get more likes on social media, etc. When we can let go of our need to copy someone else, when we can release the need to covet someone else’s stuff, success, when we can stop plagiarize someone else’s life script, we can begin to live into our authentic moments, do the deeds that are authentically ours. Only when this happens can We the People experience “the deed that carries us away, that transports the soul”. Until We the People make a decision to “turn our lives over” to something greater than ourselves, to a purpose, a passion that is in line with the divine, a higher consciousness, we will remain stuck in the muck and mire of Egypt, under the thumb of Trump, ruled by the whims of Netanyahu, fearful of the retaliation of Putin, and whipsawed by their pawns and their puppeteers.

The situation We the People; or at least those of us who serve God, a power greater than ourselves, who engage in higher consciousness, find ourselves in demands we “do the Deed”, that we engage in the transportation of our souls so we can resist, fight, and, most of all, stay free in a world that wants to be enslaved, with fellow humans who revel in serving ‘der fuhrer’, and bow down in front of King Trump, Pharaoh Netanyahu, Adolf Putin, etc. When people like Steve Wytkoff, Howard Lutnick, and other Jews kiss the ass of Trump, it is revolting. These ‘good jews’ who celebrate Passover, who will go to Temple this Yom Kippur and believe they should be honored and hailed don’t realize that their “bad deeds”, their greed and avarice have transported their souls to hell. Yet, there is hope for them, if they are willing to do TShuvah, to repent and change-doubtful and possible.

There are so many examples of “the greatest beauty grows at the greatest distance from the center of the ego”. The great inventors, discoverers, painters, sculptors, athletes, actors, writers, while having big egos at times, knew/know their craft, their talent came/comes from something outside of themselves. For these people, “the deed” is their art, “the deed” is living their talent and allowing “the deed” to transport their souls. As Michelangelo is reported to have said:”The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” The same is true for We the People! Our soul is complete, what we are to add to our corner of the world is within us, we only need “to chisel away the superfluous material” that covers our souls, that puffs up our false ego, that feeds our self-deceptions.

This then is the gift of this month of Elul-the opportunity to “chisel away the superfluous material” that blocks our vision, our ability to be immersed in “the deed”. Doing our inventories, making our amends and realizing the vast amount of good We the People have done is the path Judaism gives us to be able to reveal this great work of art called our life to ourselves, to another human being, without fear nor favor, without being judgmental nor unaware. Living in this month, truly preparing for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, give us the “trip of a lifetime”, an “around the world cruise” because we get to repair the damages we have wrought, forgive those who have harmed us, seek to reconnect where possible and clear away all of “superfluous material” from our inner life. What could be better than this? PLEASE AVAIL YOURSELVES OF THIS OPPORTUNITY!!

I have for the past 37 years, this is the 38th time I am living the month of Elul and it is the best one yet. I have no resentments, no grudges, no need to ‘get even’, no desire for a ‘do-over’. I do have clarity of sight, I know the people who ‘get’ me and those who don’t. I am acutely aware of the ‘covenantal’ relationships that were/are in fact transactional and I am elated to know the truth and it doesn’t change my response to these people. I ‘see’ the need for me to keep speaking out through my writing and where/when asked, even if it is only for the one or two who can hear me. I know these are “the deeds” that define my life, these are “the deeds” that carry me away, that transport my soul and I love the ‘magic carpet ride’ away from the “center of my ego”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Experieincing the "absorbing power and inexorable provocativeness" of a redeemed EGO - Year 4 Day 219

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 219

““The good is carried out in acts, and there is an intense fascination that comes from a good deed counteracting the pressure and ardor of the ego. The ego is redeemed by the absorbing power and the inexorable provocativeness of a just task which we face.” (God in Search of Man pg. 404)

We are a society that, if you are rich and powerful enough, allows people to ‘get away’ with having “good intentions” and bad actions. This is not true for the ‘regular person’, hence Trump’s Jan. 6th tirade, insurrection, his “stolen election” bullshit was rubber-stamped by the Supreme Court! Rather than hold the rich and powerful accountable, depending on if the Republicans are in power or not, rich people will be held accountable by them if they are Democrats-certainly not one of their own. Rather than experience the “intense fascination that comes from a good deed counteracting the pressure and ardor of the ego”, too many people succumb to “the pressure and ardor of the ego” resulting in making the United States of America ripe for an autocratic takeover which is what is happening right now. In Israel, Likud help Olmert responsible and Bibi is untouchable, so far-sounds the same as here in America. WTF?? Have we lost our way so badly, have we bought into the idea that faith alone will redeem us so we don’t have to do the deed??

Rabbi Heschel’s words above deny the idea that faith alone will redeem us-“faith without works is dead” it says in James 2:26! The teaching above comes to take Netanyahu and Trump, Putin and Erdogan to task saying: ‘check your egos, gentlemen’ and do the next right thing-treat the stranger well, love your neighbor, do not hate your kinsman in your heart and we are all kinfolk, etc. The beauty of “a good deed” is that it doesn’t counteract “the pressure and ardor of the ego” and, even more so, it begins to transform “the ardor of the ego” into wanting to more good, be a better human being, just ask anyone in recovery, ask anyone who had a spiritual awakening of any and all kinds, ask good, decent people and they will tell you the good propels them into a different state of being-one that validates their worth, their dignity and opens them up to being loving and able to receive the love of another(s).

“The ego is redeemed by the absorbing power and the inexorable provocativeness of a just task’ is a revolutionary statement, an outrageous statement to many and it is truthful, factual, and the most necessary step in our journey to freedom, to living our spiritual calling, our “acorn” as James Hillman puts it. Redeemed in Hebrew is the same word as “kinfolk” according the the Biblical Dictionary, so we are not denying the need for “ego” in a human being, we are not trying to kill the ego, we are redeeming it because societal pressures, genetics, inner immaturity have made us egomaniacs, focused on “what’s in it for me”, doing deeds that serve us, extolling the evil that is found in every good, bastardizing Holy Texts and Holy actions to the point where they become meaningless. This has to STOP! We the People are being called to “redeem the ego” of our country, of Israel, of the world and we are doing a piss-poor job of responding to the call.

We the People have to have our own ego’s “redeemed by the absorbing power and the inexorable provocativeness of a just task”. To do this, We the People have to take the rest of the month of Elul and the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, 28 days, and do the work necessary to realize the numerous “just tasks” we have engaged in this past year, going through them again so they can “redeem” us, they can tame our ego, put our ego in proper measure to our souls, our spiritual knowing-no longer allowing our egos to override what we know to be true, no longer giving into “scouting after our heart and eyes which makes us whore after them” as the 3rd Paragraph of the Shema teaches us.

“A just task” redeems us by forcing us to be engaged in it, to think about what we are doing, to focus on the act and be transformed by the “provocativeness of a just task” in a society that is interested in power and wealth, lust and greed, lying and mendacity. The people running the government, some of whom are Gay according to an article in the NY Times yesterday, are interested in themselves and their ‘supreme leader’ because the ‘supreme leader’ has the power to cut them off at the knees and they are afraid of him. It is provocative to engage in justice, mercy, kindness, truth, love in a society that rewards “winning at any and all costs”, it is provocative to believe that good redeems the evil within each of us and causes our egos to participate in doing the next right thing rather than the next expedient action. Doing the good not only counteracts the power of the ego, it transforms us from slaves to our desires, our societal pressures, our need to ‘get ahead’ to FREE PEOPLE, doing the good for the sake of the good, doing the good for the sake of being able to live with oneself, doing the good for the sake of spiritual wholeness and doing the good because we are being compelled to. If this isn’t provocative, what is?

Being engaged in this way of being for the past 38 years, doing the work of TShuvah, of Elul, has given me new perspectives each and every year. No longer worrying about “what will the neighbors think”, I only concern myself with “what will God think”. I am not always right and I am able to say when I am not right, I don’t need for people to admit their errors towards me anymore because I feel compassion for their inability to own their errors, their being stuck in ego and unable to experience the “absorbing power” of having their “egos redeemed”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Humanity is weak in its heart, faith alone will not redeem us. Year 4 Day 218

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 218

“If faith were the only standard, the effort of man would be doomed to failure. Indeed, the awareness of the weakness of the heart; the unreliability of human inwardness may perhaps have been one of he reasons that compelled Judaism to take recourse to actions instead of relying upon the inward devotion.” (God in Search of Man pg. 404)

Rabbi Heschel stresses the connection with the Ineffable One and human beings so often that the teaching above may sound counter-intuitive and it isn’t. While prayer, meditation, study were so very important in Rabbi Heschel’s life and work, he knows that none of it means much if one is not involved in the actions of the world. In his interview with Carl Stern, Rabbi Heschel tells us that writing his book on The Prophets caused him to get out of his study and into the world of activism. Prayer, meditation, study showed him how and where to lend his voice-to help the poor, the needy, the voiceless and the powerless, to stand for justice and mercy, truth and kindness. Ergo, in my opinion, the words above reflect a deeper knowing, a personal lesson after the inactions of the the people of the world when Hitler was on the rise and after he took power-until, of course, it affected them!

While many Rabbis and Priests, Ministers and Imams preach ‘faith, faith, faith’; the truth of the first sentence puts faith in its proper place-not as the cure, the end all/be all, rather as a first step. An important one, no doubt, yet as we learn from Samuel1 15:22, “does God delight as much in burnt offerings as in obeying the voice of God?” It is not how much faith we have, it is not accepting the messiah or not, our connection, our well-being is dependent upon the actions we take, the ways we carry out the call of God, not the call of the PAGANS who, like our ancestors who inserted different phrases and stories to promote a human agenda rather than the Godly one of “Moses, our Teacher”. In Deuteronomy, Moses is exhorting the people over and over again because he has “awareness of the weakness of the heart”, he has witnessed it over and over again. The same people who proclaimed “This is my God and I will exalt/praise/follow also whored themselves with idol worship, with senseless hatred, with abusing the widows and orphans, the poor and the stranger. The later is the reason given for the destruction of the first Temple and the former the reason for the destruction of the 2nd Temple. We are not asked to take a “leap of faith”, as Jews we are called to “take a leap of action” as Rabbi Heschel teaches.

Rather than teach our children how to revere, how to appreciate, how to make sense of the inner war that we all wage, society gives a regimented way of being, society has its own ’10 sayings’ and the punishment for not being ‘politically correct’ on either side of the spectrum, is banishment, scorn, maybe even imprisonment in ‘Camps’ as Germany did, as America did in WWII, and as we are doing today! Have we learned nothing? Are We the People going to continue to allow our children’s inner life to stay chaotic, to remain empty, vapid? Are We the People really going to stay unaware of our intuitive minds, of our soul’s calling, of our ikigai, our purpose so we can make a living, stay in the good graces of ‘der fuhrer’? How sad and how anti-American, anti-Spiritual and anti-Jewish!

The Rabbis who back up Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, et al, are charlatans, they are going against every precept in Torah, they are denying the ability and the command of “righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue”, they are denying the command to “love the stranger” which is said 36 times in Torah. What is even worse about what some Rabbis are doing today in the name of “Am Yisrael Chai”, the Jewish People Live”, is that it goes against the dictates of the very Rabbis they venerate, the ones they quote in half-measures, in “midrashic moves” to prove their ‘rightness’. They go against the concept and precept above: “one should always do the good”. They are participating in and promoting the evil of hating the stranger, the despicable action of putting stumbling blocks in front of the blind and cursing the deaf”. We the People are committing, promoting, and condoning these evil doers when We the People fail to Rebuke our neighbor and bearing guilt because of them. The same is true for Clergy of all faiths, they are relying on “faith” and not recognizing the limitations of it and the need to act.

I am thinking about Rabbi Heschel’s teaching: “In a free society, some are guilty and all are responsible”. While it is easy to blame Trump, etc for where we are in America, and to blame Netanyahu, and his thugs for what has happened to Israel, it is more important, in this month of Elul, how I put these people in power, etc. I am responsible and this responsibility is unbearable, it is overwhelming at times and I CAN DO SOMETHING! The beauty of being guilty is that TSHUVAH is available to get rid of the guilt, TSHUVAH is the gift of repentance, return and new responses, it gives us redemption, repair, and hope/change. TSHUVAH is an action, not a prayer, not a meditation, an action that each and every human being is commanded to take, yet most of us don’t. It is hard to be responsible, it is hard to admit our guilt, it is harder to not be responsible and to not admit our guilt, I have found. I know the ‘ruff and stuff’ of blaming another, claiming innocence and what it does to another human being’s sense of dignity and worth, I also know how it continues to take bites and chunks out of my soul and I will not do this to me nor to you anymore. I am doing my Elul work and finding a greater field of vision, a greater capacity for compassion and forgiveness, a deeper love of self, Harriet, Heather, family, friends, and humanity. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Egocentricity, Indulging in the desires of the false ego, paying homage to the Egotist - Year 4 Day 217

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 217

“Purity of motivation is the goal; constancy of action is the way. It is useless endeavor to fight the ego in the open; like a wounded hydra, it produces two heads for every one cut off. We must not indulge in self-scrutinization; we must not concentrate upon the problem of egocentricity. The way to purify the self is to avoid dwelling upon the self and to concentrate upon the task.” (God in Search of Man pg. 404)

What I am hearing Rabbi Heschel say to us this morning, in the words above, is that the “ego” is the Yetzer HaRa, it is the ‘evil/earthly/animal’ inclination that every human being has. It is a “useless endeavor” to fight this inclination, our egos that are out of proper measure, that are false. The self protective shell around our egos, bolstered by the rational mind and its supreme ability to rationalize behaviors and/or blame another for their own shortcomings (this was happening before Goebbels, he only spoke about it out loud), will never allow itself to ‘lose’ a battle. Immersing ourselves in the teaching above allows us to see to “fight the ego”, to “indulge in self-scrutinization”, to “concentrate upon the problem of egocentricity”, “dwelling on the self” only strengthens the false “ego”, Look at how Trump and Bibi get more popular among their ‘base’ every time some one seeks to speak the truth about their false, outsized, evil “egocentricity”; isn’t it a wonder when their actions are subject to “scrutinization” they have a ready-made answer, someone else to blame and their people lap it up like trained seals! Sucking up to these assholes is the shame that We the People must own up to and bear during this month of Elul and do our TShuvah, change our ways and repair the damage we have wrought as well as the damage that has been wrought by their “ego” and our inability “to concentrate upon the task”!

The issue is not just our political chaos, it is the inner chaos that We the People are experiencing in this moment, as we have throughout history. When did the Israelites find moments that were not filled with inner chaos? After they crossed the Red Sea, after they received “the Word”, “the 10 Sayings” at Mount Sinai, when David was King for a minute or two, ie only after their encounters with something greater than themselves, with the Spirit of the Universe which is both within us and outside of us. While “purity of motivation is the goal”, what is more important, in my opinion and experience, is “constancy of action is the way”. Alcoholics Anonymous borrowed “act your way into right thinking” from the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible are our feelings of utmost importance, nowhere in the Bible is the inner motivation demanded, only “constancy of action”, only “concentrate upon the task” is stressed over and over again. Yet, We the People continue to fall prey to the snake-oil salesmen/women who are preaching ‘the holy gospel’ according to their “wounded hydra”, according to the “two heads” the “ego” produces within each of us. In the words of Pete Seeger: “When will we ever learn?”

The sycophants on display at Trumps Cabinet Meeting are despicable! The grifters, the liars, the ‘personalities’ at FOX UNNEWS are desecrators of God’s Name, the lap dogs/trained seals of the Republican Party in Congress are the soldiers of Satan, the ‘good christian preachers’ who propagate the lies of the ‘prosperity gospel’, who call Trump the messiah, sent by Jesus, are the Money-Changers in the Temple, the spreaders of Senseless Hatred. Yet, We the People, or at least enough of us, continue to watch and listen to their “egocentricity”, their “dwelling upon the self” with awe, reverence and lining up to take up their guns, their knives and fight the Capital Police, the DC Metro Police, the citizens of these United States in direct violation of the Constitution while John Roberts and his Court of Jesters applaud and back up the tearing up of the very Constitution that all of them FALSELY SWORE TO PROTECT!

We the People are being called to do the task whether our motivation is pure, whether we will do it ‘perfectly’ or not, whether we have our own agenda in mind, DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING! We are in the month of retrospection and repair precisely because we failed to in some cases “concentrate on the task”. Many of We the People have failed to engage in “constancy of action” because we adopt the societal lies and attitudes of ‘if it isn’t perfect, it isn’t worth anything’, ‘if my motives aren’t pure, then it is bullshit’, ‘who am I to tell another person they are wrong’ and other such poppycock. In the Bible, we are told to “rebuke the people”  and “don’t carry sin because of him/her/them”. This is not a suggestion, it is a command found in Leviticus 19:17, meaning that every time we are “standing idly by the blood of our neighbor”, we are carrying the sin of our inaction. Every time we resist telling someone they are acting inappropriately, we are carrying the sin of our inaction. Every time we are afraid to speak truth to power, afraid of the retribution, we are carrying the sin of our inaction. Hence- “constancy of action”, “dwell upon the task” are the only pathways to wholeness, to holiness, to moving forward and to separating ourselves, L’Havdeel,(aka Havdalah), from the lethargy and the urge to “run after the majority to do evil” which is another prohibition.

I have been guilty of having my ego out of proper measure. I am guilty of staying silent at times. I am guilty of frustration at being powerless to effect change, being powerless at not having a platform to speak and teach from and being sad that I don’t. I also am continuing to write and publish, I am continuing to reach out to speak, preach, teach. I am continuing to fight the lethargy of institutional life and stand up for what is true, correct and right. I continue to “dwell upon the task” and life has meaning and purpose because I do. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you waiting to for inner motivation to do the next right action? Year 4 Day 216

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 216

“For the good, even if it is not done for its own sake, will teach us eventually how to act for the sake of God. We must continue to perform the sacred deeds even though we may be compelled to bribe the self with human incentives.” (God in Search of Man pg.404)

On this 4th day of Elul, in this moment/day/month of self-reflection, the words above are, I believe, imperative if We the People are to “be fearless and searching” in our process of TShuvah. We the People are being reminded to jettison the “purity” standard and see through clear eyes, whether what we have done is good or not good, no matter our intentions. Rabbi Heschel’s words come to remind us all of the experience in the desert, the experience in Ancient Israel, “take the next right action and the thinking/motivation/desire will follow”. This is the path of living Jewishly as I understand it-not some dogmatic lapdog, not some mitsvah checklist bullshit, trying to live in 15th Century Poland instead of being here now-as Stephen Levine teaches. We the People do not have to wait until we are ‘motivated’ to do the next right thing, We the People just have to take the action, do the deed and realize the inner reward, at some point. Of course the goal is to have the motivation to do the next right thing, to learn to desire to do what is right and good in ‘the sight of God’. More importantly, however, is that we get into the habit of doing the next right thing, that we get into the habit of loving the stranger, of loving our neighbors as ourselves, of caring for the poor and the needy, of proclaiming freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein, etc.

Society, especially the autocrats, the fascists, the dictators and their wannabe imposters, do not want this way of being to take hold! They are totally invested in keeping We the People in the dark as to how they are acting only for the sake of themselves while purporting to “act for the sake of God”. Their lies about the “sacred deeds” they perform are abominable! They are the desecrators of God’s Name, they are the bastardizers of the Bible and the path of Jewish, Christian, Muslim goodness. And the PAGAN PRIESTS, CLERGY who go along with these false witness’ are even worse than the power-hungry, unholy dictators they are serving! The Rabbis, the Priest, the Ministers who support a Trump, a Netanyahu are the same Rabbis, Priests, Ministers who the prophets proclaim as not legitimate servants of the Ineffable One. Just as Levi and Simeon were not really serving their sister when they killed the men of Shechem, they were serving their egos and pride-‘who do you think you are to take my sister’- so too the current and former Rabbis, Priests, Ministers who serve Bibi, Donny, Vlad, et al are doing this to line their pockets, not “for the sake of God”. Do you really believe that God has wanted all of the wars that have been fought ‘in the name of god’?

What We the People are being called to do on this 4th day of Elul, is to let go of the need to be deceived by the reality show called 47, ie Trump Presidency. We the People have to stop watching this Fascist call for these outlandish things and get into action. We the People do not have the luxury of sitting around thinking about what strategy to follow. WE HAVE THE STRATEGY! It is all to be found in the Bible. When King Saul was no longer of his right mind, David was anointed, when Moses was no longer the right person for the job, Joshua was appointed, when David was dying Solomon was appointed, when the Kingdom of Israel was split in 2, the tribe of Judah was appointed. The lines of succession do not have to be familial, and they are supposed to be based on capability, on the desire to “act for the sake of God” or at least follow the dictates of the Bible, having NOTHING to do with dogma- only having to do with how we treat one another, the stranger, the poor, the animals and the earth that are in our care.

We the People have to demand of ourselves and of the current bullshitters, grifters, liars and fascists in power here, in Israel, that they cease and desist their actions, they have to be removed from office along with their sycophants for the sake of the Republic, for the sake of the State of Israel, “for the sake of God”. We the People are being called to resist and reject the actions of these Idolators who attempt every day “to bribe” us “with human incentives” and, unfortunately, too many of We the People are not resisting nor rejecting, rather they are buying, supporting, and kissing the rings, the asses, the d*&(k’s of these “other gods” and are whoring themselves after what their hearts and eyes desire and see. Each day we are told NOT to do this, yet these ‘good jews’, these ‘fine christian folk’ continue to lie to We the People and We the People continue to buy the lies!!  WTF? Just as Moses asks Pharaoh: “How long” will you continue to defy God, just as the Egyptians say to Pharaoh: “Howl long will you let this one be a snare to you.. don’t you realize Egypt is lost?” We the People have to ask ourselves these same questions-How long will we demand and accept false piety and purity from leaders? How long will we continue to be deceived and give in to our own self-deception? How long will we continue to bribe ourselves with ‘getting ahead’, with ‘taking care of selfish desires we now call needs’? HOW LONG until we see what the next right action to take is and do it, whether we want to or not?

This has been a major theme of mine since 1987. I was late to the party, I know, and I have been an active member of this party, the Party of living Jewishly, the Party of Living the Bible’s Path of how to be decent and live together since then. I know that each of the Commandments call for actions and every Mitsvah serves at least one of them. I have continue to grow along spiritual lines because I continue to take the next right action, continued to learn from my errors, continue to be stubborn and dedicated when rooting out the lies I tell myself, continue to shout out what is wrong and unjust, unkind and not loving. Fuck intention do the good anyway! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Taking the Next Right Action no matter how you think or feel Year 4 Day 215

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 215

“Even the finest intention is not strong enough to fill all the corners of the soul which at all sides is open to intrusions of the ego. Judged by the severe, uncompromising standard of total purity of intention, who could stand? It is, indeed, the voice of moderation that has generally prevailed. Thus we are taught to believe that “alien thoughts” or even improper motives do not vitiate the value of a sacred deed.” (God in Search of Man pg. 403)

Being a witness at the joy of some and the sorrow of some at what is happening in the ICE State called the USA, reading the words above, one can see how the “weaponization” of “purity”, of religion, of the Bible, of Christianity, Judaism, Islam has taken place and, unfortunately, taken hold. The “intrusions of the ego” by the liars and grifters, by the PAGANS and idolators, are bombarding We the People daily, hourly, moment by moment. Waiting for some “purity of intention” to take action will, as Nicolle Wallace said, be like the “frog in the boiling water metaphor-if you put the frog in the water when it is boiling, it will jump out, if you put it in when the water is tepid and slowly raise the temperature to a boil, it will not feel the need to react until it is too late”!! We the People, have to realize the “severe uncompromising standard” that the MAGA crowd puts on us is one they do not even attempt to reach! The only “purity of intention” they have is their intention to and for cruelty, power, money, control. They are not living, practicing, even spouting true Christian Values-just ask Pope Leo. We the People cannot allow ourselves to be brow beaten by the far left nor the far right anymore because it is not just “Rome that is burning”, the founding vision, the very laws and culture that allows a Trump to fuck everyone to get to the top are being thrown away so that no one else can be free, the very culture that let the grandson of a PIMP, the son of a member of the KKK, a racist, misogynistic, scared cowardly bully become President is being crushed and dismantled by MAGA!

So, what are We the People to do? SIMPLE, folks, stop waiting for “purity of intention”, no longer allow ourselves to be questioned and bamboozled by the enemies of the Bible, by the foes of God, by the evil people purporting to be ‘good christian folk’ while, in fact, they are anti-christian, they took Goebbels play book and have put it on steroids, so We the People have to end our incessant need to show our “purity” as an antidote to their lying. We the People have to stop allowing someone other than God run the show, We the People have to end our need to prove something to people who are blind, people who turn a deaf ear to truth, to justice, to mercy, to love, to kindness.

This can only happen when We the People take this month of Elul seriously and look at what we have done well and where we have missed the mark. Seeing only our deeds not our intentions or thoughts. As stated above, “alien thoughts” will never leave us-they are impossible to stop. Allowing them to stop us from doing the next right thing, no matter how we feel or think is antithetical to Jewish living, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel this morning. We the People are given the gift of this period of time to “get right” with ourselves and with the people around us. We the People are in a period of time where forgiveness, compassion, truth, love, mercy are most prevalent and available to us so we can face the truth of our actions, the repairs we need to make, the enhancements we can make and having new responses where necessary and uplifting responses where we can. Even this inventory, even our repairs and our enhancements, our new responses and uplifting ones will not be free of ““alien thoughts” or improper motives” and these do not vitiate the value of a sacred deed.

We the People have to get off our high horse, we have to come down to the reality of our actions as well as the actions of another, of ‘those people’. We the People have to have compassion and empathy for those sick, cruel, self-seeking, narcissistic assholes who are trying to be the “new Pharaoh arose who did not know” Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, George Washington, Hamilton, Lincoln, et al. We the People are being called upon to take “a leap of action” without worrying about faith, about “purity”, or anything else. We the People are being reminded and cajoled into being soldiers in the war for freedom, leading ourselves and the troops to fight for “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth.” Nothing that moves this goal forward, no matter the “intrusion of the ego”, no matter the “alien thoughts”, the “improper motives” can “vitiate the value of a sacred deed”, the “sacred deed” being “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”, just as it says on the Liberty Bell!

I know that my “alien thoughts”, my “improper motives” will never leave me, they are a part of me as much as any organ in my body is. I have never experienced anything like “purity of intention”, even when I was stealing, drinking, being a ne’er do well, I could not put all of me into it. Until my recovery began, I couldn’t be totally into anything, not fatherhood, not marriage, not family,…in those days I couldn’t tell if the negative thoughts and scams were “alien thoughts” or the good, holy, kind ones were “alien thoughts”! I was judged by my motives when I did something good, people were looking for the angle, and by my actions when I did something wrong. Since 1987, I have judged myself by what my actions are and I know that I have to act my way into right thinking and feeling-not the other way around. This is why Living Jewishly is so important and why I continue to “spread the word” that a mitsvah redeems us, redeems the world and I do it not matter what I think or feel! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Wringing our hearts clean, No longer being controlled by the Rational Mind, false ego - Year 4 Day 214

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 214

“All we can do is to try to wring our hearts clean in contrition. Contrition begins with a feeling of shame at our being incapable of disentanglement from the self. To be contrite at our failures is holier than to be complacent in our perfection.” (God in Search of Man pg. 403)

“Contrition” is defined as “remorseful” and comes from the Latin meaning to “wear down”. Rabbi Heschel’s use of the word shame is not the toxin shame nor is it to ‘shame anyone’. It is an inner experience of “how could I do this”, “what was I thinking”, “I am so sorry for this action”, and other inner dialogues like this. These inner dialogues “wear down” the power of the false self, the false ego, the rational mind to deny our wrongdoings, blame another for what we have done, and/or be willfully blind to our actions. This “wear down” is the path to contrition and to change. It is the pathway to disentangle ourselves from the false self we have been living. It is the 3rd step in our journey towards repair, change and hope.

On this 2nd day of Elul, it is important for We the People to see what is happening around us, within us and the truth of the ways we are living. “To wring our hearts clean in contrition” takes great courage and a little/a lot of help. We begin with our inventory-looking at the past year from 10,000 feet above, letting go of our need to justify, instead, see where we were just, merciful, truthful, loving and kind and where we were not. Doing this without being judgmental, without needing to be right and good nor wrong and bad is crucial to our being able to “wring our hearts clean”. Once we have done this, we look at where we “missed the mark” and were not just, kind, truthful, loving, merciful to see who was harmed and how they were harmed, making a list we will tackle later. We also look at where we acted in these ways to see who was helped and how they were helped, making a list we will go through later. Having both lists, we begin “to wring our hearts clean in contrition” by going through the list of whom we have harmed and how they were harmed-those people and actions we have not already made our amends with/for- and sending letters, making phone calls, going to the graves to restore the dignity we stole from the human being we harmed by treating them as an object for our gain and not as a fellow divine soul. This action can only happen when we have engaged in the process to “wear down” our rational, justifying mind and our false sense of self/false ego. Once this has happened, we know we are in the state of contrition and we can move forward in the process of having “our hearts clean”. It is imperative for us to go back to our list of where we “hit the mark” to recognize how we can grow these ways of being and to see the whole picture of our living this past year(s). Engaging in this ‘work’, We the People can make better and clearer choices in the future because the same situations will arise again and again and, as Rabbi Heschel taught us yesterday-our job is to “rise again and again beyond the level of self”. We the People are being given another opportunity, a second chance to make the next right choice, no matter what choices we have made in the past. “To wring our hearts clean in contrition” is what gives us the opportunity to not be ruled by the past, to change the neural pathways of guilt, toxic shame, not knowing what to do next, the ‘fuck-its’, etc. Hence the importance of “contrition in our lives is immense.

We the People are being called to, once again, let go of the falseness of “perfection”, to stop being ruled and toxically shamed by society’s lie that ‘we can be perfect’ and the more insidious ‘you should be perfect’. Rather than lie to ourselves and one another about ‘aren’t I so smart’, ‘I got over on him/them’, ‘I am a stable genius’, ‘I can do anything I want’ ‘my grift is legal’, and other such bullshit, isn’t now the time for We the People to begin to live “in contrition”? Isn’t it past time for We the People to admit our failures, to end our incessant justifications so we can repair the damage We the People have wrought by electing a narcissistic autocrat, a no-account grifter, to the highest office in the land, bringing the worst of the worst of human behaviorists with him, proclaiming their fealty to Christ while doing everything Christ and the Prophets of Israel screamed against? We the People have to engage in the “wear down” of our justifying bad behaviors, We the People have to grow our ability to see the damage and the bridges we have created, being responsible for both, repairing the damage so we build more and newer bridges for our innate holiness to shine through, to win the day over our false egos, false sense of self. For many of We the People fear of admitting we were wrong to ourselves and to another is so hard for fear of being vulnerable and having our vulnerabilities used against us. Yet, truth, justice, love, kindness and mercy will help us take the blows, if they come and the knowing of doing the right thing will prevail.

I know how important contrition is to the health, welfare and growth of my authentic self. I am so aware of how I make the same errors over and over, it is only when I “wring my heart clean in contrition” that I can change. I see this clearly in my bridge game-when I make a mistake, I am able to know it immediately and, hopefully, I will not do it again and when I do, I will learn a little more about me and the game. The same is true for all my “missing the marks”, I use them to learn and grow. I know that my vulnerabilities are being used against me by another(s) and, what I am engaging in is me not using them against me! As I go through this month and do my inventory, I know I have made the amends I needed to and I am searching for those places where my false ego, my rational mind is still tricking me. This is an ongoing task, it is a never-ending journey that continues to bring me closer and closer with the whole me, the holy me! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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One Grain of Sand better each day is the Goal for We the People - Year 4 Day 213

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 213

“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 again beyond the level of the self. (God in Search of Man pg. 402)

On this first day of Elul, the month prior to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as we begin our preparation for these High Holy Days, this teaching is crucial for We the People to be able to engage in “a searching and fearless inventory” as the 4th step of all 12-step programs teach us and which T’Shuvah is all about. As I have written, ad nauseam, we are supposed to engage in this work every day and yet, the Rabbis give us this month to clean up the errors and harms we have been oblivious to, ignored, afraid to make, and look at the myriad of actions that we have done well, see where we have moved forward as well as where we have moved backwards, etc. Yet, most people, don’t really do this deep spiritual, emotional work because society tells us we are “obliged to be perfect once and for all” and as long as We the People buy this bullshit, we are doomed to be stuck in the quicksand of “despair” and never rise to the very attainable goal to be human!

Society uses the “perfection” myth to control us, to make us feel less than and/or greater than, it is the same as ‘the master race’ bullshit of MAGA, the Nazis, the ancient Romans and Greeks, etc. The question that We the People have to ask is WTF, why are we buying their lies and what is it that pulls us to be controlled by “only I can save you”, “I will be your retribution”? How can We the People read the Bible, hear what Jesus did, stood for and died for and equate retribution with justice? They are incompatible! Yet, ‘good christian folk, good jewish folk, good muslim folk’ have bought and sold the idea that they are one and the same. THIS IS TRAGIC!! This is one of the actions and thinking that We the People have to do T’Shuvah for and demand our elected officials cease and desist these behaviors. We the People have allowed society to replace the Pharaoh in Egypt, giving in to the power structure, the rich and famous, the puppeteers who want to pull our strings. We the People are NOT marionettes, we are not meant to be puppets on a string, we are human beings, we are partners with God in making our corner of the world better and to allow society to rule us with their mind-control lies and bullshit, to allow society/another human being to deny our truths and blindly follow them/it, is the major sin We the People have to repent for, in this month of Elul, it’s where we have to return to our spiritual core, spiritual truths from, and it is what we have to have a plan to guard against falling back into this ‘honey trap’ that society and people lay for We the People!

How to do this? Simple and not easy. Each day for the next 40 days, and hopefully beyond, We the People take stock of our self, looking for our talents, our ‘victories’, our spiritual truths and vision, seeing our imperfections and errors in judgement and action, knowing our susceptibility and how to not fall into old traps. Each day, we commit “to rise again and again beyond the level of self” and take action towards this goal, knowing we are not going to be perfect, realizing the imperfections we have are God-given and allow for us to ask for help from another human being. Knowing we are not ‘self-sufficient’, realizing no one is ‘self-made’, gives We the People the strength, the courage, to listen to our intuitive mind and relegate our rational mind to its proper place, as a servant-not a leader. We the People are in desperate need to admit to ourselves, inform another(s) and shout from the rooftops that the rational mind lies to us, the rational mind allows us to buy the mendacity of societal norms. Only the intuitive mind, only the soul, our spiritual intelligence allows us to see and hear truth, gives us the strength to “rise again and again beyond the level of self”.

The rational mind is the “self”, the “heart and eyes which we whore after” is the “self” IMO and it is way past time for We the People to “rise again and again beyond the level” of societal norms. It is way past time for We the People to stand up for our authentic self, for truth, justice, kindness, love, mercy. It is way past time for We the People to stand against the horrific self-serving cruelty and retribution that is running the world in this moment. Psalm 118:24 says “this is the day Adonai has made, let us rejoice and be joyous in it”; to do this, We the People must end our dependence on lies, our co-dependence on someone else ‘fixing us’, ‘fixing it’ and our indulgence in evil, cruelty, idol worship of self, of ‘der fuhrer’, etc. This is the only path to “rise again and again beyond the level of self” and We the People are more than capable, this is our birthright, this is implanted in each one of us and doing this reminds us and everyone around us of the infinite dignity and worth of every human being!

I keep letting go of the need to be perfect/right and it is a daily spiritual workout. Each day, I rise in the morning, middle of the night, and know I have to let go and let my higher consciousness run the show, I have to look at the errors I made the day before, have a plan to repair them and do it. In this month, I have already written to people close to me and to people I have missed, people whom I was close to and we just fell away. I pray there is a path to reconnecting and am good if there isn’t-sad and good. I am not going to make amends to those I have already made them to and who could not/have not been able to own their part, only blame me-to those people I can only offer compassion and mercy at their being so stuck in needing to be right, in their fear of seeing their own imperfections and mendacity. Prayer, Tzedakah, T’Shuvah our best responses to our imperfections and this is the path I choose. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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