"What is right living" according to your actions-does it align with the Biblical way? Year 5 Day 19

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 19

The dichotomy of faith and words which presented such an important problem in Christian theology was never a problem in Judaism. To us, the basic problem is neither what is the right action nor what is the right intention. The basic problem is: What is right living?” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 87)

Many of we the Jewish people have lost this truth! We have gotten so caught up in theology, philosophy, letter of the law, etc that too many of We the Jewish People have lost our way, straying from the path that “What is right living” keeps us on. It is, as I have experienced personally and in my work, “the basic problem is: What is right living” that keeps We the People striving to be one grain of sand better, never resting on our laurels, always ready to do battle with our inner demos as well as the outer ones. The trap here, of course, is to battle, make war with our outer demons, those who genuinely want to harm us, in order to ignore the battle within. Especially as we are 2+ weeks away from Passover and Jews around the world are cleaning out their Chametz from their homes, getting ready to cook lavish meals, prepare long explanations for the Haggadah, get down the Kosher for Passover Dishes, etc AND ignoring the war within, being oblivious and/or willfully blind to the inner battle and taking the frustrations of our inner conflicts out on our outer enemies.

We the People see this in our politics, in our workplace, in our families; one person, one group, one idea, one concept is singled out for ridicule and scorn so the masses don’t look at the people running shit, be it in a company, a family where the parents believe “do as I say, not as I do”, and in our government where the Prime Minister of Israel sends messages of support and his own son to a CPAC conference in Hungary for Viktor Orban and the far right, Anti-Semitic groups from Germany and Austria, both are fringe groups, yet Netanyahu just gave them legitimacy, while extolling his concern for the Jewish People, spouting and not believing: ‘only I can save the Jewish people from Anti-Semitism, from Iran, etc’! WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE?!?

In America, there are some of we the people who want to take the right to vote away from women, from people of color, from everyone EXCEPT White Males-whom they believe should run the world. Depicting Jesus as a white man when he was certainly the same skin color as Israelis and/or Arabs, is another way of obfuscating Truth, making outside enemies to ignore the internal battle white people have with their feelings of inferiority, with egos so small and fragile that only by having power, lording it over another, can they feel good. This is NOT RIGHT LIVING, Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Trump, Mr. Kushner, Mr. Wytkoff, et al!

Another example of this obfuscation is the Iran war; by keeping this in the news, ICE can go along without as much scrutiny, the cruelty of higher prices, much limited health care, the Epstein scandal, the plight of the poor, the needy, the stranger is pushed aside, is less newsworthy, less important? WTF? The takeover of the media by Trump ‘friends’, the threat of the FCC pulling licenses, the capitulation of business leaders, the extolling of Putin and Russia while denigrating our friends and allies of over 75 years is FUCKED UP and only We the People can stop this WRONG LIVING!

“What is right living” is a very simple question that has a myriad of responses with, in my opinion all of them boiling down to the messages of the prophets: “Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God” Do T’Shuvah every day, “love the stranger”, “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to ALL its inhabitants therein”, care for the poor, the needy among you, make a connection with your inner life, your soul you so God can dwell among each one of us, individually and collectively, BE HUMAN, disdain cruelty, jettison lying about another and/or self, don’t whore yourself, your principles for some temporal gain, want what you have and give your unique gifts and talents to the world. This is the path of “right living” as I have come to understand and experience life. As one who knowingly took the path of WRONG living, who relished in all the wrong ways of being, who was a drunk, a thief, a no-goodnik, I know the choices we face and the pressures we the people are under, all of which makes the self-deceptions we engage in more palatable, more powerful and more deadly. Having done all I could to kill the noise, ignore, deflect the inner battle for my soul, for my decency, for my humanity, I was Blessed with an awakening that I could not, would not ignore and I have been building on this awakening for 39+years. My ways are rough and tumble, my senses are keenly aware of bullshit and I, learning from the prophets, have no time for bullshit, and I am unafraid to be accountable nor hold another to account. I also know that my ways of being, my insistence on learning and truth, my uncompromising belief in justice, mercy, love, has pushed people away, losing connection with some people that I thought were ‘forever’ people and I am sad about it and in acceptance. I am not always in “right living” and I am always open to growing and changing.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Write down the ways you ignore your inner battles, your soul’s calling

2. Write down the outer battles you fight with the intention of ignoring the inner ones

3. Each day make a plan to engage in “right living” a little more than the day before

4. Each night, do an inventory on how you were in “right living” and how you were not.

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

How are you using the ways of God to promote goodness, kindness, cruelty and strife? Year 5 Day 18

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 18

“The cause of nearly all failures in human relations is this - that while we admire and extol the tasks, we fail to acquire the tools. Neither the naked hand nor the soul left to itself can effect much. It is by instruments that work is done…The meaningful of the mitzvoth(commandments) consists in their being vehicles by which we advance on the road to spiritual ends.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 86)

Continuing on from Friday’s writing about these sentences; the crucial insight, which while obvious to some of We the People, some of we the people stay willfully blind and oblivious to these truths. Without “instruments” we the people are left to our own devices, left to the banishment of our intuitive mind by the rational, reptilian mind. Our intuitive mind is NOT all good and our rational mind is NOT all bad-the issue is using both in proper measure, as Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz teaches in his book Thirteen Petalled Rose. The only way to use both “sides” of our brain is by using the correct “instruments” properly. The intuitive mind doesn’t know that 2+2=4 and the rational mind cannot see the meaning, the power, the truth of; Choose Life!, Be a Blessing, etc.

Humanity will not fail itself nor God for want of more money, more power, more scientific breakthroughs, more buildings, more, more, more. Humanity will fail itself and God for want of “spiritual ends”. A case in point: when the President of the United States celebrates the death of a war hero, a trusted public servant who devoted everything to truth, dignity, honor, decency and NO REPUBLICAN CONGRESS PEOPLE condemn him, this is a failure of humanity! When money is the goal of the ‘negotiator’ in the Middle East conflict, when the prejudice is for the grift and the graft rather than being biased for what is good for the American People, the people of the world, this is a failure of humanity! When the sanctions are lifted on Russian oil, Iranian oil so Trump can get the gas prices down, which it probably won’t, and claims that “I thought it would be worse” and Rubio, Vance, Hegseth are like trained seals applauding him, when our allies are being asked to intervene without ever being briefed before this war began, this is a failure of humanity! When cruelty is the point, when prejudice is the path, when only “White Men” should have power, we have a failure of humanity! When the goal is power, prestige, saving face, hiding one’s “dirty laundry”, making “deals with the devil” and doing everything to protect image, facade, and falseness, we have a failure of humanity!

These failures and so many more occur because we the people have ourselves jettisoned learning how to use the “instruments” correctly and, instead, found the myriad ways to bastardize them while claiming, feigning innocence, all the while knowing what is right and good, what is holy and Godlike. Yet, we the people into our stupidity, our willful blindness, our fears, our ‘wanting in on the action’, allow these failures to continue, to tear at the fabric that is the Bible, that is the New Testament, that is the basis for living well. We the People are being called upon to, again, STAND UP and be counted among those of us who claim to be descendants of the prophets, who know we are to serve something greater than ourselves, who realize our lack of knowledge as to how to use the “instruments” at our disposal. This is a constant theme of Rabbi Heschel’s, a constant call of God’s in the Bible, a main thrust of Jesus’ teachings.

You Matter is not just a signature I end every email with, nor is it just a saying on a coin I give out, You Matter is a way for We the People to be responsible to learn how to be on the “road to spiritual ends”. It is a reminder of how meaningful each and every action we take is, how the “mitzvoth” are the navigators for living with passion and purpose, with finding our Ikigai, our unique talent and fulfilling a divine need that only each of us as individuals can fill. It is the essence, in my opinion, of what the Call from Sinai is, what the 10 sayings encapsulate. Why would God ‘waste God’s time’ with us if we are not important? This is not about oversized ego, this is not about undersized ego, You Matter reminds us to live right-sized, knowing what we do well and what we need help with, what is ours to do and what is not, reaching out to the stranger with LOVE, because we were strangers in Egypt. Caring for the poor in the material and the spiritual, relieving the unnecessary suffering that we the people fall into. You Matter is reminiscent of the prophets’ call for us to “return” and know that God “takes us back in love” and will “heal our backsliding”.

This is the ‘secret to my success’ as a human being these past 38+ years, growing one grain of sand a day:) I am not perfect, I keep learning more and realizing my errors more each day. I continue to engage with the “mitzvoth” in new ways, using my insight, combining my intuitive and rational minds in my actions and I know I have to “keep on keeping on” as my way of serving!

ACTION STEPS:

1. Write down the many ways you are willfully blind to what your intuitive mind calls for

2. Write down the mendacious self-deceptions you use to continue to promote the “failure of humanity” that is so prevalent today

3. How did you engage in using the “instruments” wisely and well to be a better human being.

4. Take stock each day of your progression on the “road to spiritual ends”

5. Make YOU MATTER a way of being that impacts all of your actions.

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Recognizing and preventing the Ego-maniac within from ruining your life - Year 5 Day 17

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 17

“The cause of nearly all failures in human relations is this - that while we admire and extol the tasks, we fail to acquire the tools. Neither the naked hand nor the soul left to itself can effect much. It is by instruments that work is done…The meaningful of the mitzvoth(commandments) consists in their being vehicles by which we advance on the road to spiritual ends.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 86)

The purpose of immersing ourselves in Torah each year is not to memorize it, not to pick it apart in my humble (or not so humble) opinion. The purpose is to see anew what we thought we understood from past years and to understand old phrases, old paths, old ways in completely new ways. The same is true for me with Rabbi Heschel’s writings. Today’s opening sentence is a case in point. While I have read Chapter 29 of God in Search of Man, where this is taken from, this sentence in the context of today’s world, today’s “failures in human relations” takes on new, different meanings.

We the People find ourselves in a stranglehold of conflicting emotions, a yearning for ‘the good old days’ and an excitement for ‘what’s next’, wanting preserve what we have and roll the dice to ‘get more’. We are constantly speaking fondly of the words of Christ, the laws of the Torah, bastardizing both!! We quote the prophets and the psalmists, and neither DO nor UNDERSTAND EITHER! We seek holiness and wholeness while ‘suspecting our neighbor’ instead of “loving our neighbor”, rather than “BE HOLY”, we engage in optics and subterfuge. We praise the truth, while telling, believing, and retelling the LIES that suit our vision, our wants, our desires, our inauthenticity! I am a little riled up by this first sentence, for sure:)

How could this happen, we ask ourselves and one another. It happens for the exact reason given above-“we fail to acquire the tools”! Rather than learn from history, we the people in our hubris, in our outlandish egocentric way of being, ignore the lessons, the hints, the actions of what “the cause of nearly all failures in human relations” are! AND we the people are so arrogant as to think we are so much ahead of ‘those’ people from antiquity, from our parents, from past generations. WTF PEOPLE!!!

In his book, “Lonely Man of Faith”, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, reminds us of our duality as human beings-BY DESIGN! In Chapter 1 of Genesis, the utilitarian-Adam is created, “male and female God created them both” and in Chapter 2 of Genesis, the connected-Adam. One is outer centered/focused and the second is inner centered/focused. “Adam 1” as Rabbi Soloveitchik calls them, doesn’t need another, doesn’t really care about another, until they do for their utilitarian purpose, even helping another, coming up with cures for illnesses is done to satisfy the individual’s needs to have “dominion and rule” over … “Adam 2” is concerned with connection, hence the need to split the side of Adam so that male and female could come together face to face. Just as Jacob tells Esau that “seeing you is seeing the face of God”, so too when male Adam meets female Adam they see the “face of God” in one another and are connected.

We the People seem to have no desire to teach our children nor remember ourselves our need for connection, for caring about one another, for loving our neighbors and the stranger, for growing and maturing our inner life, for hearing and heeding the Voice on Sinai, for following our intuitive mind, our higher consciousness. It is as if we the people only care about our utilitarian self, only growing our wealth, our power, our prestige and/or be with the “in crowd” who have power, wealth, prestige and it is “the cause of nearly all failures in human relations”, with the weapons available to the “bad actors”, the egocentric autocrats, the wannabe Mafia Bosses running the world today, we the people find ourselves facing another Mid-East Crisis, a Global Energy crisis, a Global warming crisis, a Global economic crisis, AND we the STUPID people believe it won’t affect us- at least those with the money and at the helms of power know they won’t be affected so they don’t care and will use this and every other crisis to their benefit!

We the People who are aware, who are connected, who have brought together their “2 Adams”, need to say NO! We are being called to “Be In The Solution” and spread “the word” of hope, love, etc. More next time.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Do an inventory of the “failed” human relations in your life

2. Find your part in the failure and seek out the tools to both repair the damage and fix the ‘flaw’

3. Do an inventory of successful human relationships in your life.

4. Find your part in the success and seek to enhance these tools so you do less damage.

5. Find ways to bring your “2 Adams” together

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

How have your skills supplanted your sense of mystery? Year 5 Day 16

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 16

“Giving birth to one chld is a mystery; bringing death to millions is but a skill. It is not quite within the power of the human will to generate life; it is quite wihtin the power of the will to destroy life.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 84)

This book, Thunder in the Soul is a compilation of Rabbi Heschel’s earlier books, ergo, there is no new writings, no ‘new’ information. The editor, Robert Erlewine, however, as compiled the disperate writings beautifully, in my opinion. He offers no commentary, just leaves the understanding to We the People.

Reading, understanding, hearing the words above gives me the shuddering awesomeness of responsibility and humility. Who the hell do we the people think we are? We hold ourselves in some lofty esteem, believing we are so hotsy-totsy, so brilliant, and it is impossible still for human beings to “generate life”, albeit we the people keep trying! Isn’t it WAY PAST TIME for we the people to rise above these baser instincts, to transform our “yetzer hara”, to serve something greater than ourselves? OH YEAH, I forgot; to far too many of we the people there is nothing greater than ourselves! Herein is the problem, the solution, the challenge and the response: The hubris of humanity is so powerful and strong that we the people forget who we truly are!

We, up till now, have been unable to create “complex life” from nothing as is possible because of how we are created. Yet, as history records and survivor records testify to, we the people are very adept at “bringing death to millions”. In fact, in this moment, as in every moment in the past, the chest-pounding by leaders of governments as to ‘my army is better than yours’ is once again crescendoing. Be it a drunken Pete Hegseth who whether he is actually drinking, his intoxication with himself, with his power, with his booze, is on full display, or be it Donald Trump, who is so drunk with his ability to manipulate, to deceive the public, to enrich himself, to be a bully and have so many people who shunned him bend their knee, kiss his ring, his ass, or any of the other maniacs running our government in this moment, We the People are being called by the words above, by historical experiences, by the Prophets, by Jesus to STAND THE FUCK UP AND SAY NO! NO! NO! Yet, we the people in our fear, in our self-deception, in our wanting to be part of the ‘in crowd’, DO NOT STAND UP! Susan Collins, John Thune, Mitch McConnell et al know the dangers of what is happening, know the incredible risk Trump is taking for democracy, are, seemingly, fine with allowing what has stood for 250 years crumble, what began as a revolution with the firing of a musket, is dying without even a whimper from these ‘fine upstanding christian LIARS, IDOLATORS!

The problem is our ability to destory life with such reckless abandon. The solution is to follow the words of the prophets, of Jesus: “return to God”, “God will heal us”, live life with a passion for our unique purpose, remember there is one law for the stranger and the citizen alike, “See yourself as if YOU had been brought out of Egypt”, etc. The challenge for We the People is to rise from the smallness, the arrogance, the hubris we the people seem to revel in, puff out our chests from, and become We the People by acknowledging a force, a higher consciousness, a spirit, an energy, that is beyond anyting we could imagine. It is this force that gave human beings the power to co-create a life, to save one soul, to live our unique path and purpose.

This challenge was brought to me some 41 years ago during my first stint in the State Prison system of California, and then again, 39 years ago during my 2nd stint in the joint. Needless to say, the 1st time I was blind, deaf and DUMB! Since the 2nd experience of hearing the challenge, being given the solution, I have stayed the course, finding out the nuances that work and don’t, the path that is right for me and not right for another(s), no longer needing to prove I am right, a surrender to God that reaches into the 90% percentile at times and hovers in the 80%’s. It is a life that brings joy and meaning, connection and love, sadness and disappointment, bewilderment and clarity of knowing what I know. Each day I am hurt by people who ghost me, overwhelmed by people who recognize me, and continue to live the next right action to the best of my ability!
ACTION STEPS:

1. How are you killing people by not recognizing their humanity, by shaming them for their foibles, by taking advantage of them just because you can

2. Until when, “Odd Matai”, will you stop refusing to acknowledge your hubris and inhumanity towards another(s) human

3. What will it take and/or how do/will you meet the challenge presented today?

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

How are you balancing the "razors edge" between using your power for good and using it to 'get yours'? - Year 5 Day 15

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 15

“By will alone man becomes the most destructive of all beings. This is our predicament: our power may become our undoing. We stand on a razors edge. It is to easy to hurt, to destroy, to insult, to kill.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 84)

The Latin root of the word “predicament” is “predicare”, in English, “predicate” and this means “make known beforehand”. I am experiencing this sentence as this is what we know beforehand and have ignored: “our power may become our undoing”! AIN’T THIS THE TRUTH! Isn’t this what we are going through right now? Isn’t this the issue that has faced human beings since the beginning of time, when Cavemen wanted to take from one another so they would just kill their neighbor to get what he had? I would posit this is precisely what the Bible comes to rectify, this is what God ‘saw’ happening with the ‘men of reknown’ taking any virgin they wanted to and treating them like whores, when God ‘saw’ the violence that was abounding on earth, when God ‘saw’ that Adam and Eve were hiding, when God ‘saw’ when Cain denied killing his brother, Abel, etc. The Bible comes to tell us: Yes, you have the power, yes, you have free will to make your own choices AND here is the path that will lead you to joy, to fulfilling your passion and completing your purpose, here are ‘the steps’ to take as we slog on this chaotically, joyous journey called our lives.

Throughout human history, these words have come to both light and fruition, almost. From the Assyrians, to the Egyptians, to the Greeks, to the Romans, to all of the rest of the countries of the world, their “power” did “become our undoing” and, I fear, we are beginning to see the same in the United States today. Rather than heed the prophets, rather than live Jesus’ teachings and ways, today’s ‘good christian nationalists, good christian prosperity gospel people, good ‘torah jews’ are doing the exact opposite and their mendacity, their abilty to deceive so many of we the people is undoing an experiment begun 250 years ago. Whether or not they will succeed is still unknown and the outcome will be decided by either we the people, in our smallness or by We the People by taking our rightful place as divine reminders, fulfilling the divine need we are created to fulfill, and living with the passion and purpose that resides in our souls. This is the challenge we the people, We the People face: are we living the LIE of smallness and powerlessness over self and caring for the stranger, the poor, the needy, the widow and orphan and being the poor small victims and crying about being we the people or are We going to say HELL NO to the ASSHOLES who are using their power to hurt, destroy, insult and kill We the People of this country and, evidently, other countries as well?

This is the choice and We the People are more than capable and have the power, the strength, the awareness, the spiritual maturity to make the choice that hears, understands and does: CHOOSE LIFE! We the People do not engage in hurting, destroying, insulting, killing the souls, the spirits, the bodies of another human being(s), it is only we the people the smallminded asshole we have the ability to fall back to. This is why Spiritual Counseling, a Spiritual discipline, immersing oneself in the REAL teachings of the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran - not the lies we are being and have been fed for so long, is crucial for We the People and is the antidote to “our power may be our undoing”!

My divine image is in complete sympathy with God, I am experiencing the pain and sadness that is described in the Bible when we the people go away and whore ourselves, I am immersed in the cries God makes between the 2nd and 3rd watch at night as described in the Talmud because “My children are in exile”. I know the experience of exile, I know the experieince of being enslaved to my (ir)rational mind, my emotions, and they lead to jails, institutions, and death. I am beyond grateful that I heeded the call from God when I was in the jail cell in Van Nuys, Ca. in December of 1986! I have been dedicating myself to being the Change God wants to see, to being the best Mark Borovitz I can in this moment. I have made the mistakes Rabbi Heschel warns us of and I continue to do my T’Shuvah and improve at least one grain of sand each day. It is a hard way to live and the most joyous life experience-knowing God’s cries, hearing my own, hearing yours, makes me a better person in this moment.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Examine the ways you have used your power each day-letting go of the lie that you are powerless and a victim. While you may have been victimized, you don’t have to wear the label.

2. Make a list of the ways you engaged in the misuse of power

3. Do an inventory on how you found it “so easy to hurt, destroy, insult and kill” today, remembering the ease with which murdering a soul happens.

4. Write down the changes you are committed to so your power stays in check more and the negativity of it lessens

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

"Until When" will we the people continue to revel in our power rather than our compassion, become slaves to power rather than free people enjoying life?

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 14

“By will alone man becomes the most destructive of all beings. This is our predicament: our power may become our undoing. We stand on a razors edge. It is do easy to hurt, to destroy, to insult, to kill.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 84)

Is it possible to read these words, hear their call, understand the plea that Rabbi Heschel is directing towards us and NOT BE in righteous anger, prophetic indignation at how we the people have stayed so small-minded, so spiritually stunted and ignorant as to allow, ONCE AGAIN, “our power may become our undoing” to be so prominent in our lives AGAIN?!!

As you might surmise, I am in full prophetic indignation, full of regret at the missed opportunities we the people have squandered to grow along spritual lines, to recover our authentic selves, to engage in life-affirming actions, to live the dictates of the Bible, to say NO to the liars, the charlatons, the autocrats, the assholes who use our vulnerabilities against us, AND WE HAVE NOT DONE THIS! Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, are not aberations; they are the reflection of a society that has abandoned its roots-the Bible-, squandered its inheritance- the prophetic knowing-, and embraced the strong heartedness of Pharaoh with a zeal and passion that rivals Ancient Egypt.

We the People are responsible and guilty for the senseless destruction and death that is occuring right this moment. We the People are guilty and responsible for the denial of a deal with Iran, We the People are guilty, once again, of trying to change the regime of a sovereign nation, We the People are responsible for the talk of doing the same with Cuba as we have done in Venezuala and Iran. We the People are guilty and responsible for the unexplicable slavery people in other countries are suffering and the unexusable slavery and poverty, despair and financial insecurity people in this country are expereincing on a daily basis! While Tucker Carlson, James Fishback, Nick Fuentes, et al would like to blame the Jews, others would like to blame Trump, Rubio, Hegseth, the TRUTH is We the People gave these ASSHOLES the POWER, the Supreme Court bestowed upon Trump the Immunity, and all he is doing, along with his sons, his son-in-law, his ‘buddies’, is “getting mine”. One of the saddest truths is we the people empowered them to be their most destructive selves!

I come back to Chapter 10 Verse 3 of Genesis: “Odd Matai, Until when will you refuse to heed Adonai, God?” I keep wondering “until when” will we the people rise above our inflated egos, our need to ‘get even’, our desire to ‘get ours’, our self-deceptions belieiving the rich and powerful care about the ‘little guy’, our deisre to be deceived? “Until when” will we the people refuse to hear the truth of the Biblical Call at Sinai: DON’T Murder your soul or the soul of another(s), DON’T Whore yourselves, your children, your neighbors, DON’T Steal from self nor one another(s), DON’T Bear False Witness against another(s) nor against yourself-i e-STOP LYING TO SELF ABOUT SELF and ABOUT ANOTHER(s), and finally; DON’T Covet anything of your neighbors, not their wife/husband, their wife/husband’s ass, nor anything-i e-WANT WHAT YOU HAVE RATHER THAN CRYING FOR WHAT YOU DON’T!

At issue for we the people is our ability and/or inability to tame our “will”, to let go of, to surrender our drive to “be the most destructive of all beings”. What we the people do to one another is exponentially greater than what the ‘king of the jungle’ does to its prey, the Lion is only interested in food, we the people seem to Greatly Intersested in CRUELTY! There is one solution that is “in our mouth, in our hearts” and that is becoming spiritually mature human beings, growing our soul’s knowing and following what we KNOW IN OUR GUTS, rather than following the SERVANT RATIONAL BRAIN! It is important to be able to synthesize information, it is important to have a mature emotional intelligence, it is ALSO as important, if not more, to have a Spiritual Maturity and Intelligence that We the People allow to run the show. Only through our “intuitive mind” will We the People stay out of the slavery of Egypt, the grip of the Pharaoh, and the self-deception of Nazi Germany! At stake is: Freedom, Democracy, and Truth, how will you, as one of We the People respond? I am saying NO to PHARAOH and NO to the Returning to Egypt!

ACTION STEPS:

1. Do a Spiritual Inventory, seeing where and when you acted in accord with your “intuitive mind” and where and when you allowed your servant mind to run the show

2. Examine the places you see that are spiritually immature, seeking out a spiritual counselor, an advocate for your soul to help you grow along spiritual lines

3. Make today the last day anyone asks you “Until When” and bring a new spirit and attitude to this day and every other one

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Do your actions reflect your belief that you are a King, a Pirate, or a Servant? Year 5 Day 13

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 13

“We are endowed with the ability to conquer and to control the forces of nature. In exercising power, we submit to our will a world that we did not create, invading realms that do not belong to us. Are we the kings of the universe or mere pirates? (Thunder in the Soul pg. 83/83)

Some 3470 (approximately) years after the exodus from Sinai, some 2500+ years after the first “formal” reading of the Torah by Ezra, 2026 years after the birth of Christ and we the people do not even think about the questions these sentences engender! In this moment, in every moment, we the people have to decide whether we are going to stay small-minded, slow-thinking, shallow-spirited or if We the People are going to take our proper places as partners with God in making this world a little better for all its inhabitants therein! This is the great conundrum that we/We face each and every day expressly because “we are endowed with the ability to conquer” not just “the forces of nature” but another human(s) and another country.

In 16 days, Jews around the globe will celebrate the Exodus with a Passover Seder, a time to reflect on how “puffed up” we the people have gotten and how far from realizing the awesome responsibility that BEING HUMAN calls for, we are! While many people praise themselves on how long they can expound on different parts of the Haggadah, the book we use to tell the story, there are not many who take the time to immerse themselves in the mandate to “see ourselves as if we too had been liberated from Egypt”. The Seder is NOT a time for extolling the greatness of the different parts of the Haggadah, it is not even a time for extolling God, in my humble opinion. The Seder and every day after it and prior to it is to remember we are “invading realms that do not belong to us” and, to be good guests in the palace that is the earth, the place where God “dwells among, in, with We the People!

In today’s world, as in past times, being endowed brings privilege and privilege brings entitlement, and entitlement brings out the worst in human beings. Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, Iran’s current Ayatollah, and their cronies all believe their positions endow them with privilege, entitles them to do whatever the fuck they want to do. They are the quintessential examples of the words above, the response to the question: “do I have the right to exploit for my own gain my position, my power, my mendacity?” Unfortunately, in this moment, as in the past, the responses to these questions by the people in power is YES, HELL YES! Hence the call to stand up to these bullies, to stop making moral equivilance, end our need to defend the wars Bibi engages in to save his political power and not go to Jail! Hence the call to stand up to these bullies, to stop making the stock market, our 401k’s, our prejudices, our need to identify with the oppressor, revel in ‘the retribution’ for perceived slights, support Trump, Kushner, Vought, Vance, Thiel, Lutnick, Miller in their cruelty, their grift, their graft and their total disregard for what the Exodus from Egypt represents. That Jews like Kushner, Lutnick, who have been honored by the New York Jewish Community, who are praised by those ‘good orthodox jews’, are denying the essence of the Exodus experience, who, like Pharaoh, cannot hear the question, “until when will you refuse to heed the word of God”, and engaging in this disgusting behavior.

“Are we the kings of the universe or mere pirates” is the question we have to respond to each and every day. There is a 3rd choice, however, that of trusted servant, an adherent of God’s words and teachings and We the People are beng called to decide who we are going to be today and every day-false king, deceiving pirate, servant of the Ineffable One. Avinu, Malkeinu is a prayer we read on fast days, on the High Holy Days to remind us we are subjects to the Sovereign AND we are Children of the Sovereign. Being royalty forces us to choose, entitlement or service and the fate of our country, our family, our living depends on which we choose-ask the Prophets!

ACTION STEPS:

1. Take the next two weeks to examine your “puffed up” places

2. Do a Daily Inventory on how you are exercising your power

3. Write down your entitlement issues

4. Write your reasons for “invading realms that do not belong” to you

5. Each day write down how you acted like a King, a Pirate, a Servant

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Where do your "oughts" come from: society, ethics, religion and how do they shape your living? Year 5 Day 12

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 12

“What ought we to do? How ought we to conduct our lives? These are basic questions of ethics. They are also questions of religion…To ethics, these are man’s questions, necessitated by the nature of human existence. To religion, these are God’s questions, and our answer to them concerns not only man but God.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.83)

“What ought we to do” is a much different question from “what can we do” and herein lies one of the major issues facing humanity. We the People have to demand of ourselves a higher standard of living than “what can I do” both as a light bulb for self-satisfaction and as a lament for doing nothing when there is stress, trouble, need, etc in our world, with our neighbor, when the powerless and voiceless, the stranger and the needy present themselves and we the people only shrug our shoulders and say “what can I do, I am only one person” and other such mendacious statements. I am, once again, sitting at my computer and shuddering at the elegant simplicity of these words and the depth of meaning they have for all of We the People and how many of we the people are too small-minded, too self-centered, too spiritually immature to engage in these “oughts”!

“What can I do” is a statement that comes from not having a connection to the “questions of religion” and a bastardization of the “questions of ethics”. It is a question that the narcissistic, self-centered individual asks both as to “how can I get mine, how can I win AND, I can’t make him/her do anything so why bother”. Yet, “what can I do” is asked much more often than “what ought I do”; “what can I do” is a societal norm and mental cliche that many of we the people use to abdicate responsibility, to validate our inaction, to allow our greed, our resentment, our retribution, our lust, our anger towards another human being(s), towards humanity as a whole AND gives many of we the people the impetus to lie, to deceive another(s) and self, to steal, to make war, to beat her/his chest like Tarzan, believing we are still IN THE JUNGLE instead of being a part of society, a responsible member of the human race, a being that can and must serve more than our basest thoughts, our lower angels.

Unfortunately, as history has proven over and over again, ethics will not save us from ourselves, it could and it hasn’t. By the same token, religion has not saved us from ourselves either. One reason is the same: the bastardization of both and the willingness of we the people to deceive and be deceived. As we know; Self-deception is a MAJOR PROBLEM! Another reason is very different: ethics can change depending on the time, the place, etc. What was ‘ethical’ by human standards in the 1700’s is not in the 2000’s-no matter what Trump and the MAGA crowd want to promote. The “oughts” of religion have not changed; the  248 ‘I should do” remain the same, with a deeper understanding of the subtleties, of course, and the 365 “I should not do” are better illuminated for us now AND still the same. Neither of these “oughts” are subject to the whim of the individual to change at will, no matter what the Rabbis, Priests, Pastors preach and teach! This is the difference between “ethics” and “religion” as I am experiencing this teaching this day-“ethics” is subject to “the nature of human existence” and “religion” knows these are “God’s questions” and they “concern” both “man and God”. Accountability is everything and when we are only accountable to ourselves, humanity has proven, ad nauseam, that self-deception, bastardization, etc prevail more that the Ethical Path of our ancestors. “Ethics” in the hands of the deceivers and mendacious bastardized and immunized our sense of good and evil so badly that there are those among we the people who are horrified by the attack on a Synagogue in Detroit where school children were sitting in their classrooms and say NOTHING about the horror of dropping a Tomahawk Missle on a School in Iran where children were murdered by it! WTF?!

I have found that the “oughts” of religion have freed me from the chains of self-deception, from the prison of societal norms and mental cliches. In fact, it is the only path upon which I found true freedom, the freedom to be who I am without needing to “please everyone else” and the freedom to speak the truth of my soul and to live with passion the purpose I have been gifted with.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Write out what your “oughts” are: “ought to do and ought not to do”

2. Ask yourself where these “oughts” come from: ethics, societal norms, religion

3. Make a daily list of the “oughts” you have fulfilled and the ones you have not

4. Write out, each day,  what deeper truths you have learned from living your “oughts” and which ones need to change

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Indifference or Awareness of the "endless set of effects" "a single deed generates" Year 5 Day 11

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 11

“Even a single deed generates an endless set of effects, initiating more than the most powerful man is able to master or to predict. A single deed may place the lives of countless people in the chains of its unpredictable effects.” ( Thunder in the Soul pg. 82)

What is so infuriating to me, in this moment and in almost every moment of my life is that nothing in the words above is new. This is not some new discovery by Rabbi Heschel, not some brilliant new understanding of a piece of Torah, of the Talmud, of the prophets. Rather, it is, as Deuteronomy 30:14 teaches us: “the word is near to you, abundantly in your mouth and in your heart”.  I knew this as a child and ignored it, I knew it as a teen-ager and didn’t care, I knew this as father and was too caught up in my fears, my internal disgust at myself, my false belief that my net worth=my self worth, that alcohol was the only soother, the only way I could get through the day and the night. I am not proud of this truth AND I cannot deny it.

What is it that We the People have made ourselves so small that we are unwilling to immerse ourselves in the words of Deuteronomy? What is that makes we the people forget that we are partners with God in perfecting creation, in growing freedom “throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”?? What is the problem we the people experience that prevents us from SEEING the divine image in ourselves and another human being(s), from HONORING the infinite worth and dignity of ourself and another human being(s), from REJOICING in the uniqueness of ourselves and another human being(s)? It is the denial of the first sentence above!

In our hubris, in our denial of truth, in our attachment and adjustment to societal norms and mental cliches, We the People have become STUPID!! Not to insult anyone, of course, the stupidity is that We the People think so much of ourselves that we believe the lies we tell ourselves, the lies of the Greeks, the Romans, et al who tell us of our power of perfection, our power of strength and might, our power of intellect so we can think and make something happen, that we have control over our destiny, and other such mental pap!

We are witness’ to the TRUTH of these sentences right here, right now and too many of WE THE PEOPLE are still keeping our mouths shut and fearful of not being liked by “DADDY DONNY”! I am speaking to the Republicans in Congress who have co-signed this WAR WITH IRAN for no truthful reason. Of course Iran is a bad actor-GUESS WHAT - SO IS THE UNITED STATES and ISRAEL RIGHT NOW!! Because Bibi doesn’t want to be put on trial and found guilty, because Donny doesn’t want the world to know about his penchant for teen-age girls like his buddy Jeffrey Epstein, We the People are suffering from “the chains of (their) unpredictable effects”!  These assholes, the Republicans in Congress, the Supreme Court Justices who have ceded all power to Trump and his gang of thieves and thugs, have the gall and audacity to proclaim that Trump and Netanyahu are able to “master (and) predict” the “endless set of effects” that are occuring. Look at Gas prices, look at supply chains, look at the GREED of so many companies to USE THIS CRISIS for their BOTTOM LINE- not to help we the people, rather to fuck us once again with the blessing of Bibi and Donny. WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE?!?!?

I said I am infuriated because We the People do know better and we are being indifferent to the truth, indifferent to our power to stand up and demand change, indifferent to the evil in our midst and to the people promoting this evil - be it ICE, Hegseth, Miller, Kushner, Vought, Trump, Netanyahu, Ben G’Vir, Smotrich and their band of thieves and thugs or the person next to you who supports these fascists, or the part of you that identifies with some part of the evil that is being purportrated and cheers it on. Hence our need for Spiritual Growth, our need for a Spiritual Awakening, our need for a Spiritual Discipline that speaks to us, motivates us, and moves us forward. This is the challenge facing We the People in this moment and in every moment. We have the path…

ACTION STEPS:

1. Do an inventory of the effects of your deeds today and how much control you have over them.

2. Write down the actions, ideas, paths, evils you have become indifferent to and what you need to do to WAKE THE FUCK UP

3. Make a plan to STAND UP FOR TRUTH, JUSTICE, LOVE, MERCY as Micah the prophet teaches.

4. Find a teacher to help you articulate the unique word of God that  “is in your mouth and in your heart”.

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Awareness of the Darkness that hovers over all we do and not succumbing to it - Year 5 Day 10

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 10

“The deed is the test, the trial, the risk. What we perform may seem slight, but the aftermath is immense. An individual’s misdeed can be the beginning of a nation’s disaster. The sun goes down, but the deeds go on. Darkness is over all we have done.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.82)

We the People are witnessing the quintessential example of “an individual’s misdeed can be the beginning of a nation’s disaster” in living color, in our living rooms, at the gas pumps, the grocery stores, etc. Between the bullshit tariffs that no one knows where the money is and when it will be returned, the Iran war, the stealing of the sovereignty of Venezuela, the ass-kissing of Putin and Russia, the betrayal of the Ukraine, the ICE raids, the United States under the “Family” led by Donald Trump is at the precipice of “disaster” and it is time for We the People to stand up, rise up, and say NO to this betrayal of the oaths these liars took, NO to the grift they are taking, NO to the rape of our cities, our elections, our Constitution, our ideals, our morals, our foundational principles that we have not always lived up to and still kept!

The assault on TRUTH is the first battle to wage. What has happened to the TRUTH beginning with the Tea Party, the Birther bullshit, and then the ‘golden stairway walk’ by Trump is horrendous. That there are so many so-called ‘people of god’ willing to ‘lay hands’ on this prick, this anti-Christ, is one of the prime examples of this assault! That the wealthiest in our nation are willing to kiss the ass of Trump and Lutnick, Miller and Vance, Hegseth and Rubio, knowing their tactics can come back to bite them is another example of the assault on Truth as these rich bastards take over the media and the law firms capitulate to join with MAGA to “Make America GO AWAY”! As is said above, “the sun goes down, but the deeds go on” this assault is a 24/367 endeavor by these assholes, these TRAITORS, these mendacious pricks wrapping themselves in Christ, in Moses, in the Bible?!?  WTF, PEOPLE?!? It is WAY PAST TIME to put an end to this assault, this war on TRUTH, on FREEDOM, on God, on Spiritual Principles! We the People are being called upon to end our addiction to the LIE, our obsession with the material, our indifference to evil, our willful blindness to the rape of children and adults, physically, materially, emotionally, and spiritually!

As you might be able to see, I am PISSED OFF with what is happening. I know this playbook, I lived this playbook-not even close to the perfection and extent Trump et al are doing- as a criminal and an alcoholic mendacity was all I knew to do because the TRUTH was too scary, it was too harsh, it was facing me all the time and I drank to blur it, to be willfully blind to it. It got so bad, I was having such a hard time hiding from the TRUTH, that, at the end of my drinking I was pouring a glass of Vodka before I went into the shower because I couldn’t even face myself under the water! What I did to my family, my friends, the stranger, was horrific, it was the worst crime next to physical murder. I stole their trust, used their vulnerabilities against them and made them question what they knew to be TRUE and go along with my lies. This spiritual rape of people around me is something I have continued to do T’Shuvah for, it is my way of  stopping “the deeds go on”! This is the power of T’Shuvah, it puts the past where it belongs, in the past; I restore the dignity to the people I hurt so badly, so they don’t have to continue to live with trauma because they knew me. My T’Shuvah is the return the prophets speak about and I am bearing TESTIMONY to the TRUTH that God took me back in LOVE and HEALED my backsliding. While nowhere near perfect, I have never returned to the Mark Borovitz who committed these crimes.

This is the PATH to breaking up the “darkness is over all we have done”. T’Shuvah smashes the darkness because, like at the beginning of Creation, the Spirit of God hovers over the deep and when we RETURN, we engage with this power to fulfill the command of God: LET THERE BE LIGHT. This is the great fear of Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, et al: LIGHT! LIGHT brings TRUTH back to the forefront and TRUTH restores DIGNITY, WORTH, UNIQUENESS back to WE THE PEOPLE and the END to the disaster, the end to the complete and utter darkness we are living under today.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Put on a “new pair of glasses” so you SEE the darkness that surrounds you as an individual and we as a nation

2. Smash the idols, “as Abraham did” of indifference, wealth, blindness

3. Do you T’Shuvah and restore the dignity you have robbed from another with your greed, your mendacity

4. Make a list of those who have harmed you in the same ways and find ways to let go of the resentment, heal the trauma without needing them to do their T’Shuvah-not forgiveness, just letting go of resentment

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Awareness of what IS, not what you want it to be and responding in kind - Year 5 Day 9

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 9

“The deed is the test, the trial, the risk. What we perform may seem slight, but the aftermath is immense. An individual’s misdeed can be the beginning a nation’s disaster. The sun goes down, but the deeds go on. Darkness is over all we have done.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.82)

I am taking my time with this passage because it is so important for We the People to end our obliviousness to what is in front of our faces, to end our mendacity towards ourselves and another(s). Can it really be ‘true’ that we the people are SO SMALL that we are unable to SEE, to HEAR, to UNDERSTAND the “aftermath” of our “deeds”, the “immense” cruelty of what is happening in our country, in Netanyahu’s Israel, in Putin’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, et al??? Is it within the realm of possibility that we the people are SO INCLINED TO WORSHIP IDOLS that we are unable to hold to account people like Jeffrey Epstein and his cronies, that we are so spiritually bankrupt, so spiritually immature, so morally compromised as to allow the rich and powerful to treat the stranger with hatred, to suspect their ‘fellow man’, to believe “the one with the gold rules”, to treat the poor and needy as if they are criminals??

Now, I understand that one may think I am engaging in hyperbole, yet I think not! While no one, except for Trump, Goebbels-oops I mean Miller, Lutnick, Vance, Johnson, Thune, the Republican Party and some Democrats, actually speak this way, and most of We the People have some of these thoughts, some of these beliefs, have engaged in some of these actions without thinking, with malice of forethought, and to go along to get along. Our Bridge Teacher, Randy Bissett, says: “every card says something” and in our context: every action says something about our character, about our beliefs, about our congruency, about our authenticity. I would like to state for the record-our congruency and authenticity need some shoring up, we the people need to GROW UP! I am so enraged, I understand the words of the prophets so clearly, so intensely and I am bewildered that we the people would buy into the bullshit about Iran, the bullshit about Trump’s ‘innocence’ with the Epstein affair, the bullshit about Lutnick’s goodness, the bullshit that Miller spews, the hidden agenda of Rubio, the absolute FALSENESS of everything Vance purports to be. YET We the People DO! WTF??

Is it at all possible that we the people have become so blind, so indifferent to how “the aftermath is immense”? Are we truly unable to Shema, hear, listen and understand, the call of the innocent immigrants being locked up in facilities that rival the ‘work camps’ of Poland and Germany? Are we really that inauthentic that we can stand idly by the blood of innocent Iranians like the school girls who were killed? Are we so self-deceptive as to believe the mendacity of Trump, Netanyahu, Kushner, Hegseth, et al? The “misdeeds” of Trump and his gang of thieves, and zealots and Netanyahu and his gang of thieves and zealots are “the beginning of nation’s disaster” and We the People are NEEDED TO WAKE UP to what is, not what we hear, not what we want to believe, not the deception by these assholes, nor the self-deception of “well it doesn’t affect me”! OF COURSE it affects everyone, hence “the individual’s misdeeds can be the beginning of a nation’s disaster”!

There are, of course, many ways to engage in the solution to this issue, politically, morally, and spiritually. I want to focus on the latter two: We the People are being called upon to regain and recalibrate our moral compass. It is no longer okay to turn a blind eye to what is happening, it is no longer acceptable to not rebuke our neighbors when they are engaging in misdeeds and saying ‘what’s the big deal?’ It is all a big deal because like Nero in Rome, we the people are fiddling around while our country is burning with a hatred that has not been seen since the days prior to the Civil War and the world is burning with a hatred that hasn’t been seen since the 1930’s. AND We the People can turn it around, can speak truth to power and not settle for the lies and bullshit! This is why T’Shuvah was put into the world before the world was created.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Take an inventory of the ways you think what you do is ‘not a big deal’

2. Using this inventory, write down the aftermath of these actions

3. Find the ways to repair the damage you have caused with “no big deal”

4. Make your amends to the people you have betrayed, especially those who have helped you and you used their vulnerabilities against them.

5. Make a plan to be more aware of the ‘everyday’ things you do and raise them up to a level of awareness that allows you to see the aftermath sooner and make the appropriate repairs or enhancements.

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Standing "trial" for the "deeds" we have done, the risks we have taken and not taken - Year 5 Day 8

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 8

“The deed is the test, the trial, the risk. What we perform may seem slight, but the aftermath is immense. An individual’s misdeed can be the beginning a nation’s disaster. The sun goes down, but the deeds go on. Darkness is over all we have done.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.82)

These words were published over 50 years ago, in the shadow of the Holocaust, in the sunlight of what was happening in America and in the world, and they are as relevant for We the People today as they were then. AND, we the people seem to incapable, unwilling, too intractable to learn, to change, to improve on what was done before us. How PATHETIC, SAD, CRIMINAL! It is easy to point the finger at Trump, Lutnick, Miller, et al, at Bibi, Ben G’Vir, Putin, et al, the difficulty, the demand of these words as I hear it today, is to ask the question our grandchildren will ask: what did you do in ‘the war’ grandpa, grandma? We are in a war, make no mistake about it, the war is for the soul of each of us as individuals, for the country we live in, for the world we GET to inhabit.

“The deed is the test, the trial, the risk” is so pregnant with meaning, I am trembling, shuddering, and in wonder over how to understand the totality of what is being said here. God doesn’t “test” us as I hear, listen and understand the Bible, the Voice that calls out each day from Mount Sinai, the inner voice of my soul. Rather, “the test” is an internal and societal one: are We the People, as individual human beings, going to choose the moral “deeds” to perform in any and every given situation? Are we the people as small self-centered individuals going to choose the immoral “deeds” so we ‘can get ours, get ahead’? This is a “test” We the People take every day, many times a day, and most of us are willfully blind to this “test”, we go along with the societal call for ‘likes’, for wealth, for power, for idolatry. In doing the moral “deed”, the “deed” our soul is calling us to, we can understand how doing the next right thing, enhances our inner life, gives us passion and purpose to move forward, and, quite often, enhances our ability to make a living.

What causes me and many of We the People trembling awe is “the trial”. Each day, each year, we are called to the Heavenly Court, the Holy Tribunal to respond to the charges, the indictment our “deeds” have carved onto the stone tablets of the day, the year. This is not ‘God’s indictment’, it is ours and only we, as an individual and as a community, can stand up and respond to the charges. I tremble at the reading of this indictment each year, each day because I know better, I am better than my worst action, I am not the piece of shit, the lunatic, the chaos maker I am accused of being. I also know that my ways upset people, are at times chaotic, and I know the misdeeds I make better than anyone else because I have to live with them. Standing trial before the Heavenly Tribunal is not as scary as people like to think. God does not want to punish us! Both Jeremiah and Hosea speak of God’s love for us, God’s desire to “heal our backsliding”, to take us back in love even though we have been unfaithful and whored ourselves. My experience with the Heavenly Tribunal has been one of relief, one of being taught, one of being forgiven, one of being loved by an unending love and I do the best I can to pass that along. Every time someone has come to me to make an amend, to do a T’Shuvah, I accept and hug them, I want to help them and I want to stay connected to them. This is the example of the Heavenly Tribunal and, please God, the rest of We the People can live into this example. “The trial” is awesome, it can make one tremble, and it is freedom, growth, connection and joy!

“The risk” of course is societal, not spiritual. It is a “risk” to do the next right “deed” because society laughs at us, society tells us “get mine” rather than the spiritual message of the Bible, of Jesus-“how can I help?” I am thinking about the Bridge Club where the director of the games, whenever called over to a table, asks; “How can I help”, not what’s the problem, why are you bothering me-“How can I help”! There is always a “risk” in doing the next right thing, someone might take advantage of you, someone might use you to take advantage of another human being, someone may get ahead on your back-stepping on you to ‘get to the top’. Society laughs at people like the prophets because they are willing to “risk” their very lives to deliver a message from the Voice on Sinai. Yet, without taking this “risk”, there is no advancement in medicine, in morality, in spirituality, in kindness, in love, in joy, in caring for the widow, the orphan, the poor, the needy, the stranger. And since we all have these archetypes within us, not taking this “risk” impoverishes our internal life and our external one as well.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Do a daily journal of the moral and immoral “Deeds” you perform

2. Do a daily writing on the outcome of the “trial” for yesterday’s “deeds”

3. Do a daily writing on how often you take the “risk” to better self and your corner of the world

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mar

How do you excuse your own "evil deeds" because they are not your 'intentions'? Year 5 Day 7

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 7

“It is in the employment of his will, not in reflection, that he meets his own self as it is; not as he should like it to be. In his deeds man exposes his immanent as well as his suppressed desires, spelling even that which he cannot apprehend. What he may not dare to think, he often utters in deeds. The heart is revealed in deeds.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.82)

There is a saying in Alcoholics Anonymous, “how do you know an addict/alcoholic is lying? When their lips are moving!” These last two sentences above brought this to my mind as every Recovering Alcoholic/Addict will tell you: “I don’t know how I could have done those things” in regards to their past fucked-up “deeds”. I said it, many people in recovery have said it, some of the people who go to Yom Kippur Services say it and mean it, some who go to confession say this and mean it, and some who go to either say it to get the heat off, repeatedly say “I am sorry if I hurt you”, or “I didn’t know you would feel this way”, or “that was not my intention” as if any of these lame, bullshit excuses take responsibility for the “deeds” they committed, as if any this “how do I get the heat off of me” responses acknowledge the harm, the spiritual rape one does to another! While way too many of We the People continually proclaim our goodness, continually feign ignorance regarding the impact of our “deeds”, We the People also know that we would never admit to our joy at having screwed someone over, at having “gotten back” for any and all perceived and/or real harms, because it isn’t ‘nice’ to do or think in ‘polite society’.

Over and over again we see people like Trump, Lutnick, Epstein, Netanyahu, be hailed and honored for their ‘amazing humanness’ all the while they are fucking little girls, know that someone is, screwing over the very people they have taken an oath to serve and protect, bastardizing the Holy Bibles of both Christianity and Judaism, and lying right to our faces! AND WE THE PEOPLE are going along with this BULLSHIT! While they are evil, while their actions reveal the depths of depravity, what is MORE CONCERNING is: We the People give them power, elect them, ask them for favors, stand idly by the bloods of human beings, fail to rebuke them, fail to love our neighbor as ourselves, fail to call out the false prophets they claim to be and the false prophecy they are spewing!

The issue we the people are facing and responding to VERY poorly is: what in our nature is so twisted, so spiritually immature and bankrupt that we the people allow such people to be Priests and Rabbis, be Presidents and Congresspeople, Senators and Governors, leaders of industry, leaders of institutions, etc? It is bad enough when they are fathers and mothers, to give these people whose “deeds” are so heinous, so despicable more and more power is bewildering, especially when co-signed by those ‘good christian, jewish people’!

We the People are being called upon to take a deep dive into our hearts. The call, the demand above is to: begin anew with the truth of what goes on inside of us, the war between the servant rational mind and the gift of our intuitive mind, the struggles of our good inclination to harness the power and the energy of our evil inclination and not succumb to the darkness that surrounds the light within the darkness, that tries to cover up the Godliness of our evil inclination. Rabbi Harold Kushner, z”l, taught me to use “earthly inclination” and “divine inclination” which I believe is a better description. Evil is in the world, Isaiah tells us this and there is light fashioned from the darkness and the evil-We the People have to do the fashioning, We the People are gifted with the ability to imitate God, to walk with God and change our actions, change our thoughts, change our “hearts’ desires”. When we the people only want to point the finger at an Epstein-who deserves it-we are forgetting all of those who enabled him, all of we the people who enable the other fascists, despicable people who are ‘in charge’ of our government and doing everything they can to CRUSH WE THE PEOPLE! Seeing our own “deeds” in the light of the choices we have made, forces us to “dare to think” of what our “deeds” have done and seek to repair the damage and not repeat the same missing the mark!

ACTION STEPS:

1. Admit the ‘joy’, the ‘reward’, the ‘rush’ you receive from doing “what you dare not think, and often utter in deeds”

2. Each evening, do your inventory of how you grew spiritually, morally from your “deeds” of that day

3. Each morning, do an inventory of what “deeds” you need to repair because they were morally and spiritually evil

4. Join the resistance to the evil happening around us. No longer believe what someone says; watch what they do

5. Each day, see how your “divine inclination” is harnessing your “earthly inclination” one grain of sand more

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

What thoughts do you suppress that 'leak' out in your actions? Year 5 Day 6

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 6

“It is in the employment of his will, not in reflection, that he meets his own self as it is; not as he should like it to be. In his deeds man exposes his immanent as well as his suppressed desires, spelling even that which he cannot apprehend. What he may not dare to think, he often utters in deeds. The heart is revealed in deeds.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.82)

The word “immanent” comes from the Latin meaning “in remain” or “remain in”, the word “suppressed” comes from the Latin meaning “to press down”, and the word “apprehend” comes from the Latin meaning “towards, to lay hold of”. I hear Rabbi Heschel warning us, cajoling us, demanding of us to “lift up our eyes and see!”, as Abraham was told, as Moses was told, as the Children of Israel did at both the shore of the Sea of Reeds after they crossed it and at Mount Sinai, when they heard God’s utterances. It is the same message that Jesus was preaching to the Priests and the people, the same that the prophets spoke to the power structure and the poor. Yet, even in this moment, we the people, in our smallness, seem unable to hear, listen, understand and DO this simple action. Rather, We the People, from our false egos, from our self-deceptions, believe We know what God wants, We put words in the mouths of Jesus, Moses, etc, and We ignore the call of the poor, the widow, the stranger, not believing the history of the destruction of the Temples, the promise of the Universe that these injustices will have consequences. “In his deeds man exposes his immanent/what remains inside of him, as well as his “pressed down” desires.” It certainly is being played out on the larger world stage just as it is in the personal, familiar, institutional stages.

While Rabbi Heschel was never afraid to speak truth to power, in fact as I understand him, as I hear him through his words, he was as compelled to doing this as the prophets of the Bible, he also cared deeply about the individual souls he encountered, the students he knew would impact generations of human beings, as he taught at Union Theological Seminary as well as at JTS. In this realm, I find his words even more haunting and daunting than in the worldly realm. Rabbinic Judaism follows the dictates of the Bible in promoting “the deed”, believing “deeds” can move us to right thinking and believing, and if the believing never comes, who cares! It is only through our “deeds” that we can meet ourselves, meet with another, and “expose our immanent as well as our suppressed desires”. Hence, we the people have to testify to the smallness we engage in, the pettiness and pride, envy and enmity we practice in our home life, our work life, our institutional life. When parents cajole a headmaster or principal for grades their children did not earn by threatening to withhold financial support, when donors make unreasonable asks because they feel entitled to them, when kids pay no attention to the teachings and morals of their parents, grandparents, teachers, We the People are engaging in our “remaining desires and our “pressed down” wishes. Isn’t it WAY PAST TIME for WE THE PEOPLE to be aware of what TRUTH is, of what SERVICE is, of what BEING HUMAN entails?

Because we seem unable to “apprehend, to lay hold of these inner desires of our “evil inclination”, we the people continue to believe we are right, believe we have ‘no choice’, believe this compulsion to ‘be known’, to ‘have the most likes’, to feed our false egos, to promote the lies we have told ourselves and society has fed us, to engage in cruelty and evil while calling these actions good and holy! Whether it is the government like Trump’s or Netanyahu’s, the institutions that have caved to the pressure like Columbia University, the law firms who decided to kiss his ass rather than stand up for what is right, or the businesses like Warner Bros who succumbed to the pressure, or the families who have stopped speaking to one another because of the actions that were “suppressed”, that were not “apprehended” by the actor, We the People are being called to be AWARE of WHAT THE FUCK WE ARE DOING!! I hear in these words, a call to STAND UP for what is right, to STOP HIDING from OURSELVES, to give voice to our “immanent”, “suppressed” desires and have a spiritual practice that guides us to what we “apprehend” so our unconscious rises to the level of our consciousness and we have the POWER OF CHOICE, once again. ALL OF WE THE PEOPLE are both guilty of these crimes and responsible for one another’s crimes as well.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Write down what we were oblivious to this day(a daily exercise)

2. Admit and address the pettiness and pride we engaged in today

3. Examine the smallness and the subtleties we used to screw someone else over and to harm our souls

4. Write down when you stood for what is right and your deeds exposed an immanent desire you had suppressed and now are addressing.

5. Make a list of how you hid today and how you did not-no matter what the action was, good or not good

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Struggle with one's imperfections or be a "Person of the Lie"- Year 5 Day 5

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 5

“It is in the employment of his will, not in reflection, that he meets his own self as it is; not as he should like it to be. In his deeds man exposes his immanent as well as his suppressed desires, spelling even that which he cannot apprehend. What he may not dare to think, he often utters in deeds. The heart is revealed in deeds.” (Thunder in the Soul pg.82)

“But I’m a good person” was a refrain I both said while in my addiction and heard myriads of times as a Rabbi and Spiritual leader of a Recovery Center/Congregation! And, it was always said when confronted with my own or when another person was confronted with “the employment of his will”! When we listen to what they say and not what they do, We the People are making the pact to keep the secrets of another(s) so they will keep ours. We the People do not want to “meet his own self as it is” so we buy the bullshit and mendacity of another(s) in order for them to buy ours!! I keep shuddering and feeling the rage of the prophets when they would confront the powerful and the powerless and meet the heavy, almost impenetrable denial of BOTH groups!

Having been a “person of the lie” as M.Scott Peck named one of his seminal books, I know the power of the “but I’m a good person” lie, it makes another feel sorry for me, it was my way of trying to excuse the inexcusable! The worst attribute is that the people that actually cared for me, were the ones I hurt the most with this way of being. I kept trying to live a facade, paint a picture of fantasy for people to buy into and it took a while and then they stopped buying and I kept selling; resulting in being in a jail cell in Dec. 1986 and, finally, having to “meet my own self as it is; not as I should like it to be”! Possibly, that is the reason I am trembling and shuddering with the rage of the prophets, with the cry of Jacob’s descendants who were trapped in their narrow spaces that we call Egypt and forget that being trapped exists on at least two planes, physical, emotional, spiritual…

We the People are living in the worst of times, I believe, and the prophets of today and the prophets of the Bible have yet to “win the day” because of the idolators, the False Prophets like Vought, Trump, Vance, Lutnick, Miller, Bessent, Netanyahu, Ben G’Vir, et al. These “People of the Lie” are not only sociopaths, they are cruel, mean, and full of shit. That We the People have not caught on to the lie, that We the People have not thrown them out of office, prosecuted them to the fullest extent of the law, taken their cronies, their religious vindicators “out to the woodshed” is UNBELIEVABLE!!

There is only one reason these “People of the Lie” are still in power-we the people are afraid to “meet his(our) own self”! This is the problem the prophets faced, the problem Moses faced when he first came back to Egypt, the problem the people who travelled the desert faced each time hardship came about, the problem Joseph faced when first confronted by his brothers and then when Judah stood up to him.  It is the problem We the People face each and every day and how we respond to this problem, this challenge will determine this day and influence the next day, the next… “People of the Lie” never “meet his own self” because they are too busy lying to everyone and, to become a person of the lie, one has to fully buy into the bullshit they have been selling so when they look into the mirror, they see him/herself “as he/she should like it to be”-which is the greatest con job a person can pull off and the worst effect it has on the people near and far from “People of the Lie” as we can see both in world events-think of Germany 1930’s, America since 2015, Israel lately under Bibi- and in our personal lives. Knowing what I know forces me to tighten the circle around me because when another person is hiding, I can no longer be connected and without connection, what is ‘friendship’? What is passing for friendship is, in many cases, an agreement to not uncover the Lie of another so they will not uncover the Lie of one. How sad, how enraging, and how horrific the consequences-I still am sad at the misery I caused for my family, especially Heather, my brother, my sister and the trashing of my father’s name.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Write down the Lies you tell yourself  about who you are, ie “as you should like it to be”

2. Write out what your deeds today say about who you are

3. Do an inventory of your past deeds and write down what they say about who you are

4. Make a decision as to the person you are going to be going forward, the person of the lie, the imperfect individual who constantly confronts her/himself and makes the changes needed on a daily basis!

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Choosing the Community you belong to; practitioner of "deeds" that relieve tensions or "deeds" that increase them? Year 5 Day 4

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 4

“It is in deeds that man becomes aware of what his life really is, of his power to harm and to hurt, to wreck and to ruin; of his ability to derive joy and to bestow it upon others; to relieve and increase his own and other people’s tensions.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 81-82)

I am in absolute wonder as to the twists and turns that all of we the people make up to deny that our “deeds” cause the harm, the hurt, the ruin, the tensions that is happening in the world today, yesterday, every day! While there is, of course, no shortage of taking credit for our “ability to derive joy and to bestow it upon others”, if we like them, as beneficent lords, slave owners, power-hungry despots/autocrats! Yet, We the People have become so adept at ‘the spin’, so entrenched with ‘the media’ that “Fake News” is often thrown about when the truth is being told, that “I haven’t seen/read/heard that” when asked a question one doesn’t want to answer, that “accuse another of that which you are guilty of” when one’s ethics, morals, spirit of the law as well as letter is being confronted. While the people in power today seem to have learned these lessons of prior times, the ways of dealing with the “inhumanity towards man” has not! Delivery vehicles have changed and the basic “deeds” to wreck havoc, to harm the souls of a nation, a group, and an individual, to increase the tensions of another(s) while decreasing one’s own have not! This is, of course, the main thrust of the Bible-changing the “deeds” that We the People engage in.

What is so incredibly fascinatingly frustrating is “our ability” to continue to engage in the “deeds” that make us feel good by doing bad towards another! “I jewed down the Jew”, “I killed him in this deal”, “I left nothing on the table”, I squeezed every penny from him”, “I took no prisoners”, “I nailed him to the cross”,  etc, etc! Yet, we the people, in our smallness, in our pettiness, in our enmity, take great pleasure in these “deeds”, to the ruin of another and to the ruin of our souls, our ethics, our inner life-all the while proclaiming our UNDYING LOVE for GOD, our ABSOLUTE LIVING THE BIBLE, and other such BULLSHIT!

It is WAY PAST TIME, that We the People stop living in the smallness of self-centered ego, in the pettiness of resentments, in the enmity of hating one’s neighbor instead of loving her/him! It is even WAY, WAY, PAST TIME for We the People to take our rightful place in God’s world, in today’s world and “become aware of what our life really is! We the People either live as partners with God in making the world a little better than when we found it or we the people continue to “get mine” and “fuck the rest of you”! While I am usually against either/or choices, sometimes they are the correct questions: Which are you, as a member of We the People or as a member of we the people going to choose? Which community are you joining: the community of people, believers or not, who practice the “deeds” that the Bible directs us to or to the community of people, ‘believers’ or not, who practice the “deeds” the Bible tells us NOT to do?

We the People are given the 248 “Thou will/should/must do” commandments precisely because it goes against the evil inclination, against our self-centered goals and ways. We the People are given the 365 “Thou must/will/should not do” precisely because they feed the false ego, the rational mindset of “where’s mine”, the lure of being the Pharaoh in our own story. Without TShuvah, without “lifting up our eyes and seeing”, without “hearing, listening, understanding” the cries of those who we harm, who are harmed by another, we the people will revel in our smallness, in our pettiness and continue to deceive ourselves into believing we are being “beneficent dictators”, buy into the mendacity being shoveled like shit at us that ‘this is for your own good’, “I am getting your retribution”, “This war is because I listened to my own opinion”, “the rich getting richer is good for the poor”, and other such lies! Hence, the Jewish belief that “TShuvah was put into the world before the world was created” and I add because God knew we would screw up and need a path back to Shalem, wholeness, to Ahava, love, to the Kahal, community. This is the power that Harriet and I and the staff at Beit T’Shuvah tapped into, being the camp outside the camp so people could return to community, to love, to wholeness.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Examine how many deeds today came from your mind/ego and the results they caused, internally, externally, materially, spiritually

2. Examine how deeds today came from your spirit, your soul, your intuitive mind and the results they caused, internally, externally, materially, spiritually

3. Write down the dialogue that goes on within your between the gift, ie your intuitive mind and the servant, ie the rational mind. Which wins more often

4. Choose which ‘voice’ you are going to follow tomorrow and recognize when you are not!

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Awareness of the power of We the People to harm and to hurt... Year 5 Day 3

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 3

“It is in deeds that man becomes aware of what his life really is, of his power to harm and to hurt, to wreck and to ruin; of his ability to derive joy and to bestow it upon others; to relieve and increase his own and other people’s tensions.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 81-82)

Descartes says: “I think, therefore I am” and Judaism says: I am therefore I take action. While thinking is important and necessary, otherwise human beings would be like angels and animals, like robots, just doing what is programmed, it is not where we discover the truth about ourselves, about another(s), about life, about so many things-as I hear Rabbi Heschel this morning. A caveat to this truth, one has to do a daily T’Shuvah, a daily inventory so one can learn what one’s actions are saying-DUH!! This is where reflection, thinking is crucial to promote change, refinement, improvement. Yet, even though Rabbi Eliezer in the Talmud, Shabbat 153a, says: “Do TShuvah one day before you die and since none of us know the day of our death do it every day”, We the People-and I am speaking to Jews especially in this moment, DO NOT ENGAGE IN THIS PRACTICE TOO MUCH! Hence, hearing how many people are cheering at the death of innocent Iranians, innocent Palestinians, innocent Jews (this has been going on a long time) innocent Americans, innocent Blacks, Browns, Asians, etc seems to make perfect sense! If it isn’t us getting killed, discriminated against, hated, forced into slavery, then it is all good, right?!?

We the People are at another crossroads in our history, in our spiritual health, in our physical well-being, in our morality, in our emotional health and our intelligence in all realms of being. Watching the cruelty of carpet bombing, the horror of ICE ‘agents’ (many of them are said to have been pardoned for their Jan 6th crimes and found a ‘home’ with Noem) killing innocent Americans, arresting people for the color of their skin, people who are NOT WHITE being called “vermin” by the President of the United States, by Jews in his Cabinet, by Cubans in his cabinet, proves my point of very little TShuvah being done by the rich and powerful! The audacity of We the People to allow, to watch, to stand idly by the use of “power to harm and to hurt, to wreck and to ruin” is a disavowal of everything that 1776 stands for, everything the Bill of Rights guarantees, what our Constitution is supposed to stand for and these rich, powerful, ‘beautiful’ people are trampling it, are indifferent to the “wreck and ruin” they are bringing to We the People! I am enraged by the indifference, I am trembling at the world my grandson is growing up in, I am mourning the loss of Truth, the loss of dialogue between people with differing viewpoints, the loss of equal opportunity for all and a return to the “good old boys network”, keeping them “n——’s and kikes out of here” actions, bringing back the Jim Crow days, the ‘boy, I said so’ era, etc makes me want to SCREAM!!

Witnessing the joy that cruelty gives to Lutnick, Miller, Vance, Vought, Trump and his kids, to Kushner and his daddy, to Johnson, Jordan, and the rest of the Republicans in Congress is soul crushing, it causes fear of resistance for many of we the people and it is overwhelming many people by the vastness of the cruelty and the celebration of same! What is the difference between the joy of Trump at his cruelty, the glee of Bondi at her cruel and inhumane treatment of people, the happiness of Patel at firing the people responsible for combatting terrorism in the FBI, the celebration of Noem at the killings in Minnesota, AND the joy in Gaza after 9/11? When We the People do not do an inventory of our actions and/or when we do and see NOTHING WRONG with the cruelty, the missing the mark, the sinister theme of our actions, the “mine, first, last and always” attitude, we are denying the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s words above.

Having had to do the painful reflection, inventory of my errors soon after I had my spiritual awakening, my call from the Ineffable One, I know how difficult it is,  how disgusting I felt upon seeing in black and white, the “harm and hurt” I caused. AND, it set me free in a way I had never been free-I came out of hiding and I have stayed out of hiding ever since. More on this tomorrow!
ACTION STEPS:

1. Do an inventory of your deeds each day

2. Analyze the goodness, the not good, the horrifying nature, and the excellence of your deeds this day

3. Make a plan to remedy the not good, the horrifying actions you took this day

4. Make a plan on how to enhance the goodness and the excellence of the deeds you accomplished today

5. Write a gratitude list in the morning and then after doing the above in the evening-grateful for knowing what is good and not good!

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Using Self-reflection to lead to beautifully deceptive thoughts and ideals - Year 5 Day 2

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 5 Day 2

“In what dimension of existence does man become aware of the grandeur and earnestness of living? What are the occasions in which he discovers the nature of his own self? In the solitude of self-reflection the self may seem to be a fountain of beautiful thoughts and ideals. Yet thought may be a spell and ideals may be worn like borrowed diadems.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 82)

“The grandeur and earnestness of living” are constant themes for Rabbi Heschel with which We the People are held to be accountable to. Grandeur, meaning “impressive, grand” and earnestness, the state of “intense conviction”, are not for the self-aggrandizement of the human being, not being used above to promote the wonderful reflection in the mirror we see. Rather, I hear Rabbi Heschel’s use of these words to give us a direction to go in. We the People are woefully unaware of the “impressiveness” of being alive, the “intense conviction” it takes to BE HUMAN, resulting in the egotistical behaviors of aggrandizement, thinking one’s shit doesn’t stink(psst, everyone’s does), believing in their superiority over another human being, bullying, lying, cheating, stealing’s whoring one’s self, etc. It is in our unawareness that We the People perpetrate crimes against humanity, do what is hateful to us to another human being, accuse another of that which we are guilty of, promote “prosperity gospels” as the ‘one true way of Christ’, believe the parts of the Bible that cater to the needs of the few to dominate and control Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel. Our willful unawareness has allowed people to start wars so they can show how ‘strong’ they are, Misters Trump, Putin, Netanyahu while taking no responsibility for the causalities, no mention of their failures, their greed, their insatiable thirst for power, prestige, wealth.

The more we the people believe the lies we tell ourselves, the more we the people hide from our awareness of the grandeur of being human, the earnestness with which we are to live life, the more poverty, suffering, senseless hatred, murdering of innocents under the guise of ‘collateral damage is unavoidable’ will occur. Rather than “love thy neighbor”, “suspect thy neighbor” plays our more as Rabbi Heschel said in his interview with Carl Stern. To be a partner with God in mending, promoting, perfecting, this world is a pretty impressive job, an awesome responsibility and can only be engaged in with an conviction that is so intense, nothing will stop We the People from our mission, from living our unique gift out loud, adding our fulfillment of the divine need we are created to fill to the world so our corner is a little better than when we found it. Only by having and engaging with a spiritual discipline can we be reminded daily of “the grandeur and earnestness of living”.

“Self-reflection” is a wonderful way of seeing what is, it is an essential element of T’Shuvah, and, as Rabbi Heschel writes above, it can be another way we engage in self-deception. Some meditations are to get rid of the negative thoughts and this is a worthwhile endeavor except when it isn’t. Just thinking “beautiful thoughts and ideals” is not a complete self-reflection and this is where the “rubber meets the road”. Are we the people going to continue to believe that we can think our way into right action? Are we the people going to continue to follow the PT Barnim’s of our time to our ruin because they paint such pretty pictures of redemption, retribution, sharing the wealth, etc? Are we the people going to continue to buy the bullshit of the bastards who sell us out to their rich friends, their co-authoritarians? The answer of course is YES. As long as we continue to have “ideals…worn like borrowed diadems” YES is the only answer there is. As long as we the people continue to “bind” our heads, our hearts, our minds and our spirits with the bullshit and lies of ‘royalty’, of idolators, of charlatans; as long as we the people continue to ‘crown their heads’ with a symbol of royalty and sovereignty, YES is the only answer to “are you going to continue to sell out to ‘the man’! Self-reflection takes thinking and realizing the non-beautiful thought and ideals we carry and what to do about them as well! These are the ways I have been able to say NO to selling out to the man, to not buying the bullshit of the man and myself! It ain’t easy and these have worked for me over these years!
ACTION STEPS:

1. Each morning and evening examine the basic and inherent features of your inner self, your outer self, your rational mind and your gut instinct

2. Each morning make a plan for noticing the impressiveness of life, of nature, of another(s) human being, of your authentic self

3. Each morning make a plan for living with a little more intensity than the day before, not allowing what you know in your soul to be pushed aside by your rationalizations nor the rationalizations of another(s)-no matter how much power over you they may have

4. Each evening check your plans, celebrating the victories, acknowledging the missing the marks and learning from both!

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Living into the "grandeur and mystery of living" Year 5 Day 1

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel’s Writings

Year 5 Day 1

“How should man, a being created in the likeness of God, live? What way of living is compatible with the grandeur and mystery of living? It is a problem which man has always been anxious to ignore. Upon the pavement of the Roman city of Timgat an inscription was found which reads: “To hunt, to bathe, to gamble, to laugh, that is to live”. Judaism is a reminder of the grandeur and earnestness of living.”

In beginning Year 5, I had to think: “whom am I doing this for?” I am certainly writing for my own spiritual growth, my own moral activism, as part of my getting centered each day and “lift up my eyes and see”. I also have thought long and hard as to whether anyone wants to hear, read, see what I am thinking and if it can help another human being in their own spiritual growth, their own return from spiritual bankruptcy, moral decay, idolatry. Since I have been told by some people, not an overwhelming amount, that what I write helps, I decided to “keep on keeping on”. I pray these words of Rabbi Heschel touch your soul as they do mine. I pray that my words touch you and give the knowing of how much YOU MATTER, the experience of hearing your inner voice and the joy that comes with each grain of sand you add to your spiritual back account.

All of the above is an example of how I have been engaged in a “way of living (that) is compatible with the grandeur and mystery of living”. Rather than deny that each and every person is “a being created in the likeness of God”, rather than buy into the self-deception that “only my kind knows what God wants”, rather than continue to make another group, another person “the scapegoat”, the words above from Rabbi Heschel are calling us to Truth, calling us to what is Real, calling us to let go of our misconceptions, our need for perfection, our need for power, and focus, as Reinhold Niebuhr teaches;  to ask God for the grace and clarity to  “accept the things I cannot change, change the things I should and the wisdom to discern one from the other”. Upon asking for grace and clarity, aka serenity, we are acknowledging the “mystery of living”, we are admitting our limitations, we are asking for help to navigate the world, we are in awe of the grandeur and have no need to control it, capture it, just to bask in it. This is the challenge of finding a way “of living (that) is compatible with the grandeur and mystery of living”. AND, We the People are up to the challenge, We the People have the way to meet this challenge. We the People are only lacking the willingness to ask for the grace and clarity we are in desperate need of and goes against societal norms and cliches.

The Romans had to hate the Jews, despise the Christians because both groups challenged every word of the inscription above, which challenges every way they, and the Greeks, lived! Hence, feeding the Christians to the lions was a way of preserving their lifestyle at any and all costs, it was a way to be despicable and hateful while validating the need to do this because of “them”, “those people” who wanted to instill morals and spirituality in we the people of Rome! How dare they!! In fact, how dare Rabbi Heschel, the Bible, the prophets, the Catholic Church, the Ministers tell some of we the people that grifting and stealing from the very people you are elected to serve and protect is WRONG? Telling these ‘fine upstanding gentlemen’, mostly, that the faiths they proclaim to affirm their living, affirm their actions says the exact opposite of what they are doing? This was true in Ancient Israel, Ancient Judea, as the prophets proclaim over and over again in the Bible, as We the People know in our souls, in our bones, in our guts that what is going on today, “to hunt, to bathe, to gamble, to laugh, that is to live” is WRONG! We the People know that we are so much more than our basest instincts, than our inauthentic desires, than our self-deceptions. The Bible, the prophets, the Catholic Church, the Ministers, the Rabbis dare to call all of We the People to account precisely because of the “grandeur and mystery” we represent, simply pointing out different ways that We the People, “created in the likeness of God”, divine reminders for one another, are able to LIVE!

ACTION STEPS:

1. Each morning look in the mirror and see what is reflected back to you from the inside out.

2. Each day notice the “likeness of God” that another human being represents and what your “likeness of God” can offer to him/her

3. Each day ask for the help you need to grow a part of you that is underdeveloped because it is not the dominant attribute of your “likeness of God”

4. Each day seek to grow into your acceptance of your powerlessness and commitment to “change the things you should”!

5. Each day, write in your journal the growth you have experienced, be it through positive actions/learnings or learnings from your mistakes-know it is all part of the “grandeur and mystery of living”

GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark

Awareness or Willful Blindness to the truth that We the People ALWAYS know: We live in the Presence of God all the time! Year 4 Day 365

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 365

“The true meaning of existence is disclosed in moments of living in the presence of God. The problem we face is: How can we live in a way which is in agreement with such convictions?” (Thunder in the Soul pg.81)

Waking up to the news of a new wave of strikes against Iran yesterday, on Shabbat, by Israel and the United States, knowing that two opposing thoughts are true: Iran sponsors terrorism throughout the world, the United States wants it’s sovereignty protected and using military force to create regime change in Iran, Venezuela, or anywhere is an invitation for China and Russia to do more of same. Praying for the wounded in the Middle East, for the safety of U.S. soldiers, for the innocents in Iran-there is no such thing as no collateral damage. It also brings up the question of Israel’s reign of terror against the people of the West Bank-do we just ignore this because it is ‘our people’ doing the senseless killing, land grabbing, etc? AND the Iranian regime was horrible to the people of Iran, yet we the people of the United States failed in Afghanistan, Iraq-just saying!

Hence, “the problem we face” confronts us at all times and it is not a one and done, there is no such thing, I believe, as a ‘one size fits all’. Each “moment of living in the presence of God” is a different challenge, a different set of circumstances, a different response is needed. AND every moment we are alive is one of the “moments of living in the presence of God” and most of We the People are willfully blind to this truth, oblivious to it, just plain ignorant of it, and/or use it to appeal to the desire to be deceived found in most of us. The moment of birth is a moment of KNOWING we the parents are “living in the presence of God”, the moment of discovery as infants, children, adolescents, young adults, all through life are “moments of living in the presence of God”, the experience of love, of friendship, of learning, of intuitive knowledge are “moments of living in the presence of God”, as well. The issue is not whether there are these “moments”, the issue is are We the People willing to acknowledge them, are We the People so afraid of living “in a way which is in agreement with such convictions” that we remain willfully blind to these “moments”? Are We the People so stuck in our societal norms that self-deception overrules what is right in front of our faces? Are We the People so power-hungry, false ego-driven that we twist the truth of the statements above to say “God wants you to send me money”, “If you suffer, if you are poor, it is because God doesn’t love you”, and other such bullshit so this segment of we the people can deceive, can steal, can grift and can capture and remain in power. Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump were friends and co-conspirators in this practice of abusing the willful blindness of we the people to exploit us, to exploit people around them, using money, fame, access as the currency to steal, to manipulate, to NOT “live in a way which is in agreement of such convictions”, to proclaim that they are the ones who know “the true meaning of existence” and only they can help you/us. It is the same tired old song that has been used by autocrats, con men, schemers and scammers, forever, like Bernie Madoff, Jared Kushner, et al.

The response to Rabbi Heschel’s question above has to be, in my opinion, Hear, listen, understand our better angels. Living into the mitzvot, finding new and fresh ways to experience the infinite dignity and worth of every human being-including our self- is a daily occurrence. Remembering that we are GIFTED this day and say a prayer of gratitude and commitment each morning with the Modeh Ani, prayer thanking God for returning our souls to us with compassion and faithfulness-hence even before we rise from our beds, we are “living in the presence of God' and this “presence” never leaves us even though many of We the People choose to ignore the “presence” for the rest of the day, or at least when it is not ‘convenient’ for us to do what we want to do. The Bible gives us a path to not ignoring “the presence” by instructing us to “make fringes on the corner of their garments” so that looking at them will ensure that  We the People “do not follow after our hearts and our eyes and WHORE after them! Since the beginning of time, God learned the difficulty humanity has in “living in the presence of God” and has given us clues, protections, connections to overcome our fears, our over-sized false egos, our inauthentic needs and desires-not to get rid of them, OH NO, rather to acknowledge them and rise above them. We the People have the path, we have the power, we have the Spirit and Soul to do this-what we the people seem to lack is the spiritual maturity to live into “the presence”! I have been facing “the problem” for my entire life and it wasn’t until December of 1986 that I truly allowed myself to be confronted and hear, listen, understand what “living in the presence of God” means and entails. The gifts I have received are not “beyond my deserving” AND they are so much more than I ever dreamed of receiving. Living with acceptance and pathos, love and joy, connection and conviction, passion and purpose, responsibility and accountability is my response to the problem stated above.
ACTION STEPS:

1. Acknowledge God’s Presence each morning with some ritual that has meaning for you.

2. See the reflection of the divine in those whom you love and those whom you don’t-remembering that God cried when the Egyptians were drowning-“my people are dying”

3. Make a list of the moments when you jettisoned your knowing for your momentary egotistical, financial gain

4. Each night, write a gratitude note to those whom helped you this day.

5. Each night make your amends to God for the hours/moments you were not aware of living in God’s presence.
   GOD BLESS and STAY SAFE, Rabbi Mark