Day 4 of the 10 Days of Repentance- Selfishness, Cleverness, Pretense: the killers of truth - Year 4 Day 239

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 239

“It is also deplorable when a spiritual movement deteriorates into bustling and pretense. It is unclean when a holy desire is misused by the selfishness of the clever.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 70)

On this 4th day of Tishri, this 4th of the 10 days of TShuvah, the 10 days of Awe, I picked these sentences from Rabbi Heschel to follow up on yesterday’s writing. We the People have to be responsible as a community to do the next right action!  We the People are being called to account for ourselves, not to some punishing God, rather we are being called to account for ourselves to ourselves and to community. I am suggesting that in this moment, in this time, as we get ready to go to Synagogue, to shul, on the holiest day of the Jewish Year, this year we go prepared to meet ourselves in the Confessionals, we sit in the pews and, instead of being bored, we ask ourselves during the beautiful Kol Nidre Prayer, “which vows, oaths, promises, did I not fulfill this past year, which ones do I need to make amends for, to whom do I still need to repair damages with?” Then, when we hear “I forgive as you have spoken”, we no longer have to be in fear that someone will find out, that we have to keep a secret, and we can unburden ourselves of the deceptions and lies, the hiding and the fears that keep us stuck in “bustling and pretense”.

We the Jews have fallen into the “deplorable” situation described in the first sentence precisely because we are afraid to confront ourselves, individually and collectively. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the current Matzav, situation, in Gaza, in Jerusalem, in Washington DC, in America in general. When so-called religious people can applaud the killing of people because of the color of their skin, because of the religion they practice, because-like the Israelite people who were stuck in Egypt-they “yearn to breathe free”, we are witnessing and experiencing “the selfishness of the clever”. Bibi, Donny, Howie, Stevie, Stevie, and the rest of their minions and thugs, all are “unclean”, all are practice “selfishness of the clever” and We the Jews go along with these lies and then we go to Kol Nidre and ask some Deity to forgive us? PLEASE!! I am ready to throw up at their gall and their “deplorable” ways of taking a beautiful “spiritual movement” and making it “deteriorate into bustling and pretense.”

What has happened since Rabbi Heschel wrote these words on Kol Nidre in 1936 is horrific! We the Jews have not only not heeded his words, we are in the process of denouncing them, of reviling them and of doing the exact opposite of what Repentance/TShuvah call for. Rather than hear the call of Rabbi Eliezer on Shabbat 153(a) of the Talmud, today’s so-called religious leaders are extolling a part of the Bible that Ezra added, that is not in keeping with Yud Hey Vav Hey that teaches us to “love the stranger, love your neighbor, rebuke your friend and bear no guilt because of them, remember you were strangers in the land of Egypt, if your enemy is thirsty-give them drink, etc” As my friend and teacher, Rabbi Danny Maseng has pointed out to me the additions and subtractions that are in the text and it is a fascinating way to read the Bible. Should you want to validate your cruelty-you can find it in the Bible, if you want to live into the laws of Moses, it is much harder to do this. I believe the Ramban’s commentary on Lev. 19:2-“one can be a scoundrel within the bounds of the Bible” is so appropriate for this moment, for all moments.

I suggest this is our challenge and the question we need to be asking ourselves as we continue to prepare for the great assembly, for the Day of At-One-Ment, where we come face to face with ourselves and one another, with no pretense, with no bullshit, and we cry, we laugh, we see one another in a new light with compassion and kindness, and we embrace the essence of who we are, who we are created to be and the unique talent we possess, making the commitment to live into who we are more, live into who we are created to be more, live into our unique talents more in the coming year, in 5786 so we can make our corner of the world more better!

I suggest this is our calling and the question we need to be asking our community. Isn’t it time for We the Jews to stop extolling the big donors, stop extolling the strong men in charge, stop extolling the “politically correct” and hear the call of the Prophets, hear Isaiah’s words, listen to Amos’ call for justice and righteousness, truly understand Hosea’s likening of us to whores? Isn’t it time for our Clergy to begin the Yom Kippur Services with Atonement for their sins, for their missing of the mark? Isn’t it time for all of us to as a community to participate with the Clergy in admitting our sins as a community such as xenophobia, unreasonable loathing of another human being, generalizing about an entire group based on the actions of a few? We have experienced this type of behavior for the millennia and We the Jews are prohibited to doing what is hateful to us to another human being! Yet, we are and we do-Will you hold your community responsible and call them to account? When the grandeur of forgiveness, the audacity of facing oneself is reduced to how much you give, We the Jews are truly lost.

I know how difficult it is to lead a community of Jews!! I know how hard it is to be accountable to oneself let alone to an entire community. I also know my confessions on Yom Kippur led another(s) to speak theirs and this took on a life of its own and people healed themselves by no longer hiding from themselves and the community grew stronger and stronger so it no longer needs me, it leads itself and I consider this to be among the best of my achievements! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

The Third Day of the 10 Days of Repentance- will you have a G'Mar Tov? Year 4 Day 238

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 238

“For many years we have experienced history as a judgement. What is the state of our repentance, of our “return to Judaism”? (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg.69)

G’Mar Hatima Tova is the usual greeting after Rosh Hashanah’s Shana Tova. The Rabbis, I believe, in an instant of inspirational brilliance (of which they had many and some not so much), are reminding us that to have a “good year”, we have to finish(G’Mar) up our repentance. This is true of individuals as well as communities, countries, etc. Rabbi Heschel in a piece published in Berlin, Germany on Yom Kippur Eve(Kol Nidre) asks the question above: “what is our state of repentance?” While I do not believe that “history as a judgement” is the way to look at our lives, I do believe looking at our history is a way to discern what is good and not good, what is the right way to live and what is not the right way to live, what we have to repent for as individuals, as members of a group, a country, a faith and what we have to be proud of and continue to grow as an individual, etc. One of the most powerful experiences many of us had at Beit T’Shuvah was when a Catholic Priest apologized for the Churches hatred of Jews, their antisemitism, their sexual scandals and for not hearing the women and children who came to them. People were crying along with the Priest.

Which brings me/us to the “state of our repentance, of our “return to Judaism”. This year, the first day of Sukkot falls on October 7th. October 7, 2023 was a horrific day for Jews, for people who believe in the sanctity of life throughout the world and we can never forget what happened. Hamas is a Terrorist Organization, it is EVIL-full stop! And, as I have heard in many sermons and online discussions, the deafness of Rabbis and congregants, of Jews and non-Jews to the destruction in Gaza is also horrific! It is also EVIL! There is no excuse for it and, if we are to have a G’Mar Hatima Tova, we have to be accountable for our excesses, our abuses, our evil actions-otherwise “our “return to Judaism” is false, it is bullshit, and it is an desecration of the Name of God and what the Bible truly stands for. No matter what the Orthodox, the war-mongers say, the overriding concern of the Bible is: LOVE the STRANGER, BE DECENT, CHOOSE LIFE, stop whoring yourself for gold, for power, for …. Yet, here we are-Rabbis are condemning the virulent anti-semitism that is rampant once again throughout the world without calling out the abuses of Netanyahu and his Idolatrous “religious” coalition.

I am a JEW, I am a ZIONIST, I am NOT a Netanyahu follower, I am not a  believer that Israel right or wrong is always right, I believe in Isaiah 49:6, that Israel (Jews) is to be given “for a light unto the nations that salvation may be…” We are not here to serve ourselves, to get rich, to take advantage of the poor, the needy, the stranger! We are not here to be all powerful and dictatorial, we are not here to violate the words of Moses, the promises to Abraham, the ways of King David who could admit his errors when pointed out to him and, at times, on his own. NO, Israel is here to be accountable, we are to show the world how to be accountable and how to do TSHUVAH, how to Repent, Repair, have a New Response to the triggers that caused us to forget our mission, our purpose. I am a Jew, I am a Zionist, I am a Baal T’Shuvah, a master of return precisely because I come back each day, each Elul and do my inventory, make my amends, plan on how to not make the same errors and enhance the good I do. I believe in “Never Again” and believe that the message of the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum: “Never again Can’t Only Mean Never Again for Jews” and continued with “Jews must not let the trauma of our past Silence our conscience…” and they were vilified for this truth, they deleted it 2 days later and issued an apology! APOLOGIZE for TELLING THE TRUTH!?!?!?

This, then, seems to be “the state of our repentance, of our “return to Judaism”-NOT! When we, as a Jewish People, cannot live in the both/and of the trauma of October 7, the horror of the evil of Hamas, AND be accountable for our part in what happened-which Netanyahu has not allowed a review of the days preceding 10/7, he has not allowed anyone to hold him accountable, he has not allowed anyone to criticize his keeping his son in Miami, Florida-safe and sound, not subject to serving as a reservist-, he is not caring about the Hostages-leaving Israelis to die and the ones who are dead, leaving their bodies to rot in Gaza-, and JEWS are APPLAUDING THIS?? “The state of repentance” is NILL, We the Jews have made null and void the words of Isaiah, the words of Hosea, Jeremiah, of all the prophets, of our teachers and spiritual guides of the past, by refusing to do a CHESBON HANEFESH on and for ourselves. We the Jews are called to be “a light unto the nations that salvation may be” and We the Jews are failing, We the Jews need to get our heads out of our asses and be JEWS, BE REPENTANCE, BE HUMAN.

The issue of Gaza, of Hamas, of what to do is complex and I am not trying to be stupid about the necessity of Israel to defend itself nor of the difficulties in living next to people who hate you! I am speaking only of the need for JEWS, like me and you, to take our own inventories, to see where we have been wrong, to not whitewash our inequities because of the EVIL that Hamas perpetrated upon Israel. I am saying that Netanyahu and the Israeli government has to look at the ways it supported Qatar giving BILLIONS to Hamas so the Palestinian Authority could be weakened and how Netanyahu and his gang did not heed warnings given to it about the possibility of Hamas breaking through. It isn’t easy, I don’t have the answers, I do have the solution- TSHUVAH, improve “our return to Judaism” by being human! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

FREEDOM - Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of a newfound path to achieve personal Freedom - Year 4 day 237

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 237

“To believe in freedom is to believe in events, namely to maintain that man is able to escape the bonds of the processes in which he is involved and to act in a way not necessitated by antecedent factors. Freedom is the state of going out of the self, an act of spiritual ecstasy, in the original sense of the term.” (God in Search of Man pg 410)

SHANA TOVA U’METUKAH!! A sweet and joyous year, a year of truth, of learning, of kindness and of compassion. A year where we put down our weapons and we hear, listen, and understand (SHEMA) the words of the Prophet Isaiah 5:20-21: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.” The times call for action on our part to make this prophecy real and true in our own time!

The way to make this happen, in my opinion, is to live into the last sentence above. I bolded it so you will know what this last blog of 5785 focuses on: FREEDOM and what better time to achieve it, what better place to engage in it than during the 10 days of Awe, the 10 Days of TShuvah? Whether you are going to services or not, whether they bore you or not, you can engage your soul in at least one of the prayers, one of the melodies, one word of the Torah reading, one word of the Haftorah reading. You can allow your heart to be opened by the sound of the Shofar, you can send your negativity away as you cast your bread/sin upon the waters, you can put yourself in “the state of going out of the self”.  We the People who have chosen to opt out of organized religion can take this moment to read something, to meditate, to listen to a different piece of music, any action that stirs your soul, that opens up your inner life to yourself and have the same experience of “going out of the self”.

This is the real goal of this period of time, “going out of the self” to have an authentic, truthful look at “self, another, and the world. To achieve “freedom” We the People have to first be in truth with who we are, with whom we are meant to be, and the incongruence between what we know and what actions we take, the incongruence between “the self” and the false “self” we wear for societal acceptance, gain, power, etc. We the People have shown to be less fearful of living inauthentically, incongruently and more fearful of being real, of not settling for crumbs from society, not standing with the minority to do good! We the People are being called by the Shofar’s blasts to WAKE UP and see what is good and no longer confuse, lie about it being evil, to see what is evil and no longer live into the mendacity of making evil good. We are called to be able to distinguish, L’Havdeel, between dark and light, between bitter and sweet, between what we want to see and say about ourselves and what is the real deal. This moment, for all times, is a moment of reckoning for us, not a punishing reckoning, a gifting of sight and a gifting of the ability to change, repair and have hope for living better, the world being a better place because of us contributing our unique gifts and talents to it and no longer being confined by society’s conventional notions, mental cliches, no longer does the one with the gold rule, etc. Will We the People seize the moment, Carpe Diem?

I write about this sentence today, this idea precisely because I had this experience of “spiritual ecstasy” in the jail cell in 1986, I had this experience when the judge sentenced me to prison, I had this experience when I began to study Torah and pray, I had this experience when I decided to serve another(s) instead of just myself. I had this experience when I realized how far apart my first wife and I were, I had this experience when I realized how much I loved Harriet, I had this experience and didn’t know it when my daughter Heather was born, I had this experience when I began working at Beit T’Shvuah, when I studied with Rabbi Omer-man, when I began what is a 30+ relationship with Rabbi Ed Feinstein. I had this experience when I entered Rabbinical School and, no matter how hard they tried to disabuse me of this way, I fought for my authenticity, my congruency.

I have continued to fight for authenticity, for truth, for kindness, for realness, for congruence, for the “spiritual ecstasy” Rabbi Heschel is speaking about. I am not always there and I continue to grow in “freedom”, I continue to create experiences of learning, creating in ceramics, playing bridge, writing that help me “going out of the self” and into the “self” I was created to be. Each time I have this experience, more and more of the falseness, of the bullshit, of the political me, of the caricature of me that I have lived falls away and this is the gift, the joy, the eye-opening experience that helps me live more and more into the words of Isaiah above. I don’t experience those “woes” so much anymore, I don’t need to be validated nor vindicated by anyone, I don’t have any resentments, nor any harsh feelings for anyone. I am sick at what is happening in the world, I am scared for my grandson and the world he is living in. As my brother, Neal, said: “we were born in a much better world than the ones we are giving to our grandchildren”! I have so much joy and faith, I live the best I can each day and I know 5786 will be a “Shana Tova” a year of good because I will bring more good, more light, more sweetness into it and I pray you will also. This is the ultimate in “spiritual ecstasy”, the greatest “freedom” one can experience and I pray we continue to grow in it and bring it more and more into our everyday living. I will write again on Thursday! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Rosh Hashanah is approaching- are you Freer this year than last? Year 4 Day 236

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 236

“To believe in freedom is to believe in events, namely to maintain that man is able to escape the bonds of the processes in which he is involved and to act in a way not necessitated by antecedent factors. Freedom is the state of going out of the self, an act of spiritual ecstasy, in the original sense of the term.” (God in Search of Man pg 410)

I picked this quote because today is the day before Erev Rosh Hashanah and, in my opinion, Rosh Hashanah is the 6th month mark since Passover-the season of our liberation and is the time to see how fat we have gotten since the lean days of being liberated with only Matzah to eat and then Manna. Now that we have the 10 sayings, now that we have experienced once again the miracle of Mount Sinai, the destruction that Tisha B’Av commemorates, it is time to stand in self-judgement and see where we are in our quest to make our corner of the world a little better. It is time for us to review and discern how we have helped to “bend the arc of the moral universe towards true justice” to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In order to do any of this, we have to be free, we have to be present “in events” and be “able to escape the bonds of the processes” that tend to make us robots, automatons, blind followers, and, eventually, slaves. Slavery is not just being under a taskmaster or a master, it is also the inability to make free-will moral choices, it is the abandoning of what one knows in one’s bones, in one’s guts and either choosing or feeling coerced/forced to choose to go along with the majority in order to make a living, to keep the money they have, the status, to keep from being isolated and lonely. It is such a time we are in right now, I believe, and these words above give me hope for our future, a future where “the Torah shall come from Zion and the word of God from Jerusalem…and they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation nor shall men learn war anymore.”(Isaiah 2:3-4). What a wonderful prophetic vision!!

I believe this vision is the guiding light We the People need to face the moment we are in, to “act in a way not necessitated by antecedent factors”, to see what is and not respond as humanity has forever; with fear of rocking the boat because it will get worse, with acceptance that ‘we have lived through this before and it will blow over, with resignation that we are too weak to win this war with the forces arrayed against us, to wait for a redeemer to come from God, for the second coming, or first depending upon one’s beliefs, to save us by destroying everything and other such “antecedent factors”. NO! NOT ANYMORE!!

This Rosh Hashanah, this day of Judgment and Celebration of the creation of the world and of humankind, is the moment to break out of the bonds of societal norms, the moment to end the reliance on the strongman, the worship of the money and class status that gives us closeness to power, the mealy-mouthed compliance of a slave class that believes their money will keep them free, etc. It is precisely this moment of Rosh Hashanah, this moment of judgment and mercy, of fear and awe, this moment where we realize the Judge is internal, it is our soul’s calling to us to SEE, to HEAR, and to UNDERSTAND,(SHEMA) what we have been doing, how it is helping to promote freedom and how it is helping to retard freedom for both ourselves and another(s). This is the experience that this Rosh Hashanah, and every Rosh Hashanah, gifts us with-will We the People avail ourselves of this gift and use it wisely? While we pray in community on Rosh Hashanah, the response to this question is personal and individual, it has to be made by a majority of the community one is in to make it a communal decision to BE FREE. If the majority of the community is not willing to “escape the bonds of processes” We the People need a new Rabbi, Clergy, Board of Directors who want to live into the prophecy of Isaiah, the words and actions the prophets scream, cry, whisper to us in a combination of horror and awe, in consternation and love. The haunting question that hangs over us, especially this year, is: Are We the People willing to do what it takes to be free, to honor the Torah “from Zion” and “God’s word from Jerusalem”?

It will take “the courage to change the things we should” as Reinhold Niebuhr teaches us in the Original Serenity prayer. We the People will gather in our Temples and Synagogues on Erev Rosh Hashanah and on Rosh Hashanah to be together, to begin the 10 days of Awe, the 10 days of TShuvah (repentance, return and response) and allow the prayers to fill us with trembling awe, the words of the Rabbis to fill us with the strength to be free in this moment and in many moments, to not “run after the majority to do evil” and to stand in truth and love to ensure that justice, mercy, kindness ‘win’ the day! This can only happen if and when We the People make a conscious decision to leave the Egypts we are currently in, when We the People be deliberate in our choosing to cross the Red Sea, when We the People believe the words of Isaiah quoted above more than the words of the autocrats, the idolators, the mendacious deceivers who are ‘in charge’ here in America and in Israel. We the People “should” change the ridiculous “anything Israel does is good and right”, the stupidity of “Trump loves the little guy and is our redeemer” and instead, on this day of Judgement and Celebration, look inside of ourselves, see the lies we tell ourselves, seek out truth, wisdom, love, kindness, mercy and justice and rejoice in our ability to rise above our “processes” and connect to the source of all and to our innermost self.

This is my practice each Rosh Hashanah and I find myself being free more and more each day and more days than ever before. Shana Tova U’Metuka, a Good, Sweet Year to all. God bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Forgetting everything including the self in order to find your authentic self- Year 4 Day 235

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 234

“It requires a great effort to realize before Whom we stand, for such realization is more than having a thought in one’s mind. It is a knowledge in which the whole person is involved; the mind, the heart, body, and soul. To know it is to forget everything else, including the self.” (God in Search of Man pg. 407)

I have been thinking about this piece of wisdom for a while and especially since I wrote about it yesterday. The last sentence is the key to living into “know before Whom you stand” and it is not easy to accomplish nor maintain, in fact, we will never be consistent in our maintenance and effort “to realize before Whom we stand.” Given this truth, I recall Rabbi Tarfon’s teaching: “we are not commanded to finish the task and we are not free to not engage”. We are 3 days until Erev Rosh Hashanah and 12 days till Kol Nidre and We the People will not finish the work of TShuvah, utilize the gift of Elul completely-we are not perfect and that is not the goal of this moment, it is not the goal of the TShuvah process.

The goal of this moment, this month, this period of “spiritual audacity” is to engage, to be in the work of looking at oneself, seeing what is true and what isn’t, letting go of the resentments that keep us enslaved to blame and shame, to forget the slights, the traumas, the dashed dreams, the grudges, the unfairness of life, the mental cliches and conventional notions, the societal pressure to measure up to some inane and insane standard of perfection that NO ONE ever measures up to. The goal of this period of time is to look as deeply inside ourselves as we possibly can, and then go a little deeper-one grain of sand- to see the beauty of our living, to realize the purpose we are created for, the divine need we fulfill, to hear the call of the stranger, the poor, the needy, the friend and the foe; responding to each in ways they can hear and “to forget everything else”, especially the lies we have told ourselves for years and the deceptions from another(s) that have chained us to mediocrity either emotionally, physically, and/or spiritually.

“To know it (before Whom we stand) is to forget everything else, including the self” is an outrageous statement, it is an audacious statement, it is a statement of great “moral grandeur” as well. It is almost too much to take in and yet, in the Bible, we see over and over again people doing this and then screwing up big time! These examples, hopefully, give us the strength to strive for the 30 seconds of seeing our own holiness on Yom Kippur. When We the People “forget everything else, including the self”, we rise to meet our authentic self, our vision is better than 20/20 because the universe shows itself to us and we are able to see what the next right action is, we are able to appreciate the path we have taken to get to this moment, and we let go of recriminations for not ‘seeing’ this sooner, for not ‘being better’, and we accept the words that are spoken on Kol Nidre: “I have forgiven as you have spoken”! Once we accept the forgiveness of another, the forgiveness of God, we can, finally, forgive ourselves. Upon reaching this level of forgiveness, we achieve “to forget everything else, including the self” for this moment and we will not stay in this state and we will lose it and keep returning to this place so we can improve our vision, lessen the harms, and live a little more authentically and joyfully.

The only path to achieving this is TShuvah, amends, confession, whatever the path to wholeness is your spiritual tradition. Facing oneself, without blame, without being judgmental, without needing to make excuses is  a terribly difficult journey. It is a journey that society has ignored and the powerful jettison immediately upon taking power-hence “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. We see this with King Saul and with King David-both succumbed to the corruption that power brings; with King David doing his TShuvah so he could once again retake his moral high ground and spiritual place in the world. We are witnessing this with the people in power in the United States who are going against the 1st Amendment-Freedom of Speech! We see this in the abuse of power they are committing and the going along with this bullshit, with this destruction of the Constitution by the Supreme Court! This is an example of people who do not “realize before Whom they stand” no matter how much they brag about their ‘faith’, no matter how much they proclaim their loyalty to Jesus while doing everything that he railed against. We the People in doing our TShuvah, in knowing “before Whom we stand”, in staying loyal to the principles of the Bible, can stop these wannabe Pharaohs, these wannabe dictators, these idolators and liars. WE HAVE THE PATH, THE POWER, and THE WILL to do this once we take the dive into our inner life, into our spiritual powers.

I have been knowing “before Whom I stand” forever, actually. I ignored this knowing from ages 15-35, by ignoring what I knew to be true I sent myself into more and more internal anguish and confusion that took more and more booze to quiet and more crime to have ‘enough’ money to buy me peace. It DIDN’T WORK! It was in a jail cell, in a prison Rabbi’s office, Rabbi Mel Silverman, that I was turned on to the truth about me, the power of TShuvah and the wisdom of Rabbi Heschel among others. It was with my friend and teacher, Rabbi Ed Feinstein that I learned the text, with my teacher Rabbi Jonathan Omer-man that I learned about my inner life through spiritual counseling. It is with great humility that I “realize before Whom I stand” and am able to forget everything else, including my self”, especially myself so I can serve another(s) in ways they need and know it is only through being mostly clean that I can hear another(s), love another(s) and be present with another(s). It ain’t easy and it is doable! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Are you truly aware of "Before Whom you stand" and do your actions reflect this awareness? Year 4 day 234

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 234

“It requires a great effort to realize before Whom we stand, for such realization is more than having a thought in one’s mind. It is a knowledge in which the whole person is involved; the mind, the heart, body, and soul. To know it is to forget everything else, including the self.” (God in Search of Man pg. 407)

On the walls of many sanctuaries in Synagogues, over the Ark and in other places, the phrase: “Know before Whom you stand” is on them. As We the People enter the home stretch of this season of High Holy Day Preparation, this phrase, this way of being, this overwhelming idea of the presence of “before Whom we stand” is most appropriate, I believe. I believe the job of a human being is to look at our experiences, our texts, and ask ourselves: “what is the question that this experience, text, etc is the answer for” as Rabbi Jonathan Omer-man taught me some 35 years ago. I have been seeking to find the right questions ever since!

I am asking myself and you all: what is the question that “realize before Whom we stand” is the answer for. I believe one of the questions is; are we seeing the Divine Image in the people in front of us, next to us, behind us? Are we able to see this divine image no matter their politics, their ways of being? Are we willing to seek out this divine image and speak to it, even though the person in front of us has no idea “before Whom they stand”? It is difficult to do this and this is some of the work of this month of preparation prior to Rosh Hashanah; cleaning out the schmutz that hardens our hearts, having cataract surgery for the blurring vision we have had during parts of this past year and beyond, letting go of what was, our past errors, not worrying about “what will the neighbors think”, societal norms and mental cliches that only hold us captive. To “realize before Whom we stand”, it is important, if not imperative, to let go needing our rational mind to make sense of this phrase, to make sense of the process of TShuvah, to make sense of being right-sized.

Only then is this phrase “more than having a thought in one’s mind”. It becomes  an integrated experience that transforms “our swords into plowshares”, it causes us to “make war no more”, it gives We the People the ability to rise above our desires and our pettiness and envy, our enmity and jealousy, to take our rightful place knowing before Whom we stand” and not feeling inadequate, a fraud, etc. We the People, when we “know before Whom we stand” no longer take a backseat to anyone, we are not expendable, we don’t have to prove we are right, we don’t have to deny our guilt, our culpability, our responsibility and, we don’t have to beat our chests either as Tarzan or as poor supplicant. Living into “know before Whom we stand” gives We the People a new sense of freedom, a new experience of joy, a life without the bounds of another human being, without needing to hold onto the past, no longer needing to have things our way, etc. “Know before Whom we stand” is the gateway to a richer and more meaningful life and the beginning of our recovery from our addiction to perfection, our search for certainty, and our “scouting out after our heart and our eyes to whore after them”.

When We the People “realize before Whom we stand”, with “the mind, the heart, body, and soul”, there is no more maudlin regret, no more mea culpa’s for the errors we have already done TShuvah for, no more puffed up ego and no more mealy-mouthed subservience. When We the People “realize before Whom we stand” our awareness of the gift of serving something greater than ourselves is huge, our joy at being able to see the divine image in another human being fills us with love and rebuke, kindness and truth, compassion and justice, mercy and responsibility. These ‘opposites’ are not opposites at all, they are complimentary to one another, and one without the other is a half-truth, ie a lie.

While I know that many of We the People only give lip-service to “know before Whom you stand”, many of We the People only see it, let it in and out in a nanosecond while we are at services 3 times a year, I also know that there is always hope for a spiritual awakening, there is always more I/we can learn and do from our ability to “realize before Whom we stand”! I have spent the past 38 years engaging in this “knowing” and it is a tug of war between my spiritual knowing and my ego/rational logic. Both are necessary for me to live, for me to be engaged and for me to move forward. What “know before Whom I stand” gives me, however, is the momentary pleasure to “forget everything else, including the self”, because at this moment, I see and relate to the divine image in you, in another human being and their politics, their mendacities, their obliviousness is the beginning of a conversation that informs me and another human being.

Are people like those who spout hatred and vitriol deserving of me/you seeing their divine image? Of course they are: “Come to Pharaoh” is God’s directive to Moses, I ache to be able to “come to” Stephen Miller, Howard Lutnick and search for their divine image and speak to it, not because I believe they will agree with me, rather to let them know their authentic self is seen, their soul is worth saving and help them “realize before Whom we stand”. I ache to do the same with many people and I am doing the best I can to practice this way of being in my everyday interactions with another(s) and with myself. When I “forget everything else” I am free to see truth, to see beauty, to hear the music of my soul, the niggun of your soul, to join together as human beings and work hard to not deny nor damage your dignity, your value and your uniqueness. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

Crying out for help, believing the lie of self-sufficiency-which do you choose? Year 4 Day 233

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 233

“Out of the depth we cry for help. We believe that we are able to overcome ulterior motives, since otherwise no good would be done, and no love would be possible.” (God in Search of Man pg. 407)

What is the help We the People need? The first sentence above comes from Psalm 130 which is read every day in the morning service in Synagogues across the globe during the month of Elul. It is a supplication Psalm that also recognizes: “With You God, there is forgiveness and it is awesome”. We the People need to remember that “there is forgiveness” and we are not meant to be perfect, we are not bound by the conventional notions, the mental cliches, the social media mendacities that abound in our society. We the People need the help of one another, we need the help of the Ineffable One, we need the help of our inner life and we need to help another human being, we need to help ourselves, we need to help the Ineffable One. Rabbi Heschel states in his interview with Carl Stern, human beings are divine needs and reminders of God, and Jewish tradition calls us partners with God in completing creation, then we need to take our proper place in making the world a little better each day, just one grain of sand is enough. To do this, we need “help”. “Out of the depth we cry for help” reminds us that the help has to come from within as well. We the People have to let go of our need for being right, We have to let go of our perfection bullshit, we have to embrace our inner strength and live into our inner knowing rather than allowing our ego, our rational minds to overrule what our intuitive minds direct us to.

Of course “we believe that we are able to overcome ulterior motives”. And, belief is not enough! We the People are being called upon to show up and stand up, to speak truth to Trump and his thugs, Netanyahu and his gang, Putin, Xi and their kleptocrats. The moment is calling for the prophetic voice that has reverberated throughout the centuries, that has informed every major push from slavery to freedom, from the inner chains that have bound us to being healed from our inner slaveries. The only motive we have is to be free, and not just for ourselves, for everyone. Just as Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” so too is slavery anywhere a threat to freedom everywhere! We the People need to get our heads out of our asses, we have to take the blinders off and stand for the principles that our ancestors fought, suffered, overcame their fears for: Freedom, Truth, Love, Kindness, Compassion.

It is not enough to just “overcome ulterior motives”, in my opinion and as I understand Rabbi Heschel. We the People have to take the actions necessary to “blot out the memory of Amalek” from our minds so when the pendulum swings back our way, we do not do to another what is hateful to us-which is the way things seem to go. When there is repression on one side, the other side responds with “free speech” that is hateful, “tough on crime” that is criminal, etc. Then ‘the good people’ respond with “free speech” is what I tell you is acceptable language, “criminals” need to be coddled and allowed to roam the streets. Unfortunately, We the People seem to jettison the middle path, we are so caught up in ideologies that we miss the forest for the trees. Yet, the middle path is exactly what the Bible portrays, it is the foundation of the mitzvah system, and it has been bastardized as well. In this moment, it is so very important for We the People to stand together and recognize the dignity of every human being, friend and foe alike. It is crucial that We the People find ways to speak to one another from a place of learning, arguing for the sake of heaven, arguing to find the middle path rather than arguing to be right, to be certain, to make money, to have power.

It is a hard shift for most of We the People. Shifting from our need for certainty, our need to be right, our need to have power over another, our need to blame, etc. AND, this month of Elul is the time the Jewish tradition has gifted to us to make this shift. Looking at the connections we have made as well as those we have lost and seeing our part in making and losing them, looking at how our competitive nature has harmed our competitive edge, being responsible for the good and not good we have done, is all part of our growth. It is the fodder upon which We the People can chew and grow from, making a “more perfect union” of our inner and outer lives, our values and our actions, our love of justice, mercy, the stranger, and one another. We the People are more than capable, the world is more than ready, are We the People willing? Please God, these last two weeks till Yom Kippur will bring the readiness and the path to our beings and We the People will light the way for everyone.

My new book: You Matter Too is now available. The book tells the stories of a composite of people, how they had ‘hit bottom’ even though they were not all addicts, and the teachings we learned together to help them live well. Not all the stories have ‘happy endings’ and I hope the teachings help all who read it. This is one of the ways I am doing what I can to make the world a little better, it is how I keep shifting more and more into responsibility, justice, wisdom, love, truth, compassion. This year during this month of Elul, I have found I don’t need to be noticed, I don’t need to be right, I don’t need to blame, I see what is and I am responsible for my part only-be it good or not good. I am finding a new freedom and a sense of purpose and mission that is the same as it has been and in a different arena. I have been able to truly overcome my “ulterior motives” with the help of Harriet, Heather, my siblings and family, and my dear friends. It doesn’t get better than this! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 232

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 231

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 230

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 229

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 228

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 227

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 226

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 225

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 224

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 223

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 222

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 221

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 220

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

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

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

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

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

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

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