Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 90
“Our age may be characterized as the age of suspicion. It has become an axiom that the shortest way to the understanding of man is to suspect his motives. This seems to be the contemporary version of the Golden Rule: Suspect thy neighbor as thyself. Suspicion breeds suspicion. It creates a chain-reaction. Honesty is not necessarily an anachronism.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 17)
As I delve into this talk titled “Religion in a Free Society”, I keep shaking my head and thinking what would Rabbi Heschel be saying about the country, the world today? If the late 1950’s were “characterized as the age of suspicion”, what would he call today’s age?
We are in the throes of a chaotic moment and how long this moment lasts depends upon We the People. Senator Cory Booker took to the floor of the Senate and filibustered for over 25 hours calling for We the People to continue to take action against the senseless hatred, the cruelty, the canopy of suspicion erected by the Trump administration, by the MAGA Republicans in Congress and the grifters, liars, deceivers who are on-board with them in order to line their own pockets. His words were eloquent at times, down to earth always, and he promoted love, harmony, even in our disagreements with one another. He is a man of deep faith, deep belief in democracy, and he poked Strom Thurmond in the eye, along with the current bigots and racists in our government and country today by breaking the record for the longest speech in the Senate set by Thurmond who spoke for hated, for bigotry, against Black people. In the chaos being perpetrated by the Trump/Musk/Vance/Vought government, one man stood up to say NO to the chaos and cruelty, even though no legislation changed yesterday, I believe the “power of the people” was enhanced, was given a shot in the arm and is on the move. Just maybe, We the People will rise up and walk a few more steps higher on the mountaintop that Rev. King went to the top of before his death. Just maybe, We the People will help to realize Rev King’s dream of judging on the content of character. Just maybe, We the People will “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein” and hear this proclamation from our neighbors, our friends as well. Just maybe, We the People will allow the Ineffable One to “heal our backsliding and take us back in love” so we can do the same for another(s).
Suspecting people comes from our inner immaturity, from a soul that has not grown into itself, that has been stunted, imprisoned. “It is not good for a human to be alone” it says in the 2nd Chapter of Genesis, so a “helpmeet” is ‘created’. For all of the misogynists in the different religions, maybe read the Bible and see how much women matter, how much they are needed to “help us when we are doing right and grind against us when we are on the wrong side of good”, according to the Biblical commentator Rashi. We the People need one another desperately, not as slaves, not as dupes to do our bidding, rather as helpers to keep the flame of freedom burning, as helpers to pick up the slack for our own inadequacies, as partners in making our corner of the world a little better for our being here. Yet, when we begin from “suspicion”, we can never see nor appreciate the worth of friendship, every interaction is either with an ally or an enemy, every good deed is suspected of being a con and every evil one just affirms our belief that everyone is out for themselves and out to ‘get me’. What a terrible way to live, what a horrible crime against our own souls, our own inner lives as well as what we do to another human being from the foundation of suspecting everyone! “Suspicion” will never give us an understanding of another human being nor of ourselves, it will only keep us in the dark, in the throes of chaos and in the actions of cruelty, because all of these ways make sense when we see the world through the eyes of “suspicion”-just ask Trump/Musk/Vance/Vought et al.
We the People must take back the “Golden Rule”. We must restore our selves, our communities, our nation to our foundational underpinnings: love, trust, kindness, welcoming the stranger, caring for the needy and the poor, connection and compassion. We the People need to build on what Senator Cory Booker did yesterday and stand up for freedom. We the People are being called to our higher selves, being called to live into our heritage, our inheritance from the prophets and the call of our higher consciousness, the call of God. We the People have to bring “honesty” and truth back into our conversations. We the People have to jettison the lies and the subterfuge being spewed by the grifters and deceivers in charge of things right now. We the People are being called to stand up for “honesty”, to deny that it is a way of being that is no longer in vogue or needed, to say NO to the idea that crime pays more than virtue, to stand against the “chain reaction” of “suspicion breeds suspicion”. We the People must demand an end to the cruelty, an end to the lies and the grifts of our time. We the People must make a commitment to keep our eyes open and our senses aware for the first sign of suspicion within us and determine if it is true or if it is another conventional notion we have to become maladjusted to. Our times, every era demands that We the People rise up, see what is over the mountaintop, live in radical amazement, see the humanity in everyone, embrace the frailties of self and another(s), be in awe of the goodness we do for one another and that is done to, for us.
I lived a suspicious life, I wanted desperately to trust people and my trust was broken upon my father’s death. I was alone and bereft. I imprisoned my soul because I was not seen for who I was and, instead, told what was expected of me. I carried this need to trust and not trusting war within for a long time and it led me to, of course, trust the wrong people and not trust the ‘right’ people. Reading these words from Rabbi Heschel brings this period of time back to me with great sorrow and pain. In my recovery, I have learned how to not “suspect my neighbor” until my neighbor gives me reason to, I have used my skills to hear the ping and the lead in the words and actions of another person. I want to trust people and I do until they give me reason not to and even when they do, I am always willing to accept an amends and reconnect. I do TShuvah with people I have broken trust with and am always surprised when they want to stay in suspicion of me rather than reconnect. It is painful because I know their suspicion of me is the outward manifestation of their suspicion of themselves, just as mine is. “Let Freedom Ring” not only throughout the land, let it ring throughout our entire bodies, throughout our inner life, this is the call of the words above to me, today. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark