Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 60
“It was not the lack of religion but the perversion of it that the prophets of Israel denounced. “Many an altar has Ephraim raise, alters that only serve for sin”(Hosea 8:11).”(God in Search of Man pg. 369)
Rabbi Heschel’s teachings give us great insight into our self, into our motives and into our inner life. Our challenge is to read them, hear them in our souls and make the necessary changes so we can stop the perversion of religion, end the mendacity and self-deceptions that seem to rule us as individuals, families, communities, countries and our world. Yet, we seem to be incapable of this type of introspection, this path of change.
The prophets railed against the leadership, they called out the priests and the wealthy, they spoke to the people and no one truly heard. It is a wonder that their words are preserved and studied and it is a tragedy that the essence of their message still goes unheeded. One can hear the cry of Rabbi Heschel in all of his teachings and especially in the sentence above. We can hear his incredulity at our inability to heed the ancient wisdom of the prophets, we can hear his deep sorrow that we are still perverting Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Eastern Philosophies, etc. Yet, we still turn a deaf ear to the cries of Rabbi Heschel, to the call of the prophets and find ourselves deeper in the morass of religious perversion.
There was an article in the LA Times yesterday about the NONEs, the people who identify as having no religion and vote democratic because of their morality. This is in contrast to the Christian Right movement that votes republican, usually. Both of these groups are guilty of of the truth Rabbi Heschel is speaking. Where do the NONEs think morality came from if not religion? Where do the Christian Right find justification in making the poor, the stranger, the needy into criminals and enemies in the Bible? Both are perverting the beauty, the wisdom, the kindness, the truth, the justice and the love found in our holy texts. Both groups and other groups as well as individuals have given into ‘group think’ and seek justification through perversion of religion, for their unholy actions, for their confounding of good and evil. Yet, many human beings continue to engage in such perversions to the ruin of us all.
Religion is spiritual at its essence and one of the perversions is to separate the two.
Many people differentiate between spirituality and religion and this too is a perversion of religion, as I experience both. As one of our teachers, Rabbi Jonathan Omer-man, explained, spirituality enhances religious life and religious life enhances spirituality when we are engaged in both without our need to pervert either one. When we are ‘being spiritual’ there is a religious overtone to this way of being because we are acting in accordance with our higher consciousness, we are participating as partners of God, we are bringing our best selves to improve our standard of living and the standard of living of everyone around us.
We have perverted religion in so many ways as Rabbi Heschel teaches. One of the ways is through what Rabbi Heschel calls religious behaviorism, where our behaviors and rituals take the place of inner devotion and are devoid of meaning. When we are so concerned with getting the ritual correct we miss the opportunity for our inner being to be changed and for it to grow. We become automatons and follow the rules by rote rather than immersing ourselves in the Mitzvah, the commandment. This is exactly what the prophets denounced and, 2000+ years later, we are still following the example of what led to the destruction of the Temple and the wandering of the Jewish people. All faiths and spiritual disciplines have a very vocal minority that want to continue in the perversion of religion/spirituality while believing they are the “true keepers” of the faith!
In recovery, we know one of our character traits that is out of proper measure is our ability to pervert truth, to claim adherence to spiritual principles and to God’s will all the while really just doing what we want and wrapping ourselves in the cloak of spirituality and God. This is why we are constantly seeking to have the self-deception and mendacity removed from our being and “trudge the road to happy destiny”. It is a slog at times because we are so accustomed to our lies, to our perversions of truth, perversions of religious and spiritual principles it takes great awareness to acknowledge them and let them go.
I have been hyper-aware of the perversion of religion and been accused of doing this throughout my Rabbinate and recovery. I have to admit that there have been times where I was guilty and I did/do my T’Shuvah and get one grain of sand better each day/time. I also know that my immersion in text and in life, in religion and in spirituality is authentic and different than anyone else’s. I realize the prophets were not telling the people nor are they telling us that there is only one way to worship God, one way to fulfill our calling, they were saying stop doing the ritual perfunctory and put one’s soul into the actions. I am grateful for the teachings of Rabbi Heschel that help me be more me, not perfect person, each day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark