Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 103
“Religion, therefore, with its demands and vision is not a luxury but a matter of life and death. True, its message is often diluted and distorted by pedantry, externalization, ceremonialism, and superstition. But, this precisely is our task: to recall the urgencies, the perpetual emergencies of human existence, the rare cravings of the spirit, the eternal voice of God, to which the demands of religion are an answer.” (God in Search of Man pg. 372)
The more often I immerse myself Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above, the more I turn it over and over as we are taught to do, the more my eyes get opened, the more my soul gets infused with spirit and strength. Rabbi Heschel not only is calling on us to “Choose Life, as Moses exhorts us in Deuteronomy, he is teaching us that the cravings of our spirit, however rare we may be aware of them are part of being human! He is demanding we listen to and for “ the eternal voice of God” and use religion and/or some spiritual discipline to respond to these cravings and to the Voice.
There are many stories about the transcendent nature of God and Rabbi Heschel is reminding us of the very immanent experience of God. This is the experience the Israelites spoke about after they crossed the Red Sea, at Mount Sinai, the experience people had of Jesus preaching to and caring for the needy, the stranger, the poor, the outcasts, that Muslims had listening to Mohammed prophecies. It is the experience of the Buddha, of being in the presence of the Dalai Lama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Rabbi Heschel and so many others. God’s voice has never left this world, God calls to us each and every day and evening, our Higher Consciousness is always attempting to pierce the veil of our egotistical will. Our task through our spiritual disciplines, our religions is to reacquaint our ears with the decibel level of God’s voice, God’s call, God’s demands.
We all have cravings of the spirit more often than we want to realize, I believe Rabbi Heschel is calling upon us to be more aware of these cravings and not replace them with cravings of our egos, of our vanity, of our thirst for power, prestige, etc. The Bible tells us stories of experiences of this battle between the cravings of our spirits and the cravings of our egos: King David who fights the battles God tells him to, who brings together a fractured country, who writes the Psalms as an ode to God and to the human condition; is a sex-addict who goes so far as to kill the husband of a woman he covets! Moses brings us out of the land of Egypt and communicates with God, yet is petty and defensive in the Korah affair and is ego driven at the second rock story in Numbers. The Maccabees who free us from the Seleucids and then went on to adopt Greek names, took over Judea and served themselves more than they served God and people.
We see this in our world today, many revolutionaries have these great slogans and speak of “the people” as their sole concern, yet really the concern becomes power. It has happened in Cuba, Russia, Hungary, China, Venezuela, the Arab dynasties, Iran, and we see it happening in the United States and in Israel. This inner war between the cravings of our spirit, the eternal voice of God and our egos and our thirst for power is the inner war that needs religion’s/spiritual discipline’s intervention so we can defeat the false ego in us, so use the cravings of our soul, the caring for another(s), responding to God’s demands as water for our thirst, that power no longer is for our sake, it returns to it’s original purpose, we use our power for the sake of Heaven, for the sake of people who are in distress, for the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the poor, the needy. This transformation cannot take place without the intervention of spirituality and/or religion. God knew that “we are evil from our youth”, that our evil inclination can and does overwhelm us at times as was discussed in earlier blogs so God gave us a myriad of religions and spiritual disciplines for us to find one where we belong, where we can learn how to hear, respond, and take seriously this “matter of life and death” that we are all engaged in.
Recovery is based on exactly this idea. We are recovering from being overwhelmed with our negativity, our self-loathing, our giving into the cravings of evil, the cravings of ego, the cravings of power, the experience of not being understood nor accepted for who we are and the experience of an immature inner life. We have a spiritual path that leads us back to our inner essence, to the strengths and guidance of our souls, to being able to hear the voice of God/Higher Power and follow through on being of service to another(s) and becoming more selfless. We no longer deny what is, we accept it and we work hard to use what is and turn it into something good, beautiful and holy.
This war within is never over, it doesn’t stop when one retires, it doesn’t stop even when one is “happy with their place” because the more I learn, the more I understand Torah, the more I hear Rabbi Heschel and so many other people in my life, the more I have to incorporate into my being, the more I have to heal within me. Overall, I have a winning record of hearing and answering God’s eternal voice. Yet, this teaching is a lesson in humility, in truth and in forgiveness of self, of another and acceptance of what is. I do regret the people harmed, especially Heather and my family, from my early in life losses. I am grateful that I could repair the damage and reconnect with them and connect with and be of service to so many. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.