Daily Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 88
“The confusion goes back to the very process of creation. “When God came to create the world and reveal what was hidden in the depths and disclose the light out of the darkness, they were all wrapped in one another, and therefore light emerged from darkness, and from the impenetrable came forth the profound. So, too, from good issues evil and from mercy issues judgement, and all are intertwined, the good impulse and the evil impulse..”(Zohar Vol. III pg.80b)”(God in Search of Man pg.371)
“And all are intertwined, the good impulse with the evil impulse…” what a frightening, awesome, statement of truth that most people are unwilling to accept, unwilling to see and believe they have unraveled these two impulses and “know they are good, they are right, they are the truth”, and other such nonsense. This last phrase has struck fear in the hearts of people who truly hear, see, and engage in truth. Our impulses are intertwined, they are confused, they are wrapped in one another and it is time for everyone to accept this truth because not accepting it leads to death, destruction, authoritarianism, demagogues, senseless hatred, prejudice, racism, anti-semitism, anti-anyone other than me-ism. Any student of history can see this intertwining and confusion when one realizes more wars have been fought in “God’s Name” than for any other reason. Kings, Leaders of countries, many leaders of revolts, rebellions have used the intertwining of their impulses to validate going to war for “God’s Name” when it really was for their own welfare.
The American Civil War was about slavery and freedom, yet 157 years later, many people who claim to be conservatives, claim to be ‘the religious right’ are winning in their states, winning in the Congress what they could not win on the battlefield and proclaiming their rightness/whiteness by wrapping themselves in bastardizations of the American Constitution and the “Prosperity Gospels” where Jesus believes poor people should be ignored, that strength and might, winning at any cost, is the proper way to serve Christ!!! These people are so confused because they cannot discern the difference between their impulses and their evil impulses have taken over their thinking, their evil impulses have disguised themselves as their good impulses and they are so confused that they believe in their white supremacy, no matter how often they trot out people of color as their ‘friends’.
Nazi Germany, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and so many other examples of the intertwining the Zohar is speaking about are not being heeded by us. Hitler and Putin are hailed by some people as the bastions of White people. Many Republicans were fans of Putin because “he stands up for white people” while NATO and the United States doesn’t” was a cry during the Obama years and I hear it coming back in the Biden years. We are in a constant tension between these two impulses and we need to realize we can never sit back and believe we have “vanquished the devil” because at that moment, we have become the devil, we have been overtaken by the evil impulse and we are blind to our situation. From this blindness, we harm and destroy our souls, and the souls of so many other people around us. Since the Zohar is 100’s of years old, we have to face the fact that we are being willfully blind to this intertwining, to the confusion of our impulses, to the destruction we are creating and causing because we refuse to see what is, we refuse to grow spiritually and we refuse to have a practice of humility.
We all need to look at ourselves in the mirror, we all need to stop believing the lies we tell ourselves and the bullshit from another(s). We have to work with our spiritual practice, our spiritual guides, we have to immerse ourselves in God’s world rather than believe we can manipulate God to satisfy our selfish needs. Humility begins with knowing we don’t know everything, we are not the smartest person in the room, we are teachable and we need to/want to learn. Willful blindness, stubbornness, pontification, hatred and prejudice of any and all kinds, become signs of weakness and pity; we reach out a hand to people who are still trapped in their ‘rightness/whiteness’ and minister to them so they can heal their spiritual malady and know they are loved and cared about as well as our actions of caring for.
This is the main characteristic of recovery, taking off the blinders, getting a fresh and true look at what is, seeing a vision of what is ahead of us as “long as our own house is in order”. In a meeting last night, the leader asked us about our spiritual fitness and I believe every person needs to be engaged in a spiritual fitness program, a discipline which uncovers our spiritual condition, gives us a path of spiritual exercises to strengthen our spirit and a program of maintenance to keep our spirits fresh, alive and in good working order!
I am as guilty as the next person of intertwining the two impulses, of being willfully blind to what is happening, etc. I also know I am doing this less and less each week, each year. I am sorry for the harm I caused when I have intertwined my two impulses and my plan of change includes this writing, as I learn more about me and the world. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark