Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 6
“Inherent to all traditional religion is the peril of stagnation. What becomes settled and established may easily turn foul. Insight is replaced by cliches, elasticity by obstinacy, spontaneity by habit. Acts of dissent prove to be acts of renewal.” ( Essential Writings pg.106)
“Acts of dissent” are actions taken in service of God, of another(s), in truth and without guile. These “acts of dissent” can only become “acts of renewal” when we follow the path of Abraham; arguing with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah, when we walk the in the footsteps of the prophets who brought to us new ways of understanding the words of Torah, the words of God, when we follow the example of Rabbi Heschel. When we immerse ourselves in life, when we immerse ourselves in the moment, when we immerse ourselves in the texts that are at the foundation of our faith, our country, then we are able to discern which “acts of dissent prove to be acts of renewal” and which “acts of dissent” are for our own sake, for authoritarian rule, for destruction rather than building, to “easily turn foul” what has been/is holy.
“Acts of dissent” that Rabbi Heschel is teaching us about are not the “acts of dissent” that go against God’s will while wrapping oneself in the clothes of ‘religion’, they are not the spouting of the false prophets and idolators who are in some pulpits today as they always have been, they are not actions which enslave another person, promote one group/ethnicity over another, seek to take land, belongings, etc from the poor and the needy, seek to ignore and abuse the stranger, etc. The “acts of dissent” by some members of Congress over this weekend, on Jan. 6th by trying to decertify free and fair elections, by the ‘Maga’ crowd, are acts of defiance of God. The “acts of dissent” by the right-wing in Israel, Netanyahu, and his religious crazies are actions of Hillul HaShem, desecration of God’s name. We are easily deceived, confused and buy into the mendacity of those who are supposed to be trusted servants serving a higher purpose yet are but idolators, self-serving, mendacious phonies. We have to look at the truth of people’s actions rather than the BS that comes out of their mouths.
“Acts of dissent” have to be taken so we can say YES to a higher standard of living than we currently are. “Acts of dissent” are taken when our trusted servants, the people entrusted with promoting, teaching, legislating and serving the spirit of a particular religion, the spirit of our Constitution and Declaration of Independence, the spirit of freedom as inscribed on the Liberty Bell and in the Bible, “Proclaim Liberty throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”(Lev. 25:10). Our world is in desperate need of us taking “acts of dissent”. When Elon Musk can talk to Putin and then decide to screw up Ukraine’s war effort and we give him the power of Tesla, Space X, etc-we have to take control of these companies for the good of our country, we have to engage in “acts of dissent” to protect our selves from being controlled by megalomaniacs like Musk, Trump, Putin, Orban, MBS, et al. It is time for us to stand up for God’s ways, to “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God” as the prophet Micah teaches us, rather than think we are God and demand that God walk humbly with us, as some religious, some ‘public servants’ who are using their power to enrich themselves and their cronies, are doing.
In recovery, when we “turn our lives and our will over to the care of God as we understand God” we are taking the “act of dissent” that leads to saying YES to decency, YES to living in accordance with God’s will, YES to serving for the sake of another and not for our self-serving ends, YES to seeking truth rather than deceiving another and ourselves. We are constantly engaging in “acts of dissent” so we can renew our spirits, we can renew our lives, we stay fresh and in the moment.
I have been proclaiming “liberty throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein” since my release from prison in late 1988. I am loud, boisterous, like a dog with a bone, argumentative, tenacious, difficult and to some, obnoxious, insane, etc, in my “acts of dissent”. I am so afraid of not saying NO to the lies, the BS, the deceptions, the injustices, the idolatry of people for fear of losing a soul, even my own, that I scream NO, I confront the liars, the deceivers, the idolators, the ‘half-truthers’, etc. I scream YES even louder and that makes me not so popular, makes me vulnerable to my imperfections being used against me and that is just the way it is. I know my “acts of dissent” are in service of truth, in service of God, which is all I need to know. I can look at the ‘man in the glass’ and not hide from me, hide from God, hide from you and it doesn’t get any better than that! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark