Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 31
“Either we are ministers of the sacred or slaves of evil. Let the blasphemy of our time not become an eternal scandal. Let future generations not loathe us for having failed to preserve what the prophets and saints, martyrs and scholars have created in thousands of years. The apostles of force have shown that they are great in evil. Let us reveal that we can be as great in goodness. We will survive if we shall be as fine and sacrificial in our homes and offices, in our Congress and clubs as our soldiers are on the fields of battle.” (Man’s Quest for God pg. 151)
We are witness’ to the loathing of “future generations” on our College Campus’, on Social Media, in the streets of our cities when we see the Anti-Semitism that is rampant and the glorification of terrorists. While “the apostles of force have shown that they are great in evil” we hear calls for a “cease-fire”, we hear calls for humanitarian aid, which is needed and Hamas will appropriate it as they have done with all of the other aid that has been given to Gaza over the years! Yet, we continue to hear how bad Israel and Jews in general are.
Each generation, since the Holocaust, has taken for granted “Never Again” and we have not taught the lessons of “the prophets and saints, martyrs and scholars have created”. Rather we have taught the lessons of self-centeredness, of seeking power for its own sake. We have taught the lessons of the conquerors, the slave-masters, we have taught that some people are worth less than another, we have taught that we can shirk our responsibilities in favor of our false, inauthentic desires. We have taught scapegoating is legitimate, fearing the stranger is logical, ignoring the poor and the needy is expedient, taking God’s words and demand and turning them into what we want, validating our idolatries is good and holy! We have failed the future generations, we have taught them to loathe the truth of the Bible, the lessons and calls of the prophets, the foolishness of the martyrs and saints, and the scholars have promoted a disdain for what is right, what is truthful, what is holy, etc.
What is happening in the world today is an existential threat to freedom, to humanity, to the words and deeds of “what the prophets and saints, martyrs and scholars have created” and we have to take a stand, we have to re-energize their teachings and deeds with our deeds, our words, our teaching. We have to stop the bastardization of “the prophets and saints”, the deceptions and the mendacity of “the apostles of force”, and the glorification of terrorists. Israel is being vilified for standing up for itself, for doing what is, unfortunately, necessary to exist and there are many across the globe who decry ‘the atrocities of Israel’ while celebrating the invasion and murder, slaughter, beheading, of babies and elderly, young people attending a concert dedicated to peace, taking hostages and not allowing the Red Cross to visit them. These same people say nothing about Hamas’ treatment of the people they rule in Gaza; never building up Gaza with the billions of dollars they receive each year, nothing about Hamas’ use of their own citizens as human shields, nothing about the building of tunnels under hospitals, UN centers, schools etc. If this isn’t a loathing of what “the martyrs” fought and died for, what is?
People should not hold other people hostage for their own goals-full stop! Israel should not have ignored the plight of the people of Gaza nor the plight of the people in the West Bank-this was, is wrong. Hamas, the Palestinian Authority should not have ignored the plight of their own people by refusing to make peace-full stop! The Arab countries should not have ignored and fueled the hatred of Jews that is has-full stop! The Republicans in the House of Representatives should not hold the government and We, the people, hostage in not wanting to fund the government unless the myriad of social programs that help the needy, the poor, the elderly, the children are cut-full stop! They should not be bargaining with the aid that Israel needs to fight terrorism-full stop! Our college campus’ should be places of learning, of debate, of learning how to hold two things at one time in our heads, our hearts, our souls-full stop!
A program of recovery is what is needed, what I hear Rabbi Heschel calling for in his wisdom above. In recovery, we relearn the teachings and deeds of “the prophets and saints, the martyrs and scholars” through the Big Book of AA, through the stories we are told, through the deaths of those who could not grasp a spiritual way of living. We re-learn that the force of our will cannot bring us to wholeness and peace, will not allow us to live without fear of losing, and delivers us to become “slaves of evil” rather than “ministers of the sacred”. This is our challenge and our salvation. may we respond and live lives compatible with being a partner with God. God Bless, Rabbi Mark