Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 10

“Dissent is indigenous to Judaism. The prophets of ancient Israel who rebelled against a religion that would merely serve the self-interest or survival of the people continue to stand out as an inspiration and example of dissent to this very day.”(Essential Writings pg.106)

Rabbi Heschel’s use of the word “indigenous”, coming from the Latin meaning “native” and the English definition “originating or occurring naturally” is a powerful message to all of us. “Dissent” is an original part of Judaism, of all religious practices really, in fact, Judaism and all religious traditions, all spiritual disciplines that followed/came at the same time “dissent” from the status quo, idolatry, of the time. In a place where polytheism, mythology, statues prevailed as the ‘religious’ way; Judaism was a rebellion, is a rebellion and without “dissent”, we find ourselves in the same predicament as “ancient Israel” trying to “merely serve the self-interest or survival” rather than be alive, be dynamic, live into our “native” path of dissent.

The “inspiration and example of dissent” of the prophets has been lost to a great extent in the modern world. Many people quote the prophets, many people read the prophets, yet not too many take up the path of the prophet-dissent against ‘going along to get along’, dissent for one’s own self-interest, an either/or way of being, etc. What we have today are people who bastardize the prophets words and ways, they use the quotations to validate their self-interest, their survival. People today are using “dissent” for themselves, to serve themselves and their ‘masters’, we are witnessing “dissent” being used by charlatans, deceivers, by mendacious people who wrap themselves in the flag of the US, wrap themselves in some perverted version of Christianity, wrap themselves in some ‘literalist’ version of the Bible, the Constitution, which are dynamic documents, not meant to be static, not meant to be used as they were at the times of their writing.

We hear a lot about the disruptors in business, in tech, and most of them are self-serving, seeking their own fame, glory, prestige and safety. Rather than disrupt, dissent for the sake of heaven, for the good of all people, most disruptors, like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, are disrupting for their way of thinking to take hold, for their being able to have power over the masses, for their ideas and prejudices being spewed and spread across platforms to the world. Any benefit to another human being is incidental. Yet, we glorify these people, we emulate these disruptors, these people who are willing to suck the spirit out of their fellow human being for the sake of a dollar, for the sake of a prejudice, for the sake of ‘getting even’ for some hurt, slight they suffered in childhood. As Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries says: “hurt people hurt people”. Disruptors are not the same as dissenters.

Dissenters like Rev. King, like Rabbi Heschel, like Einstein, like Eleanor Roosevelt, like Rosa Parks are not disrupting the status quo for their own sake, they are saying NO for the sake of fulfilling God’s call for slavery to end, for ignorance to end, for injustice to end, for mendacity to end, for indifference to end, for self-centeredness to end, for isolation to end, for bastardization of God’s will, for desecration of God’s Name to end, for all of us to live the ways of the prophets, not just quote their words when convenient. We have the path to follow, we have the people to emulate, we have the lessons of our ancestors in our hearts, in our mouths, in our souls-we have to make the decision to return to our native state of dissent!

I use the phrase, in recovery, in each writing and quote from the Big Book of AA to speak to everyone about our need to recover our authenticity, recover our integrity, recover “the self we were created to be” as Thomas Merton says, for both people who are recovering alcoholics and people who are in need of recovering their true selves. The chaos in our Congress points to the need for recovery of our elected officials, they need to recover their reason for being trusted servants instead of the lies they tell themselves that they are deciders and dictators.

In this writing, I am acutely aware of the times when my dissent was self-serving and self-protective. In my daily review of how I lived/live Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and how I don’t, I know even in the past 35+ years I dissented out of fear of losing rather than from a rebellion against what was wrong, what was stale, what was unjust, etc. Most of my dissent was in the spirit of the prophets, in the spirit of Rabbi Heschel, to help people serve people, to help people recover their essence, to help me live into my unique purpose. I failed at times and I succeeded more often. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark