Daily life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 12

“Judaism in its very essence came into being as an act of dissent, dissent from paganism, as an act of nonconformity with the surrounding culture. And unless we continue to dissent, unless we continue to say NO to idol worship in the name of a higher YES, we will revert to paganism.” (Essential Writings pg. 106/107)

Rabbi Heschel’s words and wisdom declare the reasons Jews have been hated, people have tried to destroy Jews and Judaism. Israel is, with all of its faults, “an act of nonconformity with the surrounding culture.” When they drop bombs, when they fight the terrorists Hamas, they drop leaflets, they give notice to civilians of what is to come. While people say:”where will the people of Gaza retreat to” Israel doesn’t capture innocent people, Israel and Judaism do not condone, celebrate the murder of innocent people, we don’t glide in to kill 260+ young people attending a concert in the desert.

While Hamas and other terrorists proclaim their fealty to some god, they are actually idolators, they are pagans who believe in murder, who behave in ways that denigrate the sanctity of life, they believe their martyrdom will bring them rewards in some false ‘next world’, they go against the Bible’s decree to “Choose Life”. Listening to the Palestinian propagandists on TV, I find myself yelling NO to their condoning the violence, the torture of innocents, the capturing of old and young, the raining down of rockets on Israel, etc. Where is the outcry for the Israeli towns, the Israeli cities that are being overwhelmed with rockets from these people? They are proclaiming the ‘rightness’ of violence, they are not engaging in any discussion of the terrorist activities of Hamas nor the celebration of murder, the celebration of taking hostages, the celebration of the violence, as we see from their own pictures, their own social media posts. We are witnessing Nihilism at its zenith, we are witnessing a group of terrorists that care nothing for human life, much like Al Queda, ISiS, Nazi Germany, Putin’s Russia, North Korea, Iran, etc.

Where is the dissent when Hamas and other terrorist states and groups proclaim their goal of driving the Jews out of Israel? The banners pro Palestinian marchers carried in  New York City said “from the river to the sea” meaning no Jews allowed. We saw this in Nazi Europe in the 1930’s/1940’s and we know what happened then. We are being called “to dissent” against terrorists, we are being called to engage in an “act of dissent” against the paganism, the idolatry of terrorists, of terrorism. Judaism’s and Israel’s

And, we have to be careful to not fall into the same acts of terror as our enemies use. We have to, during and after this war is settled, look inside of ourselves, we have to see where, when and how we needed to engage in “an act of dissent” for our own ways of being. We have to do this every day, according to my understanding of the commandment to do T’Shuvah every day. We have to begin to make a plan for moving forward and not losing our morality, our souls in the anger and the revenge we want to extract from the terrorists. Judaism’s and Israel’s core belief in the sanctity of life, the dignity and worth of every soul has led us to make prisoner swaps that are so much more than one for one, because we do not leave anyone behind! We are being tested by these murderers, these terrorists and their supporters, ‘are we going to resort to their methods and lose our souls in the process?’ This is, again, where we can lean on Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and brilliance. He wrote this knowing the power of hatred, experiencing the ways people go along with violence against their neighbors and their ‘friends’ when confronted with terrorists, with evil.

We need to recover our dissenting voices, we need to engage in “acts of dissent” toward our surrounding culture of hatred, of violence, of terrorism. We need to support Ukraine, we need to support Israel, we need to find paths to peace, we need to stand up to the terror of Putin, of Hamas, of Hezbollah, of Iran, etc. We need to engage in “acts of dissent” whenever hatred, mendacity, deception raise their ugly heads. We need to stop ‘going along to get along’, we are being called upon by Rabbi Heschel to act in nonconformity with the ‘ways things always were, are, will be’. We need to stand up to the paganism of hatred wherever and whenever it is-in the Knesset, in the House of Representatives, in the Kremlin, in Teheran, in Gaza, in Southern Lebanon, in Syria, etc.

Prior to my recovery, I terrorized everyone who cared for me. I held my family hostage to keep supporting my alcoholism and I am so sorry. My T’Shuvah has been and is to help people choose life, help people recover from their myriad forms of soul sickness. I pray for Israel, I pray for peace, I pray for dissent. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark