Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 40
“The conscience of the world was destroyed by those who were wont to blame others rather than themselves. Let us remember. We revered the instincts but distrusted the prophets. We labored to perfect engines and let our inner life go to wreck. We ridiculed superstition until we lost our ability to believe. We have helped to extinguish the light our fathers had winded. We have bartered holiness for convenience, loyalty for success, love for power, wisdom for information, tradition for fashion.” (Man’s Quest for God pg. 150)
In Pete Seeger’s song, Where have all the flowers gone, he asks a question: “when will you ever learn”. Reading and rereading the last sentence of Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above brings this question to the forefront of my mind. Rabbi Heschel’s words, sentences, teachings call out to our morality, our spirituality, our actions. He is demanding, in his kind, quiet voice, the same changes that the prophets before him demanded and, like the Israelites of old, we seem to be unable to heed his words, unable to take in his wisdom and put his demands, actually God’s demands and humanity’s demands, into action!!
Barter comes from the “old French” meaning “to deceive”. While English has defined bartering as “exchange”, using the French meaning may better describe what we have done and what we are doing. We have deceived ourselves into believing that convenience is holy. We are continuing to bastardize holiness for our own convenience, for our own selfish, self-centered satisfaction. We see this happening in all areas of living; political, economic, religious, personal. Politically, we see the contrast in the War with Hamas, the War against terrorism. Israel is fighting for its very existence, it is fighting to root out terrorism, to end the constant worry about rockets coming from Gaza, to end the fear of infiltration and murder, rape, hostage-taking by Hamas terrorists funded by the Arab world, especially Qatar and Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu is a bully who wraps himself in a false cloak of holiness with his oppressive, authoritarian policies while giving immense power to “religious” right-wing zealots. His inability to safeguard the border with Gaza is because of his need to satisfy these zealots. While he talks very tough, he deceived the people of Israel and Jews across the globe with this ‘tough talk’ while, like Nero, fiddled as Israel was in turmoil. Hamas and the rest of the world have backed Israel into a corner in a no-win situation because the world allows itself to be deceived, to have “bartered holiness for convenience”; no matter how often Israel dropped leaflets, no matter how often Israel suggested people leave Northern Gaza, the bombing was going to created collateral damage that would be used against Israel and Jews worldwide.
We see this in the demonstrations that immediately blamed Israel for Hamas’ day of terror, for Hamas’ rape, killing, invading, and hostage-taking! The world is being deceived and is engaging in self-deception by not condemning Hamas, by not demanding of Qatar to bring the Hamas leaders in their country to trial, by not helping to root out terrorism no matter where it is found. Glorifying the Hamas cowards who glided into a music festival about peace and began killing, raping, and taking hostages is another example of how people have “bartered holiness for convenience”. This happens because we want to make things easy and we are too used to 10-second sound bites rather then delve into the essential meaning of what is happening, what is truly holy. We want to make ‘simplify’ everything rather than see the simplicity and beauty of the complexity of life. Joe Biden’s response is a contrast to the mainstream anti-semitism, Jew-Hatred, blaming the victims we witness around the globe. He is calling for humane treatment of Gaza civilians while standing with Israel. He doesn’t let his personal feelings for or about Netanyahu alter his personal conviction and his morality to do the next right thing, to stand against terrorism, to stand for holiness. He is not willing to deceive himself nor the American people into believing there are any ways to defend Hamas, that there are any good reasons to support the terrorism of Oct. 7.
We have a choice today and every day, in this moment and in every moment, the Bible tells us to: “Choose Life”, choose decency, choose to care for the stranger, the widow, the poor, the needy, the orphan. Israel has not always done this, Netanyahu has “bartered holiness for convenience” because he is a crook and he doesn’t want to be held responsible-sound familiar? He has deceived the people who believed his rhetoric and his promises of safety and he has been found a liar, he empowered the worst of religious zealots who do not heed Rabbi Heschel’s words, they do not act on the teachings of the prophets, they are addicted to their lies, to their power, to being authoritarians and there bastardization of our Holy Texts.
Kristallnacht happened yesterday and today 85 years ago, it is still happening today; to Jews, to minorities, and we have to make good on the sacrifices of our ancestors-Never Again! We have to recover our holiness, we have to stop deceiving ourselves and everyone else that we are being ‘holy’, we are being ‘faithful to God’, following the dictates of the Bible, New Testament, Koran, etc. with our lies, our self-serving interpretations, our “prosperity gospels”, etc. We have to recover the joy of liberation from the narrow place called Egypt, the narrow places of deceit, and recover the dedication of “Na-Aseh V’Nishma”, we will do and then we will understand when we accepted the 10 Commandments at Mt. Sinai. We can do this when, following the example of people in recovery, we act our way into right thinking and feeling because our thoughts and our feelings oft lead us astray as we are warned: Don’t scout out after your heart and your eyes lest you whore after them. Lets stop bartering our holiness for convenience and return to the goodness of being we are created for, return to living the life our self was created for. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark