Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 43
“The Almighty has not created the universe that we may have opportunities to satisfy our greed, envy, and ambition. We have not survived that we may waste our years in vulgar vanities. The martyrdom of millions demands that we consecrate ourselves to the fulfillment of God’s dream of salvation.” (Man’s Quest for God pg. 151)
Rabbi Heschel is calling all of us to account! While it is easy to point the finger at another human being, another group of people, we have to first, as I hear Rabbi Heschel this morning, look at ourselves. Each of us has to engage in an accounting of our souls and answer the question we are being asked: how are we engaging in satisfying “our greed, envy, and ambition”? We have created a society where these negative attributes have taken on a life all their own. We hide behind our ‘righteousness’, our ‘goodness’, our ‘fulfillment of self’ while engaging in self-centered actions. We manipulate what is true, good, right for our own needs/benefits. We live inauthentic lives and call our selves good. This has been true throughout the history of humankind and we are witnessing this mendacity over and over again in our society, in our countries, in our neighborhoods.
The war against the terrorist organization, Hamas, has become a cause celebre for the left and the right. It has, once again, exposed the underbelly of antisemitism that never seems to leave the consciousness of the world and people. While the numbers being quoted out of Gaza are all from Hamas, while the reports from journalists are probably true with the caveat that they cannot report the whole truth or they will be killed by Hamas, the world and the media report them as absolutely true. While many of the marchers for ‘free Palestine’ may have very good intentions, they are unaware, hopefully, of the antisemitic phrases they are using, they are unaware, hopefully, of the aid and comfort they are giving to terrorists, to Iran, to Russia, to authoritarians across the world. This is not a war between Judaism and Islam, this is not a war against a powerful Israel against a poor downtrodden, oppressed minority, this is a war against terrorism, this is a war against evil, this is a war against the “greed, envy, and ambition” of Hamas because Israeli society has flourished while they have siphoned off the money being given to the people of Gaza for their own purposes, because the leaders of Hamas live in luxury in Qatar, because the leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority have lined their pockets instead of building rich, wonderful, caring societies for their people. Yet, the people of the world seem to be missing these truths because of their “envy” of Jews.
In our own country, we are witnessing the “greed, envy, and ambition” of Donald Trump and his band of merry people. When the Republicans fail to call out his fascist talk, when they refuse to condemn the people around him like Stephen Miller and the other architects of his authoritarian ideology, when they go along with the Heritage Foundation’s ideas of a takeover of our democracy in order to put an authoritarian, theocratic government in it’s place, they are examples of taking the name of God in vain, taking the opportunities we are given to improve our world and help one another and using these opportunities for their “greed, ambition” because of their “envy” of authoritarian rulers of past eras. We are witnesses to the denigration of democracy, the fall of freedom, the toppling of a “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Instead of heeding the words of Abraham Lincoln, they are engaged in denigrating them by working hard to ensure these sentiments, the cause so many Union soldiers died for does “perish from this earth”!
Looking inward, we have to look at our own deceptions, both of self and another. I hear Rabbi Heschel call to us to end our senseless hatred of one another, our needless “greed”, our “ambition” that is out of proportion, and our ridiculous “envy” of someone else. We all are created equal, we all have infinite dignity and worth, we all have a unique purpose. There will always be people richer and poorer than any one individual in monetary wealth, there will always be bosses and employees, yet, as the Bible teaches, “all of us stood at Sinai”, all of us stood on the precipice of the Jordan River preparing to enter the Promised Land, from the heads of the tribes to the water-dweller. We all have a stake and a place in life, we all have a talent/gift to bring to the world, we all have love to give, aid to share, and a goal to attain. “The Almighty” has created a universe where we can all find fulfillment, all find our place, all be connected, all enjoy the fruits of our labor, all can be free of terrorists-domestic and foreign, bullies-in our neighborhoods and politics, and of our “greed, envy, and ambition”.
“For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority-a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.”(2nd Tradition of AA). This is the response of Recovery to the “greed, envy, and ambition” Rabbi Heschel is speaking about. In recovery, whether it be in a meeting, in a family, in our work, we are constantly sifting through our negative attributes of “greed, envy, and ambition” to seek counsel from “a loving God” through conversations, mentorship, learning with another person/people. We take the mantle of “trusted servants” and wear it in all of our affairs. We know that we can no longer try to be “ruthless in business” and kind at home because the split grows and grows till we become ruthless in all of our affairs! We seek guidance and wisdom from outside of our own minds, we connect with other souls and learn new and better ways to deal with life on life’s terms. This is one of the ways we carry on the Revolution of Recovery! God Bles and stay safe, Rabbi Mark