Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 45
“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)
As I immerse myself in the last sentence above, and in all the words above, I am overcome with resolve, resilience, pride, joy, awe and gratitude. I also am wondering how we find ourselves in the mess we are in, how we have ignored the myriad of wisdom from our Holy Books, our history, our prophetic leaders like Dr. King, Rabbi Heschel, and all the spiritual leaders before and since!
Taking Rabbi Heschel’s words into our beings can help us to recognize the sacrifice of our ancestors, from the founding fathers till now, to create an imperfect union of democracy. While they displaced Native Americans in the cruelest of ways, they imported slaves from Africa and treated them abominably, they also rebelled against the authoritarian, unjust rule of King George. People gave up their lives so we can be ‘free’. Yet, time and time again as we see throughout our history, there have been people who want to exploit the “martyrdom” of our heroes, known and unknown, from the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution’s writing, etc. We have seen fights in Congress over slavery, we have the scars of our Civil War still raw some 158 years later, we have the need and desire of “the South will rise again” playing out so loudly, so cruelly, in our politics today. We have the very thing our founding fathers were afraid of: religious interference/theocratic government; rearing its ugly head in this very moment, thank you Mike Johnson et al. While our founding fathers were not prophets, they were influenced by the prophets, and so many died to ensure the founding of this nation “of the people, by the people, and for the people” that it is criminal that we have stopped honoring the “martyrdom of millions” that have fought to both keep us free and make us a “more perfect union.”
Since we are all immigrants to America, at one time or another, the courage of our ancestors to make the journey to America, especially before modern modes of travel, is awe-inspiring, shows amazing resolve and resilience, and is a source of pride for all who recognize their heroism. They came here to dedicate (consecrate) themselves to the “fulfillment of God’s dream of salvation”, God’s call for each of us to find our proper place, God’s promise of deliverance and redemption(salvation). Yet, we seem to be squandering their gift, their inheritance faster than it can be replenished. Rather than being joyous, rather than being awed, rather than being grateful, we seem to have adopted an attitude, a way of being that has entitlement at its core. We seem to be unable/unwilling to repay/pay forward the gift our ancestors gave us by coming to America. As Dr. Stephen Marmer, MD, said in 1990, “ We have used up the moral capital of our ancestors”, and we seem to be unable to replenish what we have used up. America, for many of our ancestors, was “the Golden Medina”, the land of gold-not just because of financial opportunities, rather and, I believe, more so because of the opportunity to live freely, to live in a democracy. Yet, time and time again, we have witnessed the authoritarians at our gates, the desire of the rich and powerful to overrule what so many died for, what our ancestors risked everything in crossing over to America for. Our entitlement has led to a decrease in our gratitude, in our awe, and in our resolve and resilience which has, once again, put our nation, our freedom in a perilous state.
The solution is in Rabbi Heschel’s last sentence, I believe. When we “consecrate ourselves to God’s dream of salvation”, when we dedicate ourselves to something greater than our selfish desires, our erroneous belief in our ‘being right’, to our push to have “that strongman” bully everyone else so I can have mine, then we can honor the “demands” of “the martyrdom of the millions”. We are in a terrible state right now, people are allowing their latent anti-semitism to believe everything that terrorists are saying! Just as people allowed their latent racism to believe everything that white supremacists and southerners say about people of color, just as ‘good christians’ allow their prejudices to believe everything bad said about people of another faith. This is the cancer of the soul we face, this is the root of our desecration of God’s Name, of the “martyrdom of millions”!
Join the Recovery Revolution! This is the Dao, the way that, like the Torah, has many different paths, has many different understandings and branches to it. When we join the recovery revolution, we begin to replenish the moral capital we have squandered, we begin to pay forward our gratitude for what we have, we live into the abundance life gives us, we fulfill the words of the sage, Ben Zoma, when he asks “who is rich”, “one who wants what he has/is happy with what he has”. In recovery, we do not settle, we appreciate, we honor, we tend the soil of the garden we are here to care for. We use all of our talents and gifts to improve the life of another and ourself. We dedicate ourselves to our redemption and we help the redemption of all who cross our paths. We reach out to deliver people from the hell and the torment of their internal and external prisons to a life of hope, joy, “happy destiny”, In recovery, we rejoice at the success and accomplishments of another without any envy or jealousy. We are so focused on ‘how can I help’ that we forget, at least momentarily, ‘what’s in it for me’! I have been a part of this revolution, I understand and live Torah and Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom as my guiding light in this revolution. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark