Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 33
“Either we are ministers of the sacred or slaves of evil. Let the blasphemy of our time not become an eternal scandal. Let future generations not loathe us for having failed to preserve what the prophets and saints, martyrs and scholars have created in thousands of years. The apostles of force have shown that they are great in evil. Let us reveal that we can be as great in goodness. We will survive if we shall be as fine and sacrificial in our homes and offices, in our Congress and clubs as our soldiers are on the fields of battle.” (Man’s Quest for God pg. 151)
The last sentence above is one we still have to learn, it seems. I am hearing Rabbi Heschel teach us the difference between existing and surviving. I believe he is speaking to us about our humanity surviving, our goodness surviving, the survival of God’s call to us to be “ministers of the sacred”. As the heart wrenching news of the destruction of human lives in Gaza is broadcast in the media, it is important to not forget the 240 Hostages that no agency, not the Red Cross, not the UN, has seen nor checked on. It is important to remember that Hamas is a Terrorist organization, funded and trained as well as directed by Iran and Hezbollah which uses their own citizens as human shields! It is important to ask the question of who broke the Cease-Fire that was in place on October 6, 2023. It is important to ask who benefits from the calls for “a pause”, not the people of Gaza who have been imprisoned by Hamas for years, who have never seen the Billions of dollars that has flowed into Hamas from Qatar and others, who have never had enough fuel, never had their cities and homes improved upon, have never had their coastline developed with the ‘aid’ that has flowed into Gaza. AND the devastation breaks our hearts, it is terrible to look upon, it is frightening to come to grips with the results of our inability, our unwillingness to “be as fine and sacrificial in our homes and offices, in our Congress and clubs as our soldiers are on the fields of battle.”
It is time, right now, to call upon the Bibi to resign. It is time, right now, to call upon Qatar and the other funders of Hamas to stop sending their money to terrorize Israel. It is time, right now, for the citizens of Gaza and the Arab countries to throw Hamas out of Gaza, out of the West Bank. It is time, right now, for the UN to stop its Anti-Semitic rants and lies. It is time, right now, for the Arab Countries and the Palestinians to find leaders that are willing and can make peace with Israel and find a two-state solution that is just and right. It is time, right now, for the Republicans in Congress to stop their petty gamesmanship and approve the necessary aid for Israel, Ukraine, humanitarian efforts and rebuilding of Gaza, for the border security etc. It is time, right now, for the people in Congress to throw out Santos and Menendez. It is time, right now, for The Supreme Court to stop some members from receiving gifts as “bribes blind the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous”(Deuteronomy 16:19).
We begin all of these actions in our homes, in our offices, in our clubs. It is time, right now, for our homes to be places of learning and loving, of raising our children to be “the self they were created to be” as Thomas Merton teaches us. Our homes should be the places of wild and deep ‘arguments’ of truth seeking, understanding the nuances and complexities of history and the present. It is time, right now, for our offices to be places of service-not socialism-where we live not the finest of our Biblical dreams; no matter the different socio-economic status everyone respects the dignity and worth of every human being, that everyone is necessary and needed: “All of you stand here today your heads of your tribes…to the stranger …to the drawer of your water that you should enter the covenant”(Deuteronomy29:9-11). All of us are entered in the Covenant, no matter what faith or non-faith we practice, all of us need to serve the Covenant rather than the self-centered desires of power, greed, etc in our offices. It is time, right now, to return to service in our offices and business and leave the greed, the mendacity behind.
These are the sacrifices that we in recovery offer to God, to one another, to the people we have harmed. We are fighting a different battle than the soldiers on the field, we are fighting for our survival as human beings. We are engaged in the war for our humanity and turning to the example of “our soldiers on the fields of battle” helps us keep slogging away. We speak of “trudge the road of happy destiny” as an example of the soldiering it takes to recovery the very ways Rabbi Heschel is speaking about; being “ministers of the sacred” instead of “slaves of evil”. This choice is in front of us daily and we continue to choose the former over the latter. I make this choice each day and, for the past 35 years I have stayed away from criminal activities and chosen life. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark