Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 36
“We cannot dwell at ease under the sun of our civilization as our ancestors thought we could. What was in the minds of our martyred brothers in their last hours? They died with disdain and scorn for a civilization in which the killing of civilians could become a carnival of fun, for a civilization which gave us mastery over the forces of nature but lost control over the forces of our self.” (God’s Quest for Man pg. 150)
“How can I pray when the deaths of 1000’s of innocent Vietnamese are on my conscience” Rabbi Heschel asked in his interview with Carl Stern. I am thinking about this statement and what is going on in the world, in our country, in our communities. What would Rabbi Heschel say? I am not sure and I believe he would point out the difference between America’s War in Vietnam as self-serving and from a puffed-up, prideful place of John Foster Dulles, Robert McNamara, et al-not a war for the survival of America. Israel is in another fight for it’s life, a fight to kill off the people who are dedicated to the extermination of the Jewish People and the end of the State of Israel. While the citizens of Gaza may be innocent, they are at least culpable because they have been able to “dwell at ease” with Hamas as their leadership! While we have proof of Hamas Terrorists celebrating the killing of Innocent Jews at a music festival, in their homes, on their streets, as “a carnival of fun”, the vast majority of Jews do not experience the death of civilians as “a carnival of fun”-true some Jews do, as evidenced in videos from one IDF person-however this is not the norm! I believe Rabbi Heschel would be mourning the deaths of the innocent civilians in Gaza, and crying out for the return of the Hostages, mourning and crying over the killing of Jews again just because we are Jews. I believe he would be seeking a solution to this problem and call on all of us to rise to our higher selves-fighting terrorism, fighting prejudice, standing for and with freedom, hearing the call of the prophet: Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation nor shall men learn war anymore.”
Here in the United States, I watch in horror as I hear the insanity of the right and the left in Congress, on our streets, on our College Campus’, in our halls of Academia, in the rallies for Donald Trump, at the rallies led by Rashida Tlaib, Ilan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, et al supporting terrorists! I have come to the realization that I am unsafe in America, I am unsafe in the world because I am a Jew, because I am a centrist, I am a thinker who seeks truth, ie the whole picture; I seek to understand and realize the nuances in every situation, I don’t believe we can make informed decisions without seeing the nuances, the whole picture. I am unsafe in the Democratic Party because they don’t want people who seek to stand for spiritual principles and be willing to engage in give and take to uphold these spiritual principles. I am unsafe in the Democratic Party and in America because I am unwilling to go along with mendacity, with supporting Terrorism, with ‘conventional notions’. I am unsafe in America and in the Democratic Party, of which I have been a life-long member of, because they are afraid to call out Tlaib, Omar, Bush, et al for their terrorist threats to Joe Biden and the rest of the Democratic Party, saying they will not support the Democratic Nominee for President unless he bows down to Terrorists, to Terrorism, to Hamas! How sick and sad we have all become, how far from the Kennedy Democrat I was in the 1960’s up until now.
And of course, the Republican Party, the Republican Jewish Coalition, who ‘stand with Israel’ are not willing to stand for democracy in Israel, in the Ukraine, to give aid and much needed money to rebuild Gaza and help its citizens without trying to aid and help the rich in this country! Rather than a democracy, Mike Johnson and his cronies are seeking to enshrine the plutocracy/kleptocracy they began under Donald J Trump. Even the Republicans who are ‘never-Trumpers’ support the demise of the IRS collection bureau unless they are collecting from those who can least afford it. The idea that the rich, the plutocrats and the kleptocrats should pay their fair share of taxes is ridiculous to the Republicans in the House of Representatives and they are willing to not give aid to Israel, to Ukraine, to rebuild Gaza - all the while proclaiming their love and loyalty to Israel and to democracy!
What all of this has in common is we are being bullied, governed, oppressed by People of the Lie, the name of a book by M.Scott Peck. Hamas, their supporters, Qatar who hides the leaders of Hamas and has given them Billions of Dollars in extortion money knowing what they are using it for, attacking Israel, enriching themselves and not helping the people of Gaza, the rest of the Arab world who have refused to renounce terrorism against Israel for fear the terrorists may attack them, the people in Congress who see their seat at the table as a way to bully and oppress anyone who doesn’t agree with them- all are “People of the Lie” and We, the People, have to vote them out, have to find ways to silence them, reveal their mendacities and subordination of rights, of freedom, of truth to their constituents, here and abroad.
We, the People, have to recover our “control over the forces of our self” and we have to recover the pain and empathy of senseless hatred, senseless terrorism, senseless murder as we witnessed on Oct. 7. We, the People, have to recover “control over the forces of self” so we can stop our selfishness, our self-centeredness, and remember to care for the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the poor and the needy. We, the People, have to recover “control over the forces of self” so we can ensure everyone has a living wage, everyone has access to health care, everyone has choice over their bodies, everyone is given the Infinite Dignity that all everyone deserves as a birthright because we are all created in the Image of the Infinite One. These are basic principles of recovery, of Judaism, and We, the People, have to recover these principles inside of each of us.
I am still agitated, I keep “control over the forces of self” better now than I have in the past. In fact, because I could “lost control over the forces of self” I found myself abandoned and sent out of the place I had helped to create and build. I also know there was a different way to handle the situation, it did not have to end the way it did-yet it did. I am not shirking my responsibility, I have been in recovery to have “control over the forces of self” and I know mendacity, hiding, “people of the lie” push me over the edge. I never want to lose my outrage for “people of the lie” lest I go back to hiding, lying! At least I am aware of the work that is in front of me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark