Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 69

“God is always concerned. He is personally affected by what man does to man. He is a God of pathos. This is one of the meanings of the anger of God: the end of indifference!” (Essential Writings pg. 86)

Rabbi Heschel’s teaching, in the second sentence above shatters the protective shield we all put on to hide from the cruelties we perpetrate upon one another. “He is personally affected by what man does to man” is the theme of the entire Bible, from Adam hiding, to Cain lying, to Jacob deceiving, to the Pharaoh’s hard-heartedness, to the stubbornness and ingratitude of the Israelites. The prophets never came to complain about the sacrifices that were not done ‘properly’, rather they came to rail against the way the rich, the powerful, the priests and the kings treated the people. Jesus didn’t worry about the rituals in the Temple, he cared about the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the poor, the needy, the lost. King David’s military victories were like nothing when he was selfish and sent Uriah to be killed because King David did wrong and had to make himself ‘feel’ better. Nathan the Priest called him out for this behavior and, to his credit, King David admitted his sin, repented and did not lash out at Nathan for telling the truth.

Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom, teaching above is him being our Nathan the prophet, Nathan the advisor, Nathan the truth teller. Yet, most people choose to ignore this truth, choose to re-enforce their protective shields and armor with lies, with rationalizations, with purposeful misinterpretations of Holy Texts, etc. We seem to be afraid to confront the truth and wisdom of Rabbi Heschel above because it would lead to us having to change our ways. Just as the Israelites, the people of Judea refused to take in and truly hear the words of Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah and the rest of the prophets, we also refuse to listen to the wisdom and truth of Rabbi Heschel, Rev. King, and other spiritual leaders who are calling on us to repent!

We have come to be a species that buys into, what I call, the lower logic of “survival of the fittest” and “might makes right”. On this 7th day of Hanukkah, while the story of the Maccabees winning the war is celebrated, the theme of Hanukkah is about light, it is about increasing the light in the world, it is increasing the light in our own souls, it is about increasing our spiritual strength and resolve in order to not give into the reasoning of our lower logic and, instead, rise to meet the aspirations, the call of our higher logic, our spiritual knowing. To do this, we have to allow the words of Rabbi Heschel, the teachings of the Bible, of Jesus, of Mohammed, of the myriad of spiritual warriors who have preceded us and those who are in our midst today to shatter the walls we have built up, to hear the call of the Shofar and, instead of trying to make the walls of Jericho, come down, allow the walls and the armor surrounding our souls, surrounding our higher logic to fall and be able to truly see what we are doing to one another and hear God’s concern and respond to it, rather than hold onto to the armor in fear of being naked in front of God and one another.

The religious zealots, who are constantly bastardizing God’s words and God’s will, the non-believers who are sure we should just “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we shall die” are two sides of the same coin. Probably nothing I write will penetrate their armor. My words, my goal in living Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and teachings is to help the rest of us summon the courage of the prophets, the heroism of Rabbi Heschel, Rev King and their contemporaries to stand for Godliness, to stand for spiritual principles, to stand against hatred, senseless and indiscriminate death, deception and mendacity. We can do this, we can learn from our ancestors, we can summon the courage and the strength to honor their gift of life in America, life in a free country. This means we have to stand up for the rights of everyone, stand against the fascists, the Christian Nationalists, the haters, the deceivers, the mendacious ones in our Congress, in our Media, in our homes and communities. We have to have discussions based on facts, on truth, not on “alternative facts” nor untruths. Having different points of view, arguing for a way of being that is different from one another, all of these are hallmarks of the gift God gives us-our own experience of God, of Torah, of the Bible-we just can’t use the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bible as a foundation to lie, cheat, steal, exert selfish power over one another, buy the Judges (Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito), or destroy our ‘enemies’. We can change our ways, we can take off the armor, we can march in truth, in unity, in justice, in love, in mercy and, just like the walls of Jericho, the walls will come down-if and only if, we immerse ourselves in the way of God and be “personally affected by what man does to man”!

The first 35 years of my life I was “personally affected” at times and it did not help me take off the armor because I knew I was different than most people, it did not help me put down the shield I put up after my father’s death and my abject loneliness. God awakened me to the truth of my existence in 1986, around this very date, and my old life was shattered, the walls were non-existent, they were a rubble at my feet and I got the opportunity to build a new life without the walls, without a shield to ‘protect’ me. Instead, I have worn the shield of God’s love, I am embedded inside the “fence of Torah”, I am surrounded by the walls of the Recovery Revolution! I am affected by what I do to another, what is done to me by another, and what “man does to man”. Each morning I am grateful for life, each day I do the best I can to make life better for the people I love, the people I know and “the stranger who dwells in our midst”. I take to heart that God is affected and this means my love and my gratitude is expressed by how much I care, how much I do to help another human being. Never perfect and always progress-God Bless and stay safe, Happy Hanukkah, Rabbi Mark