Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 76

“Man is what he thinks. Man dwells where his mind dwells. What is intellectually irrelevant is imprisoned in Temples and has no access to our minds. We repeat cliches; we remember platitudes.” (Essential Writings pg. 87)

In his book, Man is Not Alone, Rabbi Heschel teaches us: “the greatest hinderance to knowledge is our adjustment to conventional notions and mental cliches” and the last sentence above affirms this truth. We have dumbed down our thinking, our discourse, our way of being so much that “cliches” and “platitudes” have become commonplace. I hear Rabbi Heschel calling us to end our mendacity and self-deceptions, end our hiding behind falseness and these “cliches”, the “platitudes” we have come to rely on.

“Cliches” comes from the French meaning “to stereotype” and “platitudes” comes from the French meaning “dullness and/or banality”. Considering Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom, he is railing against us stereotyping ourselves, one another, even religion and God. He is reminding us that without daily spiritual growth, we will sink into dullness and banality. When we repeat the “cliches” and use “platitudes” in our daily living, when we are so lazy that our minds recall them rather than delve into what really is happening, when we slough off the difficult work of seeking truth, when we go follow and adore people who tell us what we want to hear we are denigrating our humanness. We are turning our backs on Godliness, we are imprisoning our souls to the 7th circle of hell. I am hearing Rabbi Heschel demand more of us, I am hearing him call upon all of us to be human!

“From the river to the sea”, “poisoning the blood of Americans”, “Jews will not replace us”, and so many other cliches are becoming part of the American  and world political and social culture, with many of the people who repeat these false “cliches” having no idea what they mean or where they come from. Yet, they have become part of our discourse and they are both dangerous and demeaning, lies and spreading like wildfire. Rather than follow the examples of the Rabbis who kept Judaism alive and thriving, who understood the dynamic nature of Torah, we have come to rely “cliches” and “platitudes” rather than delve into the truth of what is right here, right now.

Not knowing when Rabbi Heschel wrote these words, it seems to me as if he could be writing them for our situation today. Be it Bibi Netanyahu and his gang of thugs, Putin and his gang of thugs, Orban and his gang of thugs, Trump and his gang of thugs, Hamas and it’s gang of thugs, the UN and their gang of thugs, the extreme left ‘progressives’, the extreme right ‘conservatives’, all use stereotyping, dullness and banality to ‘rile up their base’. Yet, their ‘base’ have no idea they are being lied to, no clue as to how much worse their lives will be under these authoritarians, these purists, and, as our history teaches us, we will all suffer from the lack of originality, the dullness, the “cliches” and the “platitudes” so many people want to live by. President Lyndon Johnson said: “John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many.” We are witnessing this hate on steroids, President Johnson was expressing some wishful thinking when he said: “was a part of our country” because that hatred has not left us, it has been here since our founding, from the Tories who supported the British and tried hard to undermine the first Continental Congress, to the Confederacy to the Carpetbaggers in the South, to the Klan, to the America First and Christian Nationalists before and during the 2nd World War to today’s incarnation of Gingrich, the Tea Party, the Maga Republicans and the Anti-Semites on the left. Using “cliches” and “platitudes” allow us to stay dumb! They allow us to convince people to go along with someone who purposefully wants to have power and control over us, wants us to destroy our moral compass, and imprison our spiritual power as well as deafen us to the call of God, the words of the prophets, the teachings of the great spiritual leaders from Moses to Jesus, from Mohammed to Buddha, from Thomas Merton to Rabbi Heschel, from Buber to Thich Nhat Hanh, from Rev King to Rabbi Harold Shulweis.

The solution  to the banality and the stereotyping, the unoriginal thinking and dullness of our world is to join the Recovery Revolution. We have to hear and use the teachings of the people who enhance our spiritual nature, who blow air and conviction into our souls, like the people mentioned above, like Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, the founders of AA, like John Pavlovitz, Rabbi Tova Leibovic-Douglas, like Rabbi Igael Gurin Malous, like Rabbi Ed Feinstein, like Rev. Najuma Smith-Pollard, like Rev. Mark E Whitlock, like Father Greg Boyle, etc. We have to return to our essence, return to the teachings of the Bible, return to the spiritual teachings of whatever spiritual discipline speaks to us. We get to find a new sense of self, a renewed connection with truth, with the universe, with holiness. We find ourselves interesting, we engage with interesting people and continue to grow our souls and our minds, our intellect and our “knowing”.

I joined the recovery revolution 36 years ago, in a prison yard, before I stopped drinking a year later. In these 35/36 years of being part of this revolution, I have experienced joy, sorrow, loss and gain, a coming into being more authentic and real, a seeker of truth and I have no patience with banality, with dullness and with stereotyping. I fight “going along to get along”, I am, at times, inappropriate and troublesome. Yet, I am never dull, I work hard to not be boring and I am excited to awaken each morning, I am grateful for Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom which challenges me each day and I am grateful for the love I experience from Harriet, Heather, Miles, my siblings and my family as well as from all of you. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark