Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 118
“Justice has always appeared as obligatory, but for a long time it was an obligation like other obligations. It met, like the others, a social need;…This being so, an injustice was neither more nor less shocking than any other breach of the rules.There was no justice for slaves, save perhaps a relative, almost an optional, justice” (God in Search of Man pg. 373)
On March 31, 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a friend of Rabbi Heschel’s, said: “The moral arc of the universe is long and it bends toward justice”. This was 5 days before he was assassinated 50 years ago. He was, at the time of his death, fighting for the economic rights and dignity of laborers, of working class people of all races. He saw, I believe, how enslaved workers were/are and their need for dignity, a living wage were essential to their being free. Civil rights is not just about black/white, Jew/Gentile, Latino/white, etc, is the teaching I take from Dr. King’s and Rabbi Heschel’s work together and separately. Civil rights happens when all people are recognized as equally worthy and valued, when “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”(Declaration of Independence)
Yet, as Moses warned the Israelites in Desert, “But Jeshurun became fat and kicked…then he forsook God who made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation”(Deuteronomy 32:15-16), many people have done the same with the words of the Declaration of Independence, with our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, the words, wisdom, brilliance, and teachings of Rabbi Heschel and Dr. King. Both of these men are prophets carrying the word of God to us, leaning into the Divinely Inspired knowing of our founding fathers, leading us to make our country “a more perfect union” than it was when they found it.
We find ourselves today in an economic crisis of our own making, a crisis of faith in our young people, in our working/blue collar people, that hard work, good education/training will allow them a slice of the “American Dream”. While many people equate this dream with home ownership, etc, I believe the true “dream” is for each of us to live “these truths to be self-evident” rather than continue to enslave people because of their lack of formal education, because they are laborers, because they are not part of the 1%, because of the color of their skin, because of their lack of guile, because of their religion, etc.
This crisis is being promoted by people who say: “Jews will not replace us”, who believe that “Jesus was the Lion”, who want to “sunset Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid”, who believe that blacks/latinos are ‘second class citizens’, who want to investigate bogus claims while giving aid and comfort to Putin, Orban, and other autocrats. This crisis is being promoted by the mendacity and deception of people who have such disdain for their own constituents they are willing to enslave them for the sake of the ultra wealthy and their own power. This crisis is being waged by modern day Pharaohs ‘who do not know our founding principles’. This crisis is being supported by the very people who are being harmed because of their own prejudices, their own self-deceptions, and their belief in the deceptions of another(s).
We are being called by our founding fathers and by God to engage in living justly, to not take bribes because they blind the eyes of the righteous as Moses reminds us in Deuteronomy, to honor the infinite worth and dignity of every human being, to cease and desist in our need to enslave another. We are being called by Rabbi Heschel’s words and actions to stand up for the poor, the needy, the stranger; to no longer tolerate the rationalizations we are told/we use that enslaves another to a life of poverty, a life of injustice. There is no such thing as “relative, optional” justice in God’s world, Jesus did not say only some of the people should be fed, the declaration doesn’t exclude any human being from “all men”. We have to take off the blinders that causes us to value another(s) as less worthy than ourselves, we have to uncover the divine image/spark that is inside of us and inside of all people. We have to live lives that honor the dignity of another and ensure that “justice for all” is not a slogan rather it becomes an everyday practice. “There is one law for the citizen and stranger alike” we are taught in the Bible, and we have to make the necessary changes so we end tragedies like Tyre Nichols, mass shootings like Colorado Springs, Half Moon Bay, etc.
In recovery, we are colorblind. Our purpose is to “stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety”. I believe this to be my purpose as well and I live it to the best of my ability each day. I also know, from the examples of my father, my grandfathers, aunts and uncles, that I have to join with all people who are bending the moral arc of the universe towards justice in all my affairs. I am grateful to people like Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre who create opportunities for so many to be free as examples. I have and continue to do this as part of my living T’Shuvah, my living amends. I am heartened by my nieces and nephews who are engaged in this work, by the young and old people whom I have touched and touch me who are engaged in freeing themselves and helping another be free. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark