Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 129
“Does not goodness tend to turn impotent in the face of temptations? Crime, vice, sin offer us rewards; while virtue demands self-restraint, self-denial. Sin is thrilling and full of excitement. Is virtue thrilling? Are there many mystery stories that describe virtue? Are there many best-selling novels that portray adventures in goodness?” (God in Search of Man pg. 374)
Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom in the first sentence above makes me shudder. How often have we seen, experienced and participated in goodness being “impotent in the face of temptations”? We begin to act in this way before our brains are developed enough to process what goodness is; we steal the cookies from the cookie jar at a very young age, we look innocent when asked while we are in our 2’s and 3’s, we deny our wrong doings early on in life because temptation turns goodness and the next right action impotent and seemingly silly to do.
We are, of course, witnessing this in our politics. How often have we seen the temptation for winning, the temptation for power turn good, decent people into purveyors of tactics that go against their inner goodness, their inner truth. Rabbi Heschel, in his Interview with Carl Stern in 1972, reminds us that politicians, in their tactics, have become people who suspect everyone else, have become people who are suspected of inherently lying and who, in their words and deeds have led so many people to believe their lies, their deceptions, all in the name of getting elected, getting power, getting rich! Telling the truth takes a back seat to lying and mendacity when the truth will hinder our winning, our getting ahead, not getting caught, etc. We blame, accuse another(s) of what we are doing, we deny and we make insincere apologies when we are caught. Even in the face of facts, of proof, we continue to claim that there are ‘alternate facts’. This is, of course, true in our politics and it is true in our daily living.
We see this in business all the time. Drug Companies employ 1700 lobbyists to ensure their freedom to price-gouge us, to ensure they are not held liable for the crisis’ they create in order to solve, to boost their profits for their shareholders. Business’ in general make profits and making their large shareholders happy no matter what how they may harm and/or deceive the public. Business’ want to claim the same rights as human beings and then, in the face of making more money, getting a larger market share, goodness loses to these temptations. We have watched business pay fines while not admitting guilt, they fight the rules and regulations that keep all of us safe, give everyone an opportunity, curb their ways of excluding people because of religion, skin color, education, etc. All of this they claim doing this in the name of the greater good and, unfortunately many people support this way of being, these lies because of our desire to be deceived.
This desire to be deceived, I believe, comes from our own self-deceptions. These self-deceptions begin early in our upbringing. We see it in our schools, we see it in our religious organizations, we see it in the ways parents are always defending their children and blaming someone else for their shortcomings, for their actions. Parents call their children’s teachers to get better grades, they complain to headmasters and principals about the poor grades their children get. They put more emphasis on their children’s extra-curricular activities than on their spiritual growth and maturity. Parents themselves are, in many cases, spiritual immature and don’t see the need to raise their children’s souls. We learn that serving our self is more important than being good. We give awards for ‘goodness’ in schools now just for showing up, not because our kids are truly learning what goodness is. We are not teaching our children how to resist temptation, we are teaching them how to not get caught, we are teaching them not to be responsible, we are teaching them giving into temptations is good!
In recovery, we admit how our temptations led us to ruin our own life, ruin the lives of the people around us, create chaos all around us. We gave in to our temptations to escape, to be fortified in our pursuit of the next wrong thing. In recovery, we begin to change our attitude and our actions regarding temptations and goodness. We see the good for what it is, we recognize the temptations that knock us off our foundation of goodness and we ask for help to overcome these temptations.
My history of helping goodness turn impotent is replete and my change this path is the core of my recovery. I battle my temptations constantly and daily. Rabbi Heschel helps me in my battle as does the teachings of my ancestors, the teachings of Torah and my deep commitment to “love my neighbor as I love myself”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark