Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 117
“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)
I disagree with one word of Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above, his use of the word “was”! We are witnessing a resurgence of the obligatory nature of justice, we are witnessing the indifference to injustice that Rabbi Heschel marched against, wrote condemnations of, and spoke out about. Even more so, we are witnessing ‘justice’ being bastardized to promote political agendas, so-called religious agendas, by supposedly ‘God-fearing’ people who are, in fact, idolators.
Our inability to elevate justice to a level that is higher than our other obligations is a root cause of hatred, racism, slavery, anti-semitism, Islamaphobia, torture, etc. Because we have relegated justice to one of a myriad of obligations we find ourselves and society doing what is expedient for our ‘good’ and for the ‘good’ of society. We are so blinded by seeking what is ‘good’ for self, what is ‘good’ for society, we have become deaf to the cries of people seeking true justice, we have become blind to our acts of injustice and indifferent to the injustices that are perpetrated by society on people who are voiceless and powerless. This has to end, we have to restore justice to it’s proper place, we have to live the words of the prophets and the Bible; “do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God”. Society and individuals in power have decided they are the arbiters of justice and justice has to suit their needs, their desires and support their power structure. In the Bible, justice is to be rendered by “able men, men with awe of God, men of truth, hating unjust gain”(Exodus 19:21), yet we continue to appoint people who become blind to injustice when justice doesn’t serve their political/religious agenda!
Using justice to meet “a social need” is not justice at all! We have a ringside seat to the circus that is happening in our country, in our Capital where people, when they are called out on their injustices’, accuse the truth-teller of lying. We are witnessing first-hand the same conditions that have fostered, promoted and maintained authoritarianism throughout the ages, following Goebbels’ play book: “Accuse someone else of what you yourself are doing”. We saw this with Roy Cohn, we saw this with the people who were against the Civil Rights movement in the 50’s/60’s till today, we saw this with the promoters and defenders of the Vietnam war, we see this today with the people who are unwilling/unable to accept free and fair elections, with people who want to make it harder for ‘those’ people to vote, with people who want to spread anti-semitic literature and blame the Jews, with people who want to ensure that “the south will rise again” and slavery, mendacity, is the ‘law of the land’, with people who want to hold on to their grip on power because of the color of their skin-white supremacists.
Dark money contributions to political campaigns, politicians, political parties, abusive referendums, is not just-yet our Supreme Court decided it was okay to hide, to keep secrets from people and to not let us decide on candidates to represent us nor on ideas/laws that govern us with all the facts. A corporation is not the same as a human being, it is created to shield human beings from personal liability so the Supreme Court ruling that corporations are the same as individual human beings in campaign funding, in creating PACs, is as ridiculous as it is unjust. Overturning Roe v Wade is another example of political agendas and so-called religious ideas overtaking justice. When justice is seen as a social need, those in power are the arbiters of these social needs and their political leanings, their unreligious ways of not doing justly, not loving mercy, not walking humbly with God, their setting themselves up as gods, as all-knowing, overtake God’s sense of justice, God’s call to care for the voiceless, the powerless, the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the poor, the needy. This is where we find ourselves today as Rabbi Heschel witnessed some 58 years ago!
In recovery, justice is mandatory-not obligatory. Being just with ourselves, with everyone else is paramount to our recovery because we have spent so much of our non-recovery life being unjust, living in mendacity and following Goebbels’ path of accusing another(s) rather than being responsible ourselves. In recovery, we know that when we point our finger towards another, three more are pointing back at us. We know we cannot serve, we cannot be loving towards another(s) and ourselves if we are not living justly, loving mercy.
I am overwhelmed with trembling awe as I see, once again, the wreckage of my past in my rap sheet, as I experience the sadness of loss that I wrought, the pain that I caused. I am also overwhelmed with the injustices around me, personal and global. I have a fire in my belly still, the kind that the prophet Jeremiah describes, and the injustices that I witness to the people around me, to the non-ruling class people by the ‘progressives’ as well as the ‘conservatives’ ‘good people’ make me want to scream and shout. I can’t because I won’t be heard, so I have to find a new way-hopefully this blog is it:) God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark