Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 142
“If the nature of man were all we had, then surely the outlook would be dim. But we also have the aid of God, the commandment, the mitsvah. The central Biblical fact is Sinai, the covenant, the word of God. Sinai was superimposed on the failure of Adam.”(God in Search of Man pg 374)
Many people are wringing their hands and “woe is me/us” today, repeating the same lines as our ancestors have done. Many people are hopeless and despondent, beaten down by their own “nature” and the “nature of man” in general. Despair is a daily occurrence and, at times, giving up seems to make sense. Yet, in the face of the greatest horror, the largest inhumanity towards humanity, up to now, Rabbi Heschel, himself a victim of the holocaust, losing a majority of his family, teaches us the solution!
Wrestling with our self so that Sinai can be “superimposed on the failure of Adam” and on our own failures is exhilarating! The solution for all of our issues today; personal, professional, political is to allow Sinai to be “superimposed on the failure of Adam”! Each and every day, when we rise up in the morning and thank God/Higher Power for having our soul returned to us with compassion and faithfulness-we begin our day knowing we have already received “the aid of God” just in being alive. We greet the day with a cup of coffee, tea, whatever and make a gratitude list and a list of ways we are going to repay “the aid of God” in our actions this day. We realize that we get to be of service to self, God, another human being, humanity itself and we rejoice at our opportunities to overcome our natures and do T’Shuvah for “the failure of Adam” and the failures of our self.
Superimposing Sinai on our failures, on our living allows us to grow and mature our inner lives and sharpen both our eyesight and hearing to see and hear the myriad of ways to honor the faithfulness and show the compassion that God has so freely given to us. Throughout our days, we seek to use “the aid of God, the commandment, the mitzvah” that is in front of us to do. Not the ones we cannot do, just the ones we can and are most needed in the moment we are in. Throughout the day, we stay present and alert for opportunities to connect with another human being and see the divine image they bring to our life. We do not dwell in the past, only using the past to enhance our present, ‘failing forward’ so we don’t repeat past errors and we use “the failure of Adam” to make this moment so much better.
Superimposing Sinai on the failures of humanity also gives us the gift of cleaning up our foibles and past errors, just as the Israelites were told to bathe and put on clean clothes prior to hearing the “word of God”, so too by remembering our own experience at Sinai-the glow, the surety, the connection, the determination, the commitment and the covenant with God and one another. We are not our worst mistake, in fact we are not a mistake at all! When we follow Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and leadership, we realize that our rightful place is at the foot of the mountain, listening to and connecting with the Higher Power, Higher Consciousness, God that is within us and outside of us. We realize that each person has a different experience at Sinai and, rather than fighting for supremacy, we embrace their experience so we can better be ONE with our self, with human beings and with God. We let go of the past and defensiveness, we let go of our fears and need to be right and control everything, we become a true partner with one another and God/Higher Power to enhance the world and “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all it’s inhabitants”.
In recovery, this is the goal, the path and the connection-without using the same language. We superimpose our spiritual awakening, our powerlessness, our awareness of a power greater than ourselves and turning our lives and will over to the care of a power greater than ourselves on our daily living. There is no situation that cannot be handled, we believe, if we superimpose these principles onto the experience we are having. This way has helped millions upon millions of people be in recovery and live well.
“Sinai was superimposed on the failures” of Mark Borovitz in 1986/87 through being arrested, going to prison, having a spiritual awakening and studying with Rabbi Mel Silverman. This new blueprint for living has stayed with me, is imprinted on my soul and guides my daily actions. While I don’t always follow the blueprint-sometimes I make changes that are not so good-most of the time I deviate, it is because “the word of God” moves me to be “out of the box” to help another human being. I am grateful and humble for and to God’s saving grace, the Sinai experiences I continue to have and for waking up this morning and connecting with you. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark