Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 150
“The Lord created the evil inclination in man and He created the Torah to temper it”.”The life of man was compared with “a lonely settlement which was kept in disorder by invading bands. What did the king do? He appointed a commander to protect it.” The Torah is a safeguard, the Torah is an antidote.”(God in Search of Man pg.375)
Immersing ourselves in the thoughts of the Bible/Torah means we have to emulate the principles and thoughts of God, we have to act Godly as Rabbi Harold Shulweis, z”l, teaches us. We, the people, have to let go of our need to be right and, instead, do right. We, the people, have to follow a path of justice, mercy, kindness, truth, compassion, and love. One thought of the Torah is that humans were created in the image of God, we have the attributes of God within us, we each are created unique and we all have a corner of God’s garden to till, grow, add to with our unique talents and spirit that are unlike anyone else’s. This makes our incessant need to compete and win against one another an inauthentic need. It means that we are to work together, with our differences and similarities, with our arguing and our agreements to make our communities, our states, our countries a little better in service of one another and in service of God. It means that we get to live authentically without fear of comparisons and without the need to conquer another person, another group. It means that any type of hatred, scapegoating, cheating, stealing, murdering, prostituting of our souls, coveting what another has, lying, etc is an affront not just to another human being, it is an affront to God. Rabbi Heschel, in his brilliance in adding this Midrash to the solution of the problem of evil, is reminding us all of the path to good, the path to wholeness, the path to oneness.
Another thought of the Torah is that we all come from Adam, who was an androgynous human being: “male and female he created them both”(Genesis 1:27). Our non-binary, trans, people are not ‘freaks of nature’, they are not less than human, they are not people to be feared, they are human beings, just like any other human being. The need to scapegoat them is an inauthentic need, it is an affront to God’s words, God’s thoughts, yet the ultra-religious keep committing this sin and wrap themselves in the false cloak of righteousness, protecting our young, etc. All for their own benefit, all for their own power, all for their own need to hate, to be prejudicial.
Another aspect of the thought we all come from Adam is that we are all related, we all share the qualities of Adam, we all suffer from the same spiritual maladies of Adam, we all have the knowledge of good and evil as Adam did, we all hide from our errors as Adam did, we all blame another for our missteps as Adam did. Immersing ourselves in the thoughts of the Bible/Torah here means we can learn from Adam instead of emulating him! Yet, it seems like everyone follows Adam’s example rather than being responsible for their part, for their goodness and their missteps, for their confusion of good and evil and for their ability to separate one from the other. We are witnessing a time where truth is under assault, where the rule of law is being attacked, where the will of a few people is being forced upon the majority. We are being blamed for the errors of another, we are being bombarded with the words attributed to Josef Goebbels:”accuse others of that which you are guilty of”, and many of us seem to be powerless in the face of this onslaught. We are not powerless, immersing ourselves in the thoughts of Torah/Bible gives us the strength, the obligation to stand up for and with truth and truth sayers. The words of the prophets have to ring louder in our ears that the words of these false prophets, charlatans and idolators.
In recovery, we immerse ourselves in the ways to carry out the principles of love, truth, kindness, compassion, mercy and justice. We shun prejudice and hatred, we stop blaming another and take responsibility for our actions good and bad, we repair the bad actions and harms we have wrought while improving on the good we have done. We are constantly seeking to fulfill God’s/Higher Power’s will for us and to be of service to one another.
I have immersed myself in these and so many other thoughts of the Torah/Bible since 1987 and, while still imperfect, am much better at carrying them out. I don’t blame anyone for my errors, I don’t blame anyone for the consequences that occurred because of my errors, I am sad that more conversations were not had, that “on advice of counsel” took the place of human interaction. I practice the principles above in all my affairs to the best of my ability and continue to grow in wisdom and nuance of how my actions affect me and another(s). God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark