Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 152
“We are never alone in our struggle with evil. A mitsvah, unlike the concept of duty, is not anonymous and impersonal. To do a mitsvah is to give an answer to His will, to respond to what He expects of us. This is why an act of mitsvah is preceded by a prayer: “Blessed be Thou …”(God in Search of Man pg 375)
The first sentence above gives us relief and hope, I believe. So many people feel alone in their struggle with evil, both the evil outside of us and the evil within us. Following the lessons of the paragraph prior to this one, we can realize, utilize and appreciate the aid we are given in our struggle with evil. We first, however, have to let go of our conventional knowledge that we are in this alone, that we have to do things on our own, that we are isolated and no one cares to help unless it is in their best interest. Even when we feel abandoned and ‘on an island’, when we feel outside of the community and no one understands us, we can let go of these self-deceptions and know that there is help, that God and Mitzvah are always with us, all we have to do is turn to accept the help. Of course, there are always people to help as well, we just have to “lift up our eyes” as Hagar was told and we will see the life-giving, life-saving help we need.
This is why living in radical amazement and wonder is so crucial to living well. Without being “maladjusted to notions and cliches” we will accept the conventional ideas and thoughts society has always given us. “In our struggle with evil” we lose the individual battle when we forget there is help, there are mitzvot we can engage in and have a personal experience with God/Higher Power/Higher Consciousness that will lift us up to victory over the evil within and the evil outside of us in the moment.
We know this from Rabbi Heschel’s second sentence above. A mitzvah “is not anonymous and impersonal” because it is done with intention, with purpose, with meaning and, in the moment of engaging in a particular mitzvah, we are connected to the Ineffable One. We are infused with the spiritual sustenance needed to overcome the evil that is battering us, confusing us, disguising itself as good, causing chaos and mendacity. Engaging in a mitzvah is not a mindless exercise, it is not a rote experience. To engage in a mitzvah means we are connected to our actions physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It is the action of serving a greater good, serving another(s) human being, serving our self and our spiritual needs. Engaging in a mitzvah is coming ‘face to face’ with God, ‘face to face’ with our self, ‘face to face’ with another person(s), ‘face to face’ with nature. It is an engagement that shows us who we are, what we are, and why we are here. It is an action of fulfilling a purpose we are given, a job that is needed to be done, a celebration of our own humanity, and a statement of our being a partner with God/Universe to make our corner of the world a little better.
We cannot do this when we are engaged in selfishness, when we are more concerned with saving our face, looking good, living in deception and mendacity. We are alone “in our struggle with evil” when we refuse to live in radical amazement because we are giving in to the societal norms/teachings of ‘dog eat dog’, ‘the one with the most toys wins’, etc. We are alone “in our struggle with evil” when we succumb to “on advice of counsel” rather than “practicing these principles in all our affairs” as people in recovery know. We need to let go of our need to win, our need to rule and surrender to our authentic need for help “in our struggle with evil”. We need to stop marginalizing people because of gender, race, religion, political identification and work together to engage in the mitzvot of “do justly, love mercy and walk in the ways of God” as the prophets teach us.
In recovery, we know what evil looks like, we have lost too many struggles with the evil within us and the evil outside of us. We know that we need to surround ourselves with other people who are struggling against their inner evil inclination and a program of recovery was developed that includes mentorship, fellowship, connection, service and living our principles so we are never alone, we never fall into the abyss we have climbed out of to be in recovery. Some people say the first three steps of AA are; I can’t, we can, please help!
I found recovery, purpose, meaning when I let go of the conventional notions of society, when I made a decision to live into radical amazement. No matter what has happened to me, around me, by me in these past 34+ years, I have not felt abandoned by God because of being engaged in mitzvot, even when I have experienced people ‘failing’ me, I know God never does because of the personal connection I have through mitzvot. I have not won every struggle with evil and I have never been “ alone in” my “struggle with evil”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark