Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 153
“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)
My friend and teacher, Rabbi Ed Feinstein, taught me early on in our studies that a Mitzvah was a claim, which comes from the Latin meaning “to call out”. Using this definition, I believe that a Mitzvah is a “call out” from God to do “His will”. Many people fail to hear to this call and many of us fail to understand the meaning of God’s call. It is a call to ‘do the next right thing’ no matter what we are doing right now. It is a call to make our corner of the world a little better than it is right now. It is a call to connection with our “better angels” and a call to connect with the Ineffable One. It is not a call to have a check list, it is not a call to weaponize His will against another. It is not a call to pride and ego for how ‘good’ we are, how many calls we answer, etc. At the heart of every mitzvah is a call to justice, mercy, love, kindness, compassion and truth. It is a call to see the divine image in every human being, it is a call to realize that every action we take has meaning, purpose and power.
It is a “call out” to be human, to be Godly, to care for the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the poor and the needy around us. It is a “call out” to us to remember that our souls need to be nourished by a mitzvah and a “call out” to continue to mature our spiritual life and to live the spiritual principles, the mitzvot in all of our affairs. As Rabbi Heschel teaches us elsewhere, the mitzvah has to change our inner life or it is a mitzvah done in vain. We live in a society where God’s “call out” to us has become a contest rather than a connector. Where some people want to tell everyone else how to respond to this “call out”, instead of realizing God calls to each of us differently, we all have a different path to responding/answering God’s call because we are created different and unique from anyone else. No one can give everyone a ‘proper’ “answer to His will”, we all have to find our unique one within our self.
We do know that any response to “His will” that causes people to feel marginalized is an incorrect answer. We do know that anytime we are oblivious to the plight of another human being, anytime we inflict harm upon someone because of the faith they practice (or don’t practice), because of their gender, because of their sexuality, because of the color of their skin, we are not doing a mitzvah. We are not living “an answer to His will”, we are actually going against God’s “call out” to us.
Many people who claim to be people of faith are, in actuality, idolators. We are living in an era where some faith leaders preach hatred, intolerance, injustice to people who don’t believe the way they do. We are engaged in a great spiritual war, a war to decide if God’s call, the mitzvah, will be used for the betterment of humanity, the betterment of the universe or the betterment of certain individuals. Doing a mitzvah, while helping the individual immensely, is not done for a grade, it is not done for our egos, it is not done for notoriety, fame, fortune, it is done because we get to answer God’s “call out”, God’s claim on us. We seem to have forgotten the wisdom, the truth, the demand of Rabbi Heschel’s teachings and wisdom in these past 68 years!
In recovery, we are constantly “praying for God’s will and the power to carry it out”. We are well aware of our propensity to selfishness and self-centeredness. We know, if we are to recover our essence, our spirits, that we have to continue to hear God’s “call out” to us, just as we heard God’s “call out” to us to be in recovery, to be in connection with God once again, to return to living in a manner which honors our being a partner with God in making our corner of the world a little better.
I live in awe and radical amazement that God cares so much for me to continue to call me out, even when I have had deaf ears to God’s earlier calls, even when I have misunderstood God’s earlier calls. It is the reason I believe in and practice the forgiveness aspect of T’Shuvah so much, whether someone asks for it or not. Immersing myself in today’s writing validates for me the truth of forgiveness and compassion for the people who harm me while not stopping me from calling out what is good and what is evil in our world. Both of these actions are mitzvot, both are my answers to God’s will as I hear and understand it. I am more deliberate, I ask for advice and assistance to ensure that I am living the mitzvah that is most needed in this moment, and I know that I have to go with what my soul is telling me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark