Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 159
“There is no reverence for God without reverence for man. Love of man is the way to the love of God. The fear lest we hurt a poor man must be as deep as the fear of God, for He that oppresses the poor blasphemes his maker, but he who is gracious unto the needy honors Him (Proverbs 14:31).”(God in Search of Man pg.375)
The word reverence comes from the Latin meaning ‘to stand in awe of’. On the first sentence above, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that all of our prayers, all of our mitzvot, all of our deeds are for naught without ‘standing in awe’ of the human being before us. Since we are all created in the Image of God, any disdain, any dismissal, any bullying, any scapegoating of another human being is an action against God as well as another person. This doesn’t mean that we don’t hold each other accountable for actions taken, it means even in our accountability we have to ‘stand in awe’ of the human being in front of us.
It also is telling me that we have to stand in awe of our self. Living this teaching of Rabbi Heschel’s means no longer engaging in self-denigration, no longer engaging in self-deprecation, no longer believing our self-deceptions and no longer believing the deceptions of another. We are being called on by Rabbi Heschel, I believe, to look in the mirror and see our own divine image, to go about our daily activities remembering everything we do needs to be done with the knowledge that we are divine reminders and divine needs, as Rabbi Heschel teaches us in his interview with Carl Stern.
Humanity has never fully lived into the truth and wisdom of the first sentence above and herein lies our difficulty with evil, herein lies our propensity to blame, shame, etc. Every human being “yearns to breathe free” as Emma Lazarus reminds us in her words on the Statue of Liberty. Every one of us in America are immigrants, except for the Native Americans. When we complain about immigrants, as we have throughout the history of America, we are not showing reverence for God, no matter how much we wrap ourselves in the particular spiritual discipline we follow. When we deny equal ‘status’ to people of color, we are not ‘standing in awe’ of God nor human beings. When we believe people need Assault weapons for ‘sport’, when we believe people need high-capacity magazines for their guns, knowing that these are specious arguments and our mass shootings occur with these weapons and magazines, we are not ‘standing in awe of God nor human beings. When we blame the perpetrators alone, not the lack of training, closer inspection of people’s mental health, when we blame the victims as people do by saying the doors should be locked, etc, we are not ‘standing in awe of God nor human beings.
When we deny the rule of law and say some people are above the law, “there is no reverence for God” nor human beings. When we punish people according to the color of their skin, the religion they follow differently than we punish white people, “there is no reverence for God.” When we replace faith with creed, “worship with discipline, love by habit,” when today’s crisis is ignored because we are having euphoric recall of the past, to paraphrase the opening chapter of God in Search of Man, “there is no reverence for God” nor for human beings. When we fail to see the uniqueness of another human being, when we make another human being ‘the other’ “there is no reverence of God” nor of human beings.
In recovery, we know we have ‘to stand in awe’ of God and another human being in order to stay in recovery. Our previous ways of being denigrated the divine image of our self and everyone else. Where we saw differences, we look for similarities, where we blamed another person for our situation, we take responsibility for our part. Where we engaged in entitlement, we are now of service. Each morning we “turn our will and our life over to the care of God” and have reverence for God and for human beings.
I realize that my reverence for another human being is easily misinterpreted by the way I may show it. The “fire in the belly” that I experience in seeking truth, speaking truth; my ability to see the divine image in another human being and break down all the walls and defenses people have put around their divine image has driven me at times to be abrasive, argumentative, loud, blunt, impolite, insensitive to people’s feelings. Today’s teaching above reminds me to be true to my own divine image and the divine need I am meant to fulfill. I also realize that not everyone wants to hear me, not everyone can hear the ways I fill God’s call to me. I have to have more reverence for people who need a different way so I can have more reverence for God. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark