Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 139
“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)
In light of the rise of authoritarianism around the world and in our own country, Rabbi Heschel’s call, which I hear as a demand, to live our obligation to the covenant at Sinai, to follow the “word of God”, is all the more urgent. Florida, Georgia, Israel all are trying to usurp the rule of law, to bastardize the “word of God” and make one political party the arbiter of what is good. Rather than using the “aid of God” to overcome our nature, some people in power are attempting to replace God’s Will with their own, become the Commander instead of the commanded, decide what is right in their eyes instead of following what is right in God’s ‘eyes’. Rather than honor the covenant we made at Sinai, some people are practicing idolatry by making “the nature of man” overpower the “nature of man”.
The experience at Sinai was not the same for each person as the Rabbis’ teach us, each person there had their own experience of God’s presence, just as each person after crossing the Red Sea had their own experience. Yet everyone agreed that God’s presence was there in both places, everyone agreed on what God said, everyone agreed to “do and then understand” God’s Will and take action on the mitzvot, the commandments, the “word of God”, of this there was no disagreement. Today, some people have decided to change the “word of God” to fit their own nature, they are using the Sinai experience to become the ‘retribution’, the judge of judges, the ‘only one that can save us’ from “those people”! We, the People, have to stop these deceivers, we, the people, have to stand up for the covenant that we inherited from our ancestors at Sinai, we, the people, have to proclaim the “word of God” as our ancestors experienced it at Sinai, as the prophets proclaimed it, as we have wrestled with it throughout the millennia. We are well aware of the destruction caused when we have given in to “the nature of man” and not used the “aid of God” to live well, to grow our inner lives, and to make our corner of the world a little better.
Yet, we find ourselves as our ancestors found themselves, in a war of epic proportions. We are in a war against mendacity, we are in a war against the modern-day Pharaohs, we are in a war for the dignity of the human spirit, we are in a war for living “the word of God”. We are in a war to honor the covenant, we are in a war to follow through on our commitment at Sinai, we are in a war to “care for the widow, the orphan, the poor, the needy and the stranger”. We are in a war for the soul of our country, our neighbor and our selves. It is time for us to “gird our loins” and take up the shield with the star of David on it and fight for God’s Will instead of fighting to continue and grow “the nature of man”. It is a battle of the ages, it is a battle for now.
Today is the 58th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the voting rights bill passed that year has been gutted by Congress and the Courts-the same people in Congress and the same Justices, ideologically, who today want to usurp the rule of law, who want to deny the right to vote to people who do not agree with them. DeSantis’ authoritarian laws in Florida, Kemp’s authoritarian laws in Georgia, the “red” states that Marjorie Taylor Greene want to divorce/secede from the rest of the union, all are waving the banner of idolatry and proclaiming these are the “word of God”. They set themselves up as Pharaoh and want the rest of us to be slaves to their idolatry and their inhumane ways of living. While this is not new in the history of humankind, it is reaching a crescendo in our time for all of us alive right now. We have to stop this deception, we have to end this incarnation of idolatry, we have to reclaim the “word of God”, we have to reclaim the experience of Sinai, we have to renew the authentic, true covenant we made with God there! It is truly up to us, we each have to be foot-soldiers for “the word of God”!
In recovery, we live the principles of our Higher Power, as we understand our Higher Power to emulate the experience of Sinai, of the Red Sea. We all have our own experience with God, of God and we all commit to the principles of truth, service, willingness, surrendering our will to fulfill God’s will, etc. We are a protest movement in and of ourselves, we work hard each day to fulfill the “word of God” by beginning with our morning prayers, meditations, rosaries, etc. We make a gratitude list reminding ourselves of how blessed by God we are, we make a plan to live into, lean into serving people in need rather than taking advantage of them and we recognize the divine spark in all humans. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark