Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 180
“Jewish tradition, though conscious of the perils and pitfalls of existence is a constant reminder of the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good. We are taught to love life in this world because of the possibilities of charity and sanctity, because of the many ways open to us in which to serve the Lord.”More precious than all of life in the world to come is a single hour life on earth-an hour of repentance and good deeds.”(Avot 4:17)(God in Search of Man pg.377-8)
Rabbi Heschel’s words above apply to all spiritual disciplines and faiths. The mitzvah, good deeds, loving ones neighbor, honoring parents, caring for the stranger, widow, orphan, poor and the needy are major tenets in every faith tradition and all spiritual disciplines.
Yet, throughout history and in today’s world, we seem to have forgotten this due to ego, need to be right, drive for power, prestige, fame, wealth, etc. We are witnesses both through history and in our world today to the seemingly worship of the perils and pitfalls rather than engaging in “the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good.” This spiritual malady is permeating many faiths and many people are suffering in silence, in anger, in despair. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that we do not have to stay stuck in our spiritual maladies, we do not have to promote our faith, our spiritual path through hatred, comparison, denigration of other faiths, paths. We can, and I would add, must engage in the myriad of ways our faith traditions and spiritual disciplines are a “constant reminder of the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good.”
Too often people are suffering in life believing that in the world to come life will be better, our suffering has meaning and is a prelude of rewards to come. Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above calls to us to “love life in this world” not because of suffering, not because of despair, rather because of these “opportunities to do the good.”
What is the good? It is, as he states, “the possibilities of charity and sanctity, because of the many ways to serve the Lord.” “Charity begins at home” is a popular saying of people who do not want to give to another, do not want to give to causes. And, it is an important value for all of us. We have to be charitable with ourselves, we have to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt that we are good, we are capable of doing good, we need to do good, and the doing good enhances our spiritual life, our inner life, and our outer life. Instead of hating one another, instead of needing to make one another either our enemies or allies, instead of the enemy of my enemy being my friend, Rabbi Heschel is teaching us to value one another, to respect one another, to help one another. Rather that seeing danger around every corner, instead of living in an echo chamber of lies, mendacity, deception, instead of believing what someone is saying rather than watching what they are doing, we are being called upon to search out the “everlasting possibilities to do the good.” As Elie Wiesel once taught me, any form of hatred, even hating intolerance, is a slippery slope and will permeate our thinking, our actions and we will make evil good.
We have to return to a way of being that is in concert with serving God, serving one another. We have to see the poor, the needy, the stranger as opportunities to do the good” rather than view them with mistrust, disdain, fear and using them as “whipping boys”. We have to, in order to live into Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and teachings, find cures for the “cancer of the soul” that our prejudices are causing, we have to go to physicians of the soul to have our “eye disease” of prejudice in all of its ugly forms cured. We have to live into our own holiness and recognize the holiness/sanctity of every human being on earth. We are in desperate need of doing this, we are in desperate need of calling our spiritual leaders to task when they preach hatred in subtle and overt ways, we are in desperate need of finding pathways that help us overcome “the perils and pitfalls of existence.”
In recovery we are living Rabbi Heschel’s words. We are pulling ourselves out of the deep hole that engaging in “the perils and pitfalls of existence” has put us in. We know the dangers of which Rabbi Heschel is speaking of because we have lived them. In recovery, we adopt and live the spiritual principles which open us up to “the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good.” We engage in service, to ourselves through a constant path of ‘failing forward’ and being aware of our errors and repairing them; a path of spiritual growth, one grain of sand at a time; improving our conscious contact with God; as well as seeking opportunities to help another person who is new in recovery, another person in need, and being grateful for what we have, for what we can add to our corner of the world. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark