Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 183
“The idea with which Judaism starts is not the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man but rather the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do the will of God. There is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah, and precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will. This is why despair is alien to Jewish faith.”(God in Search of Man pg.378)
Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above is a reminder for all of us about the preciousness of life. We have the opportunity at all times, in every situation, to take the next right action and rejoice in the preciousness of life and the joy of living well. While many people see the mitzvah as a burden and/or as something that is no longer necessary, Rabbi Heschel is calling our minds to be subservient to our souls’ longing to engage in doing a mitzvah, to immerse ourselves in taking the next indicated action to make our life and the lives of another(s) better.
In the book, The Path of the Just, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato writes in his introduction that nothing he is saying is new nor untrue, in fact because of the truth of the teachings, most people become oblivious to them and forget to live them. I find the same to be true with Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above. We have forgotten the preciousness of life and have bastardized the will of God to fit our desires and needs rather than “do a mitsvah” and celebrate “precious is life”.
There are people in power, some of our elected officials who plotted to overthrow our democratic government, who violated the oath they took to “protect and defend the constitution”, like Ted Cruz. His conversations with Fox News people show the underbelly of those who work hard to deceive people into believing that serving oneself, serving the authoritarian, is actually doing a mitzvah, is what God’s will is. People like Ted Cruz, people who make the stranger the enemy and the criminal, people like Kevin McCarthy who want to burden the poor and the needy while catering to the corporations and the rich, are the antithesis to the teaching above. The bastardization of our judicial system by appointing judges based on their following so-called ‘religious values’, those who believe they are above the law like Clarence Thomas, judges who take bribes which we know “blinds the eyes of the righteous”, is another example of denying the preciousness of life and not taking “the opportunity to do a mitsvah”. They have been co-opted by and co-opt people of faith into believing or promoting that their self-serving, self-centered desires are what God wants. We are witnesses to similar conditions that the prophets of Israel and Judea railed about, we are participants in the drama of destruction of the spirit and the principles that our country was founded on and the will of God while believing we are doing God’s will! It is sad that this is happening and it is sadder that we are ignoring the preciousness of life, we aren’t taking the myriad of opportunities to “do a mitsvah” and fulfill the will of God.
We are not lost, we are not powerless, God has not forsaken us. The “opportunity to do a mitsvah” is always in front of us. In Judaism we believe the gates of T’Shuvah; repentance, return and new responses; are always open and God cries for us to return from our exile from God. We have the power, the technology, the will and the help to take the next right action, to stand up to the liars and cheats, the deceivers and our own self-deception. Being a part of a community of people who seek to implement the wisdom of Rabbi Heschel, who seek to follow the examples of the prophets of the Bible, seek to join with the movements of Rev. King and Rabbi Heschel that promote the dignity of every human being, even those we disagree with. We are not stuck with the status quo, we are not powerless over the mendacity and evil in our midst, we have the wisdom and teaching of great spirits from all spiritual disciplines to buoy our spirits and give us guidance as to the next right action to take.
This way of being is one of the foundational pillars of recovery. We call it taking the next indicated action, taking Good Orderly Direction. The third step of the 12-step program is to “turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God”. We know that service is the key to leaving the “bondage of self” and living morally, with decency, helping one another, welcoming the stranger, etc are stepping stones to doing the will of God.
Each day I rejoice in the preciousness of life, I engage in doing God’s will and take the opportunity to do the mitzvah that is in front of me to do. This is the way I find and stay on the path that God wants me to be on, a path of justice, mercy, love, truth, compassion. Recovering my Judaism, learning with Rabbi Heschel, living in recovery all help me honor the preciousness of life. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark