Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 184
“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)
The word alien comes from the Latin meaning “belonging to another”. Rabbi Heschel’s use of this word in the last sentence teaches us to not take something which belongs to another. Despair comes from the Latin meaning “lack of hope”. Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom is reminding us to have faith, in the Jewish tradition and, I would add in any spiritual discipline, we have to have hope, we have to not take on something that belongs to another. This is a great challenge for most of us. We live in a world where despair is normalized, where hope is constantly being crushed by “harsh burdens” like those the Israelites experienced in Egypt. As Rabbi Heschel said at the Conference on Race and Religion in 1963, “At the first conference on religion and race, the main participants were Pharaoh and Moses…The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end.”
When we fall into despair, when we see hope as alien to us rather than despair, evil wins. We are seeing this a great deal in our world today. In despair we believe despots, we believe the Pharaoh’s who are telling us “work will make you free” as long as the work is what they want. In despair we are so spiritually ill, what is evil looks good, what is mendacity seems like truth, what is cruel seems kind, what is fascist and enslaving seems democratic and freeing. In despair our ability to engage and overcome our self-deception wanes terribly. In despair, Carlson, Trump, McCarthy, Cruz, Greene, Bannon, Pence, DeSantis, et al appear to be Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, instead of the Stalins, Pharaohs, Orbans, Putins, they truly are.
Rabbi Heschel, in 1955, knew what was happening and what was coming. He saw the dangers of fascism were still alive, he realized “the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man” was still strong and without wonder, without mitzvot/doing the next right thing, we would lose our desire “to do the will of God” and/or replace God’s will with our own will and serve our will and/or the will of Pharaoh. Unfortunately, his vision and his concern are alive and well right here, right now. Harry Belafonte, of blessed memory, said it best: “we have lost our radical thinking”. Rabbi Heschel is a radical thinker, Martin Luther King Jr. is a radical thinker, William Barber is a radical thinker, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith (the founders of AA) are radical thinkers. There are more radical thinkers today, and we have to listen to them, we have to act upon their wisdom, their visions, their words. We have to return to fulfilling the radical thinking of the Founding Fathers, build a nation of equality, build a nation of providing “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to all people without regard to gender, race, religion, creed, ethnicity, etc. We have to fulfill the radical thinking of Rev. King and judge people on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. We have to fulfill the radical thinking of Rabbi Heschel:” In a free society, some are guilty all are responsible.”
In the Jewish Faith, as in Recovery, despair does not belong to us. Jews and people in recovery pray for “knowledge of God’s will and the power to carry it out”, we do not pray for gifts, for riches, we pray to hear the call of God, to envision what the mitsvah in front of us is for us to do. We know that hope is alive and well in Judaism just by the fact there are Jews today, no matter how many times Pharaoh has tried to kill us with harsh labors, no matter how often Pharaoh has put us in Ghettos so we could take on what belongs to another, despair. The same is true in recovery! Early recovery is fearful and overwhelming, it is also exhilarating and hopeful because instead of Pharaoh, we are witness’ to the exodus from Egypt and there are many leaders, many Moses’ in the rooms for recovery. Instead of surrendering to the will of Pharaoh/despair, we hear and attach ourselves to the will of God, to the knowledge that just because it has always been this way doesn’t mean it has to stay this way. Faith, spirituality in both recovery and Judaism leads us to hope, to connection with God, to connection with another(s) human being and connection to our own souls.
Jerry Borovitz, z”l, taught me that there is always hope. He was a salesman who believed the next sale was around the corner. He had a smile and a handshake for everyone. I have not wallowed in despair, I have been troubled, I have worried more than necessary, and I know there is something to be learned and another mitzvah with my name on it to be done. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark