Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 166
“The biblical answer to evil is not the good, but the holy. It is an attempt to raise man to a higher level of existence, where man is not alone when confronted with evil.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)
Now that the Seders are over, the work begins:) We count the Omer in the Jewish Tradition, 50 days until we reach Mount Sinai and receive the word of God, the experience of God and the guidance God gives so we can raise up to the “ holy”. It is also Good Friday today, when Christ and his disciples conducted a Seder and then, on Sunday, is Easter. These two holy periods, as I have said before, are periods of redemption. Immersing ourselves in Rabbi Heschel’s words, give us a new context for these events, the new context is raising our level of existence from the profane, from the depths of hopelessness, to the level of redemption, of hope, of connection, of the “holy”.
It is only through our connection to “holy” can we attain the help we need to confront the evil that is around us and the evil that is within us. Prejudice, our inability to hear one another, our stiff-neckedness, our need to project onto another the negativity that we participate in and feel are some of the facets of evil we battle with daily. Our indifference to the plight of the poor, the widow, the orphan, the stranger is an indifference to evil, and Rabbi Heschel warns us that this is the greatest evil. Our complacency to “that’s life”, to “this is the way it has always been”, “be a man and take it”, etc is an indifference to evil, it is a giving up to the forces in the universe that are self serving and authoritarian, it is admitting that our own inner evil is too much for us. Yet, Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and truth above seem to be ignored and this may be the greatest weapon evil has-our ignoring of truth, our ignoring of guidance, our ignoring of the opportunities to be “holy”. How we got here is not at issue here, what we do now that we are aware of where we are, how we are and what to do with this uncovering of our eyes, this taking off of the blinders, this is what is at issue right here, right now.
When school students walk out of classes and go to the State Building in Tennessee to protest the killing of 3 9-year old kids because the Republican majority won’t put a limit on assault weapons that were created for war situations, because they will not honor the humanity and dignity of LGBTQ+ and other ethnic minorities such as people of color, Jews, Muslims, etc, and the response is to unseat a duly elected Democratic Representative because he joined in a lawful, law-abiding protest, we are watching evil in action. When people go to church and hatred is spewed about “those people”, “the sinners”, “the murderers who exercise their freedom and choose abortion for any number of reasons”, we are witnesses and, for those who go along with these misguided clergy, practitioners of evil. We, the people, who left Egypt these past two nights, we, the people, who will celebrate Christ’s resurrection, and we do nothing to promote dignity and holiness, are not the people who follow Christ, are not the people who left Egypt. We are the people who chose to stay in the comfort of slavery, we are the people who desecrate Christ’s name and teachings. We are the people who give evil more energy, more fuel and more power.
We, the people, live life as Christ preached, we, the people, who followed Moses out of Egypt, out of narrow places, we are the people who must stand with the students, must stand with the statehouse legislators who stand with our children. We are the people who get to raise our self and one another to the level of holy” and use the guidance and assistance of the people around us and the power greater than ourselves, i e God to confront and transform evil into holiness, into service, into kindness, justice, mercy, compassion, love, truth and freedom. While right now we are beginning the journey through the wilderness, connecting with “holy” gives us community and strength to be invigorated and enriched by the travails along the wilderness trail from liberty to freedom.
“Honesty, open mindedness, willingness are the three key ingredients we learn in early recovery to be able to travail the pitfalls of our journey in recovery. They are also ingredients in reaching “holy”. We know that our journey is physical, mental and spiritual-with many of us believing that spiritual is the key component between not using and being in recovery.
“Holy” is not a constant state for me, it is the only state of being that has allowed me to change, to ward off the inner negativity that wants to bring me down, to face down my enemies with strength, courage and kindness. I need the help that God, community, family give me so I can transform the evil within and outside of me. God Bless, Rabbi Mark