Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 195
“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)
Immersing ourselves in these words of caution, wisdom and Rabbi Heschel’s call to us all will lead us to changing our selves and our world. Instead of increasing “the suffering of human beings” we can and must begin with healing our own inner suffering. Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries says: “hurt people hurt people.” We all suffer internally, whether from self-doubt, from our need for certainty, our fear of being responsible, our need to be right, our embarrassment for making an error of judgement, etc. All of this suffering is part of our human experience. We commit terrible crimes against humanity because of our inability, unwillingness to acknowledge our inner suffering, accept our suffering as part of the human experience, and heal our inner life. We can heal ourselves through connection, through seeing one another as divine reminders and divine images, through growing our spiritual experiences, and being responsible for our selves, our community, our actions. Father Greg and Homeboy Industries have taught us and given us ‘evidence based’ paths to “radical kinship”. Rabbi Heschel is calling out to us to see one another as fellow travelers, as fellow sufferings, as helpers and guides for one another.
This week I learned that Eric Trump, Roger Stone, and other Republicans are scheduled to be in Miami, Florida this weekend with the ‘Reawaken America Tour’ along with two proud anti-semites, Charlie Ward and Scott McKay. Ward and McKay go so far as to say that Jews were behind the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy! This has not gotten too much news coverage, the only people I have found reporting this are S.E. Cupp of the Chicago Sun-Times and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC. I wonder what they are reawakening America to?
It must be our recent history of extolling Hitler prior to Pearl Harbor, it must be a reawakening of Father Coughlin, the Christian Nation, Charles Lindbergh who thought Hitler was right, who were rabid anti-semites. Yet, we hear no denial, no denouncement by the Republican Party. We don’t even hear much about this travesty, this promoting of human suffering rather than concern for it in the media. We hear very little pushback about the lies being spread by Marjorie Taylor Greene, et al, from their Republican Party members, we are not hearing much condemnation of George Santos from Kevin McCarthy and the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives. Rather than engaging in healing their own inner sufferings which lead to the lies they spread and believe, these people along with most of us focus our energy and divert ourselves by blaming another, by engaging in mendacity regarding causes of suffering, and deceiving everyone else through spinning what is happening into a narrative they dream up.
“Hurt people hurt people” is an apropos description of what is happening in our daily living. When hurt people, people who are suffering gain power without healing their inner suffering, they take their hurt out on everyone else. Justice Clarence Thomas is reported to have told his law clerks in the 1990’s that he wanted to stay on the Court for 43 years because liberals had made his life miserable (during his hearing) and he wanted to do the same to them. So many of us take our suffering out on another(s) without realizing it, we defend it as ‘doing what god, parents, friends, society, etc’ wants and/or needs. So many of us are in denial of our own inner sufferings and bereft that we can heal them and this leads to many of the ills we encounter. More tomorrow.
Recovery teaches us that life is an inside job! We are not doomed to fate, we are not stuck in the torment of our inner sufferings, of our outer Pharaohs. We are, with the help of a power greater than ourselves/higher consciousness/God and our recovery group, our sponsor/guide, as well as others, able to heal our inner sufferings, able to repair the damage to our souls, able to change the ways we have been living and reacting to life’s stimuli. Being willing to live in the truth of what was, what is, what can be; the truth of our inner sufferings; the truth of how out of proper measure we have been; we are able to heal, to make better decisions, to connect and to live happy, joyous and free. I think we all need to be in recovery, as Harriet Rossetto says: “You don’t have to be an addict to be in recovery.” God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark