Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 197
“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)
We live in a world of blame and shame, a world of either/or, a world of ‘the one who has the gold, rules’. We are witnesses each day to “cruelties committed in the name of a free society” and, it seems, we are indifferent, unmoved and point the finger elsewhere. This began with Adam in the Garden of Eden and we have learned his lesson well rather than the lesson of responsibility that his experience taught us. Rather than hearing God’s call to Cain to be responsible for his murdering of his brother Abel, we continue to deny and blame, make excuses and shame another(s).
Corporations no longer have to take responsibility, they can pay a fine and admit no guilt. Fox News doesn’t have to apologize for the lies they tell, they only have to pay money. Our politicians send our young men and women to wars based on lies, so they and their cronies can make money without ever admitting they were wrong. Racism is rampant in our justice system and we blame the people we are incarcerating rather than be responsible for the conditions we have created that cause these crimes. People become addicts usually to escape the lies and deceptions of themselves and another(s) and we blame them instead of understanding what is happening and help them heal. Our healthcare system is so broken that the poor and the needy have to suffer and/or use our emergency rooms for their doctor visits while people are angry about it and blame them, not the system. The poor and the needy are suffering and we stand idly by and do nothing. Homelessness is rampant and we blame the homeless for their own problems. We sit in judgement of another(s) and continually shirk our responsibilities to help, to solve, to resolve.
We are afraid to live Rabbi Heschel’s call to us, we are afraid to admit that we are co-responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people from the Pandemic, from war, from the carnage on our streets. We are unwilling to accept our responsibility in and for what ails us, spiritually, mentally and physically. As a society we are unwilling to live into our part in whatever is happening that is not ‘good’, that does not extol us. We would rather blame another than be responsible for our part in what is happening. We would rather blame another than seek to find real solutions to what ails us as a society. We would rather worry about our money and power than be responsible and “care for the poor, the needy, the stranger” as God commands us to do in the Bible. Our society likes to claim they are doing “God’s work” while they steal, deny, blame and shame another(s).
In “a free society, some are guilty while all are responsible” is more than a bumper sticker, it is a prescription of how to live in the ways of the prophets. It is one of those phrases that sums up our responsibility as human beings, our demand from God. As our politicians, our clergy, our civil rights leaders, our employers, etc are figuring out their next moves to solve the problems they see, I hear Rabbi Heschel calling all of us to come together and deal with the problems God sees. I hear him calling us to account for: our actions good and not good; our inactions; our indifference to evil and suffering; our inability to take responsibility; and find a path forward that honors the dignity of our society and the members in it, find a path forward that honors our being a partner of God.
In recovery, we have group consciences’ to determine how to deal with any issues that arise in our meetings. We see ourselves as trusted servants rather than as leaders and deciders. We engage in being responsible for our actions, for the actions of the group and we stay away from politics, controversy, etc. We are focused on how to help, how to heal, how to be better human beings each day.
The prophets and Rabbi Heschel live inside of me, always have even when I could not articulate this truth and didn’t understand nor know how to live into it. I inherited this fire from my father and for a long time the fire consumed me instead of me using the fire to make things better. In my recovery, in my return to Judaism, I am doing the latter much more often than the former. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark