Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 199
“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)
Witnessing what is happening in our world right now, knowing the history of humankind, we need to live into both Rabbi Heschel’s words and actions more rather than less! Whether it is extolling choking a person to death on a subway, mass shootings, holding the nation’s economy hostage so as to reduce the aid we give to those less fortunate, engaging in mendacity, holding sham hearings, we are in a state of being where we are ignoring “what the lives of the prophets sought to convey.” Humankind has the erroneous idea that perfection is the goal and we deny our foibles, our imperfections. We hide them from ourselves, we defend them as right and true to another(s), we live lives of dis-integration and take our angst over imperfect natures out on another(s) so as to feel good about ourselves. We are missing the wisdom, the demand of Rabbi Heschel, the call of the prophets and the will of God to be responsible. Without responsibility there is no integration of the self. We have seemingly opposing inclinations by design and we seek to deny this inner struggle by looking good, defending what we do wrong and not being responsible for our errors. This is a denial of what it means to be human, hence we continue to commit cruelties “in the name of a free society.”
Using the Torah, Jesus’ words, any of the Eastern philosophies, we see that imperfection is the permanent state of humanity. The goal of these spiritual paths is to be responsible for and to our imperfections, to stop the war within ourselves that we fight because we mistake our inclinations being at war with one another rather than realizing they compliment one another. Our good/divine inclination keeps us striving to hear and respond to the demand of ‘what is the next right action to take and to be responsible for our errors and our successes in this endeavor. Our evil/earthly inclination is the power and force to fulfill this demand and to stop hiding from ourselves and another(s), to be in action and learn from our errors and our victories. Living into a spiritual discipline, going to therapy, are to help us to integrate our inclinations and have them work together. Our challenge is to serve something greater than our self, our ego and in doing so, we realize our ability to stop the war within, to rise above our need for certainty and perfection and live into, as Rabbi Harold Shulweis taught, being Godly.
We are so lost in denial, in irresponsibility, in shame and blame, in dis-integration, in spiritual sickness, we have come to believe that bitter is sweet, that hiding is transparency, that kicking the poor, the needy, the stranger is actually caring for them, that might makes right, that mendacity is truth. Without being responsible for all that is happening in our lives individually and collectively, we stay stuck in doing the opposite of “what the lives of the prophets sought to convey.” We shirk our responsibility for what is happening, we ignore “the sufferings of human beings” rather than have concern for them. We actually hear people deny their cruelties towards one another, we witness the degradation of human beings and stay silent, we wring our hands rather than standing up for one another, rather than “thou shall surely rebuke thy neighbor”. To “love thy neighbor as thyself” we must be responsible for one another, we must be responsible to integrate our inclinations, we must stop the blame/shame cycle, we must embrace our imperfections and improve our self each and every day.
In recovery, while we don’t take one another’s inventory, we help one another live better, learn to accept our imperfections. While we pray for the removal of “every defect of character” we also acknowledge it is going to take our inner work to transform these “defects of character” into character assets. Our recovery stands on the foundation of being responsible and learning to live an integrated life.
I look at my life continually. I do the best I can in every interaction and there are times when my vision is clouded and I have been dis-integrated, causing more harm than good. I know this, I make amends for these moments, I learn to improve, be more integrated in my inner life, and I know integration in some areas has come very slowly. I seek to be responsible for my actions and the actions of another. I know Rabbi Heschel’s words are the path forward, concern for the suffering of human beings, including ourselves and being responsible and healing the cruelties we perpetrate are the only ways to heal our selves and our world. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark