Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 201
“The problem of living does not begin with the question of how to take care of the rascals, of how to prevent delinquency or hideous crimes. The problem of living begins with the realization that all of us blunder in our dealings with our fellow man. The silent atrocities, the secret scandals, which no law can prevent, are the true seat of moral infection.” (God in Search of Man pg.383)
Throughout the history of humankind, these words of wisdom have been ignored and dismissed. This truth has been spoken by Moses, by the Prophets, by the Rabbis, by Christ, by Buddha, by Confucius, etc. Now we hear them again from Rabbi Heschel, some 58 years ago and we still ignore and dismiss them. In our misguided, mendacious belief that perfection is the goal and an attainable goal. Buying into the philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome (both civilizations having been destroyed) we engage in self-defeating actions, give a home to the cancerous actions of atrocities and scandals towards another human being and help spread the “moral infection” that is so rampant right now, as it has been during other times in history.
Elon Musk believes he has the right to his Anti-Semitic opinions and to express them publicly and loudly. He believes his ways of being are the example for all people, he is sure that he is always right, always perfect in everything he does and it is everyone else who is screwing things up. He was called, “the Henry Ford” of our generation-an apt description given Henry Ford’s anti-semitic spreading of the “elders of Zion protocols” and other anti-semitic tropes and behaviors. At the same time, Republican lawmakers are trampling on the 1st Amendment rights of teachers, parents, students, etc through banning books, deciding what the history of the United States should be, rather than teaching and learning from our past they are trying to whitewash it, making life and death medical decisions for women and believing they know more that the FDA. Rather than be responsible for the bills we have run up under both Republican and Democratic leadership, rather than helping the poor and the needy, rather than welcoming the stranger, they want to push us to the brink of defaulting on our word. Rather than both sides of the aisle admit “that all of us blunder in our dealing with our fellow man” they blame one another. Where is the taking of personal responsibility that is called for so often when caring for the poor, the needy and the stranger? What is preventing Kevin McCarthy from agreeing to a “Clean debt ceiling bill” and then arguing and compromising on spending for the next budget? What would he be saying if Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats had tried to extort his fearless leader and the man he bows down to; Donald Trump? He would have called it blaspheme, he would have called it a sin against god since he believes that god is with whomever has the gold, the power.
While I am pointing out some of the rascals of our time, I am using current events to show how pedestrian our blunders are, how we ignore them with our self-deceptions, with our clean-ups, with our rationalizations. We find so many ways to ignore the blunders “in our dealing with our fellow man” precisely because we want to have power over another, we want to seem like we are in control, like the rules do not apply to us. Even our Judges lean into their politics rather than lean into the constitution and the law nowadays. Their defense of impropriety, of hiding, of ‘if I do it, it must be okay’ is sad and dangerous. People looking for every loophole to validate their blunders, using the blunders and vulnerabilities of another against them are them are being extolled and proudly proclaim their blunders “in their dealing with our fellow man.” Rabbi Heschel is calling to us, he did during the ‘best of times’ under Ike and during today’s longing for the ‘good old days’ of Father Coughlin, Christian Nation, America First’s promoted by Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, et al. Will we hear the call?
Recovery is all about hearing the call. Whether from a power greater than ourselves, from a family member, from a Judge, a police person, an eskimo/friend, from deep in our soul, we come into recovery because of hearing a call. We quickly begin to move from defending our blunders to realizing them. We become aware of our errors in judgement and our errors in deeds, we slowly come to the realization that our way is not the only way nor necessarily the best way. We become teachable and we exchange the glasses of doom, blame, shame for a new pair through which we see possibility, responsibility, imperfection, community, and the truth of needing another(s) human being and being needed by another(s) human being. In recovery, our realization “that all of us blunder in our dealings with our fellow man” is seen as a relief and a challenge, not a defect nor something to hide. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark