Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 206
“The world is in need of redemption, but the redemption must not be expected to happen as an act of sheer grace. Man’s task is to make the world worthy of redemption. His faith and his works are preparations for ultimate redemption.” (God in Search of Man pg. 380)
As the Jewish world prepares to celebrate the Holy Days of Shavuot, the day on which God ‘appeared’ at Mount Sinai and spoke to every one of the people who left Egypt, these words, hopefully, resonate and reverberate. Tomorrow night, Jews around the world will gather to study, to repair ourselves, to get ready to receive the 10 Sayings/commandments once again. Each year we receive Torah, each year we recommit to God’s call to us, each year we say: “Na-aseh V’Nishma”, we will do and then we will understand. Unfortunately, each year we quickly forget all of this and, after we are done celebrating, we go back to our old ways.
Shavuot is not just a holiday, it is a Holy Day, a day of recognition, a day of commitment, a moment of choice. We are called to do more than hear the words of the 10 Sayings/commandments, we are called to act on them. We are called to acknowledge that God is God and we are not! We are called to remember we were “brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” God’s “mighty hand and outstretched arm” was not a one and done experience, God is always reaching for us, always calling to us, always waiting for our reconnection. Yet, we seem to be unable to follow through on what we heard at Mount Sinai and continue to hear each day. The Talmud says that God cries out each night for us because we have put ourselves in exile from God. While many people wonder where is God, in any situation, God’s question is: “Where are you?”
Our technology, our hubris, our inability to live with uncertainty, our rational minds, our search for power and prestige, wealth and security have led us to where we are today; separate from God, deaf to God’s call, and unable/unwilling to “make the world worthy of redemption.” Whether it is the election of leaders who care only about weaponizing Government, who only care about tearing down our democratic process’ for their own power and gain, whether it is people who blindly and willingly follow their baser instincts and drives, whether it is our seemingly incessant need for self-deception and being deceived by another(s), we continue to mouth the words of faith, we continue to preach the ‘word of God’ and, like our ancestors, continue to fail in the doing and understanding of God’s call to us at Mount Sinai, throughout the Bible, God’s call to us today, and we keep hiding from “God’s Search for Man”!
Isn’t it time for us to let go of our old ways? Isn’t it time for us to actually follow through on both God’s call and our response? Isn’t it time to surrender to God’s will rather than try and make our will God’s will? Isn’t it time for all of us to actualize “do unto others what you would have them do unto you”? Does Jim Jordan really want the hatred and lies he spreads, the venom he puts out done to him? Does Mitch McConnell want the Supreme Court politically packed against him? Yet, we find ourselves unable to live into the words of Jesus and the words of Rabbi Hillel who said: “what is hateful to you, do not do unto another”. We seem to be unable to “Na-Aseh V’Nishma”, do and then understand these truths, these ways of being that we hold up as dear and holy. We seem to speak the words of God and act in direct opposition to them. And while people wonder why the Redeemer hasn’t shown up, where is God; I suggest that in our present state we would not recognize the Messiah, the Redeemer and maybe she/he has been here and we ignored the message and the opportunity to be redeemed!
In recovery, redemption is a foundational goal and action. All of the steps, all of our actions point towards our making ourselves “worthy of redemption”. We “Came to believe a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity”. Sanity, in this context for me, is the awareness and knowledge of God’s call and our actualizing taking the actions that we are directed and then understanding and experiencing the redemption God’s grace gives us.
I have erred in making “the world worthy of redemption” at times and I have heard the call of God and taken the actions that have made no sense to me only to understand the depths of knowledge and joy that come with them. I continue to immerse myself in life, I continue to ask: “what is the question this experience is the answer to”, “what is the action I am being called to” and “what have I learned today”. I live into the challenges of my life, the challenges of being alive, the challenges of making “the world worthy of redemption” a little more each day and I pray we all do as well. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark