Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 191
“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)
Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above is from his essay: “The reasons I was involved in the Peace Movement”(1972). I remember hearing them from one of my Rabbis’, Rabbi Mel Silverman when I was a prison inmate in1987. Rabbi Mel spoke of hearing Rabbi Heschel speak to a group of Rabbis and how this moved him to change from being a pulpit Rabbi to a Prison Rabbi. Rabbi Mel wanted to make a difference and he could no longer shirk his responsibility for the spiritual malady that was afflicting people who went to prison.
In the light of the shootings in Allen Tx on May 6, 2023, these words haunt me, and should haunt us all. We are in desperate need for our elected officials, our communal leaders, and each of us to be “involved in the Peace Movement”. We are in desperate need for everyone to immerse ourselves “in the thinking of the prophets”, to become clear on “what the lives of the prophets sought to convey:”, that “there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings” and stop the carnage that is happening in our streets, our homes, our democracy.
Listening to the Governor and Lt. Governor of Texas send their prayers and thoughts, listening to Ted Cruz tweets: “Heidi and I are praying for the victims…”, hearing the Republican Congressman lauds the prompt police action. All of these statements, while true and nice, fail to heed Rabbi Heschel’s demand to all of us. These mendacious elected officials do not care nor do they have concern for the suffering of human beings as evidenced by their lack of action on sensible gun control. These deceivers blame mental health issues while refusing to pass laws about background checks. These false prophets blame guns rather than the proliferation of guns they promote. These ‘good christians’ pray to a false idol they have constructed and take none of the actions that Jesus spoke about, that the prophets railed about. Some of these people cowered and ran for cover when the Insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 happened and now extol these hoodlums as patriots, were in on the plans to disrupt our democratic norm of a peaceful transfer of power, and take actions on their prayers to keep these AR-15’s
“coming to a town near you”!
Mass shootings and the hatred these politicians, Fox News, other Media outlets and everyday people are spreading that foster an atmosphere where these horrors are becoming commonplace are not a mental health problem in the classical sense of the phrase. These are not happening because someone did not take their meds today for their bi-polar, depression, anxiety, etc diagnosis. Mass Shootings are happening because we are in a spiritual crisis, a moral crisis, a crisis of mendacity. We have come to view political differences as war, thanks to Newt Gingrich and the deceptions he and his Republican cronies promoted in the 1990’s. We have forgotten the “compassionate conservatism” that President George W Bush spoke of. We have bought into the deception of our elected officials who believe in terrorism more than they believe in democracy, who believe it is right to be ‘bought’ by special interests groups that guns are freedom.
We have lost our moral compass as individuals and as a country, we are in a deep spiritual crisis because “faith is completely replace by creed”(God in Search of Man pg 3), we have jettisoned truth in favor of power and money. Jewish tradition teaches that God is Truth, the prophets spoke truth to power and these ‘good christian folk’ are praying to some false idol when they send their prayers rather than take action to limit, prevent as much as possible the bloodshed and, more importantly “the suffering of human beings” from the hatred they promote.
The recovery movement is a spiritual solution to more than alcoholism, it is a spiritual solution to the lies we have become addicted to as a community, a people, a country. “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God” doesn’t entail hating our brother/sister in our hearts, does not mean it is okay to ignore the “suffering of human beings” in our midst, does not mean we have the cures for what ails us, it means we have to seek God’s help, the help of all people and not be locked up anymore in our self-deceptions and the deceptions of another(s). God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark