Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 213
“The problem of living begins, in fact, in the way we deal with envy, greed, and pride. What is first at stake in the life of man is not the fact of sin, of the wrong and corrupt, but the neutral acts, the needs. Our possessions pose no less a problem than our passions. The primary task, therefore, is not how to deal with evil, but how to deal with the neutral, how to deal with needs.” (God in Search of Man pg. 383)
In the last sentence above, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us, teaching us what is at the root of evil, I believe: “how to deal with the neutral, how to deal with needs.” I am hearing Rabbi Heschel call to us to deal with both the neutral and our needs in order to not commit the evil, not commit “the silent atrocities, the secret scandals” that he taught us of earlier. When we refuse to take a stand, when we refuse to have an opinion, when we don’t discern/judge what is the next right action, we are in danger of falling into the abyss of evil, we are in danger of falling into ‘the neutral acts”. There really is no neutral action if we are to be serious about our covenant with God, our role as human beings. Each and every action leads us to the next, each and every action we take has consequence and meaning, each and every action grows or retards our inner life maturity and our outer life. The fallacy many people live under is being neutral is being benign, this is self-deception at its highest and a cover for the evil that is perpetrated in the name of the neutral.
Our needs cause us great consternation and great joy. When they are authentic needs, when they are needs that help us serve one another, serve our inner life, fulfilling them brings joy, betterment to those around us, beauty, and spiritual growth. When they are inauthentic, our needs cause us to have puffed up egos, do harm to another(s), be oblivious to the demands of decency and goodness, seek power and prestige for their own sakes rather than for the sake of moving ourselves and our community closer to goodness and farther from evil. We have been sold a lie by society that fulfilling the “American Dream” will bring us joy, happiness, etc. As we have witnessed, the amount of depression, addiction, isolation, low-grade misery has increased as we have ‘done better’. It is sad that people still believe having power over another human being will bring them joy, having a core of people to serve their needs without regard to the needs of these people will protect them, having inauthentic needs fulfilled with satiate them. All of these ‘promises’ by society have proven false, they have been debunked over and over, yet we continue to mishandle our needs, we continue to deal with our needs inappropriately and move forward our ability to commit evil, to engage in the “silent atrocities” and “secret scandals” without care or concern for one another and for our own souls.
We are witnesses to what seeking to fulfill inauthentic needs brings; war in Ukraine, non-governance in our House of Representatives, protection of the wealthy from paying their fair share of taxes, protecting the tax cheats by lessening the enforcement branch of the IRS, putting more of a burden on the poor by insinuating they are lazy and don’t want to work, making voting harder, attempting control of women, racism, anti-semitism, and other prejudicial behaviors. We are witnesses to the upending of constitutional and moral norms by the judicial system, justices deciding medical issues with no medical knowledge, the polarization of our society reminiscent of the pre-Civil War era and the authoritarianism reminiscent of the 1930’s-1940’s when some in Congress and the Media extolled Hitler and Nazism. These are all happening because we have not put into practice the lessons we have learned, through pain and suffering, of “how to deal with needs”.
In recovery, we know our false needs got us into grave danger; the dangers of loss of life, harming another, no longer being healthy, spiritual bankruptcy, depression, anxiety, isolation, unhealthy fears, obliviousness, selfishness, etc. We are acutely aware of our ability to engage in fulfilling our inauthentic needs so we are constantly stay vigilant, constantly on guard to be aware of when these false needs creep into our mind and let them go as soon as possible, so we don’t bring harm to ourselves and to anyone else. We do this through self-examination each day and by asking for help and guidance from another.
I am dedicated to hearing the call and demand of my soul/spirit. I am aware of the call of my desires and how they lead me to foolish behaviors and empty ‘victories’. I choose each day to live authentically, to fulfill the authentic needs, to serve and to love fiercely, completely and the best I can. Forgive and let go are authentic needs I fulfill. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark