Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 227
“It is not by the rare act of greatness that character is determined, but by everyday actions, by a constant effort to rend our callousness. It is constancy that sanctifies. Judaism is an attempt to place all of life under the glory of ultimate significance, to relate all scattered actions to the One. Through the constant rhythm of prayers, disciplines, reminders, joys, man is taught not to forfeit his grandeur.” (God in Search of Man pg. 384)
Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above about Judaism as “an attempt to place all of life under the glory of ultimate significance, to relate all scattered actions to the One” is a call to all of us, Jew and non-Jew, to stop worrying about our status, our power, our false egos and pride. I hear him demanding us to return to the Ineffable One and surrender all of our egocentric actions so we can experience glory, experience connection, live on a continuum of moving towards “rend our callousness” and use our character traits “in proper measure” as Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz teaches.
Watching the documentary, “Shiny happy people” yesterday and learning about IBLP was scary, sad and an example of people using God to increase their callousness not “rend” it. The people of IBLP truly believe they are ‘doing God’s work’ while enslaving women and children to serve themselves, not God. They are, as we have heard before and from many people, seeking to make the United States “a Christian Nation” which is NOT what the founding fathers sought! Enshrined at the same time as the Constitution was the Bill of Rights, the first of which speaks to freedom of religion. The separation of government and religion, was not to say religious tenets have no place in governing, rather, I believe it is so no one religion can enslave everyone else to their way of being.
When we “attempt to place all of life under the glory of ultimate significance” we are surrounding to the truth of “You Matter”, we all matter and every action we take is important, meaningful and either retards or progresses our goal of experiencing the “glory of ultimate significance”. We get to make this choice every day, every hour, and Rabbi Heschel is calling to us to wake up, to stop ignoring the essence of what Judaism is, what all religious and spiritual disciplines are. He uses the word “attempt” which reminds us of our fallibility, our imperfections, our folly of perfection. The use of “attempt” also leaves open the door to other paths which “place all of life under the glory of ultimate significance” because there is no “one size fits all” in how we live, how we serve, how we be free and how we encourage another(s) to be free in their own ways. Bringing “all of life under the glory of ultimate significance” does not give us the power to determine what “ultimate significance” is for everyone, it doesn’t give us the right to dictate how every person is supposed to do this. As the Jewish tradition teaches us, each of us is unique and has our own path, our own corner of the world to repair, our own garden to till, nurture and grow, so we all have to “place all of life under the glory of ultimate significance” in our own way.
Rabbi Heschel is again teaching us the importance of surrendering our ego, surrendering our need for power, for omnipotence, for ‘knowing the only way’ to “place all of life under the glory of ultimate significance”. Glory can be defined as praise, in Hebrew it is the same word for beauty, in the Kabbalah, it is the blending of kindness and restrictive power. I am hearing Rabbi Heschel calling to us to look at our actions before and after we take them through the lens of: Is this action praiseworthy, is this action an actual praise of God, is this action a blending of strength/proper use of our individual and collective power and kindness? Doing this, asking these questions before and/or after our actions will help us learn and further our march towards fulfilling the words of acceptance we spoke at Mount Sinai, the words of gratitude and praise we cried out at on the other side of the Red Sea. This action will further “Man’s Search for Meaning” as Viktor Frankl teaches us.
In recovery, steps 4-10 remind us and teach us about the significance of our actions. They give us the perspective and the lessons to help us determine not only how we did not “place all of life under the glory of ultimate significance” they help us see where we did and how we can moving forward. My experience with prayer and meditation, with inventory and T’Shuvah, with this daily writing continues to help me move forward in the quest Rabbi Heschel is teaching us about. I continue to learn and grow, I continue to be remorseful for my missed opportunities, I continue to ask the questions above and surrender falseness, mendacity, and self-deception so I can bring my disparate actions together in service of God. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark