Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 237

“We believe that the ego can become converted to a friend of the spirit. “The evil drive” may become the helpmate of “the good drive.” But such conversion does not come about in moments of despair, or by accepting our moral bankruptcy, but rather through the realization of our ability to answer God’s question.”(God in Search of Man pg. 384/5)

In the New York Times on June 28, 2023, Tish Harrison Warren writes about “a consistent ethic of life”. While I don’t agree with her and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin that “a “whole life” ethic entails a commitment to life “from womb to tomb”, I do agree in our necessity to have “a consistent ethic of life.” In order to accomplish this way of being, we have to stop separating and bifurcating our ethics, our morals, our spiritual/religious into ‘personal’, ‘business’, ‘religious’, ‘political’, categories. This separation and bifurcation is an example of how “the evil drive” subverts “the good drive”, how “the ego” is the enemy of “the spirit “without our awareness. Many ‘good people’ live in these and other separations unwittingly, they are aware of these categories and believe it to be ‘the way life is’, instead of bringing “the ego” into a friendship with “the spirit” and making ““the evil drive” become the helpmate of “the good drive””.

In Jewish literature, the Talmud, we learn of the necessity of “the evil drive” in Tractate Yoma 69b. It tells the story of imprisoning “the evil drive” for 3 days and they could not find a fresh egg! Our “evil drive” is not our enemy, it is given to us by God to motivate us and to work under the guidance and direction of our “good drive”, yet when we are living a bifurcated and separated life, “the evil drive” controls “the good drive” and we buy into this self-deception, we wrap ourselves in some cause, some charity work, some ideal and live the lie that we are in control, that what we do is good and right. This is the cunning of “the evil drive”, this is how “evil flourishes when good people do nothing” because we believe we are doing something. We are doing something, giving our “evil drives” more power and enhancing the very “evil drive” that we speak against. This is happening in our religious communities, our political parties, our business’, our families, our communities, our world. We need to heed Rabbi Heschel’s call to us to stop giving “the evil drive” so much unchecked power!

We do this by looking within ourselves and seeing the areas of incongruence, the paths we take that lead us away from living an integrated, “consistent ethic of life”, knowing that life is not consistent, following the lead of the Rabbis who take God’s commandments and apply them to today’s living-not to live in the past, rather to continually expand and contract as necessary the basic foundational underpinnings of living well.

“The evil drive” gives us hope that we can accomplish the ‘impossible’ by becoming “the helpmate of the “good drive.”” In the Torah we learn about Pinchas’ zealotry and many people see this as a good thing, as ‘the way to be’. Yet a close reading, immersing ourselves in the text, can make us aware that Pinchas was going to be the High Priest anyway upon the death of his father Eliezer, his ‘reward’ is actually God helping him tame his unchecked “evil drive” and make it serve his “good drive” by helping people return from their own errors, perform the rituals of sacrifice(drawing near) for the community and the individual. Rather than rewarding zealotry, God helps Pinchas reign in his “evil drive” and use it to serve the people, not himself. We all have the opportunity to do this for ourselves with the help of a power greater than ourselves, with the help of teachers and guides. We all can be like Pinchas and make “”our evil drive” become a helpmate of “the good drive.”” We can all live a “consistent ethic of life.” We are able, we have the examples, we have the teachers and guides, are we willing?

Willingness is a hallmark of recovery. Our recovery is dependent upon our willingness to change, our willingness to accept teachers and guides, our willingness to hear the call of our “good drive”. We grow into living “ a consistent ethic of life” because we are willing to “practice these principles in all our affairs.” We know our imperfections, we “seek progress not perfection.” And we find joy and connection by being the same person, no matter the role we are in.

I am Pinchas in zealousness and in service. I live “a consistent life ethic” because I don’t separate nor bifurcate my ethics. I can’t cast someone away and tell them I still “love them” like I did before recovery. I have to be open to doing T’Shuvah and accepting the T’Shuvah of another, I have to be forgiving towards another(s) and myself. I am living “a consistent ethic of life” because I know we are all imperfect and we all can return. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark