Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 238
“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)
The last sentence above describes a basic truth that we have known forever, yet, most people forget and/or are willfully blind to. While “moments of despair” and “accepting our moral bankruptcy” are very important experiences in our spiritual journeys, they are not the moments of conversion. They are the moments of awareness of our need to make the conversion that Rabbi Heschel is calling us to and they don’t make the conversion happen. These “moments of despair” and “accepting our moral bankruptcy” can and should make us aware of seeking “to answer God’s question” and they are not the answer nor are they our “realization of our ability to answer God’s question.”
Affirmative Action is, I believe, a remedial response to the racism, the exclusion of black people from our institutions of higher learning. It is and has produced more equity and equality in the admissions process of our Colleges and Universities. It has educated white people about the effects of our exclusionary past, it has changed attitudes as well as attitudes of many who were willfully blind to the ways exclusion has ravaged our morality, our spirits and our progress towards living well. It is a ridiculous statement from these ‘good christian folk’ to say we have or should have a “colorblind” society. Since God created us in so many different colors with a myriad of spiritual paths, not recognizing our differences and celebrating them, not learning from and with black, asian, hispanic, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhists, etc is an affront to God and ignoring one of “God’s question”: Ayecha, where are you and MiHu, who are you. Does this decision also end “legacy” admissions, does it end “paying to get in with large donations”? Will it end Brown v Board of Education? Will it pave the way to teach the rewritten history of white men as Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida? Will any religion be allowed or only Christianity since these same people believe America is and should be a “Christian Nation”?
We are in desperate need of the “realization of our ability to answer God’s question” today as we have always been. The decisions by the Supreme Court in overturning precedents, in promoting a way of being that harkens back to our darker days of history, all point out our moral bankruptcy, our ignoring history, causing more “moments of despair” for people who are not White Anglo Saxon Protestants(Christians). These decisions and the actions of those in Congress who believe Trumps statement about “good people” who chant “Jews will not replace us”, who spout the ‘party line’ that Jan.6 was a peaceful demonstration of patriotic Americans, are all “moments of despair” and examples of “our moral bankruptcy”. These are not political decisions, these are not about adhering to some religious tenet, these are decisions and actions that go against our spiritual nature, that feed our “evil drive” and make “our ability to answer God’s question” almost impossible to achieve. We are in the throes of leadership who are co-opting people to follow them through feeding their “evil drive” and promoting “the evil drive” as the “good drive”-the most mendacious and deceptive activity of humankind. While their mendacity is ‘understandable’ what We, the People, have to do is end our self-deception and stop allowing our “good drive” to “be a helpmate” of our “evil drive.”
In recovery, after our “moment of despair”, our acknowledgment of powerlessness, then we “come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.” Once we realize that we need help and seek that help from the Spirit of the Universe, we turn our lives over to this Spirit to guide us and direct us, we travel into the depths of our being and clean out the schmutz and reveal the beauty and bright shiny light of our souls. For the rest of our lives, once we are in recovery, we are constantly seeking and responding to “God’s questions” through prayer, meditation, action and service.
“The realization of our ability to respond to God’s question” has been with me since the end of 1986 when I surrendered to God’s will rather than my own ego. It was not in despair that this happened, it was in a “moment of clarity”. I have been responding “to God’s question” to the best of my ability and I know there have been times when I misheard “God’s question” and was blind to what was needed from me by another(s). I continue to hone my “ability to respond” to the call of people and God that call to me daily. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark