Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 215
“Worship and living are not two separate realms. Unless living is a form of worship, our worship has no life. Religion is not a reservation, a tract of rime reserved for solemn celebrations on festive days. The spirit withers when confined in splendid isolation.” (God in Search of Man pg. 384)
Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above was relevant in 1955 when this book was published, it is a restatement of the call of the prophets, it is critical for us now. We live in a world of bifurcation, an either/or world, a time of great extremes. We are witnessing a bastardization of what worship is, we are participating in facade of ‘living religiously’. When people proclaim, “my way is the way of God”, “this is the only way”, “God wants us to exclude people”, “God doesn’t love the poor, the stranger as much as God loves the rich and the citizen”, they are separating their living from their worship. Even worse, they have turned worship into a self-serving act that has nothing to do with God’s will, God’s call. Hence, I understand the title of this book to humble us to allow ourselves to be found by God instead of telling God and another(s) that we know God!
It is impossible for people to call their “living is a form of worship” when their living is based on, promotes hatred of anyone not like them. It is impossible for people to call their “living is a form of worship” when they take the words of God and twist/spin them to satisfy their need for power, when they spin them for their own political gain. It is wrong for people of faith to badger, belittle, abhor the stranger and the widow, the poor and the orphan, and call this God’s will. It is told that there are 70 ways to understand and live the Torah/Bible so there cannot be just one way. Kindness, love, welcoming the stranger, caring for the needy and the poor are mentioned so often in the Bible, whether Hebrew Bible or New Testament, it is insane for people to separate their politics, their actions from their study and their worship.
I believe one of the reasons so many more people respond “none” when asked about their faith is they are aware of the mendacity that ‘people of faith’ are engaged in. They are tired of hearing the same old worn out phrases and the same either/or, my way is the only way, interpretations of the Bible by clergy. They are exhausted by the lack of congruence in our religious institutions. Jesus hung out with the very people today’s religious ‘authorities’ denigrate. The prophets stood up for and called out the deception of the Priests and the ruling families by telling them God doesn’t want their sacrifices, God wants their hearts, their actions. We are witnessing the culmination of these empty rituals today as people leave Synagogues, Churches, Temples in droves.
We have empty services even for the people who attend. Our worship is to enhance our living, Rabbi Heschel is teaching us and we are still practicing ‘one day a week’ religiosity, we are still engaging in ‘twice a year Jews’, we are still staying impervious to the call of our worship, we sit with wondrous decorum in our services committed to not having any of the prayers, none of the experience permeate our inner lives. We see the ways our religious institutions do not practice the principles our religions are founded on. God in Search of Man is not a good book title, it is Rabbi Heschel’s understanding of God’s call to us, it is Rabbi Heschel’s expression of love and faith in humankind that we can change and return to a better, more congruent way of living.
In recovery, “we practice these principles in all our affairs” is a key component of our new way of living. We were perpetrators and victims of keeping everything separate, we could ‘love’ someone while isolating from them; we could ‘have a high moral standard’ while stealing; we could ‘seek’ God through artificial means and not live into the insights we gained. Living life congruently with our principles, with our program of recovery is the goal and we achieve it each day; if only for a moment. We are constantly working to bring our disparate parts together and live as a whole human being.
In the past 35+ years, my worship and my living are much closer together each day. I work to be congruent, I struggle with my disparate parts and I practice principles in my daily actions. I grow from these writings, from study, from prayer; I know that each day, my prayers move me closer to God, they help me live more congruently. I also know that I have flaws, I make mistakes and I do T’Shuvah for them. Of course, I have to accept when people are not willing to accept my T’Shuvah, I have to accept the ways institutions do not live their principles and I am sad when this happens. In making my worship and living come together and inform one another, I experience meaning and joy. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark