Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 2 Day 249
“The experience of bliss in doing the good is the greatest moment that mortals know. The discipline, sacrifice, self-denial, or even suffering which are often involved in doing the good do not vitiate the joy; they are its ingredients.” (God in Search of Man pg.385)
In Rabbi Heschel’s last interview, done with Carl Stern, he says: “The role of learning is decisive. First of all, the supreme value ascribed to learning and learning being a source of inspiration, learning being the greatest adventure, learning being a source of joy, and, in fact, learning for the purpose of discovering, of the importance of self-discipline; the realization, namely, that a life without discipline was not worth living.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, Appendices). Incorporating this wisdom with the last sentence above gives us a path to indulging in and experiencing the truth of our need for “discipline, sacrifice, self-denial, or even suffering”. Without engaging in these, we will ruin the beauty of life, we will destroy the eco-system that keeps the world together, we will live in mendacity and self-deception, promote ways that keep one group in power to the detriment of everyone, we will fall prey to the lies of our “evil urges”.
“We are engaged in a great civil war”, these words of Abraham Lincoln not only described the situation during the Civil War, they describe our experience right now. This civil war is the war for civility, for decency, for freedom for all, for seeing everyone as a child of God, acknowledging our differences and welcoming everyone into our circle-erasing the margins, feeding the poor in material as well as the spiritual. We, the People, are being called upon by Rabbi Heschel, by our times, by the stranger, the poor, the needy to engage in “doing the good”. Through the ways enumerated above, we are able to fulfill our inner longing for joy, we are able to put together “its ingredients.” While it is an uphill battle, we have the power, the strength, the guidance of our Holy Texts as well as the examples of the prophets, Moses, the Judges, Jesus, Mohammed, and all of the spiritual leaders since antiquity to follow. Rabbi Heschel did not just write these words, he lived them. He rose above his sorrows, his sadness’, he reached out to everyone and stood against people like Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, et al who are willing to sell out to the highest bidder. I hear Rabbi Heschel calling and crying out to us to stand for the good, to learn, rise up to our status as holy souls, to deny our selfishness, and to bear witness to the joy that “doing the good” brings.
Rather than complain about what is, we have to accept our world and then go about the work of bringing “the good” to the forefront through our actions. Paraphrasing Rabbi Heschel’s words from his interview, a day without learning is not worth living. Getting up each morning and being grateful for the day, for our life, for the opportunity to change and make our corner a little better today, knowing we will learn something today that helps us “do the good” a little more and better is exhilarating! Reviewing what we learned yesterday, taking time for prayer and meditation to realize our inherent holiness, our basic goodness of being allows us to respond to the negative self-talk we all engage in with the ‘rest of the story’ and with truth. Making a commitment to rise above our self-serving false ego needs, denying our desires for indulgence and over-indulging so we can help another(s), as well as knowing we can bear the trials and tribulations of doing good, and we can bear the scorn and arrows that people will throw at us because they want to “rule with an iron fist”, and/or “keep white people in charge”. We take these ingredients of living well, of doing ‘the next right action’ and we put them together in joy, in gladness, in spirit, in connection and in love. These “ingredients” enhance the joy of life, they do not vitiate/impair it!
In my recovery, reading the Garden of Eden story in a prison cell taught me to say “hineni”, here I am, each and every day-many times a day. It is the response God seeks from all of us each day to God’s question: “Where are you?” It is the response we give to signal we are ready, willing able to be of service, it is the response we give to ourselves to remind us we live in joy when we “do the good”. Since that experience, I have continued to respond “hineni” when called, I have continued to listen for people’s and God’s call of “Where are you?” I don’t always hear clearly what people need/want, I don’t always hear God clearly either; so I have people I go to for advice and guidance, I deny my own self-centered needs, I surrender to the wisdom of another(s), I bear the arrows, the ways I am misunderstood at times, I continue to learn and deny my ‘self-righteousness’ and I seek to grow and mature my inner holiness and be of service to God and to everyone who seeks me out. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark