Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 243

“We must learn how to endow “the good drive” with more power, how to lend beauty to sacred deeds. The power of evil can be consumed in the flames of joy.” (God in Search of Man pg. 385)

“The power of evil can be consumed in the flames of joy” is a fascinating thought to me. We are, as we always been, witnesses to the the power of evil being joyous to those who engage in it, and this teaching of Rabbi Heschel’s takes this experience and turns it on its head. I hear Rabbi Heschel calling to us to delve into where joy comes from and having an authentic experience of joy. Joy comes from trust and faith in the goodness of the universe, according to some spiritual definitions, it is, I believe and in my experience is defined in Ethics of our Ancestors, a tractate in the Talmud, Chapter 4 Mishnah 1: Who is Wise? One who learns from everyone. Who is Mighty? One who subdues their evil inclination. Who is honored? One who honors everyone. Who is Rich? One who is happy with his beingness.(my interpretations).

The joy that comes from learning from everyone; is our ability to remain teachable, to stay right-sized, to be open-minded and to be humble. Since evil is the opposite of these ways of being, it is crucial to unpack and live into them in order to overcome “the evil drive”. When we are open-minded and teachable, we continue to deepen our inner knowledge of what the next right action is in each and every experience of living. We are unafraid to ask for help, to get advice, to bounce our thinking off of a trusted friend, guide. We seek out mentors and become mentors to another(s), we are aware of what we know and, just as important, what we don’t know. We let go of our need for certainty and realize the only certainty is being uncertain, we come to realize if we are 100% sure, we must be missing something.

Staying right-sized is the basis of our being humble. Being humble is not being lowly, it is not being ‘less than’, it is not being a doormat. Being humble, according to the Bible, as I understand it, is recognizing our inherent worth, embracing our unique talents and gifts and living out God’s call to us, living into the “divine need” we are created for and being a “divine reminder” for everyone we encounter, as Rabbi Heschel speaks about in his interview with Carl Stern. “Moses was the most humble of humans” we learn in the Torah and he was not a shrinking violet. Jesus taught “the meek shall inherit the earth” not because being meek is the same as timid, just as humble is not the same as denying who we are. Both of these descriptors remind us that being teachable, open-minded, right-sized and humble represent our surrender to God, our joining with the power of the universe in moving our world to being a more perfect place for everyone. These two descriptors bring us into the paradigm of joy, a way of being alert, aware, and responsive to the call of the Ineffable One, the call of our souls, the sublimation of our “evil drive” to enhance and move our “good drive” forward. The paradigm of joy doesn’t eliminate our “evil drive”, it consumes it, I believe, into the promotion of the “good drive”.

The challenge for all of us is to integrate our thirst for certainty with our acceptance of always being a learner and never ‘knowing it all’. We are so used to misunderstanding words and notions, going along with the ‘usual’ ways words are used, we miss the authentic experiences of joy that comes from living an integrated life, of living a life where joy consumes our false need for power, where joy consumes our mendacious need for control, where joy consumes our self-deceptions and desires to deceive another(s). Being wise, as defined above is a first step, it is a surrender to something greater than ourselves, be it God, Higher Consciousness, the force of the Cosmos, however you define this power. We move along the continuum of joy, from being ‘joyous’ for our evil actions/our ‘wins’ at the expense of another(s) towards our merging our will with God’s will, our egos with our souls, our rationalizations with what is for the greater good of self and everyone else when we begin and continue to move ourselves towards being wise.

Recovery is a very important path to becoming wise because it requires the surrender I write about above, it causes the “power of evil can be consumed in the flames of joy” to become a reality, at moments. And the more into recovery we are, the more these moments happen. It is not nirvana nor utopia, it is the daily slog of using our spiritual and religious texts and teachings to enhance our ability to be teachable, it is constantly learning new lessons, new insights from the texts we hold to be important and life changing, be it the Bible, the Big Book, Rabbi Heschel’s writings, St. Francis’ prayers and writings, etc. We all need to be in recovery to being wise. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark