Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 277

“Self-suspicion looms as a more serious threat to faith than doubt, and “anthropodicy”, the justification of man is today as difficult a problem as theodicy, the justification of God. Is there anything pure and untinged with selfishness in the soul of man? Is integrity at all possible? Can we trust our own faith? Is piety ever detached from expediency.?” (God in search of Man pg. 390)

In the second half of the first sentence above, Rabbi Heschel’s calling to us to understand and change our suspicious ways! Our “self-suspicion” leads us to doubt everything, to believe only ourselves and people who say what we want to hear, people who agree with us. Hence, the need for people to watch Newsmax, Oan, Fox (not)News, and listen to Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, White Power people like Nick Fuentes, and become radicalized. People in America, especially white men, young and old, are being radicalized at alarming rates, because of their self-suspicious natures which leaves them open to the lies of charlatans, the allure of authoritarians who ‘identify’ with and make themselves ‘popular’ while being the real elites that they are railing against. “Self-suspicion” is “a more serious threat to faith”, to freedom, to truth “than doubt” and we are watching this truth play out in real time.

It is harder and harder to justify humankind when we live in this self-suspicious manner. There is no truth that we can agree on, we can’t even agree on what freedom is, what the US stands for, what it means to be a “nation of immigrants”, as JFK wrote about. Donald Trump and his co-conspirators and his enablers continue to rape and pillage our country rather than be responsible and uphold their constitutional duty. The Big Lie and all the ‘little lies’ that have been told and are being told, the weaponization of Government by the GOP, now as it was during Nixon, the Harvard, Yale, and Ivy League graduates that purport to ‘care about the little guy’ while berating ‘those liberal elites’ with lies, innuendos, trying to whip up their followers to do physical harm to ‘those enemies’ as they did on Jan. 6th, 2021 while stealing from their followers, while making them suspicious about someone else so Trump, et al can pick their pockets, are making this country a war zone, rather than a democracy! When we witness the horror of mendacity, the crime of the Big Con, the criminal conspiracy that the GOP participates in, the cover-up of Gingrich(a serial philanderer and the beginner of this weaponization and hatred of fellow elected officials), and McCarthy(“I will sell my soul to be Speaker and bow down to Trump and his mobsters at any and all costs), being joined by the lies of Ted Cruz(I will kiss the ass of someone who took off after my father, my wife, my family in a cruel and dishonest manner) and the silence of McConnell and the rest of the Republican leaders, we see how difficult the “justification of man” can be and is.

Our religious leaders are woefully inept as well and this, for many, brings about the difficulty when the justification of God is brought up. How can God anoint Trump and his minions to bring about redemption when all they do is bring about chaos? How can these ‘religious leaders’, ‘men/women of God’ go against everything the Prophets cried out about and say they are the ‘true messengers’ of God’s will? How can they purport to represent and teach what Jesus wants when they go against his basic precepts? How can anyone believe in God when God is being represented by liars, charlatans, people out for their own power, people who are so self-suspicious they are empty inside, people who fake their empathy and collect their money? This issue that Rabbi Heschel called us to look at and solve/change, is staring at us today on steroids and we still hear the lies and mendacity of our political, religious, communal leaders!

Recovery is the anti-dote, it is the healing agent for self-suspicion through the healing power of truth, the healing power of confession, the healing power of God and of our fellow travelers. We no longer seek to justify our bad actions, we are committed to justify God’s faith in us, as many Jews and others in recovery are grateful for in our morning prayers. We no longer seek to justify our lies and our treachery, we ask for forgiveness and we make living amends through our actions which are contrary to those we use to practice. Rather than being part of a conspiracy to ‘get ahead at any and all costs’ anymore, we are part of a group that seeks to “grow along spiritual lines” and “practice” spiritual “principles in all our affairs”.

It is hard to let go of our self-suspicions! T’Shuvah is the solution that God has given us since the days of the Bible; seeing my part, growing from my experiences, making amends for my errors and being joyous at the good I have done, all help me stay in the solution to lessen my self-suspicions which lessen my suspicion of everyone else. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark