Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 299

“The mind is never immune to “alien thoughts,” and there is no easy way of weeding them out. A hasidic rabbi, asked by his disciples in the last hours of his life whom they should choose as their master after his passing away, said:”If someone should give you advice on how to eradicate alien intentions, know he is not your master.””(God in Search of Man pg. 393/4)

The challenge facing us today, as it has in every generation, is whether we are going to follow some “new Pharaoh” and become slaves to them because of our “alien thoughts” like our fears of not ‘fitting in’, our fear of being left out, our fears of being exiled, killed. History has shown us that our “alien thoughts” which bring about the response to ‘go along to get along’ do not protect us, remember the Pharaoh in Egypt, Herod being King of Judea, the Marrano’s in Spain, all of the ways we tried to please the kings and governments in Europe by doing the ‘work’ they didn’t want to and being blamed by the poor and the wealthy, oh yeah, and there was Hitler Germany where we believed because we fought for ‘our country’ the anti-semitism would ‘blow over’! Yet, we continue to engage in this way of being, in Israel, in America. We are continuing to allow the “new Pharaoh” to reinforce our “alien thoughts” with their own mendacities so we follow them to our ruin and the ruination of people around us and those we don’t even know.

When Donald Trump, who is a proven liar and assaulter of women, both in court and by his own words, remember the tape, can be leading the Republican Party race for the Presidential nomination, when he can be neck and neck in the polls for the general election against Joe Biden who is the exact opposite, our “alien thoughts” have invaded our being so badly that we seem to be unable to discern the lies we tell ourselves and the lies of another(s) that we buy into! When we continue to believe the fears and hatred of women that are being spewed by the right-wing zealots, when we go along with the reasoning that women should just ‘be pregnant and barefoot’, when we aver that women should be controlled by men, etc, we are allowing our “alien thoughts” to override what our soul is telling us, we are hearing the word of God through a filter of mendacity and lies. When we believe the power-hungry ideas of Netanyahu and his right-wing Orthodox cronies, when we lean into the autocratic words of Kevin McCarthy, the Heritage Foundation and so many other ‘conservative’ groups who want to take over the Government with their “2025 project”, we have lost our ability to see and hear truth, we have allowed our “alien thoughts” to overpower our spiritual truths, to override God’s call for the “strange god in thee” telling us to follow the deceptions of another and our own self-deceptions. We are watching people go against the wisdom of the Hasidic Master, we are suffering the consequences of these ‘leaders’ who’s “alien intentions” are alive and well, on full display and we refuse to see them and hold them accountable, instead we go along with them because they accuse everyone else of following “alien thoughts” and “alien intentions”, following the playbook of Josef Goebbels: “accuse someone else of that which you are guilty of”.

We are in the last 15 days prior to Yom Kippur, last night there were Sleichot Services across the Jewish World, the beginning of the “High Holy Day Season”, where speak of forgiving, where we continue, or begin, our personal accounting of the soul, and…my concern, my fear, is that most people’s “alien thoughts” are so strong, they cannot admit to themselves “the exact nature of their wrongs” as AA says, much less admit their errors to the people they have harmed. Many of our errors, our “missing the mark” actions are the result of these “alien thoughts” and T’Shuvah is the Jewish response to “weed them out”. While not easy, it is effective, while not pretty, it is the solution to finding the beauty within. We all need to be engaged in a program of recovery rather than mendacity, we all need to “become willing to make amends” and make “direct amends to such people wherever possible”. This is the command of this season, this is the reason for Yom Kippur, for T’Shuvah, to give us all a way back, to give us all the opportunity to “clean the slate”, to give us the opportunity to reconnect with people we have harmed, to be transparent and authentic with the people around us, to let go of the lies we tell ourselves, to weed out “alien thoughts” and redirect our “alien intentions” to intentions of service, kindness, truth and love.

In the past, as I have said, these “alien thoughts” got the better of me and I am sorry to those I could not hear and tried to help me, speak to me and I rejected/got angry at. I also have witnessed the speed with which these “alien thoughts” get weeded out now, I am elated at how study, truth, prayer, guidance, deepening a practice of spiritual growth, helps me recognize them even when they are coming at me by another who I trust and love! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark