Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 4
“Inherent to all traditional religion is the peril of stagnation. What becomes settled and established may easily turn foul. Insight is replaced by cliches, elasticity by obstinacy, spontaneity by habit. Acts of dissent prove to be acts of renewal.” ( Essential Writings pg.106)
We are taught that there are 70 ways to understand/interpret the Torah/Bible. We read both each year to continue our learning and our growth, to view today’s challenges and joys differently each year, meaning when we see a verse, a chapter, the same way this year as we have in past years, we are being obstinate and stale. The Constitution of the United States is a similar document, terse and expansive, we cannot try and live in 1789 nor can we live in 2500 years ago as life keeps changing, we keep growing and our freedom and our ability to meet life on life’s terms is determined by our “elasticity” and our “spontaneity”, not our “obstinacy” nor our being stuck in “habit”.
Yet, we find ourselves mired in both “obstinacy” and “habit” religiously and as a country which leads to “stagnation” and life “easily turn foul”! I have read “Enough” by Cassidy Hutchinson and I am struck by the myriad of ways she fell into both when she intuitively knew better. I am amazed at her poise and courage to leave her own “obstinacy” and “habit” once she realized her insight was more true and correct, that the betrayals she experienced by people she had trusted did not have to define her and being true to herself was more important. In the book, a friend asks her to look in the mirror and see if she liked the person looking back at her, if she wanted to be that person or her true self. This is an important and crucial action we all have to take. This one of the questions that Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above is demanding a response to, as I understand his wisdom above.
Tonight begins the Holiday of Sukkot, when Jews remember the ways the Israelites lived in the desert and on their journey from slavery to freedom, from Egypt, a narrow place, to the expanse of the Promised Land. It is not just to remember where we came from, however, it is to look ourselves in the mirror and ask the question that Cassidy Hutchinson asked herself. It is to mark where our souls, our spirits are on our particular journey of living. Are we a living, walking cliche, are we so chained by our habits that we have forgotten, let go of our “elasticity” and have become obstinate in believing we know ‘the way’? Have we become so habituated that spontaneity is to be feared, that admitting we have made errors in judgement, missed the mark with our actions, continue to live in the past and by the ‘old’ ways we become enslaved and enslavers? We left Egypt a long time ago and our tradition teaches us to not turn back, not return to those narrow places, yet time and again, both as citizens of the USA and as redeemed people, we are both “obstinate” and stuck in the “habit” of old thinking, of stinking thinking, of egoism, of narcissism, of following the wrong leaders with erroneous interpretations of our founding texts, of our basic values, of the commitments of generations past to continue growing and searching for what is right and holy in this moment rather than living in “stagnation” and having our texts “easily turn foul”.
In recovery as in religion, we are constantly asking the question: “what does God want from me now, in this moment” so we stay spontaneous and we do not limit ourselves to our old ideas. We celebrate and are grateful for the courage of the people who have gone before us so we can have a program of recovery, so we can have a Torah to learn from, so we can each be our own person, as Thomas Merton teaches; we can become “the souls we were created to be”. In the Big Book of AA we learn “old ideas availed us nothing” which is referring to the ways we lived prior to recovery and, it also could mean to the ideas we had in previous years of our recovery. We seek to “grow along spiritual lines” which means we have to stay fresh, we have to stretch our boundaries and our selves to meet the moment rather than living in yesterday, we have to be spontaneous rather than habitual in all our affairs.
I have always been spontaneous, even in my criminality and alcoholism. The difference today is my spontaneity and my elasticity serve my higher self, serve God, serve another(s) human being rather than my selfish desires. I can no longer stand the “foul” smell that I used to exude, I no longer believe in one and done. My recovery, my rabbinate is based on learning new each day, living in radical amazement, not being stuck and smiling at the person in the mirror who looks back at me. I forgive the betrayals just as I forgive my own betrayals. I stay fresh and on the lookout for new ways to understand and respond to this moment. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark