Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 295

“Disguised polytheism is also the religion of him who combines with the worship of God the devotion to his own gain, as it is said There shall be no strange god in thee(Psalms 81:10), on which our teachers remarked that it meant the strange god in the very self of man(Bahya Duties of the Heart Chapter 10)(God in Search of Man pg.392)

Rabbi Heschel’s use of the phrase “disguised polytheism” gives us the opportunity to look inside of ourselves and see what we are hiding both in our worship as well as in our religious/spiritual/secular lives. We change our clothes often, we hide our fat, our thinness, we hide the blemishes on our skin, we hide our motives, we hide our intentions, we hide our thoughts, we hide our souls’ purpose, we hide our false gods, we hide, we hide, we hide! Yet, no matter how many years we live the month of Elul, no matter how many days we live with the opportunity/demand to do T’Shuvah, to do a Chesbon HaNefesh, we seem incapable of escaping the myriad of hiding places we have come to call home.

As I read the words above, I am in awe of the brilliance of the Psalmist, the prophets, Bahya, Rabbi Heschel, et al, who know the human condition so well they can point out to us where the exit from our hiding is, they are the light that shows us the tunnel, they illuminate the exit doors that will save our souls, save our integrity, save our lives. And, we have been consistently deaf to them, we have consistently been blind to the paths out of hiding they provide to us, we have continued to ignore, deride, quote without any meaning/context their words to hide in plain sight our evils, our errors, our unwillingness to change.

We are so eager to follow “him who combines with the worship of God the devotion to his own gain” in our politics, in our business, even in our personal relationships, we don’t even notice our incongruences, our deceptions, our self-deceptions, our mendacities. This way of being is a “conventional norm” in our society, it is an accepted way of being, so we are oblivious to the truth of our ways of living and defend these disguises to our death. In our political life, people are following a man who only worships his own gain, who only worships God in order to gain for himself. We are witnessing an entire political party go down the rabbit hole of disguise, sink to the depths of mendacity by denying truth that they acknowledged before. Instead of “Morning in America” as Ronald Reagan said, these people of Reagan’s party are promoting Mourning in America! In our business world, companies and individuals agree to pay fines without ever taking responsibility, insurance companies turn down requests by Doctors for medication, procedures that will save lives, help people with serious illness, routinely by people who have no medical expertise-their only job is to say NO, and to make more money for the company. Workers are demanding living wages, they are demanding to be treated as worthwhile and contributing partners to the company executives, board members, and shareholders that are profiting so much from their labor and the ‘powers that be’ cry poor, cry wolf and hide their money so they don’t have to provide workers, actors, writers,their fair share.

We can only change the status quo, the broken political system, the rigged business system one person at a time. While regulations, laws, enforcements will and have gotten the ball rolling, the gains of the 60’s and what happened to them are important lessons. We allowed the gains made in Civil Rights, in Voting Rights to wither away, we took for granted that we won the war and we could move on; yet the people who engage in and practice “disguised polytheism”, that “combines with the worship of God the devotion to his own gain” never stop seeking ways to overturn any societal gains that call for them to come out of hiding, that demand they put down their disguises. Hence, our political, economic/labor and personal situations that we face seem so daunting.

Immersing myself in these words today remind me the difference between role to role relationships and soul to soul relationships. I have never hidden my soul’s purpose and passion, while I have, at times, bought my own press, I have always allowed, welcomed (eventually) people reminding me of who I am and to cut the crap. I am a loud, abrasive fighter for the soul of another, I am an advocate for the souls of human beings. I realize how ingrained “disguised polytheism” is in all of us and my Chesbon HaNefesh is designed to uncover the disguises I have been unaware of. I have been one who has “devotion to his own gain” and when it has been only about my gain at times in my recovery, I have suffered as have those around me. For this, I am very sorry and remorseful. I also know these times have been few and farther between the more I have grown and continue to grow in my spiritual life, in my recovery and in my coming out of hiding! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.