Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 93

“Its aim is not to record history but rather to record the encounter of the divine and the human on the level of concrete living. Incomparably more important than all the beauty or wisdom that is bestowed upon our lives is the way it opens to man an understanding of what God means, of attaining holiness through justice, through simplicity of soul, through choice. Above all, it never ceases to proclaim that worship of God without justice to man is an abomination; that while man’s problem is God, God’s problem is man.” (God in Search of Man pls 243-244)

Rabbi Heschel’s is calling us to account, he is reminding us what the “encounter of the divine and the human on the level of concrete living” has to create within a human being, within a society, and within our world. The phrase “the way it opens to man an understanding of what God means” is what we all seek yet ignore the pathway to this understanding, the Bible. In Jewish prayer we repeat daily, in the Bible we read and study daily, what God means: Returner of our Soul; Truth teller; Compassionate One; Lover; Friend; Teacher; Infinite One; Ineffable One; Wholeness; the One who brings our disparate parts together; the Shielder of woman and children; the Protector of the stranger, the poor and the needy; Loyalty; Covenantal Partner; and so much more!

And, we have come to witness “what God means” to be bastardized and politicized for the selfish needs, the grab for power, the response to the truth of impermanence and uncertainty by idolators; by false prophets, by charlatans and idiots! God doesn’t mean anti-abortion - there is no prohibition of it in the Bible and the fetus is not a human being until birth; God doesn’t mean ‘white power/white rule/white supremacy’- as Rabbi Heschel states elsewhere “God is either the Father of all people or of no people” there is no mention of race in the Bible except to describe the (2nd?) marriage of Moses to the Cushite woman-who many translators believe was dark-skinned/of African descent- and we are all created in “the Image of God” so our skin color cannot be that important and is more a result of the area of the world we lived in than a ‘race’ we belong to. The Bible speaks to all of us as one race: Human!

Delving into the Bible, there are so many pathways to understand “what God means” and they all seem to lead to Rabbi Heschel’s teaching “of attaining holiness through justice”. People have forever attempted to separate these two attributes and meanings of God; holiness and justice. “Stay out of government you religious people”, “separation of church and state”, “Sharia Law/Talmud Law,/Christian Law should rule the people” and other such bullshit are popular phrases that have ruined the spirits, the minds and the physical safety of so many people throughout the millennia and to today. While I don’t want to be ruled by the right -wing or the left-wing religious zealots and pretenders, I do understand how the Bible teaches us of God’s input into the political life of a nation, into the policies of kindness, caring, compassion, welcoming. One can see how God tells Pharaoh to “let My people go”, reminding us that we are all God’s people-not just the ones proclaiming to ‘know God’, not just the ones who are practicing rituals and, as Deuteronomy 29:18 comes to remind us:”I shall have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart”. There are so many people who use the Bible as a weapon, as a cudgel rather than as the way to attain “an understanding of what God means”!

At the end of each week, we have a ritual called Havdalah-distinction between the Holiness of the Sabbath day and the mundane of the 6 days of creation. While we distinguish between Kodesh(holiness) and Chol(days of creation), we are acknowledging we need both. We also are committing to bringing more justice into our world and in our everyday living as part of this ritual. As I am understanding Rabbi Heschel this morning, without justice there can be no holiness. This is an outrageous statement that, hopefully, smacks all people across the face, splashes cold water upon all of us to wake up and smell the roses, “rise and shine and give out your glory glory” and to listen anew to the anti-war songs of every generation, especially the Vietnam War era with ears that hear the holiness in the call for justice. Taking Rabbi Heschel seriously, being a student of his, immersing ourselves in the thoughts of the Bible, expressing the “encounter of the divine and the human on the level of concrete living” through our actions means we have to care for the stranger, the poor, the needy, the widow, the orphan; we have to care about justice for all-not just the rich and famous; we are obligated to seek out truth and call out mendacity and deception; we are obligated to respond to the call of the downtrodden, the miseries of people near and far; we need to stand for what is right according to the Bible- not the false prophecies and interpretations of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish Idolators who seem to have the loudest voices. Rabbi Heschel’s stand against prejudice is legendary and a road map for the rest of us. We need to end the separation of Justice and Holiness, we need to remarry science and spirit, we need to speak truth to the liars and to the ones in power.

Each and every day, I bring holiness into being through being just, sometimes more and somedays less-yet I know it is the only way to live Rabbi Heschel’s teachings, the teachings of the Bible and to continue to deepen my connection with the Ineffable One. While I live in the same uncertainty as everyone, knowing that my time here is an instant in the grand scheme of things, I also realize that having an encounter with the divine-makes my “concrete living” important. I matter and so do you! Everyone matters-so ‘why bother’, ‘fuck-it’ are no longer options-we have to because we can, because I am needed and so are you. I have made this phrase the cornerstone of my life, my rabbinate, my soul I pray you do also! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark