Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 102

“The Bible does not deal with divinity but with humanity. Addressing human beings about human affairs, whose language who’d be employed if not man’s? And yet, it is as if God took thees Hebrew words and breathed into them of His power and the words became a life wire charged with His spirit. To this very day they are hypes between heaven and earth.”(God in Search of Man pg. 244)

Rabbi Heschel’s question in the second sentence above seems rhetorical, yet it is crucial to our being able to appreciate, apprehend and comprehend the power and the gift that the Bible is for all of humanity. Proverbs 22:6 tells us to “teach each child according to their understanding” so it is inconceivable that God would not speak to humans in ways and words we can understand. The truth that the Bible speaks in the language of humans is, I believe, further proof of its show of love for humans by God. Rather than speak above or down to us, the Bible speaks to us in ways we can understand and in the language we know.

“Addressing human beings about human affairs”, while the foundational principle of the Bible, seems to get lost in many commentaries, in many sermons, in the reading and studying of the Bible by many people. The Bible is a dynamic document, it is a roadmap to better living and a guide for all of us to live together will our similarities and differences. Most of all, it is God’s dream and will for us to appreciate, care for one another and work together to improve our world, leaving it a better place for the next generation than we inherited. It is not a weapon to be used to control, to bludgeon another person into submission of our will, it is not for one people to lord it over another, it is not about conversion. The Bible is for us to address our humanity, constantly seeking to be human in all of our affairs. It gives us principles, values, ‘laws’, to live by. It also gives us choice.

A friend of ours, Miss Kim, said to us the other day: “I don’t read the Bible, I live the Bible”. This is the essence of what God is seeking, I believe. The Bible is for us to live into rather than take apart with our critical thinking, with our desire to know ‘who wrote it’. It is here to help us address family issues, ways of legislating that gives dignity and worth to every human soul. It gives us the opportunity and ability to ‘get over ourselves’ and seek to serve something greater than our egotistical needs. The Bible addresses us in a language we can understand so we can live better and more in line with the divine energy that is inside of each of us, all of us. The Bible tells us how to fulfill Rodney King’s question: “Can’t we all just get along?” It reminds us that police officers and judges are here to improve our living, not take out their prejudices on the people they don’t like. The Bible implores us to adjudicate equal justice, no matter whether someone is rich or poor, whether we recognize them or not, it tells us to pursue justice with all of our being and energy.

The Bible tells us what happens when we corrupt our society, bastardize the principles and values it gives us; authoritarians come to power! Many people believe God is pernicious and vengeful in some passages in the Bible not realizing the Bible is merely speaking to us about our propensity to “scout after our heart and our eyes to whore ourselves after them”(Numbers 15:39). The Bible is addressing us for our own benefit, giving us prophecy, a glimpse into what happens when we run, drift away from the paths it gives us to address our humanity, to grow our humanity. It is not vengeful, it is not violent, it is not mean; it is a gift to us to show us our choices and what each choice brings.

The Bible uses stories, life experiences to address us in the ways we can understand-whether these experiences happened to the people mentioned is for our archeological experts to determine. For the rest of us, these stories depict real life situations we constantly find ourselves in: family issues, wage and hour issues, boundary issues, slavery, hatred of someone different from us, rape, murder, unchecked power, idolatry, etc. The Bible is giving us a look inside of ourselves, our egos, our brains, our emotions and our souls. It is a roadmap back to our spiritual selves each time we stray and “whore ourselves” for glory, riches, fame, power, etc. It is our responsibility to add to the Bible our experiences and our paths of straying and following it in our time. As I said before, it is a dynamic document and we have to be interpreting it anew each day, we have to be using it in our interactions with another(s), in our interactions with our selves. It is to be our handbook for all our affairs, it is not so much a ‘religious’ text it is the path to living a “richer and more meaningful life”.

In recovery, we are constantly seeking to “practice these principles in all our affairs”. We know from the stories in the Big Book of AA that we cannot be in recovery in a vacuum, our recovery has to be lived in every facet of our being. We pray each morning for the power to carry out God’s will, to live a little more decent each and every day.

My grandfather, Abe Borovitz, was not a wealthy man, he was not a learned man, yet he lived the Bible’s way in all of his affairs. He didn’t cheat anyone, his word was his bond, he would not let gossip about another person be spoken in his presence, he treated each person, regardless of the color of their skin or their bank account, with respect and dignity. When we closed his dry cleaning/tailoring store up-he insisted we return the clothes he had in the store that belonged to other people whether they could pay or not! He said, I won’t take what isn’t mine nor will I ever commit thievery. It took me many years to follow his example and I am blessed to have witnessed his living the Bible. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark