Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 103

“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 these Hebrew words and breathed into them of His power and the words became a live wire charged with His spirit. To this very day they are hyphens between heaven and earth.”(God in Search of Man pg. 244)

Rabbi Heschel is teaching and reminding us of the Bible’s power to speak in our language and infuse us and the words of the Bible with “His power”. Just as God breathes the “spirit of life” into humans at birth, so too does the Bible breathe the “spirit of God” into the words of the Bible, setting them apart from our everyday language and giving to us the opportunity to raise up our discourse and our actions, as I experience Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom this morning. Since the Bible is dealing with humanity, speaking to us”about human affairs”, Rabbi Heschel’s third sentence above reminds us of God’s concern, God’s care, God’s love for humanity, breathing into the words of the Bible the force, spirit, power of God so we can raise our standard of living to the level of truly being human.

A “live wire” in physics is “the wire that is active for carrying current in the circuit”. Rabbi Heschel is calling upon us to be connected to this “live wire”, to allow the current of “His spirit” to run through the words of the Bible into us. We are the circuits of the world, we are the energy that controls and conducts the affairs of the world and of humanity, therefore needing a source of current and, as I hear Rabbi Heschel today, the source is the Bible that is infused with “His power” and “His spirit”. While much is made of the question: “who wrote the Bible”, Rabbi Heschel is telling us this question may be interesting yet what is more important is to connect to the current of God’s power and spirit that runs throughout the Bible.

This teaching also demands that we seek the truth of the Bible, that we end our incessant need to twist the Bible into a pretzel to validate our selfishness, our callousness, our violence, our prejudice, our need for power over another(s), our need to be right, etc. It also calls out to me to remember that all of us are created in the image of God and we are all unique so hearing the different ways the Bible speaks to each of us when we are infused with the “current in the circuit” that is God’s spirit and power is also necessary so we can get a more informed picture of the Bible’s teachings, of God’s calling, of the job only we can fulfill to make the ‘dream’ of the Bible a reality-“nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall men learn war anymore”.

At issue is whether we are going to turn the switch that allows the “live wire” to reach us or whether we are going to leave it in the off position. While we hear often of ‘what the Bible says’, many of these ‘experts’ are keeping the switch that allows the “live wire charged with His spirit” in the off position and are really speaking from their desire to have power, to rule over us, to be god themselves! Every fundamentalist, in my opinion, has the switch turned off, they are unable to open themselves up to the humanity of another who is different then they, they are unwilling to entertain any interpretation that is different from theirs, and they are so enamored with their ‘rightness’ and their deceptive belief that they alone know they become the very Pharaohs, the Amaleks, that the Bible cautions us against. The Bible calls for all of us to read and hear the words of the Torah, even the Kings have to have the Bible close at hand. The prophets were not killed, according to the Bible, even though they spoke truth to power, they called out the Priests, the wealthy, the royalty-even before Jesus did.

Rabbi Heschel’s writings and teachings are a consistent example of keep the switch in the on position. His words are filled with the “His spirit” and he is telling all of us of our ability to do the same. We can, and we need to, allow the current of “His power” and His spirit” to infuse not just our reading of the Bible, the teachings of the Bible, but also allow “His power” and “His spirit” to infuse our daily actions. Experiencing the Bible as the container of the current of God’s spirit, experiencing the Bible as being the arbiter of human affairs, living into the humanity of the Bible through God’s spirit raises our standard of living to the level of truly being human, of being worthy to be God’s partner, of living together in harmony, respect and non-judgmentally. God returns our soul to us each morning with compassion and faithfulness, according to the prayer Jews are to recite prior to getting out of bed, and keeping the switch that controls the “live wire” current in the on position is our best response to God’s compassion and faithfulness.

Having the ability to turn the switch back to the on position is what recovery does for us. We recover the power, the vision, the ability to find that we were in despair of never finding again, then relearn how to turn it on and how to keep it on. This happens as soon as we surrender our selfishness, our despair, our grandiosity, our belief that ‘we can do it differently’, and we become teachable again, we turn the switch back to the on position so we can be, once again, infused with the spirit of God, the power of God and be human once again.

I am blessed through the studies and actions that have shaped my recovery and to have teachers and guides like Rabbi Heschel, Rabbi Feinstein, Rabbi Silverman as well as mentors like my brothers, sister, wife, daughter and parents and grandparents who, like their grandchildren and great-grandchildren keep the switch in the on position and have the “live wire” direct their actions and the kindness, their compassion and their faithfulness. This is the ‘secret sauce’ of my recovery. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark