Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 104

“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)

The last sentence above is one of the best descriptions of how the words of the Bible can affect humanity as well as the effect of the words of the Bible on all of us. “Hyphens” comes from the Latin meaning “under one”and is used in grammar “to join words that have a combined meaning or that they are linked”. Rabbi Heschel is teaching us that the Bible links humanity to God and God to humanity.

When we engage in and immerse ourselves in the words and thoughts of the Bible, we are linking ourselves to something greater than ourselves as well as linking ourselves to all human beings. This, I believe, is the goal, the power, the beauty and the call of the words of the Bible. We, human beings, are in desperate need of re-connecting ourselves to the “hyphens” so we can maintain, repair the connection “between heaven and earth.”

Rabbi Heschel’s teaching in the entire piece above calls us to account as well as gives us a path to filling the “hole in the soul” that human beings suffer from. We are all seeking connection, seeking an response to the uncertainty that is inherent in being human and Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above helps us address these needs. Every human being, I believe, at one time or another is aware of their impermanence and seeks to be seen, known, and feel important. When we experience the words of the Bible as God’s concern, love, and care for us, as God’s desire to help us be more human, to experience a connection “between heaven and earth”, we come to realize the esteem we are held in by a power greater than ourselves and the need God has for us, each of us. The four sentences above come to teach us, remind us, declare to us the power of the Bible to heal our spiritual maladies, to fill the void so many of us try to fill with power, mendacity, deceptions, self-deceptions, food, sex, alcohol, wealth, etc. The Bible helps us refine our character, let go of our image-seeking, know our true value, respect our own dignity and that of another(s).

The experience of the people who left Egypt, Israelites and other slaves, at the Red Sea was one of each person having their own experience of God, the experience at Sinai, where we received the Torah, was an individual experience as well. These two experiences along with Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above empower each of us to have our own connection with the words of the Bible and we each experience our own “live wire charged with His spirit” that we get to live into and share with humanity. The Bible is not to be used for power, for control, as I am understanding Rabbi Heschel today, rather it is for us to connect to our higher self, to harmonize our opposing inclinations, to recognize and mature the unique gift and need that we are created for and with. We engage in the Bible not for validation of what we want to do, we engage with the Bible to grow our purpose and passion, our connection and our love for one another, for our self and for God.

The Bible is the marriage document, the spiritual covenant between humanity and God as well as the spiritual document that links one human being to another. When two people marry in the Jewish tradition, there is the marriage license issued by the State they live in and the Ketubah, the Jewish marriage document. What is created is a new entity, each partner is joined together with God so the marriage is actually a threesome; you, your partner, and God. Just as the words of the Bible are the “hyphens between heaven and earth” so too God is the “hyphens between heaven and earth” of a marriage ceremony. Isn’t it time for humanity to end its incessant need to bastardize the Bible and use it for its purpose of bringing us together individually, collectively, and with God? Isn’t it time for our spiritual leaders to actually attend to our spiritual well-being rather than try to get us to worship dogma? Isn’t it time for our Rabbis, Priests, Cantors, Imams, infuse worship with meaning and spirit, with passion and purpose, with truth and humility? Isn’t it time for all of us to re-connect to the “live wire charged with His spirit” that the Bible gives to us? Our world is falling apart, we have come to worship leaders who are authoritarians, religious leaders give cover to these idolators by saying “Jesus sent them”, “they are the ‘real’ Jews”, etc. giving cover to these people who only want to care for themselves and their gang of thugs, who want to disconnect the “live wire charged with His spirit” so we all follow along. WE, THE PEOPLE, have to shout NO from every town square, from every House of Worship, from every Pulpit, from every street corner and within every home. We, the People, have to end their bastardization of the Bible, we have to reconnect to the “live wire”, we have to reconnect to the “hyphens between heaven and earth” so we can save our souls and the soul of humanity.

This is the call of recovery. Just as the Bible helps us recover our connections to a power greater than ourselves, our connections to all human beings, so too does the recovery movement. In recovery, we see the similarities of every human being one to another, we seek to respect one another, to work together to re-sew the fabric of our character, to recognize the goodness of being within us and within everyone else. In recovery, I found my faith, my life, I found love and became able to receive love, I found my humanity and the humanity of all people. I, like so many others in recovery, am part of the “hyphens between heaven and earth” when I live the words of the Bible as God shows me to do. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark