Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 309

9th Day of 10 Days of Awe and Repentance

“Each person must examine whether one is part of a movement forced upon us by the environment or whether one is personally motivated, whether one is responding to pressure from outside or to an internal sense of urgency…Enlightenment about repentance is the central task of our time.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg 70)

Today is the last day of the 10 days of Repentance, the 10 days of Awe prior to Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur. Today is the day people will feel the pressure to ask for forgiveness-maybe- and absolutely feel the communal pressure to go to Temple for services that they neither understand nor particularly like. They will go for the sermon, for the music, to see people and to be seen-how many of us go to meet God, meet our own souls “face to face”? How many of us are “part of a movement forced upon us” rather than being “personally motivated”? I fear most people attending services are part of the former group rather than the latter. We have been engaged and in the work of T’Shuvah, repentance, for the past 40 days  and have developed and or had “an internal sense of urgency” or we have been ignoring the work and only now feel the “pressure from outside” to do something. Which group do you belong to?

We are living in a moment, an era where “enlightenment about repentance” is not important to most and urgently needed. What is important is making apologies for everyone else’s feelings. It is amazing to me that the lies and the subterfuge of people both in power and next door, their feelings have more weight in our society than the truth, than the feelings of the ‘aggressor’ they have pointed out. Can one be sensitive to everyone and everything-of course not-hence the need for repentance/tshuvah. What we have going on, in some cases, is people who identify as minorities and have been wronged do not think they have any responsibility in wronging another because they are the victims. We have a victim mentality that precludes people being “enlightened about repentance” and engaging in it. This is true from Trump to the progressives who are complaining they don’t get their way-again the far right and the far left are closer to one another than to those of us in the ‘middle’ (10% off the ends of the continuum). Remembering Lyndon Johnson’s quote: “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” People like Trump and the Christian Nationalists, Roger Stone, et al have made this an art form and they keep gaining supporters!! The far left is willing to abandon their allies, the Jews, rather than wrestle with the truth of the situation in Israel. They are calling murder and terror, hostage taking and using their citizens, schools, mosques, hospitals as human shields, Freedom Fighting! This is how badly we need “enlightenment about repentance”. This is how badly we need people to come “face to face” with their inner life and their inner voice of spirit, “face to face” with the creative energy of the universe, their higher consciousness, and gain an “internal sense of urgency” so they become “personally motivated to repent, return and change! It is time for all of us to do this work.

To this end I want to lead the way:

I, Mark Borovitz, have an internal sense of urgency to heal the wounds I have caused with another(s) through:

my inattentiveness;

My unawareness

My blindness

My insensitivity

My loudness

My overwhelming arguments

My anger

My inability to see what is

My need to get ‘my way’

My harsh opinions

For all of these I want to heal them. I ask for your forgiveness and reach out to heal our old wounds.

I, Mark Borovitz, have am personally motivated to continue and grow the good things I have caused through:

Fighting for the soul of the individual in front of me

Taking the risks necessary to help another human being flourish

Wrestling with the Yetzer HaRa of another (and myself) to help them and me be better human beings

Not accepting the status quo

Not going along to get along

Speaking truth to power no matter the consequences

Engaging in Text Study with people so we both can learn and grow

Fighting the system so people can get the health care they need in the moment

Staying loyal to the people who have helped me along the way.

Letting go of any resentments and just being sad, not mad at the ways things turn out

Reconnecting with people and laughing about ‘the good old days’.
Meeting new people and making new friends.

I, Mark Borovitz, am grateful beyond measure to those who have helped me through:

Learning with me

Rebuking me when necessary

Accepting my T’Shuvah

Helping me grow

Standing with me during the onslaughts of negativity

Calling for me to stay engaged even when I don’t have a spiritual place to call my own

Helping me be a better husband, sibling, uncle, father and grandfather

Giving me the encouragement to persevere and honoring my ‘prophetic voice’.

G’Mar Hatima Tova: Our “urgency” and “personal motivation” will turn the tide of darkness and hatred into light and rapprochement through the power of repentance and the love of one another. Let Freedom ring this year through repentance, return and change. God Bless, Easy fast, and stay safe,  Rabbi Mark