Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 319

“Learning, study is more than preparation of young people for good citizenship. Study is a form of worship, an act of inner purification.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.57)

Rabbi Harold Shulweis, whose memory is a blessing, would re-enforce the importance of study as “a form a worship” when he spoke to Rabbinic Students, to congregants, to anyone at all. I am hearing his voice along with Rabbi Heschel’s in my ears right now. This thought is a radical idea for many, in fact it is so out of people’s minds that study is no longer important except for the way it will help someone ‘get ahead’, ‘make a fortune’, etc. Religious school education ends for most young people by the time they reach their teens and even if they go on, be it by choice and/or coerced by parents, they tune it all out. In our secular schools, Civics is no longer taught in many schools so young people are not even aware of the responsibility that freedom brings, the actions of good citizenship.

We are in a crisis of our own making. The United States is facing an election that could well decide the fate of democracy as one of the candidates keeps trying to show his ‘macho man’ way of being by loving Hitler, Stalin, Putin, etc; while the other one is a woman who has been in public service her entire life, who, as a daughter of immigrants, believes deeply in the promise of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. That the former President of the United States who fomented an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, could be close to regaining the Presidency shows how far we have fallen, how not only has “good citizenship” been jettisoned, people are showing the lack of “inner purification” and their disdain for same. WTF??!!??

To engage in learning means we have to hear all sides of the issue, be it secular and religious, spiritual and practical, as every issue confronting us has both spiritual and practical aspects, they are found in both the secular foundational texts of a country’s existence and the religious texts of the Hebrew Bible which, I believe, is the foundational text for all western faiths. Learning is the process by which we let go of our old ideas and open ourselves up to new ways of seeing the text, new ways of seeing our bias’ and our self-deceptions. Learning causes us to “lift up our eyes and see”, as Abraham is instructed in Genesis, so we can find the ideas, the actions we need to take to uncover the hidden gems within us, within the texts, within another human being. Learning is never done alone because we will constantly miss the same thing over and over again. In Judaism we have a Chevruta, a spiritual friend with whom we pour over the Bible, Talmud, the commentaries, etc because our spiritual friend, our Chaver, reflects our soul back to us so we can purify the dross that we carry within. Study is not to be done all day, every day, rather we are supposed to learn each day, I prefer morning, and then put the learning into practice throughout our day because study alone will not bring about change, it is not enough to engage in “an act of inner purification” and not be engaged in the world around us. This is a truth that the Rabbis of old knew because they had professions or benefactors so they never made a living by study or teaching, it was done for the sake of learning alone. So, Mr. Ben G’Vir, Mr. Smotrich, Mr. Netanyahu, protecting the Ultra-Orthodox from serving in the military, from getting employment goes directly against the teachings of the Sages that you revere so much, whom you quote so often, whom you bastardize thinking people will not check your sources! Without “an act of inner purification”, without “learning, study”, we are raising generations of people who’s inner lives are a mess and they think it is an issue of mental health rather than an issue of spiritual immaturity. It is not their fault, it is the fault of society, it is the fault of parents, it is the fault of the system of religious and secular education who have failed us all.

The founding fathers of the United States gave us a Constitution that was flawed so they also gave us the Bill of Rights and a path for continuing to improve upon the Constitution as we learned more and progressed. While once there was slavery and a Black Man was counted as 3/5’s of a person, everyone is free and is counted as a whole person who can vote their conscience without fear or favor, in theory. We know the Voting Rights Act of 1964 which the current Supreme Court has said isn’t applicable anymore because every state just goes along with it has been gutted in many states, especially those controlled by Republican Legislators. We know that our children in Florida are being taught that Slavery was good for Black people because it taught them a trade, according to Governor DeSantis. We are aware of the dangers of immigrants thanks to Trump/Vance and the Republican leadership while we are a country founded by immigrants, a country that decimated the Native American population because we were afraid of them. We are so far from the ideal, from the path of freedom that began in Boston and Philadelphia because of our lack of “learning, study” because we no longer engage in “an act of inner purification” and believe the drivel and dross being pushed upon us by Mike Johnson, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, et al.

It is time for us to stand up and say NO to the status quo and YES to “learning, study”. It is time for us to admit our need for inner purification and to vote for people who want to do what is right and best for the many while allowing the people who oppose them to be heard and change their ideas when alternatives that make more sense are provided. It is time for us to end the status quo that keeps people from hearing truth, the status quo that provides lies and the status quo that has made a Truth a useless commodity, the status quo that holds the Liar in higher esteem than the prophets words in the Bible, who loves Korah more that Moses, who believes that authoritarianism is better that “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”(Lev.25:10). We need to stand for “inner purification” here, in Israel, and across the globe.

I have been engaged in “learning, study” for the sake of my “inner purification” since I was arrested in December, 1986. I am still fighting the status quo of my youth, I am fighting with people who think the status quo is ‘good enough’, I am fighting with the people who are so blind, so drunk with their own power, their own false egos that they believe they have achieved “inner purification” while denigrating another, hating another, lying about another, and getting people to go along because the people are afraid of them. I still rail about this mendacity, I still fight the fight for “inner purification”, I am still engaged in “learning, study” and I am still growing. It is hard and it is exquisite, exhausting and exhilarating. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark