Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 325

“To educate means to cultivate the soul, not only the mind. You cultivate the soul by cultivating empathy and reverence for others, by calling attention to the grandeur, the mystery of all being, to the holy dimension of human existence by teaching how to relate the common to the spiritual. The soul is discovered in response, in acts of transcending the self, in the awareness of ends that surpass one’s interests and needs.” ( Insecurity of Freedom pg. 59)

Discovering our soul is the most important discovery we can make in our lifetime! Without this discovery, we are constantly wandering the earth and we are unable to “cultivate the soul”, we are unable “to educate” ourselves nor anyone else. Without this discovery we are unable to “relate the common to the spiritual”, we don’t even experience “the spiritual”!

We are seeing the truth of the words above in our everyday living both for ourselves and for everyone around us. What is our “response” to the pain that people are experiencing in Israel, in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Russia because of the darkness of a few people who have power in these places. Be it Bibi, Sinwar, Putin, they are showing us their souls, the darkness and the hatred in the responses they have to the wars that are ravaging their people. The innocents murdered on Oct. 7, 2023 were people who sought rapprochement with the very people who murdered them! The Ukrainian people are fighting for their sovereignty which shows the light of their soul as a people and as individuals. The response by Israel has been unrelenting and non-discriminatory-killing innocents along with the myriad of Hamas combatants hiding among the civilians-and Bibi could have found ways to get the hostages home, stop the killing by settlers of people in the West Bank and find ways to make a compromise that could ensure peace between Palestinians and Israelis, between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and stand together against Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah, and Iran.

In America, 10’s of million people are telling us they like the darkness in the soul of Donald Trump. They are saying “transcending the self” is for stupid people, voting for someone who believes that nothing can “surpass one’s interests and needs”! Since the darkness of the soul of Trump, Bannon, Miller, Flynn, et al are on full display, the people voting against their own interests, people supporting someone who cares nothing for them, is mind-boggling. Yet, this is where we are, 6 days from Nov. 5, 2024. We don’t know the outcome, we don’t know how these 10’s of millions of people will “cultivate the soul”, “cultivate empathy and reverence for others”. It is a scary time when a former President and current candidate rejects empathy, has no reverence for anyone other than himself, who is incapable of “transcending the self” and his “response” is darkness and hatred.

We have to decide what we are discovering about our soul, are we going to cultivate the goodness of our soul, do we want to cultivate the empathy necessary to be human? The Bible is full of stories of people who engage in “acts of transcending the self” like Abraham who fights for Sodom and Gomorrah. We have the example of Moses who does the same in confronting Pharaoh at great personal risk to free the Israelite people from the grips of slavery. We have the example of Joshua, King David, who are acutely  aware “of ends that surpass one’s interests and needs”. Then we have the prophets who stood up and spoke truth to power with no regard for their own personal safety because they had a calling, they showed the light of their souls through their constant care and concern for the the Kingdom of Israel and for Judea. When our calling, when our “empathy”, when our “transcending the self” are more important that “one’s interests” we show the light of our soul and we minimize the darkness, we are able to make amends for our “missing the marks”, and we can mature our souls, we can cultivate “reverence for others” and we can discover our authentic self. This is the goal of life, to live authentically. The Idols in the Temple want to impress the lie ‘if you live a false self long enough it becomes your authentic self’. These idolators, like Trump and his ‘religious’ supporters, want to push the false narrative of living the darkness is the most authentic way of being, that bowing down to authoritarians is the path to freedom, that showing no empathy for the plight of another is the true show of strength.

It is up to We, the People, to say NO to these idolators, it is up to us, we, the people, to say NO living a false script. It is up to us, we, the people, to say YES to “empathy”, Yes to “reverence for others”. We, the People, have to say YES to responding to life with goodness and kindness. We, the People, have to say YES to “transcending the self” so we can help another human being. We, the People, have to say YES to having “awareness of ends that surpass one’s interests” and We, the People, have to be like our ancestors the prophets and speak truth to the deceivers, speak truth to the people, shout it from the rooftops and not stay silent in the face of the lies of the Idolators who have taken control of some of our Temples, Churches, Synagogues, Mosques. We, the People, have to say YES to showing the goodness of our souls and stop hiding our purpose and passion for fear of being shamed by another, for fear of being discriminated against by haters. We, the People, have to end our ‘woke’ selves and deal in truth, “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”, respect the choices of another human being as long as they are not infringing on the choices of another. Racism, anti-semitism, islamaphobia, from any quarter is not okay and We, the People, have to stand for the poor, the needy, the stranger, the widow, and the orphan if we are to live authentically from our souls.

My latest podcast is out and your can find it on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Xk2vy28li7xA91t2wmX7h?si=8a621455108e46ea Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f-your-feelings-with-rabbi-mark/id1587525986?i=1000674910133 . I am engaged in the cultivation Rabbi Heschel is speaking about, I have been engaged in responses that reflect my authentic self since February of 1987 and I have been “transcending the self” most of the time since then. It is hard, I am not perfect and I make errors, and each time I learn from my mistakes and discover new things about my soul, my being and how to be human a little more each day. We, the People, have the opportunity to discover more of who we are by the responses we make on election day, on the days after and in our dealings with one another. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark