Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 307

7th Day of 10 Days of Awe and Repentance

“It is deplorable when a spiritual movement deteriorates into bustling and pretense. It is unclean when a holy desire is misused by the selfishness of the clever.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg70)

Sitting here at my computer, reading these two sentences I am in bewilderment that we are in the same situation today, in America and in Israel-formerly two shining examples of democracy and freedom- as Rabbi Heschel is describing in Berlin, Germany in 1936! What is worse is that the “deplorable” is not limited to Jews, it has encompassed all western religions and the “clever” have taken over the pulpits and trying to take over the governments of so many countries. We are in a precarious state of affairs today and, while it is NOT the same as Nazi Germany, there are too many things happening in our world today to not take notice of the similarities and the subtleties, the differences and our defenses agains the “bustling and pretense” of our “spiritual movement” and the ways “a holy desire is misused by the selfishness of the clever.”

I am hearing the call of the Shofar-WAKE UP, SEE WHAT IS, HEAR THE WAILING OF GOD/UNIVERSE over the actions and inactions we are engaged in once again. The sound of the Shofar, these days of awe and repentance are here for us to engage in the inner work to cleanse ourselves of our fallacies, of the lies we tell ourselves, to let go of the burdens that others have put upon us with the names they call us and the pigeon holes they put us in. I am hearing Rabbi Heschel’s call to the Jewish community of Berlin and America, Germany and Israel to stop being “deplorable” to let go of the ways our “spiritual movement deteriorates into bustling and pretense.” In the next few days, many people will say to their family, friends, co-workers, etc “if I have done anything to harm you in this past year, please forgive me” and not do their own inventory, not do their own Chesbon HaNefesh, their own accounting of their soul because they can just repeat a formula and be ‘okay’, be ‘clean’ of their wrongs. BULLSHIT, I say. This is exactly the “bustling and pretense” that I hear Rabbi Heschel speaking about, he is demanding, Jewish tradition demands, the prophets demand we end these pretty “pretenses” and this phony “bustling” to make everything perfect for the meal before Kol Nidre and the Break-Fast after Neilah.

The anointing of Donald Trump by the Dominonists, by the religious right including Chabad, is another example of the deterioration of “a spiritual movement”. It shows how desperate people are to live into “pretense" rather than living into truth. In so many facets of life people are so worried about “Optics” and “cancel culture” that living a “pretense” just seems normal-it isn’t! The “woke” agenda is as deteriorating  as the white supremacist agenda, the orthodoxy of the far right politically and religiously is as “deplorable” to the “spiritual movement” of Christ, Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, etc as the orthodoxy of the far left politically and religiously. We are living in a world where there is no middle ground that is safe to stand on. If one is not “with us” then they are “agin us” and seeking to live in a Non-Binary Thinking and Non-Binary Spirituality is anathema to both the far left and the far right. It is “deplorable” how much deterioration the “spiritual movement” of America and Israel have suffered at the hands of the “clever”. Their “selfishness” is so apparent in the myriad of times they have “misused” the “holy desire” of freedom, of caring for the stranger, the poor, the needy, the widow, the orphan. The “holy desire” of childbearing has been corrupted by their selfish desires to control women. No where in the Bible does is say abortion is a sin, is murder-only in the minds of the “selfishness of the clever”. Isn’t it time for all of us to stand up and say NO?

Isn’t it time to remember the call of the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah, during the month of Elul and in these past 7 days? Isn’t it time for all of us to hear the wailing cries of God calling us to return so our “backsliding” can be healed and we can experience the embrace of the Ineffable One? Isn’t it time for us to let go of our pretenses and stop our need to constantly be busy and moving around and just allow the forces of compassion, truth, forgiveness and repair that are so prevalent now to overwhelm us and move us to do the work we need to so we can be more authentic and less pretentious this year? Isn’t it time for us to let go of our haughtiness that makes us believe these things don’t apply to us, we can just blame someone else for our errors because ‘they made us do this’ or, one of my favorites, ‘it is the devils handiwork’. We are the ones who have been entrusted with different spiritual movements and the one we choose to belong in needs us to care for it and grow it, not “deteriorate” it. It needs us to immerse ourselves in it so we can find the message and the question that the particular text we are reading is the answer for. It needs us to meet ourselves, one another and the entire community in authenticity rather than in pretense. We are the ones who have to say NO “when a holy desire is misused by the selfishness of the clever”. We have to be the guardians of our spiritual movements because “in every age” someone tries to co-opt the truth, tries to enslave and/or destroy us. These ‘enemies’ are often not outside of us, rather inside of us as individuals and inside of us are a spiritual movement. Remember the Temples were destroyed, according to the Rabbis, because of not caring for the poor and the stranger and senseless hatred and lying among the people as well as the corruption of the Priests, Kings, Wealthy. Sound familiar???

I have been guilt of being deplorable and unclean. In my recovery, my goal has been to not be pretentious and not be selfish. I have lived into this goal at least 80% of the past 35 years. I have railed against pretentiousness because I made amends for mine, I have railed when I see “a holy desire misused by the selfishness of the clever” because I was that person for many of the years between 17 and 37. I am a messenger of chaos to those who want to hide in their pretentiousness, to those who want to be “clever” and I do not apologize for this. I am also guilty of confusing my agenda and desires with the greater good at times in the past. I am proud of my ability to rise above the call of my mind to “get even” and accept the rejection and the pigeon holes people put me with a sense of sadness for them that they are so stuck they have to act in these ways. I am no longer accepting of the labels and the names others put upon me, rather I desire to be known by the actions I take, the souls I touch and the good I bring. My latest podcast is available now at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fyourfeelings/episodes/Im-Back-Lets-Wrestle-e2pdfqs God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark