Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 334

“Spiritual values can be experienced in acts of love and compassion, in acts of ritual, in search for truth, in moments of sensing the mystery of living.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.61)

I have read and re-read this sentence over and over again and I believe the inner meaning of it is the difference between living authentically and living as a phony! Rabbi Heschel’s use of the word “can” causes me to dig deeper into this sentence. “Acts of love and compassion…” are all spiritual values in action-as I have understood Rabbi Heschel over the years and it is precisely when love is devoid of spirit, when it is transactional rather than covenantal that it is no longer “love”.

We have come to bastardize “spiritual values” over the millennia and, once again, the train of our indiscretions, the bullet train of our lies and mendacities is heading straight at us. Once again, the shrine built over 248 years is in danger of being breached, the “shining city on the hill” is in danger of being put to siege not by an outside enemy, rather by us. When we willingly vote against compassion, when we willingly vote for mendacity and falsehoods, when we discard “sensing the mystery of living” for the ‘joy’(?) of making someone else the ‘bad guy’, I believe we have lost our “spiritual values”, we have jettisoned them in favor of ‘feeling good’. When “love” is expressed by hating the same group, when “compassion” is expressed only for ourselves, when the “search for truth” is abandoned for reveling in the lie, we are reliving the times of the destruction of the Temple, we are reliving the break-up of the people Israel into two kingdoms, we are reliving the destruction and dispersion of the Northern Kingdom (the lost tribes) and then the destruction of the Temple and the exile of some Jews to Babylonia.

We are not in a unique position, we saw this in ancient times with Rome, Athens, Sparta, Cairo, Babylon, etc. We saw this with Germany, England, Russia, China, Japan, France, Spain and other countries in Europe. All of these countries/empires were dominant at one time or another in their history and believed they could do what they wanted to with impunity, they believed that “might makes right” and all were defeated and decimated. Yet, Jews, who hadn’t had a land to call their own, for over 1900 years, have survived-much to the chagrin of the rest of the world. It is precisely because, with all of our arguments within the different factions of Judaism, we held onto the “spiritual values” of our holy texts. We have held onto “care for the stranger, the poor, the needy” as a mantra and points us always to compassion for another human being, another group of human beings. We have suffered much death and hardship, thrown out of many countries just because we are Jews and so we know how important the “spiritual value” of “compassion” is. As a Jew we cannot vote for fascism, we cannot vote for mass deportations, we cannot vote for taking health care away from women, we cannot vote for favoring the rich and denigrating the poor-it is not in our Bible, it is not in our Covenant with God, it does not go along with the wisdom of Rabbi Hillel who said: “what is hateful to you, do not do to another person” - full stop. I would suggest that Christ would be appalled if a Christian acted in these wrongful ways, if a Christian denigrated the very people Christ hung out with!

The Bible is a “search for truth”, the “acts of ritual” are not to make us into robots because there are various interpretations of how to fulfill them, it is a road map to being able to “sense the mystery of living” and it is a book of love and loving of oneself, of God/of higher consciousness, of loving our neighbor as ourselves. We have the guidance to experience the “spiritual values” listed above, we have the inner desire to achieve them as well, we just have to allow our rational mind to be the servant Einstein reminds us it is instead of the great decider that we have made it.

We have to recover our authentic self, we have to return to a way of being that exudes and experiences “love and compassion”, that immerses us “in the moments of sensing the mystery of living” and to always engage in the “search for truth”. Without doing this, our lives are vapid and empty, without living in this way, we live transactionally and it is easy to forget the people who help us live well, it is easier to hate those people who remind us of whom we should be, who we can be. Without our “spiritual values” life is a zero-sum game and we need to win at all costs. This way of living is not sustainable, it is not Biblical, it is not Christian, it is not Islamic, it is not Eastern, it is not Jewish.

The American Election, the continued reign of Netanyahu are examples of our rational minds, of our “spiritual values” being hijacked by lies and we have become believers and followers of the irrational, of the deceptions of self and another, and we have jettisoned what we know in our inner life, in our souls for what ‘feels good’. Both the left and the right have made ‘feelings’ uber alles-not realizing that the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran, etc teach us to F U our Feelings (the name of my podcast) and take the next right action. In recovery, we may feel like taking a drink, a drug, making a bet, etc and we make a decision to forgoe that feeling knowing another one is coming up quickly. We know that our feelings will pass whether we indulge them or not. We have to make a decision to “turn our lives and our hearts over to the care of God as we understand God” as the 3rd step of AA teaches us. This is true whether one is an addict or not! We need to RETURN AGAIN to tenets of the 10 Sayings, surrender to something greater than ourselves, live authentically, not make false images of ourselves, take time to visit our inner life, honor the wisdom and experiences of our elders/ancestors and use it to make life better, no longer murder the soul of another(s) and/or ourselves. Stop whoring ourselves for money, fame, etc, no longer steal from another, from ourselves to ‘look successful’, stop lying about another person and want what we have rather than needing to take what another human being has.

It is hard to live up to and into the “spiritual values” of the Bible, of our souls and I have made it my business to keep trying. The only failure is to give up my “spiritual values”, to let go of the lifeline that has been and is being provided by faith, by community, by family. I am blessed to be able to “sense the mystery of living” and to stand up against unkindness, mendacity and senseless hatred within myself and when another takes these actions. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark