Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 337

“Reality we seek to express in terms of mathematical figures and conceptual generalizations. The artist knows that a human face, for example, represents an image, the complexity and uniqueness of which cannot be captured int the language of science. What the artist conveys in the language of color, shape, light, form or sound remains beyond the grasp of generalization and conceptualization.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.61-62)

The words above, hopefully, give us pause as to how we define “reality”. While many people want to ‘keep it simple’ and make science and math our guiding lights and the only ‘true’ expression of reality, there is another group that sees the generalizations and conceptualizations as the limited and necessary tools that they are. We have been teaching the “three R’s” for a long time and two of the three are Reading and Writing-both expressions which go beyond the boundaries of mathematics and generalizations. Our emphasis on technology, on science, on math is good and not the End All Be All! Yet, we seem to be in a war between the scientists and the fundamentalists, with the artist, the reader being pushed out of the way by those on the extremes.

We need to know the math to make decisions and sometimes the math says 1+1=3! We need to have a general concept of the roundness of the earth, even if we don’t ‘feel’ it rotating or feel like we are going around and around when on a world cruise ship. We need to be able to have a general concept of anatomy, of astronomy, of biology, of geometry, et in order to function well in the world and find a language that can speak to another human being. This is true and important.

We need to know history and derive lessons and ways to be from it so we can change course when we are going down a path that reflects the worst of human behavior. We need to know the Bible, New Testament, Koran, Tibetan Book of the Living and Dead, other spiritual texts so we can have a language of and for our soul and be able to speak to and with another soul. We need to acknowledge the creative power within us so we can appreciate the creative power of another artist, so we can be in awe of the “complexity and uniqueness” that each artist brings to the world, that each of us human beings bring to our world, our community, our family. We need to be able to see the dignity and infinite worth in ourselves and in all human beings. This is true and important.

We do not need to listen to the fundamentalists of science nor of religion. Neither one speaks for the core, the essence of their ‘chosen field’. “Let my people go” is not just a cry, a plea, a demand of Moses some 3500 years ago, it is a cry, demand, plea that reverberates today. The Big Bang theory is not in opposition to the stories of creation, it is just another way to express the unknowable, to express our powerlessness to understand everything. Just as saying that it was 7 24-hour days in which the world was created is a bastardization of the teaching that says there are 70 faces to the Bible, 70 ways to understand the words, the stories, the commands, the demands, the pleas. What we know, when reading the Bible, when creating a work of art is that there are no two pieces that are exactly the same, unless we use the same mold, the same printer, etc. What we know, when studying the myriad of spiritual texts, is that each human being is different and unique so engaging in comparisons and competitions is a fool’s errand. Saying that my way is the only way, be it in medicine, science, logic, philosophy, religion belies the beauty and breath of all of these ways to be in the world. It is a denial of the wisdom that each of us human beings have within us and it is a lie.

The generalizations and conceptualizations that are ‘in vogue’ now are how people seeking to live free in the U.S. are bad and wrong, “enemies of the state”. The people being charged with ‘reducing waste in government’ are the very people who want to deregulate businesses while regulating what medical procedures women, men can have. While the Insurance Companies, including Medicare, play the actuarial tables, play the odds, people suffer and these regulations are considered good by the very people who want their hands untied to dump waste in our water supply, put toxins into the air so the O-Zone deteriorates further, and want their taxes lowered while the poor and the middle class bear the burden. They want to add tariffs onto imported goods and not build up manufacturing in the U.S. They want to keep wages low so they can make more profits and raise prices on their goods and services. And they are supported by and members of “christian nationalism churches” and consider themselves “good christians” while going against Christ’s teachings and ways of living!

We, the people, need to rebel against these generalizations and conceptualizations. We need to “Come to Pharaoh” within ourselves and speak to the divine soul that is within us so we can rise above our mathematical figures and see the artistry that is our world. We have to “come to Pharaoh” and speak to the artist within the people in our orbit and  band together to make our corner of the world into a beautiful, imperfect, flawed, unique piece of art. We need to band together with the other ‘misfits’ who seek to explain everything in simplistic terms, in complex mathematical terms and help them see the beauty and the art that go beyond these ways of being. We need to band together and compromise with one another, not on values or principles which are similar in all spiritual disciplines, rather in ways to carry them out, no longer needing to “be right” no longer denigrating the poor, the needy, and blaming the “stranger” because we are all immigrants, we are all needy and poor, we are all estranged at one time or another from God, from our authenticity.

I ‘see’ things differently than many people and I have found frustration in trying to convey my insights. I am an artist, however, in clay, in writing, in interpreting, and in living. I endeavor to live my life as a work of art each day and I have a “math brain”. Blending the two together, integrating them helps me reach wholeness a little more each day. I do not jettison “conceptualizations and generalizations” and I don’t make them the only way to understand how to live well. I am not a fundamentalist except when it comes to searching for truth, which makes me open to another’s point of view. It is hard to live with uncertainty in a world of people who believe in their own “certainty” and this is when we need to “come to Pharaoh” the most. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark