Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 339

“Extremely important in Jewish tradition is the spiritual centrality of the word. It is…in the word where the insights and the spiritual power of more than thirty centuries is contained. These repositories will remain locked, the thoughts they contain will remain out of range, unless we approach them with heart and soul, with intelligence and imagination.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 62)

Rabbi Heschel is making a distinction between the “word” and words. The “word” is, I believe, referring to the word(s) found in the Bible, in the holy texts of Judaism. Words are what we speak and use to convey our interpretations, our ways of living, or not living, the word(s) found in our holy texts-be they Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, etc.

What seems to be missing in many Jews is “the spiritual centrality of the word”, judging by the ways we treat one another in Israel and across the globe with one denomination needing to denigrate another, with one group of Jews proclaiming “we are the TRUE INHERITORS of the Bible and ONLY WE KNOW the ONE WAY to live Jewishly! What bullshit, what hubris, what a denial of our history, the words of the Sages they say they revere so much. “The word” is for all of us to immerse ourselves in, for everyone to contribute the “face of Torah” they experience this year, to come together and learn from one another-not to tell people they are wrong for their insights, not to tell people to “toe the line”, not to put people in the uncomfortable situation of either being true to “the word” as they experience it or deny their insights, deny the call of their soul so they can be ‘part of the community’ that doesn’t want them unless they ‘go along to get along’. When “the word” becomes the “spiritual centrality” of our lives, of the ways in which we live, then we no longer have to engage in the senseless hatred that destroyed the 2nd Temple and left us wandering for almost 1900 years without a homeland. When “the word” is the spiritual center of our way of being in the world, we run to care for the stranger, help the poor, give voice to the voiceless and find ways to ransom people who are captives physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. When “the word” is the spiritual center our driving life force, we no longer give in to the mendacity of another(s) and our own self-deceptions.

In our “repositories” we have 3000+ years of people’s “insights and spiritual power” of “the word” and the experiences that lead us to our own. We have so many stories which depict the humanness, the cruelty, the kindness and generosity of,  the fallibility of, the fragility of human beings. It is hard to be human and, as the Yiddish saying goes: “it is hard to be a Jew” because most people hate us and have hated us for millennia, we hold ourselves to the standard of “the word”, and we can never “rest on our laurels”, we always have to be doing a Chesbon HaNefesh, an accounting of our souls, make our amends, emend our ways, and continue to grow and change. We can never be satisfied for long, it is a daily, hourly experience and our satisfaction is based on how we be human in the moment we are in. At issue is, of course, who has the key to these “repositories”, who is ‘right’ about their interpretations of what is in these “repositories”, hence the in-fighting between denominations and within denominations.

Truth: We, the people, have the keys to these “repositories”, we, the people, have the right to interpret and understand according to our spiritual condition what is in these “repositories”! In the Torah, in Deuteronomy 30:11-14 “the word” says:”It is not hidden from you, it is not far away…because “the word” is very near to you, in your mouth, in your heart that for you to do”. This was Moses speaking to the entire Israelite people “from the heads of the tribes to the water carrier”, men, women, children and, of course, to us today. This is, I believe, the main reason for Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above-without “the word”, we would be lost, we would still be wandering in the desert, in the wilderness and not have a clue how to “come home”, how to “return to Me and I will heal your backsliding”.

Herein lies the challenge of our lives in this time and for all times: will we live into the “insights and spiritual power” of “the word” or continue to bastardize it, continue to deceive another by manipulating them and the words of our holy texts for our own selfish needs and desires. Will we continue to allow those charlatans who want to deny us our freedom to learn, freedom and obligation to fulfill the calling of our souls, to honor the infinite dignity and value of our self and every other self, etc to rule over us as the Pharaoh did, as the Priests, royalty, the wealthy did at the time of the destruction of the Temples and the Northern Kingdom of Israel? Even the fact that we call our homeland Israel hints to the rebellious nature of people, the hint that our country will be short-lived because of infighting, senseless hatred, and false priests just like the Northern Kingdom of Israel became dispersed in Assyria and, according to our lore, never heard from again.

We, the people, have to stand up and say YES to living “the word” in all our affairs, we have to recover our eyesight and our hearing, we have to be sober and serious in our play and our living, we have to engage in our own interpretations of “the word” so we can use the insights of our ancestors, add our own and make life so much better than it was yesterday and not as good as it and we will be tomorrow. We have the path, we have the “insights”, we have the “spiritual power” and we have the ‘permission’ from our Torah, from our Bible, from the prophets to use all three. The question we face, in this time of chaos and turmoil across the globe, especially in Israel and in America: Will we, the people choose to say YES to “the word” and NO to the liars, the charlatans, the idolators, the mendacious ones who are trying to deny us Freedom, deny us the spiritual heritage and “power” that is our birthright?

I get into trouble each time I speak like this, each time I call our bullshit someone gets angry with me and when it is the people ‘in power’ who are angry it usually doesn’t go so well for Truth. I see what is, what can be and say, like Robert Kennedy Sr., why not? I am an optimist, I am a believer, I know that Truth will win out and, even if not in my lifetime, the enemies of “the word”, who are running shit right now will surrender. Be it in business, politics, goodness will win the day and I will continue to fight for truth within myself and the world. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark