Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 348
“There was never a time in which the need for self-expression was so much stressed. Yet, there was never a time in which self-expression was so rarely achieved. If self-expression is the only goal, it can never be achieved. The self gains when losing itself in the contemplation of the nonself, in the contemplation of the world, for example. Self-expression depends upon self-attachment to what is greater than the self.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 64)
Reading these words some 62 years after they were delivered at a conference of Rabbis takes one’s breath away or it should. In today’s world where identity politics, people’s belief they can do what they want to because they are ‘free’, where the next president of the United States brags about being above the law, who says he can grab women in their private parts because he wants to, where victimhood is a flag so many wrap themselves in because of ‘political correctness’, these words need to be embedded in our educational system for both children, teens, college students and adults! We have forgotten the Civics lessons from our Junior High and Senior High school days, we have forgotten that “self-expression” is not for the self, it is to enhance the greater good.
The self-expression that is being foisted upon us is not real, as I read the words above. It is for political, economic, and personal gain rather than for “the nonself”. What passes for “self-expression” is nothing more than narcissistic chatter, hate speech, power grabbing and money grubbing bullshit that uninformed people and those seeking to be ‘above the law’ eat up like dogs lapping at their food. As described, it is “red meat” for the followers of the people at the top of the food chain seeking more and more power-be it on the right or the left. This is true in business as well as politics, in education as well as at the dinner table. “Children should be seen and not heard” is a famous line that denies true self-expression and leads to rebellion that passes as “self-expression” to the one who is rebelling because they are unaware of what true self-expression is, never seeing it at home where ‘the parent is always right’, ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ ‘this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you’ and other such stupid sayings. When the leaders cannot be questioned, when their ‘enemies’ (aka anyone who wants to hold them to account) can be jailed and prosecuted for not going along with the ‘fearful’ leader (because she/he is afraid of a large scale rebellion led by these people) the self-expression of a nation is suppressed and authoritarian rule, crimes against humanity are easily committed and freedom is lost.
Rather than continue down this path, Rabbi Heschel was suggesting, telling the spiritual leaders of Conservative Judaism to wake up! In the 60’s, in the middle of the Civil Rights movement, in the beginning of the escalation of the Vietnam War, when the people who served in WWII were still dealing with the horrors they witnessed and the traumatic moral injury they suffered because they had to kill people or be killed, Rabbi Heschel is telling his colleagues that religious institutions have to help people with their self-expression, that Rabbis have to counsel people on how to be “in contemplation of the nonself, in the contemplation of the world, for example”. Having suffered the loss of so much family in the Shoah, having witnessed the world standing idly by the blood of Jews, trade unionists, Gypsies, political enemies at the hands of the Nazis and the anti-semites of Poland, France, Holland, Russia, etc, Rabbi Heschel’s demand to and calling out of the lack of religious education that benefits the human soul is heroic! Yet, sadly, it is still not heard in every corner of Judaism nor Christianity nor Islam even today.
Since the clergy are still not heeding Rabbi Heschel’s words, it is incumbent upon We, the People to demand this way of being to be taught to our children and, more importantly, to us. In the first prayer of the Shema, the V’ahavta, we say: “and these words/ways I command you this day shall be on your heart, you shall teach them to your children, speak of them when you walk on the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, they are to be frontlets between your eyes, you are to write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates.”(Deuteronomy 6:6-9) The ultimate “self-expression” is when we live this prayer, this command, to the best of our ability. To do this, we have to bring our unique talents, gifts and ways of seeing what the next right thing is and doing it according to the call of our intuition/our soul. When we live into this prayer, then we are exercising the “self-expression” of our soul, we are connected with the universe, we are fulfilling the need that is in front of us and we are the most alive and most free that we can be. It is only by knowing and living as part of the whole while bringing our uniqueness to the table, can we really achieve “self-expression”.
“Self-expression” as described above is the goal set out in the beginning chapter of Genesis, it is the basis of all religious values and teachings: Care for the world I am giving you and have dominion(not domination) over the plants, vegetation, animals( not humans. Yet we have bastardized this foundational goal of “self-expression” by engaging in wars and starvation, spreading of diseases and toxic chemicals to control and enslave people, we have engaged in hatred of Jews and then others so we can have power over the people rather than be “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. We, the People have to demand of our clergy the teachings that return us to a primordial state of “self-expression” so we can “teach our children” and leave a better world for them to have care and dominion over.
This is the quest I have been on for a long time. I mistakenly thought my rebellion, my criminal behavior, my drinking was self-expression and I did not want to be judged. I have come to learn what “self-expression” truly is because of my teachers, family, friends, community. I am more prophetic than rabbinic, I am more bombastic than soft-spoken, I am more easily riled up than “slow to anger” and I can’t stand mendacity in another nor myself. I cannot “stand idly by the blood of my neighbor” so I say something when someone is doing the next wrong thing(IMO). I refuse to be silent when it is time to speak Truth to Power, I am ‘politically incorrect’ and I do not give into the current fad of unself-expression that is in vogue right now or before. I am a fighter for the soul of another and in doing so, I strengthen my own spiritual health. I am grateful that all of you have helped me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark