Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 331
“Immortality of the soul ought to be our central concern. By this, I mean the immortality of the soul while the body is still alive. Some human beings die long before their bodies do. The first task of religion is to serve as a reminder that man has a soul, that community has a soul. Did we not witness how entire nations lost their souls? The surest way to forfeit the soul is to ignore the spirit.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 61)
I have written this entire paragraph today because I have no idea how to separate these sentences from each other. The soul never dies, it is energy and I hear Rabbi Heschel saying to us that we ignore our souls at our own peril, at the peril of our community’s health and well-being. The “central concern”, as I experience Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above is to keep the soul alive and in communication with the body, to stop our desire to kill our souls, to snuff out our spiritual nature so we can indulge in greed, lust, gluttony, etc.
“Some human beings die long before their bodies do” is another truth that is ignored because everyone knows this happens so we ignore the facts when it is happening to us, when it is happening to ‘our people’, when we want to indulge in self-centered narcissistic behaviors that our souls, our spirits want to stop us from doing. We kill off our humanity whenever we vote for our self-interest and/or for people who do not have the slightest interest in helping their fellow human being, we kill off our humanity when we believe we will be exempt from the behaviors someone does to somebody else because ‘we’re tight with the power people’ and other such lies we tell ourselves. We die before our bodies when we sell off pieces of our soul, of our humanity bit by bit in order ‘to get ahead’. We die before our bodies do every time we ignore the call of our soul, the power of the spirit, and run away from doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.
We are in constant need of being reminded that we have a soul and this is what makes us human, what gives us life, that soul and breath are the same words in most languages. We are in constant need of adding to the goodness of the communal soul, not adding to the negativity of the communal soul. We are care-takers of the members of our community just as they are care-takers of us. We have an obligation to care for the poor and the voiceless, to not take advantage of one another, to not lie in order to ‘win’. This obligation stems from being responsible and concerned about the “immortality of the soul”. This obligation is at the heart of being human, at the core of not dying before our bodies do!
We have read and witnessed “how entire nations lost their souls” and we are seeing this phenomena happed today! Here in America, the country elected a liar, a fascist, a narcissist, a traitor to be President once again. People could not take him at his word and, because their souls were already dead, they have abandoned most of the traits that make them human, they have been told by many of their clergy that they have to vote against their best interests, against upholding the Constitution, against the nourishment of their souls. It is too depressing and to sad to see where we have come, how far we have fallen from the ideals of Washington, Lincoln, and the rest of the Presidents who have served with humanly and distinction. Rather than “serve as a reminder that man has a soul”, some of the religions, some of the ‘religious’ have done the opposite. They have stood with a man who is dead already inside, who’s soul is as sour and as dry as Pharaoh’s or Hitlers, a man who believes hanging with dictators is the best way to be, who wants to end health care for people, who wants to jettison the regulations that have saved so many. A man who may very well make the U.S. a ‘christian nation’ that never follows the dictates of Christ!
Yesterday’s election is a preview of how the U.S. is in real danger of losing its soul, if it hasn’t already. What is happening in Israel is a preview of how it is in danger of losing its soul. Both nations are on the precipice of this fall from grace because of the leaders they have chosen, both nations are on the precipice because the populace still has the power to protest, still makes its voice heard. WE, THE PEOPLE, more than ever, have to march and shout, have to protest and do everything we can to block the darker instincts of these megalomaniacs. We have to have the courage of Navalny, we have to have the courage of the prophets, the fire in the belly of Christ, the strength of Moses, the spiritual awakening of the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai. Like the descendants of Jacob, after Joseph and his brothers died, we have allowed a “new Pharaoh to” arise and he will “deal slyly with us” and, if we don’t stay alert, if we don’t have our voices heard, if we don’t stay in opposition to his fascist ways, he will set taskmasters over us and they have names, Musk, Kennedy Jr., Bannon, Stone, Flynn, etc. We have to end our addiction to hatred, our fascination with lies, our self-deception that we need someone to protect us, that we are so pathetic we need an authoritarian in the White House, that the rule of law means nothing, that if you are rich, you can do anything.
I write this today with a heavy heart. Kamala Harris did the best she could, she gave it her all and the people who Trump has vilified loved him more for this vilification than they did before. Not enough young voters, women voters, ‘religious’ voters, latino voters, did not hear him nor hear her in their souls. I worry that their souls have died even though their bodies are still working. I worry for my grandson, a bi-racial child, I worry for my nieces who will be told by governments what healthcare they can have, I worry for my daughter who will be told to shut up because she opposes hatred and cruelty. I worry for my neighbors who will rejoice at the cruelty yet to come, I worry for the people who will be devastated when they find out their ‘hero’, their ‘savior’ is delivering them into the hands of taskmasters who care nothing for them, who only want power and control. I worry for my fellow Jews, especially those who voted for Trump, when they find out what it means to live under ‘christian nationalism’, because Jews have always flourished in Christian Countries, like Spain, England, France, Germany, Italy, etc. I worry for God, how devastating this is to see God’s Creations purposely vote, passionately march to their own destruction. I worry for all of us that we have fallen so far, that we have forgotten the wisdom of Socrates: “an unexamined life is not worth living” and we “forfeit” our “souls” by ignoring “the spirit.” God Bless and pray for the survival of freedom and democracy in the U.S. and in Israel, Rabbi Mark