Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 360
“He who seeks God to suit his astuteness, to appease his vanity, to satisfy his curiosity, will find at the end a figment of his imagination. He who goes out to seek God on a bridge of abstract demonstrations will arrive at a castle in the air. Only a bridge made of life itself, of deeds of compassion, of instants of wonder, of moments of reverence will lead us to an understanding of what faith has to say.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 67)
All people of faith need to take this litmus test given by Rabbi Heschel in the words above. All people need to ask themselves these questions, respond to these demands regarding their allegiance to their flag, to their Declaration of Independence, to their constitution, be they live in the USA and/or anywhere. All leaders need to be held accountable to these standards and every clergy needs to measure their search for truth and decency, their loyalty to the covenant with their faith that they proclaimed on the day of their ordination.
One of the issues facing us today is “he who seeks God to suit his astuteness” because so many people are so certain of what God wants us to do; just ask Jerry Falwell Jr., Joel Osteen, the people from the Federalist Society, Project 2025, Orthodox Jews, Baptists Ministers, Radical Muslim Imams, etc. All of them trying to show how smart and erudite they are with their machinations and twisting of the words of the Bible, the meaning of how to live well and together so they have the power-much like Samuel who was so distraught that his sons, who were totally inappropriate as his surrogates, were not wanted by the people to lead them after Samuel, he did everything he could to screw up King Saul psychologically. His lies, like the lies of “he who seeks God to suit his astuteness” lead to the theocracy that will destroy countries, turn people away from faith and cause the ruin of democracy and freedom. Theocracies have never wanted to “Proclaim Freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”(Lev.25:10)
We see the people who “seek God to appease his vanity” in our elected officials, in some of our Clergy, in people who want to be, or are, autocrats. These people will hold photo ops with a Bible(sometimes upside down) to show their faux allegiance to God when really they believe they themselves are better than God, know more and are better suited for the job of God, King, ruler, than God! This is how vain we humans can get. Seeking God “appease his vanity” is the search for proof that one doesn’t really need God, that one is able to know what is best just because they are so smart, so intuitive, etc and one wants to satisfy one’s beliefs in their own greatness. This person also is always surprised that people don’t recognize their superior talents, brilliance, abilities, etc and they become autocrats because their ‘brilliance’, their “superior talents’, etc were not recognized so they are going to “show everyone” who is really in charge, and it ain’t God.
“A figment of our imagination”, “a castle in the air” is what passes for faith these days for many people. It is what religious instruction has become not because of religion, but because of who is teaching it, who is practicing it and who has become its spokespeople. We are in a crisis of faith that is of our own making. We have had the opportunity for 3500+ years to immerse ourselves in the Bible, to see ourselves in every chapter, to understand ourselves by understanding the archetypes found in the Bible, to find better ways to govern ourselves through justice, mercy, truth, kindness, righteousness, charity and T’Shuvah, using the stories of the Kings of Israel and the Prophets as our guides. Yet, we have not, we have not heard nor taken to heart Rabbi Heschel’s words above, we have not responded to his call for us to be different which is what God asks of us in the Bible. Jews are not chosen because we are so special, we are chosen to be different than the nations at the time, different than the pagan religions at the time and we are still chosen to be different now, which is what Rabbi Heschel is calling us to do by building a different bridge.
“Only a bridge made of life itself, of deeds of compassion, of instants of wonder, of moments of reverence will lead us to an understanding of what faith has to say.” We, the People are being called to build the one bridge that will bring us to wholeness, bring us to tolerance, bring us to be just, bring us to be merciful, bring us to admit our own errors, bring us to be kind. This is the bridge of “deeds of compassion”-being able to not hate your neighbor in your heart, to feel sad for how stuck someone is in their own self-deception while also helping them see the truth, supporting causes that promote health and are seeking cures for diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, cancer, Diabetes, Addiction,-knowing that there is a spiritual component to the healing process that we have to address as well. This is the bridge “of instants of wonder”- wow I woke up this morning, the sun rises in the East and isn’t sunrise more amazing than anything I can create? Seeing the newness of the texts we read, the prayers we pray, the air we breathe in, knowing that nothing is the same as yesterday because we are in wonder. This is the bridge “of reverence”, a bridge that takes us out of our negativity, out of our “vanity”, out of our “astuteness”, a bridge that grounds us in what truly is, not what we have bastardized and sullied. We get to be on the bridge that takes us, one step at a time, to standing in truth, in joy, in the fullness of being who we are created to be. This is how we are led “to an understanding of what faith has to say.” Only by being on the bridge, walking away from the bullshit and self-deception can we gain glimpses of this understanding.
I have been able to gain glimpses because of the study, inner work and acceptance of what is that I have learned, through very difficult lessons sometimes. The joy of being in faith because of wonder, awe, reverence, compassion, truth, justice, righteousness, kindness is like being able to traverse a very bumpy, uphill climb like runners do, like mountain climbers do. I am wrapped in the warm blanket of knowing and understanding that this is the call I have to respond to in this moment and rejoice in my portion. “Understanding of what faith has to say” is exhilarating, exhausting, liberating and puts fences around what I can and can’t do. I find new ways to live in the ways Rabbi Heschel is calling us to and I am once again in awe of the power of forgiveness, the power of kindness, the power of compassion for another who is stuck and can’t seem to hear the call for compassion, etc towards another(s), who seeks revenge rather than rapprochement. Faith call us to pray for them not hate them-this is the challenge for all of us. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark