Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 366

“Religious thinking is an intellectual endeavor out of the depths of reason. It is a source of cognitive insight into the ultimate issues of human existence. Religion is more than a mood or a feeling. Judaism, for example, is a way of thinking and living.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 4)

Rabbi Heschel was a professor of Jewish Ethics and Mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary from 1946 till his death in 1972 which makes the first sentence very powerful as well as thought-provoking. I am hearing Rabbi Heschel remind us that we never have to give up our minds to engage in “religious thinking”, in fact, we have to go to “the depths of reason” to truly engage in it. WOW!

I have to be in two places at the same time, using the two faculties of reason and wonder to be in “radical amazement” in order to be both intellectual and mystical, to be both in and “out of the depths of reason.” Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that “religious thinking” does not mean ‘follow me and all your troubles will be gone”, it does not mean “only I can fix it for you”, it doesn’t mean one can jettison the very principles and teachings of the ‘founder’ of the religion and still be engaged in “religious thinking”. It doesn’t mean that one abdicates one’s mind for some greater good. Rather I hear Rabbi Heschel calling out to us to be free! To use the freedom we were gifted at Mount Sinai and have fought for ever since to engage with the values and principles of higher consciousness, “of the depths of reason” so we can live better than we are, in order to keep pushing ourselves to greater “cognitive insights” and wrestle with “the ultimate issues of human existence”.

We hear so often that “we are not feeling it in services”, “I am not in the mood to pray”, and other such poppycock from young and old alike. What they are missing is that “religious thinking” is not to make us “feel better”, it is to challenge us, it’s goal and purpose is to make us better human beings and we will never get there as long as both clergy and congregant, leader and citizen, stranger and neighbor, listen to the bullshit that passes for “religious thinking” today! The clergy who anointed Trump the messiah are not engaged in “religious thinking”, they are not having “an intellectual endeavor out of the depths of reason”, they have no “cognitive insight” nor do they care about the “ultimate issues of human existence”. NO, they only care about their particular agendas which, unfortunately, have been about power, control and wealth since time immemorial, whether it as Greek, Roman Mythology, Judaism once the Kingship became totally corrupt, Catholicism after the Pope took over. The beauty of “religious thinking” the care, the concern, the motivation to do the next right action has been jettisoned by these scam artists called priests, ministers, imams and rabbis in favor of currying favor with idolators, with people who despise “religious thinking” and want to keep the masses “in the ether” until it is too late for them to realize how their pockets have been picked, how their freedoms have been lost and how their “intellectual endeavors” have been bastardized and turned against them. We have been here before and we will recover, we will progress and then the backlash will raise its ugly head until society accepts “religious thinking” as an essential skill and delving into the “cognitive insight  into the ultimate issues of human existence” is the purpose and meaning of living.

We, the People are in desperate need of these skills, we are in desperate need of letting go of our need to ‘feel it’ or ‘to be in the mood for it’ when it comes to “religious thinking”, when we are being called to be both in and “out of the depths of reason”. Only by going to “the depth of reason” can we leave the shores of reason and connect to the greater “cognitive insights” that “religious thinking” can bring us to. Only by being both in and out of the depths can we connect with truth, wisdom and understanding how to be in the solution for the “ultimate issues of human existence”. “Religious thinking” requires us to not abdicate our minds and intellects, according to Rabbi Heschel’s words above, it does not ask us to have our head in the clouds or in the sand. Rather, “religious thinking” demands we end our mendacious ways of practicing ‘being religious’, we stop allowing ‘those people’ to define what religion is, we take back the wisdom, the truth, the “cognitive insight” that “religious thinking” affords us. We fire the liars and the progressives, the ‘magicians’ and the conservatives and take back the beauty, the insights, the thinking that religion gifts us with.

We, the People have to end our separation of religious adherence and our everyday lives. As said above, “religion” is “a way of thinking and a way of living”. We cannot pray once a week, three times a day, five times a day, go to confession often and then treat the stranger like a criminal! We cannot have a “spiritual life” and support the taking away of freedoms because we like this or that political candidate, this or that brand of politics. We cannot have a religious or spiritual community that stays silent in the face of Adolf Hitler like we did in the 1930’s and 40’s, we cannot call ourselves “religious” or “spiritual” and support mass deportations, the perversion of justice, the ‘kissing the ring, bending the knee’ to some political con artist and say “Jesus told me”, “it says in the Bible”, “the Koran teaches me”. We, the People have to educate ourselves and our children in the beauty of “religious thinking”, in the experience of being both in and “out of the depths of reason and being able to hear the “cognitive insight” of  our soul and the exquisite experience of being connected to the ultimate source of the universe for a few seconds, maybe a couple of minutes. Prayer, meditation, study will help us get here as long as we are free from being “adjusted to the conventional notions and mental cliches of societal thinking.

I have decided to continue writing each day on Rabbi Heschel’s thinking. I believe with what is happening in the world, it is being of service to delve into his insights and thoughts to help us navigate today’ backlash to progress, the rise of authoritarians so We, the People are able to withstand the onslaught, meet it and defeat it with “religious thinking”, with actively using it as “a way of living”, and using both “reason” and wonder to connect to the our higher selves and ‘see’ the solution. This is the work I have engaged in since 1987, I am a work in progress and I don’t act ‘holier than thou’ like some of the people on the ends of the continuum seem to do. Both conservatives and progressives that I know spout wonderful words and their “way of living” is antithetical to any and all of the “religious thinking” they espouse. So Sad. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark