Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 359
“Jewish faith, I repeat, is not a formula. It is an attitude, the joy of living a life in which God has a stake, or being involved with God. Such faith is neither an easy nor secure attachment. Nor is it an attitude acquired all at once or once and for all. It takes an instant to trust an idol; it takes ages to achieve attachment to Him. It requires effort, stirring, strain, preparation…Faith implies striving for faith. It is never an arrival; it is always being on the way, man’s effort to come out of his callousness.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 66)
Faith, as Rabbi Heschel speaks about it above, is neither blind nor “easy”. It is not to be thought of as a ‘one and done’ experience, it is a constant striving and wrestling within oneself and with the creative force of the universe. It not being “an easy nor secure attachment” gives people the ‘permission’ to abuse it, make fun of it, to commit horrible actions in the name of ‘their faith’, which is actually idolatry in disguise.
We are in the throes of another backlash against what Rabbi Heschel is speaking about above. In fact, he foresaw this situation some 62 years ago, he was able to see the seeds of ‘mis-faith’ being sown then and this speech to the Rabbinical Assembly back in 1962 was his attempt to stem the tide of his vision of what was happening: “it takes an instant to trust an idol”. The people proclaiming faith to ‘christian values’ to ‘jewish law’, to ‘sharia law’ so loudly may be the ones that have fallen into idolatry because their leaders are taking them there. The people who are waving the flag of ‘Christian nationalism’ the strongest, speaking of the need for America to be a ‘christian nation’ are not engaged in faith as Rabbi Heschel is describing it; and while he has defined this as “Jewish faith”, we are well aware of his embracing of other faiths as valid and his friends numbered many Christian, Catholic and Muslim clergy and people.
How do we cultivate “the joy of living a life in which God as a stake, or being involved with God”? We have to first see the true nature of our self-we have to take a dive into our inner life, we have to leave the conscious, rational, defensive thought patterns of our minds and the irrational defense and victim mechanisms of our emotions and allow the “still small voice” inside of every human being speak and be heard. We get to acknowledge the good and not good, we get to learn from our past and our intuition. We get to strengthen our connection to truth and to the world outside of our selfishness and narcissism. It is a daily practice to ‘keep’ it and grow it. It is not automatic nor is it rote.
Faith, as described above, “requires effort, stirring, strain, preparation.” This is what most people miss-they believe they don’t have to work at it, they think they are protected by it, they are sure everything they do and/or their fellow cohorts do must be good and right because they are people of ‘such great faith’ and don’t have to question themselves because if they are doing it, it must be right and good in the eyes of their ‘god’-which in actuality is their “trust an idol” mentality, self-deception, mendacity sold to them by their ‘church’. “Faith” is sold as an easy thing, a “one and done” experience that stays with one forever and Rabbi Heschel is calling out these lies and demanding that we end our fascination with “easy” and get into the “strain, effort” of “faith”. By doing this the “stirring” of our inner life and our “knowing the next right action to take” comes alive and we find ourselves in “preparation” for the next miraculous experience of connection, of being in “the joy of living a life in which God as a stake, or being involved with God”. We do not get there by listening to Mike Johnson, Project 2025, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Bernie Sanders or Ron Reagan, who isn’t afraid to “burn in hell”, et al. We do not get there by treating the stranger poorly, by making the poor into criminals, by turning away the needy and by lying to the people who depend upon us for love, truth, compassion, kindness.
The truth of Rabbi Heschel’s words:”It is never an arrival; it is always being on the way, cannot be overstated. They also give all of us an opportunity to realize all of life “is never an arrival; it is always being on the way”. Doing this allows us to be more truthful within ourselves, it means we don’t have to hide from our moments of ‘no’ faith. We don’t have to be ashamed of ‘not being in full and true faith’ like we are exhorted to be by the idolators who are in charge of our Temples, Churches, Mosques in many places around the globe. Each day, Jews recite a blessing before they even get out of bed: “I am grateful to You, God for restoring my soul to me with compassion, great is Your faithfulness”, acknowledging God’s faithfulness, not our own, putting upon ourselves the commitment, the obligation to grow our faith and to be on the road to faith. This is why we are so put off guard by “the faithful” by those who have “drunk the Kool-Aid”, they give off an air of certainty that we know is impossible and yet, many people are envious of the ‘certainty of faith’ of the people who follow their idols, their idolators and charlatans. This is the problem with idolatry-it gives us certainty in today’s uncertain world and idolatry’s promise of a ‘better life in the next world’ is so tantalizing for many people they are willing to crush the “still small voice” needed to exert the “effort to come out of his callousness”.
Idolatry, bastardization of Holy Texts, the Declaration of Independence here and in other countries that is happening now as it always has, is the pathway to defeat “man’s effort to come out of his callousness” and We, the People, Jews and non-Jews have to take back “faith”, we have to once again speak the words of the Prophets, we have to “Speak Truth to Power”, it is the only way out of our own callousness and mendacity, it is the only way to once again “to achieve an attachment to Him” and find the power to live in ways that make us worthy of being a partner with God. It is hard to do this, it takes effort to keep my attitude in line with my faith, it takes spiritual practice like this writing to help me let go of the calls of the idolator within me and those outside of me. I have given into them before, God knows, and I keep learning from those times to make this a better moment. It is hard, yes AND it is joyous to be able to know I don’t have to prove anything to anyone because I know myself, I hear the “Voice” inside of me and around me and take the next right action whether I want to or not. I am blessed by being “out of my callousness” and demanding others do the same-not for my sake but for theirs, God’s and the world’s! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark
P.S. my latest podcast is up:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/74FzSVg8mJcyiUIB76qvHb?si=092b4b44c5f74430 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f-your-feelings-with-rabbi-mark/id1587525986