Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 128

“The words the prophet utters are not offered as souvenirs. His speech to the people is not a reminiscence, a report, hearsay. The prophet not only conveys, he reveals. He almost does unto others what God does unto him. In speaking, the prophet reveals God. This is the marvel of the prophet’s work: in his words, the invisible God becomes audible. He does not prove or argue. The thought he has to convey is more than language can contain. Divine power bursts in his words. The authenticity of the prophet is in the Presence his words reveal.” (Essential Writings pg. 64)

The last sentence above seems to elude most people. While we read the prophet, quote the prophet, misuse his words to validate whatever position one wants to take, we fail to allow “the Presence his words reveal” to penetrate our inner life, our souls. Because of our reliance on our intellect, on the dictates of societal norms, we water down the revelation of God in the message of the prophet, we shield our self from the full impact of “the Presence his words reveal” and we do so at our own peril.

The prophet is radical, abrasive, unyielding, relentless in his mission of holding a mirror up to us which reflects how far we have gone from “the Presence” that brought us out of Egypt, that gives us a way of living together without the senseless hatred, without the incessant need for power, for blame, for being irresponsible in the ways we act. His words reveal the call of the Ineffable One for us to return, the call of love, the call of compassion and concern, the call of forgiveness, the call to truth. He is not revealing anger at the people even though his words sound angry, rather he is revealing the anguish he experiences and that “the Presence” experiences at our running away from the call of the covenant, the deal we made at Sinai, the love of humanity that “the Presence” has.

The prophet reveals the mendacity of those who proclaim dogma uber alles, he reveals the deception of those who claim perfection and/or our need to be perfect, he reveals the lies of making our minds, our wealth, our possessions the new Golden Calf. The prophet reveals “the Presence” in voice and in direction while we, the people, bastardize his words to fit our selfish needs. We hear people proclaim that God should stay out of our politics when the prophet’s words are used to uncover the lies and deceptions of ‘the religious’ people, when their words are used to unmask the mendacity of ‘the humanists’. Just as in the 1960’s ‘god-fearing’ people thought that Rabbi Heschel, Rev. King, the Berrigan Brothers should not be involved in politics because they should stay in their houses of worship, today we see many of the ‘religious’ people proclaiming that putting ‘god’ into our politics takes us back to the ‘good old days’ of white power, of racism, of support of fascism, anti-semitism, anti-LGBTQ+, etc. “The Presence his words reveal” are ignored because these ‘religious’ and ‘humanistic’ conservatives and progressives are unwilling to look in the mirror and see what the words of the prophets reveal about themselves.

We have to immerse ourselves in the words of the prophet, we have to re-experience “the Presence his words reveal” every day, every week, every year because not doing so leads us to the same actions that destroyed the kingdoms of Israel and Judea. What the prophet’s words reveal is the inner rot of the societies, the decay of the inner life of the individuals both in charge and their followers. “The Presence” is calling to us to change, to return through the words of the prophet and without experiencing their words anew, we will continue to slide into the same rot and decay. Some would say we are there and have never left-which may be true and makes the need to experience, to see what his words reveal all the more important.

To do this, we have to take off our dark glasses, we have to unmask ourselves and our communities, we have to end our incessant “need to be right” and “on advice of counsel”, on our deceptive practice of “this is for the good of society” and “only I can solve this/only you understand me” bullshit. We have to ask ourselves the questions that the prophet’s words are the answer for; we have to recognize the myriad of ways our prayers and acts of charity are self-serving rather than serving “the Presence”, the slight of hand we continue to play when we proclaim loyalty and fealty to ‘scripture’ while really proclaiming loyalty and fealty to our selfishness, our hunger for power, to those who join with us or we join with to achieve power and control. The prophet reveals our falseness, our inauthentic natures, the masks we wear and the make-up we put on. The prophet’s words reveal the lipstick we are putting on a pig and calling it kosher and we continue to hide from their revelations because of our unwillingness to look in the mirrors the prophet holds up to us, we are afraid to face “the Presence he reveals in his words”.

“The Presence he reveals in his words” is the foundation of recovery, not all of us have the same ‘definition’ or ‘understanding’ of “the Presence” and we all share the values and the new norms the words of the prophet reveal. We are not perfect and we also argue about dogma and spirit, about the path of recovery not being the same for everyone and how everyone should just follow the steps and life will be good. Yet, we all agree on our need to connect to something greater than ourselves so we can have a psychic shift from our “stinking thinking” to a higher/God consciousness. We all know without living our spiritual values out loud, we will return to the despair, degradation, and insanity of our former ways of  life. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark