Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 118

“The prophet faces a coalition of callousness and established authority and undertakes to stop a mighty stream with mere words. Had the purpose been to express great ideas, prophecy would have had to be acclaimed a triumph. Yet the purpose of prophecy is to conquer callousness, to change the inner man as well as to revolutionize history.” (Essential Writings pg. 63)

Humanity, we have a problem! 2 Millennia before Apollo 13, the prophets came to the world, stood up to the men in charge and, in a myriad of ways, told us this news. There words have not only stood the test of time, they are as ignored today as they were at the times the prophets spoke.

The “coalition of callousness and established authority” may be greater now than it was in their times. Rather than, as Rabbi Heschel demands, study the prophets, learn from the prophets, heed the prophets words, we have come to regard them with contempt, behaving as if they spoke words of folly rather than words of truth, words of warning, words of God. While we hear and see ‘pious people’ all around us, they exhibit a false piety, they practice “callousness” rather than mercy, they are more interested in establishing their authority than in living as humble servants of God. Yet, just as in the days of the prophets, the masses tend to go along with these idolators, we continue to be deaf, dumb and blind to the truth around us, to the callousness that we either participate in or accede to. At the same time wondering “where is God”, using our failings as proof that God doesn’t exist or worse, using our callousness to prove God loves the callous and the “established authority” better than the poor, the needy, the stranger, etc!

I find it interesting, sad, etc that the “mere words” of “callousness and established authority” are strong enough to hurtle the train of humanity on a path of self-destruction, of destroying the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” while, seemingly, not being strong enough to hear and follow the “mere words” of the prophets who were imbued with the force of God’s directions. We are created in the Image of God and we have the ability to hear and learn from the divine, from history, from our holy texts and we allow the “mere words” of “callousness and established authority” to override what we know to be true, what we know to be the ‘next right action’. Our collective egos have grown so out of proper measure that we believe the lies of “established authority”, we have adopted our self-deceptions as facts, we have become so blind and deaf that we see, hear  and participate in callousness believing it is kindness. We go along with authoritarians believing they care about us, we are unwelcoming of the stranger for fear they are going to ‘get ours’ rather than knowing there is enough for all. The problem is not “mere words”, I believe, the problem is we are engaging with the “mighty stream” in order to be ‘a part of’. While “established authority” is something greater than ourselves, it is not the entity that will recognize us, the authoritarians don’t care about anything except how much “callousness” they have to exert in order for everyone to ‘fall in line’ and accept their authority.

“Mere words” can stop the “mighty stream” of “callousness and established authority” when we choose to hear, heed, and take action on the words, ways and ideas of the prophets. They came to the people in their time and they come to us in the Bible for our benefit, to call out Humanity, we have a problem and only we humans can fix it. While many people of faith claim to be waiting for the 2nd Coming of the Messiah and others are waiting for the Messiah to come for the first time, these people of faith have missed the messianic messages of the prophets: clean up your ways, stop your backsliding, end your prostituting at the altars of idolatry, “callousness”, and mendacity. We, the people, have to prepare ourselves to meet and hear the message of the prophets before we are ready and able to meet the Messiah. We, the people, have to study and implement the “mere words” of the prophets, of the Bible, of the New Testament, of the Koran, etc prior to being able to hear and experience the messiah and a messianic era. We do not need to wait for Armageddon, it is happening right here, right now-we seem to be incapable of enlisting in and fighting with the “mere words” of the prophets and instead we go along the “mighty stream” of “callousness and established authority”.

It is time for all of us to go AWOL from the armies of “established authority” and “callousness”, it is time for us to dam up the “mighty stream” of mendacity and hatred. It is time for all of us to be in recovery. We recover our Integrity, we become integrated human beings, we no longer need to buy into the lies we have told ourselves prior to recovery, we no longer have to be afraid of “established authority” harming us. We get to leave the “callousness” of needing to be right, the “callousness” of making another bad so we can be good. We no longer engage in “where’s mine” and instead seek to give to our neighbors and strangers. We recover the lost parts of ourselves that we freely gave over to “callousness and established authority” foolishly believing this would make us ‘feel good’ and/or ‘be happy’. We end the blame game and engage in the ‘I am responsible for my actions’ way of living. In recovery, we don’t have “identity politics”, we don’t have “MAGA” followers, we have people rowing together against these mighty streams, we have people working together for the good of all to dam up and stop the “mighty stream” of “callousness and established authority” that has as its goal the destruction of the human spirit. In recovery, we take up the mantle of the prophets, we face “a coalition of callousness and established authority” in our time and, because of our dedication to spiritual principles and values, we can at least hold them at bay. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark