Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 145

“Man was the first to hide himself from God (Genesis 3:8), after having eaten of the forbidden fruit, and is still hiding (Job 13;20-24). The will of God is to be here, manifest and near; but when the doors of this world are slammed on Him, His truth betrayed, His will defied, He withdraws, leaving man to himself. God did not depart of His own volition; he was expelled. God is in exile. (Essential Writings pg. 91)

Rabbi Heschel’s teaching in the second sentence above is the bane of our existence. While it was certainly true 70+ years ago, it is even more true today. Humanity suffers from EGO, easing God out, in massive proportions and it doesn’t seem to phase most people. In fact, I would posit that most people are unaware of their perpetrating this most harmful of actions.

In Deuteronomy, Moses says: “The word is very near to you, in your mouth, in your heart, that you may do it.” He also reminds us that not hearing God, ignoring God for other gods, will bring about the end of our humanity. He says: “I have given you both blessing and curse, life and death, choose life!” Yet, we humans continue to distort his words, God’s will, and our own importance. Our EGO’s have become so out of proportion, that we have deluded ourselves into believing we are ‘doing God’s will’ all the while we are doing the will of false gods, doing the will of our intellects, doing the will of our Yetzer Hara which is out of proper measure. We cry out to God on days of remembrance, like Easter, Passover, Shavuot, Yom Kippur and then quickly forget our cries and how they are answered, especially if we don’t like the answer. We have taken the will of God that is “here, manifest and near” and twisted it, bastardized it for our power rather than for the glory of God.

“The doors of this world are slammed on Him” every time we vilify the stranger. Every time we treat another person as a non-entity, someone having less value than us, enslave them through actual slavery, paying less that a living wage, exploiting their talents for our glory, we slam the doors on God. Every time we engage in cursing one another, cursing the planet/nature, through acting as if we are the end all/be all, as if we know what is best and right, we slam the doors on God. Each time we use religion to reign over another human being, each time we lie about what the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran actually says, we slam the door on God. Each time we mumble the word that is “in your mouth, in your heart” we slam the doors on God. Each time we forget the lessons of the past, each time we ignore Moses’ call to Choose Life, we slam the doors on God. Each time we lie, deceive, anoint false prophets, we slam the door on God. Each time we celebrate the authoritarian drive in each of us, we slam the doors on God. As you can see, we are slamming the doors on God often, with regularity, and without even realizing we are. We have become so good at mendacity, we practice indifference with such skill, that we have become inured to the evil we perpetrate and the myriad of ways “the doors of this world are slammed on Him”.

Hearing the words of Moses in the context of Rabbi Heschel’s brilliance gives me pause and alarm. Our clergy are supposed to lead us “to the promised land” just as the priests of antiquity were called to do, yet they/we seem to be leading us back into a myriad of Egypts, into narrow places within which there is no room to maneuver, no space to turn around in. It seems ironic that the people who are supposed to be called to help us experience God’s will that is “here, manifest, near” are some of the people leading us away from this experience so they can impose their will, not God’s, upon us! We do not need Christian Nationalism as our form of government, we do not need to live under Shariah law, we do not need to live under Jewish law as these fundamentalists want us to, as these charlatans desire and work hard for us to be under their thumbs-this is not God’s will. The destruction of the Kingdom of Israel, of Judea twice, are prime examples of what happens when liars and charlatans take power under the guise of “God’s will” and really are slamming the doors on God. We have historical lessons from Spain, from the Ottoman Empire, etc, no country has survived that gave control over to the radical fundamentalists of any tradition. Since there are 70 “faces” to the Hebrew Bible, it is impossible to have a one-size fits all, to know exactly what God wants, except for connection, for our allegiance to decency, kindness, truth, freedom!

I am calling out Clergy, elected officials of our country, leaders of the “free world” and people of all countries to stop slamming the doors on God! I am calling all of us out to recover the words of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Plato, Socrates, etc and open our mouths to speak the truth from our souls, from out hearts. I am calling us all to task to heed Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom, to live into his brilliance and follow his teachings. Rabbi Heschel’s words above and in every sentence he wrote, in every action he took are roadmaps, pathways to recovering the essence of being human; they allow us to follow the wisdom of the Kotzker Rebbe: we find God “wherever and whenever we let God in” to our daily living. Recovery begins with acknowledgement that we are not God, the first commandment teaches us, in my words: “God is God and I’m not-Thank God!”. This humility will help us all open the doors we have “slammed on Him” and bring us to a new freedom and a new connection with one another, a respect for our different ways of seeing and implementing God’s word and will instead of fighting to implement our own words and will. It will lessen the mendacity and self-deception we put into our world and, possibly, find more ways to live together in peaceful co-existence. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark