Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 142
“We have trifled with the name of God. We have taken ideals in vain, preached and eluded Him, praised and defied Him. Now, we reap the fruits of failure. Through centuries His voice cried in the wilderness. How skillfully it was trapped and imprisoned in Temples! How thoroughly distorted!” (Essential Writings pg. 90)
Continuing to understand and implement Rabbi Heschel’s teaching in the second sentence above, I believe it is incumbent upon us to ask ourselves if our preaching and our praising are just deceptive ways of hiding from our eluding and defying God, as Rabbi Heschel teaches us. Taking in his words and rebuke of us, hopefully, forces us to take stock of our self-deceptions, our believing in the mendacity and deceptions of another(s), and return to the spirit of one of the paths towards decency, faith, and living in community that the Bible gives us.
Yet, in the last 70+ years, our preaching has gotten more subtle in its hiding from and eluding God, our praise has covered over our defying of God so well most of us are unaware of it. We hear preachers extolling Christ while preaching ‘prosperity gospel’, we listen to Rabbis engage in the minutia of Talmudic reasoning while forgetting and/or ignoring God’s call to us through Isaiah-don’t bring me your sacrifices, take the actions that uphold the dignity of every human being, we hear Imams speak of Allah Akbar, while promoting inhumane actions through terrorism, through prejudice, etc. God eludes so many of our Clergy, in all faith traditions, because we are so deeply ensconced in our self-deceptions, we have learned to spout mendacity from their teachers, we have made being a member of the Clergy a career rather than a calling. We are held captive to a board of directors, we are called out when we speak truth by the people in the pews who do not want to look at themselves. The easy solution is to blame the Clergy, the more difficult and responsible solution is to look inside ourselves and do our own inventory, take our own responsibility and make the changes we need to make so we end our “preaching to the choir” of people seeking to elude God and instead speak the hard truths of change, of reconnection to the principles of the Bible, and seek new responses for the myriad of life’s challenges we face.
When we sing Hallelujah in our churches and temples all the while thinking about our business life, our economic woes/fears, our belief in fearing the stranger, blaming the victims of need, wrapping ourselves in the literal word of the Bible to validate our ignoring the poor, we are defying God. When we use the goodness of another as a weapon against them, we are defying God. When we use the vulnerabilities of another against them, we are being evil and defying God. When we believe our privilege gives us a pass rather than making us more obligated, we are defying God. When we forget our being chosen as a birthright rather than accept the obligation to fulfill what we are chosen for, we are defying God. When we continue to use the words of praise and gratitude while crossing the street because we see a person different than us, when we ignore the beggar who is in need, when we ask for God’s help and deny helping our fellow human beings, we are defying God.
Yet, we seem to be incapable of accepting our two-faced ways of being. We seem to be incapable of looking in the mirror at our own mendacity, we seem to be incapable of accepting and admitting the ways we preach while eluding God and God’s will; the paths we choose so we make ourselves feel good by praising God while defying God’s call to us. Yet, we can hear Rabbi Heschel’s words and wisdom anew today. We can and must end our eluding and defying of God, of God’s will, of God’s call to us. We, the people, must look inside of ourselves and end our wonderful words of preaching while taking actions that elude God’s will, God’s teachings, the words of Moses and Christ, the actions of the prophets. We have to admit our errors, we have to do our T’Shuvah and end our deceptions, both of self and another(s), we have to make our amends to those we have harmed, and we have to change both our actions and end our desire to engage in deceiving ourselves. We, the people, have to call out the charlatans in all faith traditions, in all either/or thinking in politics, economics, religions, social media, etc. We, the people, have to call out one another when our preaching and praising eludes and defies with love and strength. We, the people, have to demand of our leaders in all walks of life truth, concern, making sure they enhance freedom for “all the inhabitants therein”, holding them to account that all people who live within our borders are part of “all the inhabitants therein” regardless of race, religion, gender, who they love, etc. We have to throw out of office the people who ‘get off’ by denigrating their enemies, lying to their people, promoting their personal agendas over what is best for the people. We have to stand up for God, we have to stop hiding from and making our falseness an altar we seem to relish worshiping at.
Rabbi Heschel’s call to us is a call that is directed to each and everyone of us. While it is easy to blame the Clergy, the political system, I hear Rabbi Heschel asking me what I am doing in my life that promotes bastardizing ideals, preaching and praising. I look at the times I praised someone so I could fleece them, prior to my recovery, prior to my return to God’s path for me. I look at the times people praised me while defying the teachings, the moments where people preached bullshit so they could elude God and responsibility. I am watching the lies of Netanyahu, Trump and their cronies/allies, the mendacity of ADL in honoring Jared Kushner, and wonder how we have fallen so far. I pray we hear Rabbi Heschel’s words and answer his call to change. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark