Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 176

“What begins as inequality of some inevitably ends as inequality of all.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 87)

Continuing the paragraph from yesterday, I am struck with the simple wisdom of the sentence above and our inability to grasp it, understand it, and acknowledge it. In our self-deceptive, ‘reptile’ minds we see unable to learn from history, learn from the Bible, learn from the experience of our ancestors and see what has happened and is happening in our time.

While the Biblical command is to “have dominion and rule” it was speaking of our ability to control animals, grow plants, etc - not have dominion and rule over another human being, another ethnicity, another color, creed, etc. Yet, we have coveted power and prestige by constantly and consistently seeking a person, a group of people to rule! It is a travesty of humanity to continue to bastardize the human spirit, defy the divinity all of us are created in, by using laws and customs to make separate rules for ‘the chosen’ and ‘those’ people.

The Bible tells us that “there shall be one law for the citizen and the stranger alike”, yet we seem unable to fulfill this command. Throughout history countries, governments, individuals have sought to scapegoat an individual and a group for their selfish needs. The prophets railed against this way of being and were ignored. All great civilizations, at one time or another, had laws for the ruling class, laws for the ‘peasant class’ and laws for the Jews. All have used the Jews as the focal point of inequality so they didn’t ‘taint the blood’ with ‘those vermin’ of the Aryans, of the Greeks, etc. All of the world has, at one time or another, had laws barring Jews from owning land, going to university, being counted, etc.

In all of these countries, the ‘peasant’ class who reviled the Jews and cheered at their being embarrassed and harassed, had the same inequality visited upon them and they were surprised each time. The ‘ruling class’ members became subject to losing their status at any time the people at the top decided to grab more power, more business’, or these people fell out of favor with the ‘boss’. Today’s autocrats learned their ruling structure from history-keep the masses down by giving them a common enemy, while setting it up for them to suffer as well, picking their pockets, wrapping them in chains and punishing anyone who doesn’t go along with ‘the program’.

America, the “land of the free and the home of the brave”, has a terrible track record of ignoring the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above. Be it the Chinese immigrants who built our railroads and were discriminated against, the German Jews who came here, the Italian, the Irish, the Eastern European Jews, the Iranian refugees, people from Mexico and Central America, etc; all were treated with disdain, mistrust, and inequality in their beginnings here in America, and then did the same to the next group of immigrants! Of course, seeing Blacks being treated different than whites in “the land of the free” was de rigueur, so commonplace people didn’t even take note.

We are witnesses and victims to the effects of the “inequality to some” that is beginning to be “inequality to all”. The Tax system in the US favors the rich, there is no such thing as everyone paying their “fair share”, when the people who make money from hedge funds, etc get the tax breaks, the corporations are treated as people and are too fragile to pay their fair share while they gouge the poor. Small business are being gobbled up and going out of business because of the Amazons, Home Depots, and other large chains that seek to monopolize the marketplace with a little help from their friends in government, etc. Our legal system has been at least two-tiered for a long time. Black and Brown, poor and immigrant people have been served one type of justice while white, rich people get another type of justice. Donald Trump is a perfect example. Whether one is a democrat or republican, for or against Trump-seeing him delay, disrespect, and denigrate our legal system is hurting us greatly. His belief that he is above the law, that he can do anything he wants to, goes back to a time way before he was President. He has always believed “some animals are more equal than others”.(Animal Farm)

Israel is treated with “inequality” as well. The same countries calling for restraint didn’t show it when the Santa Ana went to war with Texas, when Germany bombed London, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, etc.  Yet, the Jews should show restraint because, “well, they aren’t like us” so even in Global politics, Israel is called out for the humanitarian crisis caused by Hamas while Iran is the chair of the human rights commission-while they kill women for not wearing the ‘proper’ dress code! Do the countries that make up the UN really believe they will not suffer the same fate, the same condemnations as Israel when Russia gets desperate?

I have been a victim of anti-semitism, of discrimination because of my criminal past, because of my alcoholic past. I have watched how the “inequality” that was shown to Black people in my youth was hoisted upon me when I marched for Civil Rights, when I marched against the Vietnam War. I am a student of history and I know ‘in my bones’ that we have to end our need to have a scapegoat, we have to see one another as equals in the eyes of the universe and our differences make our world more complete and robust. Isn’t it time we all “just got along” and “rejoice in our portion” rather than be envious and power hungry? God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark