Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 177

“In referring to the Negro in this paper we must, of course, always keep equally in mind the plight of all individuals belonging to a racial, religious, ethnic, or cultural minority.”(Insecurity of Freedom pg.87)

Racism, being a “cancer of the soul”, affects those who are infected, those who are diseased in every aspect of their dealing with and treatment of people who are ‘not like me’. While the conference dealt with racism against Black people, Rabbi Heschel reminds us that it is not only “the Negro” who is being being held down, it is all people who belong to a “minority”. We seem to have forgotten this truth, we seem to have become so interested in “identity politics” that even the different minorities have become ‘racist’ against another “minority”!

This “cancer of the soul” is so insidious and subtle that, like many cancers, it goes undetected for years, people are in denial of it. Just as people who are abused often abuse another, people who have been subjected to racism by another many times feel it is ‘their time’ to have power and to ‘get even’ with those who harmed them. This just continues the cycle of racism, hatred, poison, “cancer of the soul” that fuels hatred, misogyny, racism, religious bigotry that has existed for the millennia.

Just as in Egypt, just like Pharaoh, the authors of any time of racism, religious bigotry, ethnic hatred, etc seek to infuse the everyday people with lies, with fear over ‘those people”. They want to “deal slyly” with the ‘troublemakers’ who demand freedom, equality, equity, inclusion. “Who are you to want a seat at the table”, they ask within themselves and, their fear of losing power causes them to make up stories that paint ‘those people’ as enemies of the state, enemies of ‘freedom’, haters of ‘democracy’. Pharaoh and all of his disciples throughout the centuries all “accuse someone else of that which they are guilty of” and we, the people, lap it up.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” is a quote from Rev. Martin Luther King and I am using it here to validate the quote above. We, the people have to come out from under our rocks, we, the people have to take the blinders of  racism, bigotry, prejudice that we have used to not see what is, not see how we have contributed to the hatred and fear that grips us today, as it has in the past.

Be it Richard Spencer or the person next door who has taken the waving of the American Flag to mean ‘return to white rule’, ‘keep them foreigners out’, or other such bullshit, both are dangerous to democracy, both are disciples of Pharaoh and the Egyptians who did Pharaoh’s bidding. They are the ‘want to be’ taskmasters, they are the people who have drank the Kool-Aid of hating people ‘different than us’. They have bought into the lies that if someone is of a different color, different ethnicity, different religious tradition, they are a threat. Like fish on who take the bait, many people across the globe have bought into these lies hook, line, and sinker.

Rabbi Heschel’s quote above is also a call to those of us who have suffered from any type of prejudice-“what is hateful to you, do not do to another”. Hillel the Elder says this, according to the Talmud, and it has been called the “Jewish Golden Rule”. Yet, we see today how the far left progressives have joined the far right white supremacists in anti-semitic rhetoric and actions. We are witnessing today how blacks and hispanics mistreat one another, we experience how the terrorists of Hamas are celebrated by the progressives and even by Black Clergy who call for a Cease-fire without the hostages being returned, with no guarantees that Hamas will not rule in Gaza, with no agreement that Oct. 7th will not happen again! “Oh the poor terrorists need to be coddled” is what they are saying. The same people who sought and got the help of the Jews during the Civil Rights movement, the same people who have had Jewish support for every movement against prejudice, have abandoned these principles - how sad. Israel is not perfect, just as the Jews who left Egypt were not perfect. The Bible is a story of imperfection, all of the heroes have flaws, the killing of the 1st born is horrific, yet, it is a story of evolution from fratricide to communal living. It is a story of freedom throughout the land, it is a story of welcoming the stranger and caring for one another, ransoming the captive, etc.

As Passover approaches, it is crucial to see how instead of ransoming the captive, we are the captive, we are holding ourselves and ‘those people’ captive to old ideas of hatred, racism, religious bigotry, etc. When “ethnic cleansing” is a term that is still being used, we are deep into the very problem the Conference on Race and Religion was held to solve. We, the people, have to turn into our souls, take stock of our inner prejudices and hatreds, wounds and hurts which feed/create these prejudices and hates, and realize how narrow our lives are because of them, how enslaved we are by them and become sick over our actions because of them. Then, we are ready to be liberated this Passover, then we can begin to end the racism, prejudice, Islamaphobia, anti-semitism, anti-gay, anti-women that is plaguing our lives and our world.

Each year, I leave my narrow places a little more and this year, I know I am freer than I have ever been. I am unafraid of my errors, I do not allow them to define me, I have no resentments nor hatreds towards people who have harmed me, I reach out for reconciliation and accept when people respond negatively and/or positively. Lets all leave Egypt this year! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark