Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 178

“Prayer and prejudice cannot dwell in the same heart. Worship without compassion is worse than self-deception; it is an abomination.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 87)

These two sentences have not found a home in most people’s hearts and minds, it seems. Too often people go to their Temples, Mosques, Churches to pray for their victory over people of a different faith, people of a different ethnicity, color, etc . Too often we hear the call of prejudice from the pulpits, from the mouths of clergy in the most subtle of ways. Too often we use prayer to ‘get ours’ rather than investigate and root out our prejudices and self-deceptions.

Witnessing the ways in which ‘good christian folk’ are expressing their disdain and trying to tear down the justice system in this country, especially with the juror intimidation and lies regarding the trial of Donald Trump should be causing great alarm in all of us. Praying for his acquittal while hating ‘the libs’ is exactly what Rabbi Heschel is speaking to. When this occurs, it is not even a prayer in the Jewish tradition, it is called a worthless prayer. Yet, we are watching the bastardization of prayer in our midst and have been for so long. The KKK, white supremacists, Nation of Islam, Radical Islam, Far right Jews, the Greeks, Romans, etc have used prayer to defeat their enemies, to validate their prejudices, believing if their side wins, then God is on their side! Bob Dylan wrote a song called “With God on Our Side” and in it he depicts the lies people tell that God is only on the side of the winners, while the Bible says God is God of all people and cares for the widow, the stranger, the orphan and the poor. The Bible teaches us to give voice to voiceless, power to the powerless, the prophets rail against this type of thinking.

In Isaiah we learn: “Why bring many sacrifices to me? Why are you trampling My courts? Bring no more vain offerings…I cannot stand iniquity along with solemnity”(Isaiah 1: 11-14). Yet, we continue to not heed these words of the prophet, this call of God. We seem to be immersed in such self-deception that we believe “God is on Our Side” so we can do whatever we want and claim we are doing it in God’s name. Perverting justice, hating Jews, Muslims, people of color, LGBTQ+, Asians, etc because they are different than the ‘good white people’ is an abomination.

We are seeing an old phenomena play out as well. The minorities are going against one another because of prejudice, because of ideology of the far left. We can see the far right and the far left come together to hate Jews, to hate people who believe in the Justice system, people who pray with open hearts and our worship bring us to having more compassion. Herein lies the problem; when one is at an extreme, they have more in common with people at the other extreme than they do with everyone else. Hence the Settlers and Hamas can tout the same solutions; kill them all! The authoritarian and the far left progressive both believe the masses are too stupid, uninformed, unaware to have power, they need to control the narrative and the country. Our founding fathers saw this danger and separated church and state while the ‘strict constitutionalists’ of today are trying to make this a ‘Christian Nation’.

To combine prayer and prejudice, to judge in advance and without actual knowledge, goes against everything the Bible stands for and says. It was not the Egyptian people that were ‘hated’, it was the actions of the Pharaoh and those that went along with it. We are told not to hate the Egyptians because they took us in when we needed help! We are told to not hate people in our heats, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, to help our enemies ass if he has fallen, etc. There is no room for being judgmental in the Bible, there is no call to hatred in the Bible, not even towards Amalek! Yet we see over and over again people of all faiths, people of all ideologies have prejudices in their hearts and hatred/discrimination in their actions.

Religion, education has been hijacked by prejudicial people for a long time. The history books are written by the winners, except for the Bible. The Bible was ‘written’ by the losers, the Jews! In it, we are given ways of being that promote living together with people of different beliefs, different ideas. We are given paths to build bridges on so we can speak with one another and find solutions for making our world a little better each day and honoring the dignity, the contribution of everyone to this goal. Anything less is an abomination, anything contrary is a “trampling of My courts”, a “vain offering” and “an iniquity”. Isn’t it time for all of us to use prayer and worship to look inside and heal our resentments and prejudices so we can pray and worship with a whole heart?

I am moved by these words of Rabbi Heschel. I continue to look inside myself, especially as we get closer to Passover because prejudice, hatred are the two most insidious of narrow places, the Egypts that sneak up on me and most of us. I continue to experience reactions to what is happening in the world and in my life, and, through prayer, study and meditation, I continually let go of the knee-jerk reactions I have so I can respond with kindness, love, and passion. Having asked God to get me out of jams for 20+years from my teens till my recovery, I am acutely aware of how prayer can be an abomination and I work diligently each day to not make this error again. On Passover we are given an extra boost to leave this narrow and hateful place, we are once again called upon to leave Egypt. I have been privileged to be part of the 20% that left Egypt since 1987 and I will continue my journey to freedom this year. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark