Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 163

“Consciousness of God is a response and God is a challenge rather than a notion.”(God in Search of Man pg. 160)

“Consciousness comes from the Latin meaning “be privy to, knowing in oneself”, response comes from the Latin meaning “offering something in return”. When we are conscious of God, we are affirming something we know within our selves, something we are privy to in our souls, in our gut intuition. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us when we are “privy to” and/or have a “knowing in ourself” we are compelled to “offer something in return”.

Whether one believes in God, higher consciousness, humanism, is not the issue here, Rabbi Heschel’s use of God is not to exclude anyone, it is the language he knows to point to “the ineffable”, some power that is too much for any of us to define. At issue today, as at all times, is: are we willing to acknowledge what we are “privy to”, what we “know in our inner life”? In times where the self is so important, where ‘self care’ is a buzz word, when people are looking for ‘their piece of the pie’ many of us forget that mindfulness, meditation, prayer, study, etc are pathways to acknowledging what we are “privy to” and what we “know in our inner life”.

We are living in a time where “consciousness” is being used as a weapon by some, rather than as a gift and a path. Using the Latin definition, conspiracy theorists, want to be authoritarians, ‘true believers’ are holding themselves up as ‘the ones who really know’, they want to ‘let all of us into what is really going on’, rather than having a “consciousness of God” of a power greater than themselves, they use and prey upon the doubts of people, the need most people have for certainty and manipulate the consciousness of another person to bend to their will-not the will of the universe, not the will of goodness, not the will of justice. We are in a state of being where unsuspecting people are “offering something in return”, their loyalty and belief, to people who are substituting facades for what is, who are ‘letting them in on’ lies rather than truth, who know they need ‘the people’ in order to gain power and prestige, wealth and celebrity.

“Consciousness of God”, of the power of the universe, is given to us as a gift and we have to continually nurture and grow this gift, otherwise it wilts, it atrophies and we become extremely susceptible to ‘the con’. As a con man and grifter, I used my ability to ‘get people a deal that was too good to be true’ because I appealed to their inner greed and their FOMO, their fear of missing out. I was a criminal both according to the laws of the state and to the laws of the universe. And, what I did was a pittance compared to the “cons” being run by big business, by politicians, even by some clergy! “There is nothing new under the sun” Kohelet teaches us and while the ways of grifters and cons have, in some cases, become more sophisticated, more hidden, their paths are the same as always; find an idol that appeals to people, find a key that appeals to peoples fear of uncertainty, and use it for the power to rule, to control, to gain for yourself.

In Hebrew, the word for response is T’Shuvah, so what we are “offering in return” for our “consciousness” of the power and energy of the universe is: admitting our foibles; is a commitment to help one another; is appreciation of the grace we are shown by having one more day of life and being one grain of sand better today, more knowing today than we were yesterday. Our response is one of joy at being “privy to” the wonder and awe of the world that we did not make, at being “privy to” the miracle of life, at being “privy to” the “knowing of ourselves” a little more each day and growing the spark of energy that is within us, using the part of us that is not body, that is pure energy to propel us forward in our never-ending march to matter, to live with and on purpose, to use our gifts to help one another rather than hoard them and use them for our own power.

Each and every day we face the choice of “offering something in return” and/or ignoring the call of the universe, of God, of our higher consciousness, of our “inner knowing”. Most of us are unaware of needing to make a conscious choice to respond, most of us are willfully blind to the call of our inner life, most of us are too caught up in ‘getting mine’, in ‘making it through the day’ to realize we even have choices. So, we need the reminders of yoga, exercise, noticing the moon and miracles that we have come to regard as ‘just another day’ to wake us up, to bring us to the “knowing in ourselves” that we are worthy, that we are more than what we make, more than how much money we have, etc.

It took me until age 35 to unlock and admit what I was “privy to”, it took me until age 35 to “offer something in return” for the gift of life, the gift of the ‘law catching up with me’. These words of Rabbi Heschel resonate within me because I ignored them and the experiences they convey for so long, because I lived like the criminals and grifters of the past and present. I lived like there was no tomorrow and all that mattered was what I could get from today, rather than what I could offer in return. I was the scum that are taking up so much oxygen it is difficult for the rest of us to breathe! Once again, Rabbi Heschel’s teaching calls me to delve deeper into my inner life and see more of what I am “privy to” and have a new response, a new “offering in return” for the grace, the gift of life I get to experience today. I use the skills of the ‘con’, to help someone one find their own “consciousness”, their own experience of the power of the universe, their own inner gift and talents and how to express them in ways that honor them and grows their corner of the world. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark