Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 182

“There are several ways of dealing with our bad conscience. (1) We can extenuate our responsibility…Modern thought has a tendency to extenuate personal responsibility.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 89)

Rabbi Heschel, in speaking and writing about the scourge of racism in 1963, assumes that most of us have a “bad conscience”. I believe him to be right and I also believe this first of the “ways of dealing with our bad conscience” is a major reason for our continuing to treat anyone of a different skin color, different ethnicity, different religion so terribly wrong in gleeful self-righteousness.

The word “extenuate” comes from the Latin meaning “make thin”. We “make thin” our personal responsibility for the ways we treat people who are different politically, ethnically, etc. Society falls back on it’s ‘norms’ and people, here Rabbi Heschel is speaking of white people, do everything they can to ‘thin’ out their responsibility by blaming the victims, which we do often. We can ‘thin’ out our personal responsibility by claiming it isn’t us doing this, it is the government, it is ‘those other’ people. We ‘thin’ out our personal responsibility by pointing to how ‘those people’ haven’t done anything to help themselves. We can ‘thin’ out personal responsibility through bastardizing the Bible and other holy texts. There are a myriad of ways we ‘thin’ out personal responsibility which allows us to be angry when those who have been mistreated rise up and demand to be treated as equals. “Who do they think they are” is a common refrain heard from the ruling class.

We see how people “make thin” their personal responsibility in our politics. The bowing down to leaders who have shredded the norms, declare they will be dictators, stand against progress, block ‘those’ people from having power is such an example. The ways in which we excuse the crimes and misdemeanors of the candidates and office holders we ‘like’ is another such example. Joining in the MAGA movement and believing Trump is “sent by Jesus” is such an example. The leaders of the Republican Party who endorse him after calling him out for his role in the Jan. 6th attack on democracy and the Capital are examples of people who “make thin” their personal responsibility for the future, for the health, of democracy and the U.S. Constitution. We are in a precarious situation in our country and in the world. Our democratic values have been “make thin” because we allow people of bad faith, bad actors to have the power to organize and spread malicious gossip, lies and appeal to the basest parts of a human being-our fears of being less than someone else.

Our religious institutions have, in many cases, served to “extenuate personal responsibility” as well. Rabbi Heschel is speaking about the plight of Black people, where many clergy found a myriad of ‘reasons’ to “make thin” their personal responsibility as Dr. King outlined in his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” some 61 years ago. Religious leaders continue to give aid and comfort to our “tendency to extenuate personal responsibility”. We are witnesses to the ‘glory’ heaped on Trump and other people who demean those who are not ‘white like me’, who believe women should be treated as second-class citizens, who treat anyone who is not a ‘good white christian’ as third+-class citizens. Some clergy continue to call for restraint when those of us who are not ‘good white christians’ demand a seat at the table. These clergy have “made thin” their personal responsibility in the prejudice, racism, anti-semitism, Islamaphobia that is rampant in our country and around the globe today.

The phenomena of anti-semitism is on the rise today in America. Almost 24% of Americans endorse anti-semitic tropes. 42% of Americans have a family member or friends who dislike Jews! The abandonment of Jews by people of color, by young people is rising at alarming rates and all of these people “extenuate personal responsibility” by blaming Israel and Jews for their hatred. They have extolled known terrorists, Hamas, as freedom fighters, they are being controlled by Iranian and other Arab countries who fund these groups and spread their lies. We can debate the Israeli government’s attitude and treatment of Palestinians and there is truth on both sides of these arguments and to declare “Jews will not replace us” and “from the river to the sea” as well as forgetting about the hostages still in Hamas’ control without ever being visited by the Red Cross is a not-so-subtle way to “extenuate personal responsibility”.

This teaching of Rabbi Heschel cuts to the core of my denial of personal responsibility, my defending my actions of withdrawal from people. I am guilty of not reaching out when I could have, waiting for another(s) to reach out to me especially since my exile from my former community. What has become crystal clear to me is that the community I belonged to, helped to build is not a ‘former’ community-it is alive and the people in it are living vibrant lives. I took the exile by some to mean the exile by all and, by doing this, I “made thin” my responsibility to partake with the people I love, people I have been connected to for years. This is how subtle Rabbi Heschel’s teaching is. I love it because, as is the case for me, Rabbi Heschel makes me look inside of myself, to take my part in any and every situation I find myself in. I do not have the platform I used to have, I have not been embraced by the new community I am living in as much or as outwardly as I would want AND I still cannot “extenuate” my “personal responsibility”, I still have to speak out, reach out, and use the platforms available to me to help another human being, to relieve the suffering of another. I commit to do this more, I commit to reach out and not be dismayed or deterred by indifference any more. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark