Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 day 168
“Few of us realize that racism is man’s gravest threat to man, the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason, the maximum of cruelty for a minimum of thinking.” (Essential Writings pg. 66)
Society is working overtime to fulfill these words above. Expanding “racism” to more than just Black Slaves, the next generation of our founding fathers expanded their “maximum of hatred” to Chinese, to Mexicans, to Jews, to Catholics, to Irish, to Italians, to Asians, to anyone who was “not like them”. And, these “God-Fearing Men and Women” do so in the name of God who, they claim created all people, who they read, has put the “image of God” in every human being! They, of course, do not see the irony of their words and actions-going against the very precepts that Jesus taught and lived, going against a value, principle mentioned 36 times in the first 5 Books of the Bible, caring for the stranger, the poor, the widow, the orphan.
What is so enraging about our current, and forever, experience with racism is the poison it has spread through the veins of society, the veins of communities, the veins of individuals and their families. Some lying politicians claim loudly that “those people animals”, they are “poisoning the blood of America”, which is what Hitler, Goebbels, and the rest of the Nazis in Germany and in America claimed about the Jews. We had on the books laws against interracial marriages, which was not overturned until 1967 in the “Loving Case”. Racism is used to stoke fear and gain power, people using it ‘for their advantage’ claim to be the only ones who can hold off ‘the hoards’, stop ‘those people’ from taking power. 6+ million Jews died in the 2nd World War, millions of Black people have died in slavery and countless more while they were free-please listen to Billie Holiday’s rendition of “Strange Fruit”.
There is no reason to hate and discriminate against anyone because of the color of their skin, the religion they practice, the ethnicity they belong to-FULL STOP. Yet, so many people who call themselves ‘the faithful’, ‘god-fearing men and women’ engage in this senseless and reasonless activity. Be it the need for Black Lives Matter, the need for the NAACP, the ADL, the ACLU, point to the terrible injustice and unreasoned approach to living and governing that, unfortunately, so many people have adopted, been fed at their mother’s breast, taught by their daddy, joined the ‘in crowd’ who believe in racism. The only ‘reason’ for this “maximum of hatred” is a person’s need to feel better about themself because they can put another person down. They can feel superior to another because of their ‘birthright’, their ‘white privilege’. While they claim their adherence to ‘god’s laws’, they forget to “not hate your neighbor in your heart”, they forget that “what is hateful to you, don’t do to another person”, they seem incapable of grasping “do unto others what you would have them do unto you”. And these are the people running the governments in this country and across the world! OY
What makes “racism is man’s gravest threat to man”? Think of the inhumanity towards humans was experienced in the Shoah, the Holocaust. Think of the inhumanity towards humans that men and women experienced in the South prior to the Emancipation Proclamation and that men and women have suffered since! Think of the ways some have denied the right to vote to citizens of this country, people who helped build this country from the ground up, Jews, Catholics, Blacks, Asians, Italians Irish, who are in the fabric of our country and have contributed so much to the welfare of all the people, and how so many are still being discriminated against today.
It is such a “serious” “intention to inflict pain” because even the people who have suffered from the racism of another are willing to be racist against another group! We are watching in horror how some of the ‘religious zealots’ in Israel are “inflicting pain” on people in the West Bank simply because they are Palestinian, we watch in horror what Hamas did on Oct. 7 to innocent Israelis and other nationalities simply because they were Jews or thought they were. We watch in horror at the police brutality towards people of color-driving while black is/has become a dangerous activity in some cities and towns. A group of fanatics flew two planes into the World Trade Towers on 9/11 because of their racist ideas and thoughts. We have stopped seeing the Tzelem, the divine image, the soul of another person when we stop our decision about them at the color of their skin or the religion they practice, the ethnicity they claim. This is the “man’s gravest threat to man”.
I am so animated by these words because everything I marched for as a teenager/young adult, the beliefs and values of my father and grandfathers held so dear and taught us, the fights and arguments that I foolishly believed were put to bed years ago, have all reared their ugly heads again-louder than in the 60’s because of the internet and the ability to spread false stories and misinformation. Imagine that elected officials are more willing to believe the lies of Putin, Hamas, MBS, Xi, Trump, than the words and testimony of eye witnesses, that the proof placed before them. Yet, this is where we are at. As a Jew, I am bewildered that the ‘poor Hamas terrorists’ have been given such validity, their numbers are believed, whatever they put out is believed even when proved false! I am afraid for my bi-racial grandson and the horrible world he is growing up in, I am afraid for my neighbors and friends, I am afraid for the people I have yet to meet, because racism impacts everyone-and the hatred it brings, the poison it inflicts is very hard to cure-most people are unwilling to take the antidote once they have felt the ‘warmth’ of the poison of racism. Racism, rather than immigrants, have “poisoned the blood of America” and Israel and every other country and society.
Growing up in the “north” and seeing the racism of the 50’s and 60’s was astonishing. My father and grandfathers taught my brothers and me that it was wrong, it was disgusting and it was evil. My father paid people the same amount of salary no matter the color of their skin and white people walked off the job! We marched with the Civil Rights groups and were called “N lovers”. We went to “Warsaw Ghetto Remembrance Day” and were called “dirty kikes” and then these same people would be sitting next to us in class, asking for help with school work because ‘those kikes cheat and know the answers”. Having friends and acquaintances of all faiths and races made me suspect by Jews, Whites, Blacks, etc. I was a nomad because not being racist was and is so anathema to most people. This is “the maximum cruelty for a minimum of thinking”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark