Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 198

“Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself; it is more universal, more contagious, more dangerous. A silent justification, it makes possible an evil erupting as an exception to become the rule and being in turn accepted.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.92)

“Indifference”, as I have said before, comes from the Latin meaning “not differing, not deferring”. The English definition is: “lack of concern, sympathy, interest” it also adds “unimportant”. Seeing evil as unimportant is a very dangerous way of living, it brings us to an unawareness of the preciousness of life, the utilitarian nature of life and the ease with which we can blame, shame, destroy another human being, another group of people with our words, our deeds, our evil ways. Remember, the first brother killed the second brother just because he was mad that ‘God liked you better than me’. And, we have been killing one another ever since to show how strong we are, how evil has infected us with its contagiousness and how society has, throughout the ages, accepted this as a way of being.

“Insidious” comes from the Latin meaning “ambush” and the English definition “spreading and working in a hidden and injurious way” and when combined with the definition of “indifference”, I hear Rabbi Heschel warning us, informing us that we are being, we have been “ambushed” in a secretive manner and we have become unable to defer to truth, we have become unable to differentiate between good and evil. This warning has gone unheeded since the time of the prophets, since Biblical times and seems to have been ignored and refuted even more in our times. In fact, given the ‘alternative facts’ bullshit, the denial of people who have been helped by the laws of the Great Society and their need to overturn them so no one else can benefit from them, the denial of “one law for the stranger and the citizen alike”, the bastardization of the Golden Rule, etc the “insidiousness” of our “indifference to evil” could be reaching new heights.

What is it that prevents us from hearing and heeding this call of Rabbi Heschel, of the prophets, of Rev King, of the Israeli Hostages, of the Ukrainians being held in Russia, the cries of women in Iran, in Afghanistan, in America? It is, I believe, our inability to cure ourselves from the “universal” and “dangerous” disease of “not deferring” to what is, to not differentiating between truth and fiction, between freedom and slavery, between holy and profane. While this is an age-old problem, it is a crucial one to deal with right now-with the proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the rise of terrorism, the fear of the demagogues, the willingness of some to be infected with “indifference to evil” and then spread their disease to as many as they can. We have been “ambushed” by a disease that is “spreading and working” in secret and is so subtle that most people are totally unaware of their journey to ‘the dark side’. It is so bad that dialogue, debate, facts are of no avail when seeking to make rapprochement with someone who is suffering from the “contagious” nature of “indifference to evil’.

We see this in Campus Protests today, there is merit to the suffering on both sides of the war in Gaza, no one who is rational, who is not suffering from a spiritual malady wants innocents to be killed, starved, tortured, raped, babies killed, etc. The protests are not, however, saying anything about the cause of this war, Hamas, except to extol terrorism, to cheer the rape of women and men, the killing of babies in their cribs, the taking of hostages against international rules. The protests are calling for the goals of Hamas and Iran to be fulfilled, they are giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States as well as our ally Israel. While there is plenty to argue with Israel about, it is Hamas who has turned down every cease-fire negotiation by Qatar and Egypt. It is Hamas, like the PLO did,  who turns down every opportunity to end the conflict, to stop the terrorism, to find ways to live in co-existence. This is who the protests are defending! This is how “insidious” the “indifference to evil” has become, that our ‘best and brightest’ on our college campus’ have become unable to differentiate between good and evil, between truth and propaganda. They have been “ambushed” by the “hidden injurious way” of mendacity, deception and self-deception.

These college students and their outside agitators, sponsors, are the symptoms we see today, this spiritual malady is prevalent in the Justice System that favors rich people who can delay justice for themselves while pushing a rush to judgement for their ‘enemies’. This spiritual malady is present in the economic disparity, the ‘conservative’ and ‘progressive’ agendas. It is so “insidious” that even good people who heed these warnings, who are dealing with their own spiritual malady are incapable to reaching another and changing the course of our world, it seems.

As one who used to spread this “indifference” through lies, through subterfuge, I know the power of this “insidious” disease. I have fought against it in my recovery and, I know, my fight has been so loud and so over the top at times that people dismissed me. I also know that I have been dismissed because the people I was railing to, the people I was calling to, did not want to heal their spiritual malady because the spread of “indifference” was good for their ‘bottom line”, be it financial, political, personal. I am not immune to this spiritual malady, so I write every day, I pray, I watch my actions and I work with people who know me and can help me stay on the “right path for me”. I pray you have people to help you. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark