Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 199

“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)

Since Biblical days, we have been warned about “indifference”, we have been told to take an active part in our lives, to not be tourists in our own journey of living. The mitzvot are obligations that are, in many cases, attributed to God; yet, upon closer examination, in light of the teaching above, I believe we can see the mitzvot as obligations attributed to our welfare, to our not being indifferent, not being overwhelmed by “a silent justification”.

Hearing Rabbi Heschel’s words and allowing them to penetrate my mind, body and soul, forces me to look at all of the “silent justifications” that society uses to promote the evil that is constantly being perpetrated upon the earth, upon another human being, upon ‘those people’, etc. Given the context of Rabbi Heschel’s words, the “silent justification” for racism, for anti-semitism, for Islamaphobia, for anti-Asian, anti-LGBTQ+, etc has made “possible an evil erupting” and we seem to be unable to stem the flow of hatred and violence from this eruption. In fact, as is said above, the “silent justifications” we use in business, tax evasion by the wealthy, hatred of and by spiritual disciplines/religions, as well as those mentioned already, have “become the rule”, terrorists being called ‘freedom fighters, rape of Jewish women thought to be okay by these ‘freedom fighters’ praise by the silence about it by such luminaries as Joy-Ann Reid and other ‘our women’s rights’ leaders,  prove how these evil eruptions are “being in turn accepted”!

The prophets were hated in their time because they would not stay silent. The Bible is full of people and stories of people who would not stay silent in the face of evil. Moses was so aware of the evil possible by human beings, he was so concerned about humanity’s leaning towards “indifference to evil” that he extolled us to CHOOSE LIFE. Yet, as we see throughout history, these words fall on deaf ears, Jesus’ exhortations do the same as do Mohammed’s, Buddha’s, etc. We are so spiritually bankrupt that we are unable to too broke to pay attention to the evil around us, we are in acceptance of evil being the ‘way of the world’, just ‘the way we do business’. This is both sad and infuriating, it points out the shortcomings of our religious and spiritual educations, the lack of spiritual maturity and an UnGodlike acceptance of what is. “Indifference to evil” is not the normal state of affairs in God’s world, “silent justification” is not how we are instructed to be in the Bible, in the universe. We, the people, have to take a stand, we have to end our indifference, we have to end our silence and we have to speak and act in the spirit of the prophets. We are never to lost to return, we are never to far away that we cannot call out for help. We are never to immune to the wonder and awe of living, of the universe that we cannot be touched. We, the people, have to make a commitment, a decision, to “lift up our eyes and see’. See what is true and right, see how the mitzvot, the teachings of our spiritual texts lead us out of our “silent justifications” and our ways of making “an evil eruption…to become the rule and being in turn accepted”.

Over 3400 years ago, we were told: “Don’t stand idly by the blood of your neighbor”, “don’t run after the majority to do evil”. Around 200 years ago we were taught: “what is hateful to you, do not do to another human being” and “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you”. None of these teachings have any quarter for “silent justification”. None of them allow for “an evil erupting as an exception to become the rule”. The only reason this has happened is because we have stunted our spiritual and moral growth. We have become so utilitarian that we have shaped our spiritual teachings and our morality to what we need to do for ourselves right now. We hear and participate all the time in finger pointing-accusing others of that which we are guilty of-as Goebbels taught and authoritarians of today, the Republican Party since Gingrich, have raised to an art form. We also hear from many ‘progressives’ and Democrats their prejudices against ‘whitey’, against ‘those Jews’, against people who have made it because of their own hard work and are no longer considered ‘underdogs’. In other words, for our own political and social gain-the middle is being clobbered and the poles are fighting together against those of us who are against “silent justification”, against “evil…becoming the rule”, against the acceptance of “indifference to evil” as the norm.

Living into the words and teachings of the Bible, of Rabbi Heschel, of our history, has allowed me to leave the world of “indifference to evil”. I have no more “silent justifications” that work to assuage my guilt, my conscience when I perpetrate harm and negativity onto another. I am deeply remorseful for the harms I have perpetrated, I am not here to clean up my messes by denying them, by trying to make them not messes. I cannot stay silent while another(s) engages in their own “indifference to evil” nor their inability to see their “evil…becoming the rule” in the ways they live their lives. After 20 years of being the evil Rabbi Heschel is talking about, I have dedicated the last 35.5 years to being the opposite. I have inherited a tradition that causes me to speak out, I have inherited the DNA of my father to speak out loudly. Each and every day of my recovery has been spent in seeking out my own indifference and rising above it, and reaching out to help another human being rise above their own indifference and see the evil that we all have come to accept as the rule. Optics, Money, everyone else is doing it, are no longer excuses for our “silent justification”. We are descendants of the prophets, lets speak and act as they did. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark