Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 189

“Most of us are content to delegate the problem to the courts, as if justice were a matter for professionals or specialists. But to do justice is what God demands of every man; it is the supreme commandment, and one that cannot be fulfilled vicariously.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 91)

The last phrase above disturbs me greatly. Justice is “the supreme commandment” does not only mean what is legal, what is for the courts to decide. Justice has to permeate every action we take, between one person and another, between one community and another, between the people and the governments. Yet, all to often, we delegate the administration of justice to the courts, to another person, etc. Society continues to act as if “justice” can be “fulfilled vicariously.”

We have become indifferent to “justice” in our societal norms by relegating it to a legal construct. Throughout history there has been two tiers of justice, at least. One for the common person and one for the powerful and wealthy. One for the white person and one for people of color, one for the Christian and one for the Jew/Muslim/Buddhist, etc. Our indifference comes from our acceptance of these two tiers of justice, be it legal, business, personal.

We are witnesses to the degradation of this “supreme commandment”. Moses and Micah, when describing what “God wants” put justice first. “Do justly” does not only apply to a legal construct, it applies to caring for the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the poor. It applies to our tithes, it applies to the ways we acknowledge the worth, dignity and presence of every human being we encounter. Saying hello to people on the street is doing justly. Yet, we ignore so many people around us. Speaking truth rather than giving into our self-deceptions and the deceptions of another does justice to our Divine Image. Being involved in making our corner of the world a little brighter and better is a path of justice. None of these paths can be delegated to someone else, we are being reminded that “someone else will do this” is a response that retards justice.

None of us are exempt from doing justice and almost all of us fail to live justly in our daily affairs. In the 12th Step of Alcoholics Anonymous, we commit to “practice these principles in all our affairs”. We do not leave it up to someone else to live these principles, we have to be engaged in them, from setting up chairs to reaching out to another human being who is suffering, whether someone has 1 day or 30+ years. The same is true in our everyday living, the ‘pious’ among us are not exempt from “doing justly”, they are more responsible because of their proclaiming their piety. Prayer, study, engagement in religious life doesn’t give someone the right to dictate to another, rather it gives one the responsibility to be personally and totally engaged in justice. Blocking aid from getting into Gaza is not justice, believing it is okay to kill people because they are ‘not us’ is unjust, believing one can impose their narrow and fundamentalist interpretations of the law, the Bible onto the masses is unjust. Terrorist attacks on innocents on religious Holy Days is unjust. Because these acts are done by ‘our people’ it is imperative that we call these injustices out and find ways to stop ‘our people’ from perpetrating them, otherwise we are being indifferent to the suffering of another human being, another group, and this is the greatest injustice of all.

In the Bible, there are times when Moses, Abraham, Job, the prophets call out to God to “do justly”, to show mercy rather than wrath, to be open to the return of the wayward and those who commit grave errors. This too is a form of justice. Never writing someone out of our books, as I learned early on in my recovery-not sure of the source, we can put someone out of our homes and never put them out of our hearts. When we chant “Lock them Up”, when we believe one group, be it Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Asians, Jews, are all bad because they don’t believe in Jesus, when the people in power want ‘a christian nation’ with laws that are anything but Christ-like, we are committed to being unjust, when we stereotype, when we fail to see each case on its own merits and the differences between people, we are being unjust. When we come under the spell of the Charismatic Leader, the authoritarian, we are heading down the road of injustice because we are allowing someone else to do our thinking for us, to decide what is just and what isn’t based on their whims and personal desires.

This last phrase disturbs me for the above reasons and, more so, because I have fallen prey to allowing justice to “be fulfilled vicariously”. I have gone along to get along. I have bought my own kool-aid at times and been unjust in my actions. I have made amends for these actions to everyone I believe has been affected by my acts of injustice, my allowing someone else to fulfill justice instead of me, and I am acutely aware of the negativity I left in my wake. For this, I am remorseful. I also know I have caused much distress because I have not waited for someone else to speak up, to “do justly” and railed, been bombastic, unbending in my ways of being just, of recognizing the dignity of everyone. I have confronted people loudly and aggressively for their indifference to their own unjust actions and ways. I have spoken, sometimes very loudly, truth to power, I have confronted deceptive people in the wrong moments, I have not always been correct in my assessments as well. I, have not, however, allowed myself to wallow in self-pity nor stay in my fallen state of allowing justice to “be fulfilled vicariously” very long, nor stand idly by the injustices towards another(s). I am disturbed by the abdication of doing justly in all our affairs by myself and so many others, I am disturbed at the violent assaults on our humanity when this happens. God Bless and stay safe Rabbi Mark