Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 209
“That God may be more intimately present in the slums than in mansions, with those who are smarting under the abuse of the callous.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 93)
There are many tales about Elijah, the prophet who was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot, being the one who comes before the Messiah in Jewish lore. Yet, each time we meet Elijah in our stories, he is sitting with the poor, he has scabs on him from being on the streets, he is welcoming the stranger to the city, the area and is ignored. Some say that the Messiah will not come until we welcome Elijah and his friends into our mansions, into our Temples, Churches, Mosques as people who have equal worth and honor their dignity and the image of the divine he and they are created in.
We have created a system of “beautifying the mitzvah”, adorning the Torah, being stricter and stricter as to how people are ‘supposed’ to live in Judaism, in Christianity, in Islam falsely believing that the more we elevate our Houses of Worship, the more we adorn them, the more God wants to be with us. WRONG! The teaching above is telling us the exact opposite. God’s presence, while always with us, is known by those “in the slums” more intimately than by those “in mansions”. The people “in the slums” pray with more sincerity and more kavanah, they are acutely aware of their need for grace and compassion, they pray for an opportunity to serve the world in the best way they can and what they get from those “in mansions” is more put downs, more hurdles, more inequality. When one person, one vote is denied because of gerrymandering and the Supreme Court goes along with it, this is a hurdle. When there is one law for the stranger and another law for the ‘citizen’, this is inequality. When the religious right call for a Christian Nation, this is a put down of all other religions and a put down of God-who they claim to serve!
In the Bible and in the Midrash/Homilies we are told how God hears the cries of the poor and the stranger, the widow and the orphan-ie the powerless and voiceless. We are told that abuse of these people engenders God’s ‘wraith’. Yet, the pious ones who live “in mansions”, these prosperity gospel lying bastards, continue to remain “callous” and, as one can see in the eyes of the authoritarians and their advisors, they enjoy the “abuse” they give out, they relish in the “smarting of the abused” they engage in. We, the people, have to call an end to this way of being. We have to expose the lies of the religious zealots who bastardize the tenets of their religious orders, we have to say NO to those “in mansions” who either rejoice in the “smarting of the abused” they are giving out and/or are oblivious and indifferent to it.
The teaching above is crucial for us, it reminds me of Moses’ words at the end of Deuteronomy, where he tells the people that after they get into the land, after they enjoy the fruits of their labor and the land, they well “get fat” and forget their history, forget their obligation to serve something greater than themselves and they will fall into a state of entitlement and this will lead to their downfall. Yet, the people “in mansions” in every era have believed they are different and this will not happen to them-be it in Ancient Rome or Germany of the 1930’s/40’s. Be it Czarist Russia or Russia in the 1980’s we have seen this movie play out over and over again.
Netanyahu, Ben-G’Vir, and their band of thugs who live “in mansions” along with Sinwar and the leadership of Hamas who also live “in mansions” believe that “God is on their side” while they enjoy the “smarting of the abused” they and their cronies give out. As both Moses and the Egyptian advisors to Pharaoh said to him: “Until when will you refuse to surrender to a power greater than yourself”, what will it take for you to see how you have ruined Egypt, Gaza, Israel? I would say the same things to the Far Right and Far Left zealots in America as well. Most of all, I would ask the people who are center right, center left, center, why they are afraid to stand up and speak out while Rome, Gaza, America, so many places around the globe are on fire?
We, the people in the middle, the ones who live at least 20% away from each pole, have to get out of our mansions, our ornate Churches, Mosques, Temples and bring in those who have been abused and heal them. We have to go out and clean up the slums side by side with the people who are living in them. We have to bring spiritual truths and healing into our mansions, we have to have respect for the rule of law and remind ourselves of our obligations to redeem the captive, to love one another, to see the divine image we are all created in, to respect the dignity and worth of every one and to stop our erroneous belief that the gates to our mansions will save us. We have to fight against the arrogance of zealotry, the stupidity of ignorance, the pull of indifference and lethargy.
I have lived in the slums, I have been poor and I have been one of those who have abused the trust and love of people close to me and upon realizing where I was, I called out and the universe, the Ineffable One, responded to me. I have stayed true to that experience and since I began my journey of T’Shuvah, my return to decency and morality, obligation and joy, I have taken great care to lift another(s) out of the slums of addiction, to help people heal their spiritual maladies, to find the “middle ground” as Rambam says. It is a message that I have taken to people “in mansions” and, in many cases, found a welcoming ear to this message and a helpful hand in our mission. I am humbled and grateful for this experience. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark