Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 212

“In a community not indifferent to suffering, uncompromisingly impatient with cruelty and falsehood, racial discrimination would be infrequent rather than common.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 93)

Unfortunately the community Rabbi Heschel is describing has not yet come into maturity in the history of humankind. I use the word maturity because this type of community has sprouted up here and there throughout history, in homes and towns, villages and cities where people believe in the dignity and worth of human beings without regard to color, religion, etc. We saw this in Nazi Germany and throughout Europe during the 2nd World War when people, at the risk of their own deaths, would hide Jews, Gypsy, etc from the horror of the camps and extermination. We see this in the Sanctuary Cities in America for people running from certain death, rape, etc in their home countries.

Rabbi Heschel’s words should be nagging at us, disturbing us and pushing us to put our souls together and find a way to create this community in our own homes and towns, in our states and country, in our global community. We can add all/any in the last phrase where “racial discrimination” is used. Any type of discrimination will be infrequent, any type of scapegoating and blaming, any type of finger pointing and shaming will be infrequent once we commit to being “not indifferent to suffering”. While this may seem a lofty goal, it is right at our fingertips, it is, as the Bible tells us, in our mouths and in our hearts. Letting go of blaming and scapegoating, shaming and finger pointing means being responsible for our own actions. It means making the statement, “I am my brother’s keeper” instead of doing as Cain did and making it a question. It is acknowledging the nearness of negativity and how much it desires us and our ability to rise above it. It is about mending our imperfections, repairing the damage we do to ourselves and another, it is about maturing our spiritual life and seeking the proper “physician of the soul” as Maimonidies teaches.

We all experience suffering at one time or another. Be it to “tolerate” the pain of loss, the pain of unrealized dreams, be it to “suffer doing the next right thing”, be it the recognition that we can bear these pains and disappointments because of the depth of our soul and our connection to family, friends, community, the universe. The call here is to not be “indifferent”, to stop our lies to ourselves that ‘we are men and should be able to handle this’, ‘we are women and we can bear the pain of childbirth so you should be able to go through this’, etc. Indifferent to suffering begins within ourselves, it is a deceptive technique to deflect our pain, and to, at the first opportunity, take our pain out on someone else, someone we consider beneath us-be it because of race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity. Hence Lyndon Johnson’s quote: “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” Nowadays it is not just color, it is anyone who isn’t ‘white like me’ anyone who doesn’t want the US to be “a Christian Nation” are beneath the MAGA crowd, It is evident that the indifference to suffering that is the hallmark of Trump and his gang of thieves has filtered down to his supporters and the Republican Party, who promoted “compassionate conservatism” under George W. Bush, has rejected their old ways and signed on to being “indifferent to suffering”.

If we are to make the words of the Bible, the path of the Buddha, the way of Rumi, the philosophy of Gibran come alive, we have to reject these charlatans, we have to make good on the promise of America, the promise of the Exodus from Egypt. We have to follow through on the promises God delivers to us each day: slavery will end, we can leave our inner slaveries, we are redeemable, and we each have a unique place in this world and only we can bring our unique talents to relieve some of the suffering we encounter. We are the healers, we are the redeemers, we are the engines that drive us to freedom and out of slavery, to healing and out of suffering. We do this by seeking ways to heal our inner suffering, not by projecting it outward, rather by going through the pains we are experiencing and growing from them, gaining compassion from them for another human being who is going through their own pain. This is the path of the 12-step program; one alcoholic helping another. This is the path of all religious healing-one person helping another, each person being embraced by their community, not shamed or blamed. We can do this, we can create these types of communities across the globe. We can live into the promise of America, the reason the Puritans and the Pilgrims came to “the new world”. Are we courageous enough to fulfill their dream?

I come from a family who were “not indifferent to suffering” and, though I have cause suffering, especially when I was not in recovery, not living a spiritual life, I return to their examples time and time again. I am not quiet about it, I am not soft in my seeking consensus in alleviating suffering, I am not subtle in my raising the alarm about being “indifferent to suffering”. I am loud, obnoxious to some, disruptive to many and, some say, I cause chaos in my wake. All of these descriptions are true at one time or another. I am also deeply committed to being “not indifferent to suffering” of another human being. I am a passionate believer in the possibility that each and every person can do T’Shuvah, make amends, change their ‘spots’ and live well. I am a physician of the soul and I do not go along to get along, I have failed at times to get people to look at themselves and I have failed to look at me at times-this is the reason T’Shuvah is so important a practice. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark