Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 226

“What we need is the involvement of every one of us as individuals. What we need is restlessness, a constant awareness of the monstrosity of injustice.” ( Insecurity of Freedom pg. 94)

Following closely after the quotation I used on Friday, I am struck by the simplicity of Rabbi Heschel’s call and the difficulty so many people have in hearing it and responding to it. The quotation is from Rabbi Heschel’s speech on Race and Religion in 1963 yet it is as relevant now as it was then; we have so many examples of “the monstrosity of injustice” in the highest court in the land, in the halls of Congress, on the Campaign trail, in our religious communities, in our homes, in the hearts and minds of individuals. It is so prevalent that we have become oblivious to this “monstrosity” that has been growing since the dawn of human existence.

“The involvement of every one of us as individuals” is the only way for change. My friend, Harold Rothstein, z”l, who died on the first night of Passover this year, was an individual who came to believe in the importance of his involvement in life, involvement in the lives of another(s), and dedication to decency, obligation, responsibility, love. Harold was a recovering alcoholic who immersed himself in his recovery and stood with 1000’s of recovering people in and on their own journey. He did this from his sense of obligation, his way of being grateful for the life he had and to honor his family’s tradition of service. Harold was touched by Harriet Rossetto and Elaine Breslow, z”l, and in turn touched so many people in his work, which was a calling for Harold never a job, in his recovery life and, most importantly and especially in his family life. Harold’s commitment to his siblings, his mother, his uncles and aunts, his cousins and his niece Anna, and his Noah brought sparks up from the ground and down from the stars. In a time when the individual is being denigrated, Harold Rothstein’s life is a testament to the power of the individual to effect change now!

We all need to become involved in doing the next right thing instead of being involved in ‘what’s in it for me’. We all need to end our fixation of the lies we are telling ourselves and one another to feel good about  our support of injustices big and so small they don’t seem worth our time. We all need to let go of our erroneous belief that we don’t matter, ‘what can one person do’, etc. We need to be more “maladjusted” to conventional notions and mental cliches so we can discern how we can serve the call for justice, the call for kindness, the call for equality, the call for love, the call for compassion. The calls for injustice, harshness, special rules for ‘my kind’, promoting hatred to get votes, and piling on more lies and deceptions about ‘the other’ has become too strong today, as it was at the time Rabbi Heschel uttered these words.

We can do this through being involved. Today is Father’s Day and I think of my father, Jerry Borovitz, z”l, and his involvement in promoting justice and love, kindness and compassion. My dad not only believed in personal involvement, he took actions to promote the equality of everyone in all of his affairs, personal and business, even to his own detriment. When he died, we were told his debts could be discharged through bankruptcy, however, my father never wanted to cheat anyone and we paid them off to keep his name good. While it wasn’t the smartest financial move, it was one of the ways we honored my father’s life and his way of being. We have to be involved in doing the next right thing rather than being involved in hating and separating. We have to see ourselves as individuals rather than as part of a group so we don’t give into ‘group think’. We have to be involved in life as individuals so we don’t fall into ‘lock-step’ with those promoting all of the ways of acting that are antithetical to “being human” which is a call of Rabbi Heschel’s also.

Being involved means following examples of people who are or have been. It is sitting at a lunch counter demanding to be served even though it says ‘no blacks, no jews, no muslims, etc’. When one is being carried out by the ‘sheriff’, do not resist and make it difficult for them to remove you, as Black people did in the 60’s. Being involved means being one of the Freedom Riders who helped people register to vote, it means not allowing the Republican machine of hatred and unfairness to push people who have a right to vote off the voting rolls. It means standing up to the ideological right-wing, false religious rulings of Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, et al because they are being ‘paid’ off by the wealthy billionaires who want to influence the Supreme Court to do their bidding. Being involved as individuals means standing up to the people who are calling for a world-wide Intifada and marching, taking over buildings to show support for terrorists, rapists, murderers and a way of being that is antithetical to freedom.

I have been involved as an individual since my youth. I marched with Black people, I see everyone as created in the image of the divine, I have stood up for people seeking treatment rather than incarceration, I have helped people write appeals in prison, I have spent the last 35+ years seeing each person as they are, sometimes my eyesight has been off, and reaching out to them in ways I believe they could and can hear. I am responsible for all my actions, the not so good ones and the good ones, the not so good ones I make amends for and the good ones humble me and help me move life forward. Like my friend Harold, my father Jerry, my teachers, my family, I do the best I can to respond to Rabbi Heschel’s call each day. I am blessed beyond my deserving and I am grateful. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark