Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 218
“Seen from the perspective of prophetic faith, the predicament of justice is the predicament of God.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 93)
When one looks at “the monstrosity of inequality”, the way the Justice system seems to work differently based on the color of one’s skin, the religion one is a member of, the economic status one holds, Rabbi Heschel’s words above slap us in the face with their truthfulness and our obliviousness to this truth. What is all the more perplexing is the current “predicament” we are facing, has at its roots, the misguided and mendacious beliefs of ‘religious’ people!
“Predicament” comes from the Latin word ‘predicate’ meaning “making something known” and came to mean in English “a puzzling, difficult, embarrassing situation”. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that “justice” is a puzzling and difficult experience because we have to delve into the facts, the context and the veracity of the claimants. This is true whether we are seeking justice in a court of law, a religious court, the court of public opinion and/or within our own being. What is just and true is not always the same, in fact, we are taught that we are to judge each case on its own merits because there can never be two cases that are completely identical. Yet, we continue to stereotype people, situations and rather than delve into the puzzling nature of what is, rather than immerse ourselves in the difficult search for truth, we embarrass ourselves by taking the ‘easier softer way’ of going along to get along.
Our failure to realize that God and justice go together has been and continues to be devastating to the equilibrium needed to keep freedom alive and well. When we are engaged in the 2-3 tier system of justice, when ‘religious fanatics’ declare their ‘bible’ says God is against abortion, when they continue to deny the wisdom and the evolution of the relationship between the universe and the human being, we are in a desperate “predicament” The prophets spoke out loudly and forcefully, Hosea compared what the priests and the people were doing to God to what unfaithful wives do to their husbands and unfaithful husbands do to their wives-they abase them, they desecrate the vows they made and the covenant they agreed to. One of the lessons from Hosea’s words is that we have the choice to stay in these predicaments of our own making, we have the opportunity to continue to whore ourselves and deny our prostitution of God’s words, and we have the opportunity to turn back, to allow God to “heal our backsliding” because God “takes us back in love”- just as our covenantal partners will when we are sincere in our return, when we are serious about changing our ways.
None of this can happen when equal justice is denied. “One law for the stranger and the citizen alike” is not just a phrase, it is an obligation that each of us takes on when we proclaim our relationship with God, with one another. To have a tiered justice system is a denial of this obligation, it is a denial of God’s will, it is a desecration of our covenant and rips apart the fragile fabric of freedom that hovers above us like a Talit at a wedding ceremony. The predicament we find ourselves in today is the predicament that humanity has faced since we came into being: will we join with God and seek justice and truth or will we stay apart from our inner truth and spiritual knowing to seek gains instead of justice and promote mendacity and deception rather than truth?
The unholy thinking and speaking of the ‘religious right’ ‘conservative’ judges and clergy of all faiths is the “predicament of God” as well as the “predicament of justice”. We are engaged in an embarrassing situation, as we were when Rabbi Heschel wrote this sentence. Are we, the people, going to continue to put up with the lies and bastardizations of God, faith, that Trump and his allies are doing? Are we, the people, on this eve of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, going to ‘go along to get along’ with the power of the authoritarian? Are we, the people, going to allow the “bell of freedom” to be silenced after all these years? This is the predicament these ‘religious right’, ‘conservative’, ‘power-mongering bigots’ have placed us in because of our own inaction, because we have not stood up to say NO to the same forces that brought us the Civil War, WWI, WWII, etc-hatred and power-seeking monsters who disguise themselves as ‘good christian/jewish/muslim folk’!
As someone who sought justice for all in my teens while selling “hot” merchandise I got on consignment from my barber, I am well aware of the “predicament” we are facing today. I faced it often and in my younger years, selfishness and fear usually won the day, I am embarrassed to say. It was one of the ways I most disrespected the life and memory of my father and my biggest amends to him at his grave! My recovery and my return was and is motivated by my seeking of what is just and true in every situation, personally, communally, globally. It is a hard life and one that is misunderstood by many. II am never 100% sure that what I am doing is correct, I may be 80-90% sure and that has to be good enough and people have tried to get me to change what I know to be true and go along with their self-interests forever. I am NOT always right, I am NOT always just, I am NOT always in truth and my “predicament” is that I know this and continually seek to grow my spiritual life, continue to clean up my inner schmutz and grow in the conviction that my obligation to live a just, true life overrides my fears and my egotistical desires. It is a hard road, one that takes nurturing and growing, constant weeding out of the lies and deceptions I buy into and a road that I love taking and the only one that makes any sense for me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark