Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 247

“It is not necessary for man to submit to the constant corrosion of his finest sensibilities and to accept as inevitable the liquidation of the inner man. It is within the power of man to save the secret substance that holds the world of man together. The way to overcome loneliness is not by waiting to receive a donation of companionship but rather by offering and giving companionship and meaning to others.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 83)

This first sentence above, written 63+ years ago, is prescient. Rabbi Heschel warning us all about “the constant corrosion of his finest sensibilities” should be ringing 4-Alarm Fire Bells in all of us. Sociologists can document the corrosion since the beginning of time with brief interludes of humanity recognizing it, stopping it, growing our finest sensibilities only to have people seeking absolute power spread acidic tales which then begin the corrosion anew. We do not have to “submit” to this merry-go-round that has become acceptable, ‘the way of the world’ as some like to say. We do not have to accept the liquidation of our inner life into a pool of goop. We can and, I am positing, we must hold onto what makes us human, what makes us worthy of our existence and being a partner with the source of the universe, our inner life. What is it in human beings that we allow this “constant corrosion” to occur? I have been working with people, including myself, for the past 35+ years to help us reverse this corrosion and in order to do this, we have to first end its allure for us. Every human being is susceptible to this corrosion and suffers from it, some more than others and some are more aware of the corrosion than others as well.

The allure of “the constant corrosion of his finest sensibilities” is not having to live up to the standards set by our higher consciousness, our higher power, God, Allah, Jesus whatever you understand as the “prime mover” as Aristotle posits. Once we realize our inability to live into these standards, we continue the error of Adam in the 3rd Chapter of Genesis, we hide! We are afraid to admit our errors, we have such low ego strength that we are incapable of saying “oops I made a mistake” for fear of being laughed at, for fear of engaging in self-loathing, for fear of not being perfect among other fears. Rather than realize that to be human is to be imperfect, rather than appreciate the “Spirituality of Imperfection” a book that Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchum authored, humanity/society has propagated the lie that we can and should be perfect-how ridiculous and how it decimates our “finest sensibilities”. When we begin to buy into societal norms and its mental cliches, we lose our ability to be human, we lose our ability to truly connect with another and we lose our ability for compassion, empathy and love for another human being and for ourselves. Our “finest sensibilities” teach us how to forgive the errors of another person, they give us the ability to appreciate the differences/uniqueness of everyone else and see their uniqueness as a gift that we can use for our benefit just as they can use our uniqueness for theirs. Rather than compete and cheat, our “finest sensibilities” help us cooperate and celebrate the ‘wins’ of another and know our ‘wins’ are part of the greater good we participate in. It is when we see life as a zero-sum game, when our egos are so weak, our spirits so underdeveloped that we believe we must “win at any and all costs” that lying, deception, cheating, using of people becomes the prevalent way of being, the pathways of faux connection, optics, looking good on the outside are the only things that matter-hence the emphasis on ‘celebrity’, power, knowing it all, doing good to hide the rot inside, etc.

We have willingly participated in the “liquidation of the inner man” since time immemorial. Slavery is such a liquidation, living the societal norms are liquidations of our inner life. Needing to be right is a liquidation of our inner life as is the need to be subservient so we can ‘get ours’ from someone we loathe. All of the ways we engage in deceiving ourselves, deceiving another(s), feed our false egos, hide behind the curtain a la the wizard of Oz, we are liquidating our inner life. Religion, as it has been practiced in modernity and before, has contributed to this “liquidation of the inner man” by demanding perfect adherence to bastardizations of the tenets found in the Bible, by making Jesus into a caricature of what the New Testament describes, etc. All of this to empower despots, to make the ‘common folk’ (almost all other people than those in power) subjects to their whims and worship the authoritarians. We see this in our Boardrooms, in our Politics, in our Institutions, in our families. When we are unable to admit our errors in judgement and in deeds, we are liquidating our inner life and we are adding to the corrosion of our “finest sensibilities”. When we are unable to give credit where credit is due, when we need to steal from one another, when we need to be jealous of another, when we need to feel bad about ourselves and blame someone else for our shortcomings we are liquidating our inner life and corroding our “finest sensibilities”.

Through these past 35+ years, under the tutelage of great teachers, my people and I have found a solution-it is an age-old solution- T’Shuvah is part of it, admitting my errors, realizing who is/was harmed by them, how they were/are harmed and what I need to do to restore the dignity I stole from them and myself as well as how/what I need to do to stop me from repeating this way of being. It is, actually, a return to the being I was created to be, that my soul/spirit is calling for me to be. As a former thief and conman, I have a PhD in the liquidation of the inner life and the corrosion of my “finest sensibilities”, so making this 180 degree turn was difficult and exhilarating, hard and the simplest action I have ever taken. Another part of the solution 1000’s of people and I have found is: Gratitude! We are told in the Bible: eat, be satisfied, and bless. From this we have found that eating is something we should do often (in proper measure of course-something I have yet to conquer completely), satisfaction doesn’t last forever nor should it because then we would stop growing, and be grateful for what we have and what we don’t have- cherish the teachers and friends, family and loved ones we GET to hang out with and learn from, wrestle with and embrace. Living into our “finest sensibilities”, ending the “liquidation of our inner life”, helping another human being do the same- this is the Jackpot, the Big Win of life and I am grateful to all who help me achieve this way of being and continue to help me be grateful and do T’Shuvah. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark