Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 255

“This, then is a most urgent problem: How to convey the inexpressible legacy, the moments of insight, how to invoke unconditional commitment to justice and compassion, a sensitivity to the stillness of the holy, attachment to sacred words.” (Insecurity of Freedom pls 83,84)

“Convey” comes from the Latin meaning “way together”, and the English definitions include: “carry to a place, communicate, make an idea understandable”. Rabbi Heschel’s question above, “how to convey…the moments of insight” is a very important one for all of us. The question assumes we all have “moments of insight”, we all know what the next right thing to do is, we all have a sense of what our Higher Consciousness is telling us, what need we are created to fill, what God wants from us, etc. This means it takes a great deal of inner negativity to draw ourselves away from these “moments of insight”, it is not the ‘easier softer way’ to be negative, it actually goes against our very nature-as I hear Rabbi Heschel calling out to us this morning!

No one is devoid of “moments of insight” and many of us are not willing to convey them from our souls, our guts to our brains. Society seems more interested in conveying the negativity of our minds to the world and denying, decrying those who share and look for a “way together” through their “moments of insight”. Railing against those wanting to join with everyone else’s “moments of insight” to create the mosaic, the amazing quilt called living together in tolerance, in a harmony that brings together the cacophony of each person’s unique melody of their soul. These naysayers are the “populists” of our time, they are against “the elites” even though they graduated from every ‘elite’ institution they want to ban, even though they are the ones with money and are catering to the rich and powerful, even though they want to have complete authority over women’s bodies, minds, over those low-life Jews, Muslims, etc, those criminals who were not born here-even though all of their ancestors were immigrants, legal and illegal. They have made a cottage industry of denying their “moments of insight” and proclaiming their negativity and con games are the ‘real’ “moments of insight”!

While it is easy to blame the populist politicians, we have to look at our institutions, communities of faith, and our families to see what it is that gives these lying deceivers such popularity and a fairly huge following. In our institutions and businesses we see Boards of Directors who are interested in satisfying their shareholders, their stakeholders. In for-profit organizations, if it helps the bottom line, that is all that matters-who cares about the workers, the environment, etc. In non-profit organizations, the Boards of Directors care about how they look to the outside world, demand to follow the “evidence-based” solutions rather than color outside the lines-even though most non-profits were created by people coloring outside the lines. Yet, just like with businesses, non-profit institutions get corrupted by people who are unwilling to find a “way together”, to join in the “moments of insight of those who are being served, doing the work, and/or created the project. Optics is more important than essence for many businesses and non-profits. How sad!

In our communities of faith, we are witnessing the same difficulty of communicating true “moments of insight” and instead we are deluged by simplistic, stupid one-way solutions. “Follow me, I have the answer and all you need to do is believe”, this and other such bullshit has turned many away from faith communities which is the very place where we should be learning how to discern what are “moments of insight” and what are mental gymnastics. For those who stay in these communities, the hubris of clergy, governing bodies, elders, etc that they alone know what God wants, they alone know the One-Way to be is blasphemy! It is saying they are God themselves. What passes as Judaism, Christianity, Islam is so far from the foundational texts and are purposeful mis-understandings of what the people closest to the beginning knew-there are a myriad of ways to understand these texts and it is our job to find the different ‘faces’ that are appropriate for this moment, for this instance. Nowhere does Christ say: hate the immigrant, nowhere does Moses say: it is okay to pervert justice for the ‘greater good’, nowhere does Mohammed say: a Muslim should go against the laws of the land of their residence. Yet, the charlatans and self-declared ‘prophets of doom’ preach these and other such lies! It is way past time to end our reliance on deceit and ‘populism’, it is way past time to end our joy in kicking people when they are down, it is way past time to stop making someone else bad so we can feel good, feel superior.
We have to end our veneration of the strong, the worshiping of the Rebels of the Confederacy, the pity for the Jan 6 rioters who stormed the Capital, who assaulted Police Officers, etc. We have to end our genuflecting at the feet of Navarro, Bannon, Trump, Vance, et al. We have to end our going along with Mike Johnson being a ‘good christian man’ because they are all LIARS!

We, the people, have to listen to the “moments of insight” from our souls that are struggling to get through to our brains. We are in need of seeing Physicians of the Soul to help our sight get better, to enable our souls to speak loud enough for our brains to hear and to give our spiritual insights veto power over the ‘evil thoughts’ of our brains. We have the power to do this within us, we just have to unlock it, we have to nurture it and we have to live it. I know this to be true as I was a con man and a thief, I ruined my life and everyone else’s around me. I only gave heed to my brain until December of 1986-when I was arrested for the last time. My brain was struck silent in a jail cell and I heard a call in my soul that I repeated out loud-“God was trying to tell me something and I had to sit here and figure it out.” This encounter with this “moment of insight” and my ability to convey it to another human being and to myself made me who I am today. It has propelled me to never think I am the smartest in the room, to find a “way together” with another person, a group of people forward in our quest to help an individual heal the spiritual malady they are suffering from. It has kept me together when my world has fragmented, it has made me never suffer from despair and always seek new ways of seeing what is going on. It has allowed me to ask the question: “What is the question this experience is the answer to” so I see each experience as answers/solutions and I just have to find the right questions/problems that fit these solutions. I am constantly seeking to improve my daily living, to listen more carefully to my spiritual awakenings each day and to better “convey the moments of insight” I experience. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark