Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 258

“In order to be a master, one must learn how to be an apprentice. Reverence for the old, dialogue between generations, is as important to the dignity of the young as it is for the well-being of the old. We deprive ourselves by disparaging the old.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 84)

Thinking about the first sentence above, allowing it to overwhelm ourselves, reminds us of “the way things used to be”. Not all of our progress, technological advances, emphasis on College/University as a degree-giving, economic foundation building has been good. We are churning out people who truly believe they are masters at a myriad of jobs, careers, businesses, political strategies, etc before they have even gotten their hands dirty with the work. Modernity has deceived people, both young and old, that being an apprentice is the same as being a slave and, if you are that ‘uneducated, stuck, poor, then I guess enslaving yourself to someone is the only way forward for you’ seems to be a theme that has been around since the Baby Boomers generation. First generation American parents did not want their kids to ‘suffer’ as they had growing up so they groomed them to go to college and find a career. This has become the societal norm for the children of us boomers and allowing the first sentence above to overwhelm me, makes me question the wisdom of the ways we have acted.

Rabbi Heschel is giving us a huge clue as to how to grow in wisdom, in maturity and in living. As the Hasidic Master, R. Leib Sarah related, "I traveled to the Maggid not to hear Torah from him, but to see how he ties and unties his shoelaces.” We seem to have lost this art of learning by being an apprentice. It is an interesting to witness how many Vice-Presidents who have gone on to become President do not attribute their decisions to the President whom they served-many do and many don’t. It is interesting to note how many people who take over a company as the new CEO want to remake the staff and company ‘in their image’ not always knowing or caring what the history of the company has been. Being an apprentice seems to be “out of favor” in today’s world except in the skilled trade industries. It certainly is “out of favor” in many of the professions like being a Clergyperson, an accountant, a lawyer, etc. Lincoln didn’t go to Law School, yet we require people to jump through so many hoops to be considered a professional while the itinerant preacher, the traveling Rabbi, the doctor who learned from his doctor, the lawyer who learned from another lawyer all built this country into a great country. When the emphasis wasn't on Date of Birth and what Insurance you have, doctors were healers. When the emphasis wasn't on how great an orator you are, Rabbis, Priests, Ministers, Imams tended to the spiritual maladies of their flocks. When young people wanted to know how to be as a professional, as a human being, they learned from the older generation. Yet we seem to have lost this art and this way.

It is sad, when the young believe they do not need the wisdom and experience of the older generation. It is sadder when the older generation is too afraid of being irrelevant and obsolete that they don’t offer their wisdom to the younger generation. It is not the job of the older generation to hide and wait to be asked-it is our obligation to offer the experience and wisdom we have attained. If they youngsters don’t want to hear, that is their business and they do it at their own peril as well as the peril of the organization, business, living conditions they are engaged in. The younger generation seems to ‘know better’ always, hence Mark Twain’s quote: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years”. I wonder how we have been apprentices of our parents in the way we parent, whom have we learned from that nurtures and enhances our spiritual well-being? How have we learned to ignore our spiritual health, blame another for our shortcomings, and made money, power, celebrity our higher powers and our goals. When mendacity becomes the currency in which we deal, how little have we learned from history?

We can, however, remedy our current situation. Instead of denigrating the older generations, we can interview them, we can learn from them. Instead of the older generations go off to enjoy their “golden years”, they can be writing their ethical wills to us young-ups:) We all have something to give to those younger than us, we all have important battle scars to share with those who may not have to suffer the same fates as we have if they can learn from us. Watching how the older generation “ties and unties their shoelaces” is the way to learn what the next right action to take is and how to take this action. There are many people who teach the next generation the wrong ways to follow and heed the “word of God” with their ignoring the lessons from the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem and the exile of Jews from Israel for 1900 years, there are many people who want to bastardize the teachings of Jesus with their bullshit ‘prosperity gospel’, there are too many people teaching an Islam that rather than seek peace wants to make war, wants to send their young into certain death. We, the people, of a certain age, we, the people who are the descendants of the older generation have to reclaim our rightful place. We are obligated to call a halt to the lies, an end to the senseless hatred, sound the shofar which proclaims freedom and lead everyone we can across the Red Sea out of mendacity and greed, spiritual death and degrading the wisdom of our elders.

My recovery is based on being an apprentice and a journeyman. I am, by no stretch of the imagination, an expert and I am pretty good at learning. I learned how to be a thief and I learned how to be a decent human being. I have thought about the ways of my ancestors as examples of how to be in the world as a mensch. I have watched my teaches “tie their shoelaces” in order to know how to teach and preach, I have also taught many people how to find the ‘niggun’ of their soul and sing the melody, the words that are in the core of their being out loud and for all to hear and learn from. I have been engaged in learning with people for most of my life and in the past 35+ I have been learning good things. I am not needing to push myself on anyone and I don’t shrink from speaking truth to power. I have made the choice to continue being an apprentice and being a master in my area of living. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark