Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 241
“People are anxious to save up financial means for old age; they should also be anxious to prepare a spiritual income for old age.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 79)
Continuing to delve into Rabbi Heschel’s talk at the 1961 White House Conference on Aging, I am struck with the words above. In 1961, the average lifespan was 69-70 years old and “retirement” age was 65. Old age was thought of when people turned 60ish, I believe. Today, the average lifespan is 80+ years and old age is thought of when people turn 80. “To save up financial means for old age” is a lot harder/different now than it was when this paper was delivered, and the need “to prepare a spiritual income for old age” is as important, if not more important now than in January of 1961.
The decline in humanity understanding, appreciating, and responding to the need for “spiritual income” seems to correspond with the decline in moral principles being the guiding light of our actions. “Justice for all” being turned into different ‘justice’ for people based on their socio-economic status and whom they know, and our forgetting what the 1930’s and 1940’s were like here and abroad as well as forgetting the cultural settings of every authoritarian takeover, be it royalty or despot, throughout history. We are witnessing the same rhetoric, in one way or another, we are witnessing similar thoughts and actions being taken and/or promised, we are witnessing the takeover of our Justice System by right-wing ‘christian nationalists’, we are witnessing the concern for the rich, the famous, the corporations-not the ‘man in the street’.
Our system has become so lopsided ‘regular’ people are unable to afford “to save up financial means for old age” and have to rely on Social Security which the right-wing wants to end! We aer witnessing a degradation of some older adults by the very people who claim to “live by the 10 Commandments” as Mike Johnson likes to purport. The anxiety caused by our tilted economic system is palpable and, to the chagrin of this writer, some of the people most affected, most anxious are believing the people who are causing this anxiety are going to help them-much like Germans thought Hitler would restore Germany to glory, there are people supporting the haters, the bullies, the liars, the thieves who are proclaiming their allegiance to Jesus and belief in ‘good christian values’! OY, what a mess we have made of our financial anxiety, how well we have turned peoples’ financial fears into hatred, into them going against their best interests, and they have turned their powerlessness into slavery rather than freedom.
This is happening again/still, I believe, because we have not been “anxious to prepare a spiritual income for old age.” This preparation is done in the days of our ‘youth’, in the decades of growing into the wisdom age and experience brings us. This preparation includes meditation, prayer, study, community service, etc. It is a conscious decision to stop denying our errors of judgement and missing the mark of our actions. The decades prior to “old age”, as I am hearing Rabbi Heschel this morning, need to be spent in preparing both for our financial security in “old age” to the best of our ability AND preparing/growing our inner life so we face aging with dignity and grace, with kindness and concern, with service and asking for help when needed-all without shame, without guilt, and with connection and truth and love. Living this way eliminates the need to deceive oneself into believing the liars and cheats, the thieves and power-hungry actually have any concern for anyone but themselves. Living this way imbues people with a sense of Justice that, while blind, isn’t deaf and dumb.
We “prepare a spiritual income for old age” in many different ways and they all have similar ingredients: self-reflection, seeing where we “hit the mark” and where we “missed the mark”, preparing any damage we have wrought by “missing the mark”, growing our awareness and knowledge through these actions. We “prepare a spiritual income for old age” by deepening our inner knowledge, hearing it better and trusting it more. We sit with a spiritual guide and spiritual friends to have our souls reflected back to us and to reflect the souls of another(s) back to them. We join a community of people seeking a better life, a life of meaning and purpose, a life of safety and security in knowing; together we will face everything and live through it all. We engage throughout our teens - “old age” with ideas and thoughts, looking at what we can learn from them, how our experience or the experiences of our people have shown us which ones to pursue and which ones lead us back to destruction, to slavery. We continue to engage our “higher consciousness” and our souls to enlighten our living and to light the way forward-knowing we always need help and we are never the smartest one in the room and if we are, we have to find a new room.
This preparation of “a spiritual income for old age” is not a panacea, it is the only defense I have found to balance the hurt and bereft feeling one has when “old age” comes and one is relegated to the dust bin. I have spent the last four years dealing with what comes when one is told -thanks for your service, now get the fuck out-in my case, I freely admit I prompted this reaction, and it was a shock that my spiritual bank account didn’t have enough in it to cover this error I made. What I have come to realize, especially in light of the quote above, is my spiritual bank account is for me alone-it isn’t for someone else to withdraw from, it doesn’t cover the losses someone else experiences, it covers the losses I experience from my actions and the actions of another(s). My “spiritual income” hasn’t stopped and my bank account keeps growing because I keep learning. This is the preparation I am grateful I took in my ‘younger years’. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark