Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 265
“Few of our contemporaries have ever absorbed the challenge of the prophets or the grandeur of the Book of Genesis, though they have attended Sunday school and were thrilled with the confirmation ceremonies. What prevails in the field of religion is intellectual as well as spiritual illiteracy, ignorance as well as idolatry of false values. We are a generation devoid of learning as well as sensitivity.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 52)
This paper was presented to Rabbis of the Conservative movement in 1962, 2 years before my Bar Mitzvah, and it had no lasting effect upon the Rabbis there, evidently. I say this because we still suffer from an “intellectual as well as spiritual illiteracy”, we are still living in both "ignorance as well as false values”. I cannot imagine the experience of Rabbi Heschel as there were many of his students at this convention and he was, it seems, once again speaking to people who could not, would not hear. Like many of my generation, “the challenge of the prophets or the grandeur of the Book of Genesis” was not really communicated well. We were taught how to ‘pray the prayers’ in flawless Hebrew never really concerned with what the prayers were saying and the Bible was not taught as a living, breathing document of eternal truth nor eternal wisdom. Religious education was not that great some 60 years ago and it has gone downhill ever since. At the risk of angering my contemporaries, many people came to Beit T’Shuvah and were amazed at how smart Judaism is, how it gives us a roadmap to heal the spiritual maladies that cause us angst, depression, addiction, and helps us deal with our physical illness’ as well and wondered why their Jewish Communities, their Rabbis didn’t offer these remedies with which to deal with life on life’s terms to them.
What does it mean to absorb “the challenge of the prophets or the grandeur of the Book of Genesis”? It is not what the religious zealots scream out that it means, it is not how to hate one another, how to make an enemy out of someone who has a different opinion than you. It is not that God is punishing and spiteful, demanding, etc. When one immerses oneself in the prophets, we experience God as calling us back home, calling us to be our authentic self, reminding us of what is important-service and truth, kindness and compassion, love and covenant. These are the main challenges of the prophets, along with acknowledging our imperfections and errors, we are called to return so “God can heal our backsliding”, we are not called to be perfect, we are not called to hide our flaws! Yet, people of all faiths and creeds, all denominations within the myriad of religious orders still try and portray themselves as ‘being right’. We are a people who have heard “the challenge of the prophets” and decided, like Adam in the 3rd Chapter of Genesis, chosen to hide from God, from ourselves and from those around us-all the while portraying our facade as authenticity and truth. We have numerous examples of how people do not and have not “absorbed the challenge of the prophets” and not too many of those who have and are responding to this challenge.
Treating anyone as a ‘second-class’ citizen is denying “the challenge of the prophets” so these ‘religious’ people who created and buy into Project 2025 are anything but religious-they are idolators and deceivers. Believing the color of one’s skin gives you privilege and/or means you are inferior is ridiculous for people who hear and absorb the words of the prophets. Going against God’s suggestions in the Bible by banning abortion seems to deny “the grandeur of the Book of Genesis” and the rest of the Torah. Accepting bribes as a Judge on the Supreme Court as Alito and Thomas have done goes against the teachings in Exodus and Deuteronomy on how to be a judge and seek righteous justice. Taking advantage of the poor, the widow, the orphan, the needy is in direct opposition to God’s will which is expressed 36 times in the first 5 Books of the Bible-yet these ‘good-christian religious’ adherents to Trumpism, believers in MAGA continue to go against God’s Will and the words of the prophets. We are told to welcome the stranger in the same breath as caring for the poor, orphan, widow, and needy, yet these ‘good-christian fellowships’ want to put the stranger in cages, they separate families, they accuse others of the things they are doing and have done, they do not take responsibility for any wrongdoings and they call themselves ‘god’s people’, ‘defenders of the faith’! What they are liars, cheats, blasphemers, idolators.
We are in desperate need of our Clergy to stand up against the deceit and the subterfuge of these idolators, we are in need of our Clergy to teach the values and the principles of our different faiths to our children and to our adults. We, the Clergy, need to stop pontificating and worrying about the small stuff and get to work Kashering the Souls of our congregations. We, the Clergy, have to help them absorb “the challenge of the prophets” and not make excuses for ourselves nor them. We, the Clergy, have to admit our errors and seek forgiveness from the congregation for not helping them absorb these challenges. We, the Clergy, have to make prayer meaningful and learning accessible as well as necessary for the well-being of children and their parents, young adults as well as older adults. It is time for us, the Clergy, to go past our fears of losing our job and accept the “challenge of the prophets” to speak truth to power, stand with the poor, the needy, the stranger in each of our congregations, in each of our communities, and in each individual we encounter. We, the Clergy, have to engage in the work the prophets started and add our energies and skills to move the grand project of humanity forward; not finish the work and stop our incessant excuses not to engage in it.
As you might have noticed, this is a subject near and dear to me. I don’t know if my life would have been better, different if I had the education Rabbi Heschel is speaking of. I know I would have had clearer choices, I might have realized there wasn’t something defective within me and it wasn’t my fault that my father died so young, that I couldn’t save him and God wasn’t punishing him, me, my family. Absorbing “the challenge of the prophets” did not come to me until I was in prison the 2nd time because I was too stuck in my false self to absorb it the first time in prison. I am remorseful for the harm I caused my daughter, my family because I was so stuck in my own mendacity. Since then, I am totally absorbed in “the challenge of the prophets” and I keep seeking new ways to express and help another(s) engage in this challenge. While I don’t have a pulpit anymore, this blog has become my bully pulpit, the different groups I am a part of are my fellow learners and I continue to believe that there will be a tipping point of people who come to desire to absorb “the challenge of the prophets” and join me in moving their words and deeds forward. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark