Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 3 Day 292
National Month of Repentance and Change
“In all that happens in the world, in thought, conversation, actions, the kingdom of God is at stake…These days are dedicated to establishing God as king within us.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pgs. 68-69)
In 2 weeks we will be in Temple for Rosh Hashanah, we will be singing praises, hearing sermons, hearing the sounds of the shofar, prostrating ourselves during the additional service when praying the Aleinu prayer, standing and reciting the Avinu Malkeynu prayer, all in service of our recognition that God is king for these ten days. Not the king that is malicious and who wants us to fail, wants us to be among those “who shall die” as one of the prayers states. Rather the king who is missing his children who have left the palace, stretched the connection between parent and child so far and so taut that it seems as if it will break and this sovereign is crying to his kids to come back, to return again, to come home. Rabbi Heschel’s words above stir this thought in me, they call me back home to taking my place as a child of the sovereign, a prince who is being called upon to spread the kindness, the joy, the obligation, the pain of being so connected to the sovereign that everything I do reflects on the sovereignty of God, the understanding of God’s love, the continued life of the world we live in.
I am trembling as I write these words. Can the religious zealots really believe that Trump, Bibi are protecting and promoting the sovereignty of God? Can anyone truthfully say that they are good for Israel or the US or the world when they believe that they should be the sovereigns? Who among us can say I have established “God as king” within me and then bow down at the altar of liars, narcissists, thieves, bullies, and men hellbent on destroying the freedoms, the divine images of anyone that doesn’t bow down to them? How can the so-called ‘rabbis’ in Israel and the US proclaim the righteousness of these charlatans? How can the so-called christian clergy proclaim that Trump is the “anointed one”? In the Bible we read about King Saul being anointed and then Samuel seeing the error of his ways and anointing King David. Saul’s mental anguish, which made him suspicious of David even though he knew David was loyal and he loved him, went out to battle the Philistines and died in battle-he did not send everyone else while he sat at home, Bibi-he brought his sons into battle with him-he didn’t send him to Florida, Bibi! Both Saul and David were so much more suited for the job of King than Trump or Bibi-both have had the power and they squandered it on enriching themselves and cozying up to Vlad, Victor, Kim, etc! They are certainly not interested in taking action for the sake of the kingdom of God, for them all that is at stake in their everyday living is enriching and protecting themselves from the consequences of their actions because they believe they are entitled to be above the law! This is what these so-called rabbis and so-called christian clergy are calling servants of the king? PLEASE!!!
To establish “God as king within us” we have to surrender our belief that we are king, that we are the judge and jury of our own lives. We get to, during this month of repentance and change, let go of our false egos, leave the confines of our mind and no longer live according to ‘don’t you know who I think I am” and return to living our passion and purpose fulfilling the divine need we are created to fix. We get to engage with God as our ancestors did in the desert, as the prophets did in Israel and Judea, as the Rabbis did in Babylonia and Yavneh. We establish “God as king within us” by immersing ourselves in the moments of life instead of continuing to manage them to what we believe is our benefit. Rather than ‘get ours’, ‘get as much as we can’, we return to knowing that the kingdom of God is at stake in every action we take, every conversation we have and, that the life of our soul, our inner life is at stake as well.
During this month of repentance and change, we choose to return and allow God to “heal our backsliding”, knowing that God “takes us back in love” as the prophets remind us. We read in the Torah of how to be human even in war, how to be grateful upon arriving in our proper place, that we always have the power of choice-choosing good/life and/or wrong/death. We, each of us individually as well as all of us collectively, have to make choices in this month that, fortunately and/or unfortunately, will guide our next 6 months until we participate in our exodus from slavery at Passover time. We have the opportunity to change our glasses and regain our 20/20 vision in our souls, in our ‘third eye’. We have the opportunity to let go of our narcissistic ways that block the kingdom of God from entering into our consciousness and “circumcise the foreskins of our hearts”. There is an urgent demand as we approach these last two weeks of Elul, COME HOME TO THE PALACE where God as king resides, COME HOME TO THE PALACE where you belong and can flourish spiritually and help spread the word, heal the sick, care for the stranger, choose life! During this month of repentance and change, we come to respect, relish, admit: WE MATTER
I know what it means to not establish “God as king within us” as I did this for over 20 years and the harm I brought, the plague I spread was horrific-I have spent the past 37 years undoing the evil and creating new and good. Knowing the kingdom of God is at stake in everything I do is overwhelming and exhilarating! It is, for me, the ultimate experience of Yirah, the trembling awe of knowing that I matter! Rabbi Heschel’s words are not new ideas, I/we know them from the liturgy we recite and they are concise and piercing through the veils I have hidden behind, causing me to face the truth-I did what I thought was best in the moments of my life and, unfortunately, many times my thinking was stunted, biased, based on erroneous input, ergo; not good, not right and I sacrificed the kingdom of God for my own self-satisfaction, my own blindness both willful and unwitting. I am remorseful for these moments where ego, error, bias’ got in the way of fully serving both the “kingdom of God” and “establishing God as king within” me! To those who were harmed, I am deeply sorry, I am getting better at pausing, I am getting better at engaging my spirit before my mouth. I am also still a descendant of the prophets, I take seriously what they said and they guide me at this time and every time of the year. Each morning, I face Moses, Jeremiah and Hosea, Isaiah and Micah, as well as Amos and the rest and hear their wisdom on how to be in this day so God is within me a little more today than yesterday. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark