Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 278

National Days of Repentance and Change

TO PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY, THE WHITE HOUSE, JUNE 16, 1963

I LOOK FORWARD TO PRIVILEGE OF BEING PRESENT AT MEETING TOMORROW AT 4 P. M. LIKELIHOOD EXISTS THAT NEGRO PROBLEM WILL BE LIKE THE WEATHER. EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT IT BUT NOBODY DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT. PLEASE DEMAND OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT NOT JUST SOLEMN DECLARATION. WE FORFEIT THE RIGHT TO WORSHIP GOD AS LONG AS WE CONTINUE TO HUMILIATE NEGROES. CHURCH SYNAGOGUES HAVE FAILED. THEY MUST REPENT. ASK OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO CALL FOR NATIONAL REPENTANCE AND PERSONAL SACRIFICE. LET RELIGIOUS LEADERS DONATE ONE MONTH’S SALARY “TOWARD FUND FOR NEGRO HOUSING AND EDUCATION. I PROPOSE THAT YOU MR. PRESIDENT DECLARE STATE OF MORAL EMERGENCY. A MARSHALL PLAN FOR AID TO NEGROES IS BECOMING A NECESSITY. THE HOUR CALLS FOR HIGH MORAL GRANDEUR AND SPIRITUAL AUDACITY. ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity)

Rabbi Heschel’s next words are a clarion call needed in this moment at least as much when he wrote them if not more! “PLEASE DEMAND OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT NOT JUST SOLEMN DECLARATION”. We have all heard the pronouncements of our Religious Leaders, we have all heard the numerous calls to action, the “solemn declarations”, very few of them go to the marches, very few of them lead the protests, very few of them have the courage of Joachim Prinz, the former Rabbi of Berlin who spoke before Rev King at the March on Washington, very few have the tenacity of Rabbi Heschel who would cancel a class on ethics in order to attend a march, a gathering to protest racism, hatred, the Vietnam War, because what good is teaching ethics, teaching Torah, teaching the Bible, if one is not going to live them? We hear the “solemn declaration” of hatred and envy, fear of losing power, and, most of all in my opinion, fear of being found to be fraudulent phonies. Many of us fellow clergy watch in horror as our colleagues serve the masters of greed, money, prestige, fame instead of serving God, Jesus, Allah, serving the people we are called to serve and call on us for direction and guidance. When our “religious leaders” continue to care more about their pocketbooks, their renown, we are dangerously close to the conditions that caused God to regret creating humanity in Chapter 6 of Genesis! We, clergy, are called for the mission to reverse the trend of evil that humans learn from their youth and help people turn back to the basic goodness of being that we are all created in and with-yet some of my sisters and brothers in the clergy are more concerned with keeping their boards of directors happy, keeping their standing and their stature than responding to the call of service that demands rigorous honesty, seeking of truth and constantly rooting out of our errors and engaging with our congregants and the world in true humility-the humility born from our acknowledging our imperfections and working to be one grain of sand better each day.

Personal involvement means living our lives out loud rather than keeping the darkness we feel, we do secreted away so no one truly sees us. Personal involvement means getting out of our offices and pulpits and, like Rabbi Heschel, Rev. King, Pastor Niebuhr, taking to the streets to march, to speak, to go to Congress and lobby lawmakers, to publicize our errors, our repentance, and the ways we will change and challenge everyone we know and don’t know to do the same. Personal involvement means no longer preaching a good sermon, it means living the words we preach. It is to stand with our fellow clergy who are vilified and demeaned because they stand up for the poor, the stranger, the needy, who are victims of “cancel culture” whether we agree with their interpretations or not, if they are engaged in T’Shuvah, in living life out loud, in seeking to be a little better each day, if they are practicing the principles of truth, love, kindness, justice, compassion in all of their affairs, if they are unwilling to take the bribes of job security, reputation so they will compromise their principles, every clergy person should be standing with them-this is personal involvement in a cause that is so much greater than us-it is the cause Micah the prophet tells us-“Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God”(Micah 6:8). Justice, mercy, walking with God doesn’t mean we all agree on what the text means, we just agree that each of us has a word of the Bible within us and we all have different ways to “Do and Understand” God’s will and we all have a unique path to fulfilling the divine need we were created to fill. Yet, if we are not willing to stand with our colleagues, if we are not willing to stand against the laypeople who want to control the spiritual life, the spiritual well-being of the congregation, a subject they know very little about, then how are we “walking humbly with God”. Unfortunately, too many Clergy have the mis-impression that they are God, they ‘know’ God’s will rather than continue to search for it, rather than realizing each event in our lives calls for different “midot”, measurements of attributes, because no two events are the same, no two moments are the same, no two people are the same, we are not the same as we were yesterday. Everything grows or retards depending on our personal involvement in our lives and the lives of another(s). As Clergy isn’t it time we realize this, isn’t it time we act upon this, isn’t it time we stop relying on the interpretations of 2 millennia and see how the Bible applies to us today? Personal involvement means to be present, live in the here and now, use the principles of the Bible to inform our actions in these new situations not live like we did in the 1st Century BCE or CE, or the 16th Century in Poland or S’fat.

It is time for all Clergy, all people to get up off their asses, off their couches, off their pulpits and become involved in the matters that concern God most: the poor, the needy, the stranger, the widow, the orphan-all of the people who have no power, who have no voice-we Clergy are here to give voice to, to raise them up and to call out the Truth to Power, to call out the Lies of the ruling class, to make it uncomfortable for the comfortable and make it comfortable for the uncomfortable. My life has been about this and even when I was a criminal, my rebellion was against the lies and b.s. that I saw in front of me. I have been railing about this situation for my entire rabbinate, I am a ‘niche’ Rabbi because I have to be involved personally with each person and there is only so much of me. I have to be leading and walking with the people who are not treated well, who have been forgotten and those who have forgotten their own worth and importance! We, Clergy have to lead the way by “loving our neighbor as we love ourselves”-this is the first step in “personal involvement” in repentance and change! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark