Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 281

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)

I am wondering how the “Church Synagogues” responded to Rabbi Heschel’s truthful denunciation of their work! How audacious and powerful the statements that are bolded above are. Yet, today we can say that Church Synagogue have failed us to a greater extent rather than a lessor one, we can say with surety that these entities learned nothing from Rabbi Heschel’s words and deeds, Rev. King’s words and deeds, the words and deeds of other Religious leaders like the Berrigan Brothers. It is safe to say this because so many people answer NONE when asked what religious order they belong to, because around 27% of Jews did not consider being Jewish to have anything to do with religion. We have witnessed a deep divide in the way Judaism as a religion is being practiced and the political power that some Orthodox Jews in America and in Israel are trying to use to attain their goals which go against so many of the principles found in the Bible. We have witnessed the failure of the Church to rein in their own priest/pedophiles and the cover up that caused so much addiction, mental illness and death. We witness the radical Imams and Mosques who preach “death to the Jews”, “death to America” and the support that terrorists get from young people especially as we saw on college campuses this past year. In the face of Oct. &, 2023 and the latest round of executions, we watch Hamas and the Orthodox Jews of the settler movement, those who follow Ben G’vir, Smotrich, Deri, all Kahane-like haters.

“Church Synagogues” have failed in educating our young and inspiring the parents of today to live the spiritual values of Islam, Christianity, and/or Judaism. We are turning out robots who blindly follow the extremists and/or anarchists who believe it is all bullshit and all that is of importance is what I can get for me. When I was a criminal, I believed if I could take it from you than it was really mine in the first place-how is that for convoluted thinking! Today’s “Church Synagogues” are, in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways teaching the same ways. They have bastardized the words of Christ to make it okay to take advantage of the poor, to allow graft and money to show how “God loves me because I am rich” and other such bullshit-like control over a woman’s body, misreading of biblical texts to suite then proclivities, accusing another of the very things they are guilty of and supporting dictators and authoritarians, the exact opposite of what Christ was put on the cross for-he was killed for speaking truth to power whereas many of today’s clergy-especially in the MegaChurches- worship power over truth!

In the Synagogues, we hear “the People Israel Lives” without defining what the “People Israel” is! We are not all the same, we are not supposed to be, according to the Ancient Sages, no one has more value and dignity than another in the Jewish tradition, yet Bibi and his gang of thugs believe they do and only they are the “real Jews”-much like many of the Orthodox here in the US. We are watching Chabad and other Chassidic Sects go so far from their revolutionary roots and work hard to sit in seats of power or at least next to those in power. We are witnessing Jews here and in Israel care nothing for the stranger, the poor, the needy, the widow, and/or the orphan which we are commanded to do 36 times in the Torah. We are watching, some of us in horror, as these “real Jews” take the words of the prophets and do everything they warned us not to with reckless abandon believing they will not suffer nor cause the same fate as we experienced in 586BCE or 70AD! What Chutzpah!!

Not to be outdone, a majority of the rest of the Synagogues have been so boring and trite, worried about raising money rather than souls, the people join for the B’Nai Mitzvot of their children and the party/money afterwards. They reject the spiritual message of our faith and our Holy Texts as irrelevant because it won’t help my kid nor me make money, get a job, have a career, etc. The Synagogues have failed to make Judaism vibrant, necessary and alive in the souls of people and, except for High HolyDays, they remain less than full on days of worship. Our Jewish Federations are not much better, they have also lost the vibrancy of Judaism, the passion and fire in the belly of the prophets, they also are catering to the rich and powerful ostensibly so they can help the poor and the needy,  believing the ends justify the means.

I am a product of a failed Synagogue-not the Clergy in my case, the religious directors who wanted to drill the recitation of prayers into us, the learning of how to read and say the words of prayer and Torah in Hebrew without the meaning and the vibrancy of what it means to pray. Even though I knew instinctively that prayer was important, I did not let it penetrate me because it was not deemed important in my shul at that time. I have, especially on Yom Kippur, made amends for the Synagogues and the Churches that have failed us, I have done T’Shuvah for them as the High Priest did for himself and his household and then the People Israel. I believe we have to live the saying we find over the Holy Ark in many Synagogues: “Know before whom you stand” which seems to be ignored by both Synagogue Boards and congregations. I am grateful that I, along with so many people, created a Spiritual Community, a Jewish Congregation that was vibrant, spiritual, loud, raucous, with the spirit of the prophets and the boldness of the Baal Shem Tov to bring meaning, purpose, introspection, community, caring, and love into the Synagogue so people, after their first time at services could say: “this feels like home”. Judaism is a rebellion, it rebelled against the norm at the time and, if we stay true to our roots, we have to continue to rebel against being stuck in old ways, we have to continue to see the text anew and allow it to embolden us to move forward. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark