Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 282

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)

One of the reasons I have chosen to begin Elul and restart my Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel with this passage is: “they must repent”. In the spiritual realm, the most prominent powers at this time of year are: truth, forgiveness, compassion and acceptance. In order to repent, our Clergy must be in truth with themselves, with their Higher Power, with their Higher Consciousness, with their congregants. The role of clergy is very difficult and, because or the erroneous misconception that clergy are supposed to be perfect, rather than human, Clergy have to be in truth with their own families as well. It says in the Bible that the High Priest has to make “expiation”, for his “missing the marks”, those of his household and then for the People Israel. If our Clergy are not being truthful with themselves, if they are still excusing the “missing the marks” they have committed, what right do we have to demand of our flock, our family, our world to engage in confession, in repentance, in change? This is the issue we all have to face.

We need Faith Leaders who are willing to engage in “National Repentance and Personal Sacrifice”, we need Faith Leaders who are willing to “repent” in public as well as private, who are willing to go to the people they have harmed and make their amends, make restitution and speak about how they are changing their ways, how they have grown from this process of being in truth with themselves and with another(s). We are desperately in need of leaders who are willing to live their faith out loud and very loudly. Not the bullshit that we are hearing from the charlatans and the idolators who want to make the US a ‘christian nation’, not the crap about “sharia law” that makes everyone else second-class citizens, not the lies of the so-called ‘orthodox’ Jews who want to live under ‘torah law’, because all of these groups constantly violate the principles of the ‘laws’ they claim to revere. They all desecrate the name of Moses, Mohammed, Jesus, and the very ‘laws’ the Bible proclaims! We need Faith Leaders who are willing to confess their errors so they can be heard above the noise and mendacity of these idolators. We need “Religious Leaders to call for National Repentance” and begin with their own to show all of the rest of us how to do it.

Because the forces of the Cosmos are inclined towards repentance, compassion and forgiveness, I call the 40 days from the beginning of Elul through Yom Kippur as the time of “getting right with self, with another(s), and with God. On Yom Kippur we are forgiven, on Kol Nidre we are told: “I forgive as you have spoken” and the rest of the day is for us to forgive ourselves, to see our pure soul, to recommit to the covenant we have with God and to embrace the community around us. We need to engage in “Personal Sacrifice” during this time- the “personal sacrifice” of our false egos, the “personal sacrifice” of the lies that have fueled us for so long, the “personal sacrifice” of our self-deceptions which have blinded us to truth and to authentic connection with another human being and with a higher power. We have the energy of the universe calling to us and pulling us in the direction of forgiveness and, most of all in the direction of compassion and acceptance.

Doing the work of repentance allows us to be embraced by people we love and who love us even though we didn’t always appreciate them. We are embraced by their forgiveness and acceptance of who we are, we are embraced by their compassion for our flaws and their knowing we will never be perfect. We now have the “job” of accepting our true and authentic self. We can use the acceptance and compassion of those whom we have harmed, knowingly and/or unknowingly, to become more rooted in knowing ourselves, in having compassion for ourselves, and accept ourselves with our imperfections and never need to hide again. Compassion and acceptance, forgiveness and truth uncover all the ways of being that we have tried to hide-both the ugly and beautiful ways of being. These forces so prevalent right now help us to see clearer, to hear sharper, to taste the bitterness of b.s and the sweetness of truth more fully, and to sense the touching of real and authentic in ways that send goosebumps through us. We have the paths to accomplish this, we have the roadmaps to Repentance and Change, I pray we have the Religious Leadership this year that leads us to accomplish this Holy Task.

I have repented for the past 37 years and each year I see more of my authentic self and live more authentically in the following year(s). This year, I repent for my withdrawal, for opting out and feeling afraid to be ‘pushy’. I have allowed my fears of rejection to stop me from putting myself out there more. Yes, I have written almost each day and yes, I am doing some things-being in truth with myself, I know I have made excuses for my lack of active participation, I have tried to put out “the fire in the belly” that is my voice, the voice that makes me worthy of being a descendant of the prophets (as we all are) and worthy of being a descendant of the family generations before me. I have been coming to see this truth and I am changing my ways-not sure how I am going to accomplish this and I am committed to doing it. I am repenting for the errors I have made this year, I am sorry to the people whom I have disappointed, I am sad about the connections that have been lost or are lying dormant, I am committing to reconnection, to repentance, to change, and to redemption. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark