Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 13

“In the tragic confusion of interests, in which every one of us is caught, no distinction seems to be as indispensable as the distinction between right and wrong interests. Yet, the concept of right and wrong, to be standards in our dealing with interests, cannot themselves be interests. Determined as they are by temperament, bias, background and environment of every individual and group, needs are our problems rather than our norms.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 7)

Wishing everyone a year of learning, growing our inner lives, and more wholeness in 2025, which started out pretty good for me as an Ohio State University fan!

I am struck by the entire paragraph and I want to begin with the last sentence. “Needs are our problems rather than our norms” is telling us to, of course, beware of the “needs” and “interests” that are pulling at us, know that the authentic “needs” and “interests” of another(s) are our problem as well as theirs! In Man is Not Alone, Rabbi Heschel reminds us the interests of another has to be our concern: “what is of importance to them becomes vital to him”, and “the child becomes human…by becoming sensitive to the interests of other selves.” The problems of needs are both internal and external, they represent challenges on two fronts, personal and interpersonal, individually and communally. We are witnessing this phenomenon every day, we are constantly faced with the “tragic confusion of interests” and we are always weighing what is good for us and what is the right thing to do. When we are incapable or unwilling to distinguish “between right and wrong interests”, there can be no community, there can be no growing of our inner life, maturing of our soul, there can be no acknowledgement of any errors in our actions, there is only ‘might makes right’. On this 8th day of Hanukkah, even though the Maccabees defeated the Greeks they later succumbed to the ways of the Greeks going so far as to adopt Greek names, the story o of the oil tells us that ‘might does not make right’, the Bible tells us there is a higher authority than our own “temperament, bias,” and we are constantly called to SHEMA, hear, listen and understand, the desires and interests of our hearts and our eyes will lead us to whore after them.

Freedom is not following our hearts, not fulfilling our hearts desire! Rather it is limiting ourselves to fulfill what is right, just, merciful, kind, loving, and true. Our making “right and wrong” “standards” rather than whims, seeing and living into the universality of the principles of the Bible, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc is more important than societal ‘norms’, than the “interests”, “needs” that society has deemed important. In today’s world, the “need” that society deems most important is: winning, at any and all costs, be it through intelligence, strength, grift, lies, is of no consequence. We are experiencing and will experience even more the “problems” of winning as the number one “need”, “interest”. When this is the yardstick, the goal, “the concept of right and wrong” is no longer a standard, it is a nuisance that is to be manipulated. Convincing people to go against their own authentic “interests” and “needs” to serve the ‘greater good of the rich and powerful, is what happens when there we reject “no distinction seems to as indispensable as the distinction between right and wrong”.

Freedom is when We, the People, realize that “needs are our problems”. Internally, the problem is to determine which “needs” are authentic and which ones are not. We have to measure our “needs” against the yardstick of what is “right and wrong” according to our spiritual texts and listen to what our inner voice, our souls are telling us. We, the People, have to reject our own self-deceptions, the deceptions of another(s), the lies of societal “norms”, and find the truth within each of us and share this truth, through our actions, with the world. This is a “problem” that is solvable if we are willing to do the work and discover our authentic self, stand up against the onslaught of people and society telling us to ‘go along to get along’, telling us ‘it is written that you have to follow the leaders of the _______(fill in the blank of the group you are a member of), etc. We have to stand up for our soul’s truth, our inner wisdom, and our understanding of the ways to live them out loud.

Freedom is when We, the People, live into the teaching of Rabbi Heschel, that the “needs”, “Interests” of another have to be our concern. Throughout the Bible we are told how to respond to the “needs” of the captive-we have to ransom the Captive back from captivity, something Bibi, Smotrich, Ben-G’Vir seem to have forgotten in all of their Biblical quotes. We have to “treat the stranger well because we were strangers in the land of Egypt”- something America, the ‘good christian nationalists, the land of immigrants and refuge seekers since the Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock, seem to have forgotten in electing Trump to deport millions of legal and illegal immigrants, deny immigrants the ability to come into the US are wanted by Musk and his cronies! It is time for We the People to STAND UP for FREEDOM, Stand up for what are the “right interests”, Stand up against the “wrong interests” of the charlatans, idolators, authoritarians, and haters.

I have been engaged in “needs are our problems” all my life. Prior to my recovery, I was very split-I believed in and followed through on many of the “right” “interests” and helped people, giving charity, etc. Yet, at the same time, I indulged my “wrong” “needs” by stealing, hustling, lying and cheating. Finally, since I was unable to fully commit to the “wrong”, I wound up in another jail cell and faced with a spiritual dilemma, not of my choosing. In fact, the solution was not one I chose-it was thrust upon me by my soul. Since then, “needs are our problems” have become a place of choice and reflection, a way of being in the world where I can add to the distress of those choosing the “wrong” “interests”, “needs” and aiding and comforting those choosing the “right” “interests”, “needs”. I am told that I create chaos and, seeing my way of being through the lens of the wisdom above, I concur. Chaos brings about creation, chaos tells us something isn’t “right”, chaos causes us to look within our selves and do our T’Shuvah. Making the interests of another(s) my concern has led me to a place of harmony within, a way of being that brings me joy and comfort and allows me to live with purpose and meaning each and every day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark