Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 35
“The niggardliness of our moral comprehension, the incapacity to sense the depth of misery caused by our failures, is fact that no subterfuge can elude. Our eyes are witness to the callousness and cruelty of man but our heart tries to obliterate the memories, to calm the nerves, to silence our conscience.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 10)
“Niggardliness” can be understood to mean “small” which makes the opening sentence mean the smallness “of our moral comprehension” which speaks to the times we are in, the times we seem to always come back to. After each and every great era of morality, equality, freedom the pendulum seems to be swung back to this stinginess of moral comprehension, it seems that the people who want power because of who they think they are, in modernity because of the ‘whiteness’ of their skin, they wait for a lull in the progress towards freedom and pull the pendulum back to hatred, back to a niggardly “moral comprehension”. We have seen this throughout history-the people who built the golden calf, the Israelites who complained about Moses as he was on his mission of redemption, in the desert the Israelites who made a 2 week trip into a forty year journey, the fall of the Roman Empire, the myriad of nations who have ‘fallen’ from grace and never regained their stature again, the Nazis, Russia, and now the MAGA crowd.
While I get trolled some for my views, I refuse to buy into the “subterfuge” that allows my trolls to elude the truth of “the depth of misery caused by our failures” and to ignore “the niggardliness of our moral comprehension”. We are in a time of deep moral failures, of being co-responsible for the misery caused by them, and claiming to not see this truth, claiming that it is good for people to suffer with high prices, for billionaires to get more tax breaks, for corporations to continue to be treated like people for tax purposes and not held accountable for their “moral failures” is ridiculous and dangerous. We are watching the destruction of accountability in our country and across the globe. While the ICC is wrong to charge war crimes, the Israeli people have to hold Bibi and his gang accountable for their actions on Oct. 7th and before, for their not getting the hostages back immediately and for their complicity in funding Hamas! Trump has to be held accountable by the Senate and the House of Representatives to have good, honest, and capable people serving in the Cabinet Posts instead of drunks, liars, ass-kissers who are firing the people who have served our nation proudly, in truth, and without regard to the political system.
How did we get to this place at this time in history? The last sentence above speaks to the dilemma we face and the epidemic we are in; our eyes are witness to the callousness and cruelty of man but our heart tries to obliterate the memories, to calm the nerves, to silence our conscience.” We are in a time where people will believe the lies someone tells rather than what they witness with their own eyes! “Watch what they do, not what they say”. Trump et al have done nothing to help the price of eggs go down-there is no bird flu, the Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America, Greenland should be part of the US, Pardon the January 6 Armed Rioters at our Nation’s Capitol, are more important than helping the average person and no one in government is holding him accountable-SHAME ON YOU SENATORS, CONGRESSPEOPLE. Rather than see what is, people who are ‘loyal to the DONald’ “calm the nerves and silence our conscience” by repeating the lies he keeps speaking. Project 2025 is the plan and the playbook and “callousness and cruelty” is the point-all in the ‘name of Jesus’ and they are aghast when someone like Bishop Budde quotes Jesus’ words and deeds back to them from Scriptures instead of some sham bible they claim to be holy. The people who will suffer the most are the people who are kissing his ass the most, the people who show up at his rallies and cheer Stewart Rhodes as he celebrates his not being held accountable along with the DONald who is not being help responsible nor accountable for his wrongdoings.
It is past time for all of us to look inside of our souls, to take an inventory of our inner life and our outer actions. Each person is to do T’Shuvah one day before we die and since none of us know the day of our death, do T’Shuvah every day, according to Rabbi Eliezer in the Talmud (Shabbat 153a). All of us are accountable and no amount of “subterfuge”, no amount of lying to oneself nor another human being can change this fact. We, the People have to take back our moral compass and learn to live by it. We, the People have to stop hiding behind lies and blinders denying our “failures”. We, the People have to see the cruelty and callousness that is in front of our eyes and put an end to the misery we cause by our willful blindness. We, the People are being given an opportunity to say NO to the hatred and cruelty being perpetrated upon all of us, We, the People need to hear the call of the prophets, the call of our inner life, the call of the poor, needy, stranger, and respond with HINENI, rather than, “not my problem”. We, the People have to be accountable for the misery and evil, cruelty and callousness perpetrated in our name by our leaders. We, the People are being called to duty in service of holy principles, in service of moral principles, in service of one another and in service of love, kindness, justice, mercy, truth-will you stand up and answer this call today and every day?
“What an order, I can’t go through with it” is a phrase in the Big Book of AA and it reminds us that we are not expected to be perfect and progress is always attainable. This is my story for the past 36+ years. I am acutely aware of my moral failures and my callousness, both of which I have done less and less since my recovery began long ago in a prison cell. Yet, I know I am still guilty and I make my T’Shuvah for my errors. I hold myself accountable and I depend on a few people to help me-the vast majority of people like to point fingers as ‘victims’ when finger-pointing is actually a “subterfuge” for them because if I can blame you-you will not see what I have done, am doing-like our current government, like Bibi and his government. Remembering my own foibles gives me compassionate pity for people and doesn’t absolve them, just as I am not absolved until I make my T’Shuvah. After doing this, I am clean and the person denying forgiveness and rapprochement is the guilty party. I refuse to be cruel and callous knowingly and on purpose, I also refuse to just go along, admit to something that isn’t true, silence my voice because another person doesn’t like it and ‘feels’ bad because I am loud, proud, and joyous about “Freedom for All” and I refuse to apologize for who I am. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark