Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 36
“The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God has thrust a burden upon his soul and he is bowed and stunned at man’s fierce greed. Frightful is the agony of man; no human voice can convey its terror.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 10/11)
While the Rabbis claimed that the time of the prophets was over and prophecy no longer came to humans, I believe they were mistaken and biased. These sentences describe the prophet’s state of being very well; “a man who feels fiercely” tells us that there is no ‘political correctness’ in the prophet’s world. There is no ‘go along to get along’ way of being for the prophet, he cannot “sit idly by the blood of his brother/sister”, he has to “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”. He has no choice but to care for the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the needy and the poor. He cannot abide with discrimination in any form. For the prophet love is the goal of life; love of God, love of one another, love of self; living from one’s spiritual life not living to ‘get ahead’. Because of this way of being, the prophet cannot keep his mouth shut when wrongdoing is in his face. When the people Israel were whoring themselves in the Sanctuaries, in the Palaces, in the Marketplace-the prophets spoke out and spoke loudly. “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream” says Amos the prophet and all prophets were outraged, overwhelmed with incredulity because of the lack of justice and righteousness in the Temple, in the Palace, in the Marketplace while the people were mis-attuned to God’s call, to the ways we were taught in the Midbar/desert on the journey to the Promised Land. Feeling the betrayal of the people to God was just too much for the prophet to stay silent.
In the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s, there were many who followed the example of Dr. King and spoke out mightily and constantly about the evil of racism, Rabbi Heschel being one of them. The great Rabbis of the past 100 years, the Priests and Ministers who have stood out over this time all had this gift of prophecy thrust upon them and they all felt the pain of the human being “fiercely” and spoke out against the power structure that was so cruel, that put taskmasters over the people to keep them down, marched for freedom without being bowed by the danger, rather being “bowed and stunned at man’s fierce greed”. It is true that there is an ebb and flow to existence both within the human being and in the world itself. We have been through periods of autocrats before and what is happening right now is nothing new-the challenge for us, of course, is to not go to sleep, saying “This too shall pass” because there will be heartache, cruelty, and devastation of the human spirit and death of human lives. We are facing an autocrat who wants to install an oligarchy, a dictator that one of the influencers of JD Vance says we have to “get over our dictator phobia” and install one in America. We are facing people who will do and say anything knowing they have their own agenda, the Constitution they swore an oath to means nothing, their oaths are non-binding, and cruelty, chaos is the first goal with amassing all the wealth and power the ultimate goal.
We, the People need the words of the prophets to be ringing in our ears, day and night. We, the People need to wake the fuck up and “feel fiercely” the disconnection from our own decency, our own knowing what is right and what is wrong. We, the People need to stand up and say NO to autocracy, NO to a dictator, NO to oligarchs, NO to the lies of people in power, NO to our elected officials who are going along and/or being the architects of this cruelty. We, the People have to say NO to the idolators who say this cruelty is being done in the name of Jesus Christ our lord. We, the People have to reclaim our own prophetic voice. We, the People have to re-read the words and deeds of the prophets so we can improve our spiritual hearing to discern lies from truth, to hear the words spoken to us by these charlatans, these wannabe dictators and oligarchs, and realize if they ping like crystal(truth) or thud like lead(Lies). We, the People are being called upon to stop the cruelty, to stop the rape of the land and the people because of the greed of the wealthy, the ‘ruling class’.
The only way for We, the People to be able to respond is by staying aware, not giving into the fatigue of the lies and the onslaught of all the different actions being taken. Each of us has to focus on our corner, hearing what we can hear, seeing what is in front of us and take action; otherwise, our Constitution will fall as the Temple in Jerusalem fell. We, the People have to engage with spiritual guides so we can get our “spiritual house in order”, so we recover our basic goodness of being and stop being deceived by our selves and by another(s). People who buy into the MAGA bullshit are so far under the ether they no longer trust what their eyes see, they have followed Trump’s dictate to listen to what he says, not what he does, not what anyone else says, points out-just buy his bullshit and their lives will be GREAT AGAIN. While it is easy for us to be mad and sad for these people who “drank the juice” just like the Jonestown people, it is more important to not engage in endless arguments with ‘true believers’ and focus our energies on doing what is right and good-fighting the “fierce greed” of some with the love and strength of God, with the words of prophecy of the prophets, with the deeds the Bible tells us to do so we can understand the danger and the perils of buying the lies. God has sent the “waters” and the “mighty stream”, “righteousness and justice” are part of our DNA as humans and part of the DNA of the world: it takes We, the People to make the “waters” come down and the “mighty stream” to roll, it is our responsibility to live in “justice and righteousness” in all of our affairs, to live these principles especially when it is hard and makes us a spiritual nomad, a thorn in the side of power.
Know the fierceness of greed because I lived in it for 20 years. There was never enough, I guarded it with your life, I thought I could always get more and it did not matter that I was stealing, conning, lying to get the money-if I had money I was something, if I didn’t have any, I was nothing. Self-Worth=Net Worth when Greed is king in one’s life. Thank God I was arrested and heard the call of my inner prophet, exhorting me for the life of greed I was living, asking me the hard questions of where was justice, righteousness in my daily affairs. Who did I think I was to diss God, who did I think I was to dam up the “waters of justice” and the “mighty stream of righteousness”? I had no answer and I was bowed and stunned at how far from the moral compass I was born with and was nurtured by my father I was. Since that day, the prophets, Rabbi Heschel and my father speak to me, along with the Bible, family and friends, they are my daily companions and advisors-they make me a little crazy, force me to do the next right thing and we are in a covenantal relationship. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark