Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 14
“He who sets out to employ the realities of life as means for satisfying his own desires will soon forfeit his freedom and be degraded to a mere tool. Acquiring things, he becomes enslaved to them; in subduing others, he loses his own soul.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 7)
I am stunned at these words above, as I am with most of what has been written and said by Rabbi Heschel, other brilliant minds and spirits, the Bible, etc-not just because of the truth, wisdom and prophecy of their words, rather because these truths as “self-evident” and we, human beings, ignore them, are oblivious to them, and/or believe they don’t apply to us(arrogance).
Human beings continue to “forfeit his freedom” for the sake of self-satisfaction, for the sake of ‘pursuing their hearts desires’, for the sake of power and prestige, etc. We have not learned from the Pharaoh, the history of the kingdom of Israel and Judea, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire and all of the forms of government that when leaders, governments “employ the realities of life as a means for satisfying his own desires” things go haywire, dictators take over at least for a while, people are shocked to find our their ‘savior’ was/is a liar and a grifter, and are bewildered by their loss of freedom. Of course, the dictators find out they are not free, no matter what they portray on the outside, they are beholden to the people who prop them up, the people who continue to support them and hold the military, the people in check. Whether it is Putin or Orban, Trump or Bibi, the people they are beholden to will always come for their payments, they will always “owe their soul to the company store”! What is so amazing is that no matter how many times people have “soon forfeit their freedom” people still believe they can “empty the realities of life as a means for satisfying their own desires” and not be scarred nor scathed by this way of being. No matter how many times one reads Julius Caesar, Oedipus, the Bible, the narcissists still believe in their overwhelming power to stay free and not just be a tool for some other narcissist to abuse, as they have abused the people they lead, the people they screw over.
While it is easy to see this truth in leaders of countries, it is crucial to see how this is true in our own lives. How many people are less free because they have to keep working to “keep up with the Jones”, because they have to keep up with the false image they have portrayed to the world, to their own families. When we keep believing we can “be anything we want to be”, we can “go after our heart’s desires”, with no regard to what is true and right for our souls, with no thought about what “divine need” am I here to fulfill, we “forfeit his freedom” and become a money-making (maybe), miserable tool who smiles on the outside and cries on the inside. As Smokey Robinson says: “now if there is a smile on my face, it’s only there trying to fool the public”. This one of the lies we tell ourselves and that society has sold us: go after your dreams, whatever they are, and you will be free and happy-bullshit! Most of us don’t know what our dreams are really telling us, psychics tell us what they deduce we want to hear, and people seek different outlets, booze, gambling, sex, etc to hide from facing their “forfeit his freedom” situation.
One of the ways we hide from our lack of freedom is by “acquiring things”. We are a society that has become obsessed with acquiring the best and the newest, we work hard to afford the latest mobile phone, tablet, computer, car, home, etc. We are so caught up in our “things” or lack thereof, we have come to value our inner life, our self-worth by our net worth-a losing bet all the time! We are so enslaved to our “acquiring things” that we forget to notice that very often we don’t even like them nor need them, but we have to have them in order to ‘keep up appearances’. This is a sign of our enslavement as well as our forfeiting our freedom. We have lost the very freedoms our ancestors came to America for, the hope and dreams the Jews returning to the land of Canaan at the turn of the 20th Century had, because we have become obsessed with “having the most toys” so we can say “we win”. How sad and ridiculous we human beings are. Rather than enjoy the wisdom of our ancient and current texts and teachers of all faiths and spiritual traditions, we would rather buy into the lies of society and hold on to our self-deceptions of what “freedom” is-having stuff and caring only for our desires and inauthentic needs.
The last phrase above is so obvious that most of us are oblivious to it! In his introduction to his epic book: Path of the Just, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, states: “However, it is precisely those concepts which are most evident that tend to be overlooked and, ironically, it is common for people to be oblivious to those ideas whose truth is unchallenged.”(Lights along the Way, Twerski). “In subduing others he loses his own soul” is one of “those concepts which are most evident that tend to be overlooked”. We see this in families where parents dictate to their children how to be and use fear and bribery to get their kids to be just like them, or just the way they want them to be rather than raising them according to the call of the child’s soul, forgetting that we are created in the Image of the Divine, not the image our parents want us to be. We see this in business and in work environments where the ‘boss’ wants to make everyone subservient and dependent upon them like Henry Ford who treated his workers terribly and fought the unionization of Ford Motor Company with force. We see this with leaders like Trump, et al, and their supporters/followers/handlers; they have lost the light in their eyes, the basic compassion for another human being that is part of the human soul is lost on people who engage “in subduing others” and we still try to hide this fact from ourselves; it is time for We, the People, to take off our blindfolds, let go of the lies we tell ourselves and live into the truth of who we are, partners with the Creator in making our corner of the world a little better!
As one who forfeited his freedom, tried hard to subdue others, I can testify that it just doesn’t work for long-term for anyone who is not a sociopath. Helping people find their inner truth, pursue their calling, their purpose, helping people find meaning and joy in everyday activities is the best way to be. I grow in both freedom and spirit each day because I follow the calling of my soul rather than be deceived by the desires of my heart-certainly not perfectly and a majority of the time-I do still like some toys:) God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark