Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 54

“When the Voice of God spoke at Sinai, it did not begin by saying, “I am the Lord your God Who created heaven and earth.” It began by saying, “I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Judaism is not only deliverance from external slavery, but also freedom from false fears and false glories, from fashion, from intellectual will-o’-the-wisps.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 13)

Of course we have all heard the first commandment over and over again and, Rabbi Heschel is pointing out an important aspect of God. God is introducing Godself as a Redeemer, an entity that cares about the human being, that, as said earlier has “a stake in the life of every person”. I am hearing God’s humility in this first commandment unlike I have heard it before. Rather than puffing our God’s ‘chest’, God is telling us we are so important, there is so much love in God for human beings-collectively and individually, God cares about our redemption, God is invested in our being free from all the things that bind us, that imprison us-external and internal. This theme is carried on throughout the Torah and the Bible climaxing with the prophets and the ‘angry God’ bullshit is proven false because God is our redeemer, God wants to heal our backsliding, God takes us back in love, etc as the prophets tell us-it is human beings who are recalcitrant, who have fallen in love with the myriad of slaveries that other human beings convince them are really freedoms that is the problem-not God. Rabbi Heschel is pointing out to us what we already know and stay oblivious to: God wants to redeem us, God cries when we are in exile, God needs us and we need God, redemption and freedom.

We are engaged in a time when “false fears and false glories” are rampant and considered to be true. We are in a moment when “external slavery” is being called ‘safety’, ridding our country of “vermin”, getting rid of those who are “poisoning the blood of our people”. We are in a moment where science is no longer important-even though God gave our scientists the spirit, knowing, passion to physically heal people and prevent illness’. We are in a moment where privacy is not important nor are the agreements that have made America a leader of democracy. We are hearing about the “false glories” of Trump, Musk, et al while they are nothing if they don’t have the Federal Government funding their projects, if they are not cheating the ‘little guy’, etc. Tesla and Space X could not have survived without Government Funding and he is tearing down the same Government that made him because he thinks he is the smartest guy in the room. Trump knows nothing about loyalty-except he demands it of people to him. Yet, being loyal to the Constitution, which he swore to uphold means nothing, loyalty to the people who have worked for him is stupid in his warped mind, upholding the covenant we made with one another in this country at the time of the Civil War, World War II, the Civil Rights movement means nothing to this liar.

The Republican party’s going along with the false fears that Trump/Musk/Vance/Vought are spreading is atrocious. It is cowardly and it is enslaving. They have become willing slaves to the ‘great leader’ who is “making America great again” only in the eyes of his true believers. These charlatans and their co-conspirators in the Religious Communities are making a mockery out of the first Commandment! They do not care about God as Redeemer, they do not care about God’s Will, they do not care about having an intimate relationship with God because Trump/Musk think they are GOD!! They are spreading lies and Clergy, Religious zealots are repeating them, giving them credence and exhorting anyone who says differently. Why should any of us care about people seeking refuge from terror, rape, slavery in their country of origin, after all, our ancestors were not seeking refuge when they came here on the Mayflower, when they landed in Jamestown, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue with a lot of Jews leaving Spain. We have a short memory span, like when the St. Louis came here in May of 1939 and was refused entry and we told Cuba not to take them as well so they could die in the Camps of Nazi Germany! This is what the “Self-Righteous” Christian Nationalists, Jews, et al support and the agenda they push and, they say it is in God’s name? What bullshit when the first commandment is about Redemption, about leaving slavery.

The issue, of course, is our inability to leave the inner slavery of “false fears and false glories”. We have become such weaklings that we have to build ourselves up with the lies and deceptions that we are “strong”, that we are “in control”, that “we are the greatest”, that “those people” are the problem, etc. We have needed someone to blame since the Garden of Eden and isn’t it sad that We, the People refuse to learn the lessons of blaming and shaming? When we refuse to be in truth, when we refuse to be responsible for our actions, good and not good, we resort to blaming someone else, we resort to feeding our inner shame demon who is always hungry. It is time for us to relate to the Ineffable One, to the Force of the Universe, to Higher Consciousness as a Redeeming energy that helps lift us up out of the external and internal slaveries we find ourselves in, be it our choice to willingly walk into the imprisonment like the Israelites in Ancient Egypt or have it imposed upon us like Putin, Orban, et al have done in their countries and DUMPTRUMP/MUSK are attempting to do here. We, the People are being called in this moment to hold our religious institutions accountable-call out our Rabbis, Priests, Ministers, Imams for their acquiescence to power instead of upholding the Prophetic Tradition of speaking Truth to Power-Abraham and Moses both spoke Truth to God and we are afraid to do the same with mere mortals? WTF!!!

I am calling out the Clergy who are silent and/or going along with the powers that be. It is disgraceful, it is a violation of the vows we take when we are ordained to go along with such rampant enslavements, such denigrations of human beings, such unwelcoming, uncaring, deceitful, whoring, coveting, stealing, and bearing false witness. Yet, I see it happening, I am powerless over what others do, I know this and I am not powerless to call it out. I am standing on my soapbox, I am calling out to We, the People: STOP BELIEVING THE LIES. Turn back to being human, to being a partner with God in redeeming our corner of the world. Return to living the Covenant made at Sinai and preserved till now. Return to wrestling with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Amendments keeping the Rule of Law sacrosanct for all. Return to a way of being that honors your soul and the souls of everyone else, to a way of being that “proclaims freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”. This is my call, this is my prayer. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark