Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 55
“The most commanding idea that Judaism dares to thinks is that freedom, not necessity, is the source of all being. The universe was not caused, it was created…The inevitable is not eternal. All compulsions are a matter of choice. A tinge of that exemption from necessities is hiding in the folds of the human spirit.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 13)
These words and ideas can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, which is one of the facets of Rabbi Herschel that I love so much. While these words reflect Rabbi Heschel’s deep faith in God and the Bible, they don’t exclude the agnostics, people of any other faith.
What a radical idea to ponder on and live into: “freedom, not necessity, is the source of all being”! Rabbi Heschel is positing that all of the mitzvot, all of the imperfections of human beings, all of the stories in the Bible point us to finding the greatest gift God could have given to human beings; Free-Will. He is telling us, as I hear him today, that we Free-Will is the source of our being, Free-Will gives us choices, it forces us to be non-robotic, to engage in thinking, feeling, emoting, loving, hating, isolating, being part of a community, etc. All of life is about choice, not just compulsions, and Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that without choice, without Free-Will, we would be no different than the animals-run by our needs, by our instincts, and as we have seen throughout history, this usually leads humans to run amok. Rabbi Abraham Twerski, z”l, had a talk on “Animals and Angels”, if you can find it, please listen to it-it is wonderful. In this talk he said that what sets human beings apart from animals is our ability to “make free-will moral choices”. Neither animals nor angels have this capacity, he went on to say and spoke about what the cause of our addictions are; lack of spirituality. He went on to say just as someone who has scurvy needs vitamin C, because nothing else will cure scurvy, so too someone who is deep in their compulsions needs spirituality to cure them.
Bending the knee at the foot of the ‘leader’, going along to get along, staying silent for fear of retribution, being primaried, not being part of the “in crowd”, all are choices. Addiction, meanness, cruelty, needing to be right/smartest person in the room, are choices. Love, sobriety, faith, listening to the call of our spirits, our souls are also choices. This is the dilemma that we human beings face: which choices are we going to make? Do we continue to make the choices that we feel are “necessities”, do we take a closer look at these “necessities” to see if they are real or just filling a false ego need? Do we choose to be part of a community of people seeking to do the next right thing or a community of people seeking to ‘get ahead’ at any and all costs to another and to their souls? Do we choose a life of recovery or a life mired in the myriad of addictive behaviors and substances readily available to us? Do we choose to be part of a cult or to be part of faith community dedicated to freedom for all?
The words above stir up these questions within me. Harriet Rossetto, my wife and founder of Beit T’Shuvah, says the Torah, the Bible is the “Big Book of Jewish Recovery from the Brokenness of the human being”. This is not too far from the idea that “the most commanding ideal that Judaism dares to think is that freedom, not necessity, is the source of all being.” Delving into the Bible, all of the mitzvot come to us as repairs for the errors of our heroes, not because they got it all right! The imperfections of everyone in the Bible teach us about Free-Will and the frightening things that happen when we use it unwisely, when we use it for our own selfish needs, desires. They also teach us what happens when we use our Free-Will wisely, in line with the divine, using it to promote the welfare of everyone, adding to our corner of the world, helping the person next to us, the person across the globe from us. Esau is an example of using Free-Will wisely; he is denied his blessing by trickery, his mother plots against him, and he stays home, takes care of his father and mother while the ‘good son’, Jacob, is in Haran, learning how to be a better conman from his Uncle Laban. While the Rabbis make Esau a bad guy, the truth is he comes to welcome his brother home with honor and love and is rejected because of Jacob’s guilt. Moses is another example of Free-Will when he doesn’t turn away from the burning bush-we have no idea how many other people saw the bush burning and turned away from it. While reluctant to do God’s bidding, he eventually chooses to and the rest is history.
We all have Free-Will and what we do with it depends on how well we have matured our spiritual nature. We all have “a tinge of that exemption from necessities hiding in the folds of the human spirit” and the challenge Rabbi Heschel, the challenge the Bible, the challenge that Judaism and all faith traditions present to us: will we seek this “exemption”? Will we engage in the “necessity” of spiritual growth that we have shunned up until now or continue to grow if we have been engaged in it? Will we use the wisdom stories of our faith traditions to grow our knowledge of what is the next right thing to do to help us rise above the compulsions that we miss-believe we have no choice to overcome? Will We, the People stand up for what is right and kind? Will We, the People leave the lies and self-deceptions that have fueled our acquiescence to grifters, ‘kings’, cult leaders, etc? Will We, the People find the spiritual counselors, the spiritual teachers that speak to our souls and grow into being free? Will We, the People immerse ourselves in the Bible and learn from the imperfect heroes what to do and not to do when we are faced with the same/similar situations? Will We, the People live in concert with the Covenant God makes with each of us and all of us?
These questions are not being asked rhetorically. I ask myself these questions daily. I am subject to compulsions, to erroneous choices, to feeling trapped, and the only way out of these boxes for me is spirit. This is the reason I have had a spiritual guide since Prison in 1987, it is why I continue to be an advocate for the soul of people to this day, it is why I continue to study with people and to learn more about them and myself no matter what side of the table I am on. I know the lure of addictions, I know the feeling as if it is not a choice to use or not use-yet it is a choice because there are so many people who have chosen to put down the drink, the drug, etc. The choice to put down our need for power, for greed, for cruelty is also difficult and not impossible. The power I wielded was in service of a higher principle, even when I didn’t get there, even when I allowed my necessities to get in the way-the intention was always serving something greater than myself. I use my Free-Will to the best of my ability each day and, all in all, I can report that over 50% of the time it is for the good. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.