Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 56
“We are not taught to feel accused, to bear a sense of boundless guilt. We are asked to feel elated, bred to meet the tasks that never end. Every child is a prince; every man is obliged to feel that the world was created for his sake. Man is not the measure of all things, but the means by which to accomplish all tasks.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 13)
The truth of these words above escape many of us. We have, it seems, lost our ability to hear what is being asked of us, “to feel elated”, because of the accusations and guilt we are laden with from parents, from clergy, from society in general. We have been controlled and confined by the accusations and guilt, we have lost our ability to “feel elated, bred to meet tasks that never end”. Trump and his cronies are perfecting the Goebbels playbook of accusing someone else of that which you are guilty of. Some progressives have made accusing everyone and making them pay for the errors against humanity we all have committed no matter what the context. The ‘woke’ shit has gone too far and the ‘Jesus loves the rich’ bullshit has taken us over an edge. We have lost the wisdom of the words above and the means, strength, commitment to carry them out!
WE WOKE UP THIS MORNING!!! Hurrah, Hurrah, in the Jewish tradition, upon awakening, before getting out of bed, we say: “Thank you God for returning my soul to me with compassion, great is your faithfulness”, we are elated to be alive. There is no “oh shit, I woke up again” in the Jewish tradition-even though there are many Jews who feel this way:)! We then get out of bed with a mission, to be compassionate to ourselves and those we meet and to faithful to our covenant with God, faithful to the call of our soul, be faithful to the commitments we have made and will make. Compassion is not the same as compliance, complicity, allowing someone else to walk all over the principles and values of the Bible; it is to allow another person their imperfections, to allow for our imperfections without making our worst actions, our errors define nor confine us. Compassion is knowing how sad it is when someone is so stuck they cannot see the forest for the trees, when someone is angry that you walk around elated and joyful to be alive and you can smile at them rather than be put down by them or get angry at them. Compassion is what keeps us in conversation rather than taking up arms against another human being. We also have to have compassion for ourselves, we have to realize that being “bred to meet tasks that never end” is frustrating for a ‘goal-oriented person, society’. It is a herculean task to take on these tasks, like loving your neighbor, caring for the sick, the poor, the needy, welcoming the stranger, helping your enemy. Compassion is a trait that needs to be nourished, nurtured, it is not a trait that makes one weak, it is not a trait that cedes power to another-no matter what Trump, Bannon, Musk, Bibi say or do. It is time for We, the People to demand more compassion from the leaders we have elected-whether we voted for them or not. It is time for We, the People to stand up for this value in our country, in our cities, in our personal lives. COMPASSION NOT ACCUSATIONS!
Continuing the power of the “Prayer upon Arising”, God’s loyalty to us and to the Covenant is what we are acknowledging and grateful for in this prayer. We are also, by our acknowledging God’s loyalty making a commitment for us to stay loyal, faithful as well. This is a great challenge, as we see today. Being loyal to our souls, to our principles, to our shared values when we are gaining something is ‘easy’ for most people. Yet, the prayer we say has nothing to do with gain or loss- only faithfulness, only loyalty to justice, truth, kindness, love, to our covenant. The measure of our humanity comes to the forefront when we are called to be loyal and faithful to our principles, our values as defined in our covenant with God and one another through the Torah no matter what the gain/loss ratio is. The measure of our faithfulness and loyalty are shown to us and to the world when we are confronted with wrongdoing, evil, disloyalty, idolatry, someone attempting to take God’s ‘throne and crown’, by another person, group. What do we do? Do we stand up and shout “this is wrong, this is bullshit, this is blasphemy” from the rooftops, do we do whatever we can to overthrow the idolators, the deceivers, the liars and grifters? Do we hide away in the cellars, do we go along to get along. Loyalty and faithfulness are easy to speak about when there is nothing at stake and what most people miss is that “there is something at stake in every event”-our souls, our connection to one another and to the spirit/force of the universe.
Being “asked to feel elated” begins in the morning with this prayer, I believe. This prayer sets the scene for us for the rest of our day and lifetime-we will never be able to fulfill the endless tasks of compassion, faithfulness, as well as seeking truth, “love our neighbor as ourselves”, caring for the sick and needy, welcoming the poor and the stranger, seeing the humanity, the divine in everyone we meet-especially in our ‘enemies’. We are given the gift of being God’s representatives here, we are given the gift of breath, of spirit, of an intuitive mind in order to stay faithful to our principles and values each and every day. It is time for We, the People to use this gift wisely and as completely as we can-after all this is what we are “bred for”. We the People are being called in this moment to be loyal and faithful to the spiritual truths of our beingness, to the goodness of being at the core of every human being, to stand up for the “little guy”(we are the little guy), to stand against those who are breaking the covenants we made with God, with one another, with our ancestors from the Israelites wandering in the desert until they could get the slave mentality out of their spirits, to the prophets, to the Founding Fathers of the United States, to freeing of the slaves by Lincoln, to the safety nets of FDR, to the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, to Great Society/Voting Rights, Civil Rights legislation, to today when we are being faced, once again, with terrorism from the top of governments-Russia, Trump, Iran, etc. We the People have to deal with the never-ending task of ensuring that we constantly “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”. This task is crucial at all times and especially now! What will you tell your children and grandchildren about what you did as America was being raped-stand by or stand up?
I can’t stand idly by, I am raising the alarm in my individual talks and in my writing-I don’t have the bully pulpit nor megaphone of some of my colleagues and I REFUSE to stay silent. We have to stop the Musk, Trump, Bannon, MAGA machine NOW! There is no time to waste nor to lose. I beg of you to take part, make calls, go to demonstrations, vote in the special elections to switch the House majority. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark