Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 40
“Tranquility is unknown to the soul of a prophet. The miseries of the world give him no rest. While others are callous, and even callous to their callousness and unaware of their insensitivity, the prophets remain examples of super impatience with evil, distracted by neither might nor applause, by neither success nor beauty.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 11)
Continuing to delve into the sentences above, Rabbi Heschel’s assertions of both “callous and even callous to their callousness” as well as being “unaware of their insensitivity” describes the way human beings act now as well as in the ‘time’ of the prophets. While we try to contextualize and put things in ‘order’, one of the errors of philosophers, Rabbis, historians, etc is, I believe, to relegate the prophets to a ‘time’. The time of the prophets is NOW, both in our time and in every generation, as we said before, it is for us, the descendants of the prophets, of the Buddha, (Christianity and Islam both believe in the prophets), to live their words and deeds, to follow the paths laid out by them and to reconnect with the source of life, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the creative energy that fuels the physical world and our spiritual lives.
What is it that allows us to begin to be “callous”, to be “unaware of our sensitivity”? I believe the source is our upbringing, it is a lack of learning about the prophets, it is an education system that teaches dogma and loyalty to the particular dogma, tribal loyalty, and as the Bible says: “the inclination of the heart(mind) of human is evil from its youth”(Gen. 8:21). We learn how to be “callous, and even callous to our callousness” as we see from the examples of Musk, Trump, Miller, et al. We learn how to ignore and be “unaware of their insensitivity” from the examples of the autocrats, the life of Korach, the ways of the 10 spies and their causing calamity amongst the people Israel, the way of the Roman Emperors, ad nauseam. We also are watching a new generation learn/re-learn how to be oblivious and “unaware” from the MAGA crowd who applaud the dictator, who relish the ‘beat the libs’ bullshit being spread. I watch in horror as Jews rejoice at every mean, indecent, and ugly action being taken. Is our memory so short or so damaged that we fail to realize that NO ONE fares well in an autocracy, in a dictatorship, except the ‘chosen few’?? It has never been “good for the Jews” to live under one, even when it was a Jewish one! We know this because we have the record of the prophets, we have the stories of King Saul and King David and their self-destructive ways once they decided they were King and answered to no One. David’s fall from grace happened when he stopped consulting God and listened to his own mind and desires. We all know how that turned out for Uriah-death!
We, the People have the opportunity to change, to return to an awareness of the awe that the world is filled with. A return to a way of being that puts decency, kindness, truth, justice, mercy, etc at the forefront of our living. We, the People are being reminded that we have examples to follow that help us live into our humanity more and more each day. We have an inheritance that tells us that the slightest evil is more than enough to get us into action to combat it, to stop it, to change what we are doing.
Herein lies the problem, though, people are afraid to do the “next right thing” because it might put them in harm’s way. A few days ago there was an OP-ED in the NY Times by Jessica Grose titled: “Loss of trust in the Church” which describes what we already know-Religious Institutions don’t solve problematic clergy, they just move them around. We have become a risk adverse and a litigious society which results in even Religious Institutions CYAing, rather than stand for truth, justice, mercy. We are witnessing exactly what the prophets witnessed, because human nature is so stubborn that “give it an inch and it takes a mile”. Trump, Musk, Putin, Bibi, et al are not anomalies- they are products of historical abusers, they are what happens when we are squander the inheritance of the prophets, when we are disloyal to the spiritual principles we are created with, when we grow the evil that we learn in our youth and become “callous, even callous to our callousness” which describes our current state of affairs brilliantly!
We, the People are being called to RISE UP, to no longer tolerate even the slightest evil, to no longer say “this is the way of the world”, and other such poppycock! While many see people like Rabbi Heschel, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, Rev Martin Luther King as ‘rabble-rousers’ they were exorcising us to live into our prophetic heritage. They and many before and since led/lead us to “The Promised Land” (not into it) by taking the actions and living the principles the Bible, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha have set out for us. We, the People have to re-orient ourselves to fighting evil rather than succumbing to it, standing up to the bullies rather than giving in to them, demanding more from our elected officials rather than letting the special interest groups turn our democracy into an autocracy-be it an autocracy for right-wingers or left-wingers. We have seen the hatred and the strict dogma of the far left as well as the far right and both deny the words and deeds of the prophets. Both ends of the spectrums, religiously and politically, perpetrate evil upon the people they disagree with-“political correctness” hurt many people and denied a wrestling for compromises and common sense, especially on the left. “Party loyalty” has led to the destruction of the Republican Party as we have known it since the time of Lincoln and certainly the Party of Reagan is NO MORE because of ‘populism’ which is authoritarianism by another name. We, the People have to resist these horrors and not “be distracted by might or applause, not be concerned about “success or beauty”. We, the People have to stop caring about “How things look”/Optics and stand for Truth, stand with the prophets and be “super” impatient with evil!
I have been this way all my life and when I succumbed to the joining the “winning side” as I saw the evil around me-I went against everything my father, grandfathers, taught me and the ways they lived. My life in recovery has been to stand up and speak the truth, be the kid who says “the emperor has no clothes” and, regardless of being heard and heeded or scorned and thrown out, I have continued to live this way. I know the rage and “super impatience with evil” of the prophets because I have the same experience daily. I am concerned for our country and I am concerned for communities who’s Rabbi, Priest, etc are endangering the faithful with their addictions, with their lies and with the spiritual rape they are committing or are bound to commit. I speak out and without ‘proof’ the status quo holds and with ‘proof’, it is called “fake news”. I am enraged and I pray more of us are and we stand the fuck up for what is right, for the way of the prophets, right now! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark