Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 41
“Their intense sensitivity to right and wrong is due to their intense sensitivity to God’s concern for right and wrong. They feel fiercely because they hear deeply.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 11)
Continuing to speak about the prophets, I hear Rabbi Heschel once again reminding us of our need to study the prophets, to claim our inheritance from the prophets and act in the same manner as the prophets. I am not saying everyone should go around in white robes claiming to KNOW the word of God as we see on some street corners, rather I am hearing Rabbi Heschel call out to us to take the actions the prophets were begging the people of Israel, the people of Judah to take to save themselves. I hear the call to learn from their mistakes and heed the words, take the actions, save our own souls and the souls of the people around us.
The words above are so crucial for us in this moment as they have been in every era. The “intense sensitivity to right and wrong” is always needed, for us to live in a free society, to be able to “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein” we have to commemorate Juneteenth so we remember how long we dilly-dallied until all slaves were freed! We have to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day so we remember what happens to a free society when an autocrat takes over with designs on killing the Free Press, destroying the Rule of Law, rewriting the Constitution of the country she/he is overtaking, causing so much chaos that the important things go unnoticed. We have to observe Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur so we remember our own fallibility and end our ridiculous need to “always be right”, “achieve perfection” and deny any wrongdoing, defend all of our actions and act ‘holier than thou’. We celebrate the Sabbath each week, in each of the 3 western religions, to remember to take a breath, to connect with family, friends, to pray aka look inside of ourselves, to reinvigorate our souls with music, food, and introspection as well as connecting to something greater than ourselves which I call God, Higher Consciousness. Throughout the Bibles, Hebrew and Christian, throughout the Koran, as in every other foundational spiritual text, “God’s concern for right and wrong” shouts from every chapter, every page. There is no worship of God, there is no Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc without “intense sensitivity to right and wrong”. While the faiths/disciplines may differ in how to determine “right and wrong”, saving a life is paramount in all of them, as I understand them.
I hear Rabbi Heschel’s call to We, the People asking us what spiritual ailment allows us to be insensitive to “right and wrong”. What is the spiritual sickness we are suffering that is causing us to turn our moral compass’ upside down where what is wrong and mean, cruel becomes good and right and kind according to ‘the masses, the MAGA’s’ and the rest of us just go along?? What is the spiritual “hole in our souls” that gives us permission to take what is good and right in the ‘eyes’ of God, to take what the prophets have told us to do and make those things evil and bad, wrong and destructive according to the “oligarchs in charge”? We, the People, inheritors of the “intense sensitivity to right and wrong” that the prophets have are being called upon to engage this “sensitivity” instead of ignoring it because we are afraid of being sued, being arrested, being charged with the crime of standing up for “God’s concern for right and wrong”! We, the People are being called upon right now by the idolators and charlatans who praise EVIL as good, who praise AUTOCRACY as freedom, who defile God’s Name and Ways just as the Priests, Royalty and Wealthy did ‘back in the day’. The prophets are NOT DEAD, they live on through their words and through our deeds and the it is high time We, the People stand with them and claim our rightful place in the world God has entrusted to us.
We, the People need to take the cotton out of our ears and, once again, “hear deeply” the cries of the stranger and the needy, the poor and the widow, the people who have served us, our nation, with pride, with their whole hearts and with honor. We, the People are being called by the echos of the Prophets, by the words of our Holy Books, to “hear deeply” the call of our inner life, the call of our souls to STAND THE FUCK UP and preserve and protect the dignity of all people, recognize the infinite worth of every soul, the equality of everyone in God’s “eyes”, and revel in the uniqueness of everyone else because we are not in need of sameness, that is not the design of the world-our uniqueness brings about creativity, problem-solving and a cacophony of sounds, deeds and wonders which elevates the awe we can experience each day. We, the People can do all this only when we “hear deeply” the call of higher consciousness and commit to following this call because not doing so costs us our souls, our dignity, our worth, our uniqueness!
We, the People are being called out by the quote above to feel the pain of those who are being bullied by Trump, Musk, et al. We, the People are being asked to “feel fiercely” the attack on our freedoms, guaranteed by the Constitution which the Republican majorities, Trump, Vance, the Cabinet Secretaries all swore on a BIBLE to “protect and defend”! We, the People are being haunted by our ancestors the prophets to “feel fiercely” the pain, the destruction, the utter chaos they experienced with the destruction of the Temple, the fall of Jerusalem, the exile into Babylonia and then the Roman’s devastation of Judea once again and the wandering of the Jews ever since. When We, the People “feel fiercely” “God’s concern for right and wrong” and we will stand up to the liars in the Churches, Temples, Mosques and stand for truth and freedom, may that day come soon!
As one who “feels fiercely” and has “intense sensitivity to right and wrong” I understand the quote above in my kishkas, in my guts. I do not always do what is right, I am, however, sensitive to it. My errors, my lapses cause me great spiritual pain and I do my T’Shuvah as soon as I realize the “error of my ways” which is sometimes slower than others realize them. I am scared for our future as more and more people leave religious traditions because they are tired of the lies and bullshit. I am sad that institutions are still enabling wrong-doing for ‘the right reasons’. I believe we need a revolution of spirit, a rebellion led by faith and I am trying to be a good soldier with these blogs. Please join the army of “intense sensitivity to right and wrong” today. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark