Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 4 Day 43

“The prophets tried to overcome the isolationism of religion. It is the prophets who teach us that the problem of living does not arise with the question of how to take care of the rascals, of how to prevent delinquency or hideous crimes.The problem of living begins with the realization of how we all blunder in dealing with our fellow men.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 11-12)

Seeing the world through the eyes of the prophets, as Rabbi Heschel did, is a very disruptive way of being or as Rabbi Heschel says: “They give me a bad conscience”. The first sentence above describes the issue with ‘religion’ as practiced by many clergy and congregations throughout history: “isolationism of religion”. Religion cannot be relegated to Houses of Worship, to our own homes, it has to be lived in all of our affairs. In Judaism there are over 100 laws about “kosher money”, how to do business ethically and morally! Imagine what Trump would think of having to do business in a “kosher” way, imagine what Jared Kushner (as he gets ready to build luxury apartments in Gaza) would have to do differently if he, the “gantze Jew” would actually follow the tenets of our faith! However, as long as religion is isolated from our living, people can wrap themselves in the Torah and, as Nachmanidies, a 13th Century Rabbi in Spain, writes in his commentary; “one can be a scoundrel within the bounds of the Torah”! This is the great challenge the prophets brought to us, this is the mirror they hold up to us, even today, which is why so few people want to embrace their inheritance of being descendants of the prophets, for Jews to live as the prophets call for us to live, for all of us, to “return to God and allow God “to heal our backsliding and take us back in love”(Hosea 14:5).

The issue, as the wisdom above reminds us, is not about how to take care of the scoundrels, not how to prevent “delinquency or hideous crimes”. This issue “begins with the realization of how we all blunder in dealing with our fellow men”. Wow, Rabbi Heschel is demanding we not get sidetracked from our primary purpose-realizing “how we all blunder” in our day to day dealings with another human being. We have been so willfully blind to this truth, we have all the defenses and denials in our back pocket so we can pull them out every time someone speaks to us about our blunders. We are so engaged in our ‘perfection myth’, we are so engaged in our “religious isolation”, we cannot see the truth of our behaviors nor can we understand the imperfections of another. We are, once again, witnessing a time in our religious traditions where religion is standing with the power and the corrupt to bastardize the words of Christ, the words of the Bible and the Koran in order to gain favor with the liars who have gained power through their subterfuge aided and abetted by some (maybe a lot) of Clergy who violate the separation of Church and State by advocating for ‘their guy’ to win within their congregation. This is true of all faiths, unfortunately there are more ‘bad apples’ in the clergy than we want to admit, more clergy who lead their congregants into hatred, racism, antisemitism, finding an enemy, denigrating those they disagree with, etc. These clergy, like the priests of old, are isolating “religion” by telling people “God loves those who are rich” , “You have to hate these ‘sinners’ who follow Christ’s words and are kind to ‘those people’-the poor, the stranger, etc. from some evangelical preachers;  “You are self-loathing Jews for not wanting all of Gaza and the West Bank to be parts of Israel for Jews only-what do you mean Palestinians are human beings” from the right-wing ultra-orthodox Jews; you get the idea.

We, the People are being called upon in this moment, just as the prophets were called upon in their moment, to stand up to the status quo, to rebel against the meanness, cruelty, mendacity that has taken hold in America, Israel, and across the Globe. We, the People have to clean out our ears, put on a new pair of glasses, and do angioplasty in our spiritual arteries so we can hear, see, and know what the next right action is. We have to take these actions so we can once again engage in our inheritance, spending the interest the prophets earned and growing the principal for our children and grandchildren. We, the People have to say NO to the idolators running our religious institutions who are afraid to speak truth to power, who are hiding behind their need to earn a living, who are conflict avoidant, who parrot the societal conventional notions of the moment. We, the People have to demand that our religious principles, aka the foundations of our morality, are to be lived in the marketplace, in the bedroom, in the houses of worship and in the street. Cheating someone who is not of our tribe is not holy, specifically prohibited in the Bible. Taking unfair advantage, “caveat emptor” is the opposite of what religious living calls for: the seller has to disclose the flaws of what he/she is selling-full disclosure! Declaring by word or deed, ie accusing people of crimes and/or arresting them for the smallest reason, because they are homeless, poor, needy,  strangers, etc goes against the demand “to care for the stranger because you were strangers in the Land of Egypt” which is said 36 times in the Torah! We, the People are being beckoned to open our eyes and see our own “blunders”, we are being called to return to the truth about ourselves, we are imperfect and make errors, repair them and grow from them. Only by seeing our own “blunders”, only be embracing our own imperfections and step by step growth can we really see another human being. Only by realizing our own “failing forward” can we help another person do the same, only by having compassion for ourselves can we have true compassion for another. Only by realizing we are all in this together can we end the “isolationism of religion” and learn to “all get along”. This is the challenge Rabbi Heschel, Torah, the world is putting before us today-will you respond?

I have been railing about the “isolationism of religion” for a long time. We refuse a donation from someone who was a notorious for his pushing the limits both legally and, more importantly ethically and spiritually. I have wrestled with the “realization of how I blunder in dealing with my fellow” human beings and each time I have these realizations, I am sad, I am moved to repair, I am moved to change. While this way of being is not always reciprocated, that is not my business. I have experienced people who use my T’Shuvah against me, I have experienced people who have embraced me tighter because of my T’Shuvah to them. I am imperfect, I am prone to errors, I am growing each day, even at my age:). I am blessed with people around me who ‘get’ me, who believe in me and who love me. They help me open my eyes, stay in truth, have compassion and live the principles in all my affairs. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark