Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 81
“Refusal to delegate the power to make ultimate decisions to any human institution, derives its strength either from the awareness of one’s mysterious dignity or from the awareness of one’s ultimate responsibility. But that strength breaks down in the discovery that one is unable to make a significant choice. Progressive vulgarization of society may deprive man of his ability to appreciate the sublime burden of freedom. Like Esau he may be ready to sell his birthright for a pot of lentils.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.16)
The first sentence above, albeit a long one, is a warning as well as a descriptor, as I hear Rabbi Heschel this morning. I also digress here to explain what I mean when I say “I hear…”, I mean that I actually hear the words in my head, I hear the nuances of them, I hear the call of them and I hear the demand of them, from Rabbi Heschel, when I read/study the Bible, when I am in conversation with another human being-I listen with my soul whenever possible and when I am not able to, I take a break and go inside to see what is going on within me that is stopping me from this type of soul to soul connection. A soul to soul connection is not just with the living, in my world, it is with the texts we study, the books we read, the people who have gone to the ‘next world’, etc.
In the sentence that is highlighted above, the “refusal to delegate power to make ultimate decisions…” is a demand, call, that we always refuse to do this! It is a recognition of how far off the original purpose of “any human institution” can go and even the people running the “godly” institutions like the Church, the Temple/Synagogue, the Mosque etc can find themselves off the path, bastardizing the word of God for their own egos, for their own power and for the good of ‘der fuhrer’! We have witnessed this phenomenon throughout the ages and it seems to be on steroids right now.
Along with the refusal, Rabbi Heschel is also calling to us to strengthen our “awareness of” our “mysterious dignity” and to truly realize our “ultimate responsibility. “Ultimate” comes from the Latin meaning “come to an end” and one of the words in Hebrew is “Yesod” which means foundation and mystery. While the “ultimate” is a mystery to us, we don’t know how things will “end”, we are not aware of the time of our own death, life itself is a mystery for and to many of us. The teaching above is to remind us that living into the mystery is what our responsibility is, following the call of the Bible to CHOOSE LIFE, to “be a blessing”, to “love thy neighbor”, to see the infinite dignity in every person, “to proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”, etc is not just a “command”, it is the very essence of our dignity, it is the foundation of what it means to be human!
These words call upon us to be in consistent awareness of the wonder, the radical amazement that being alive brings to us. They are guides for seeing what truly is, what is important and how to live one grain of sand better each day. “Awareness of one’s mysterious dignity” and “awareness of one’s ultimate responsibility” do not happen overnight, these ways of being have to be cultivated, they have to be nurtured and they are in defiance of the ‘societal norms’ of our time. They also demand we see the “mysterious dignity” of every human being, we recognize and follow through on our “ultimate responsibility” to care for everyone!
Instead of looking within himself and his cronies, Howard Lutnick, on Friday, showed his cards when he called people who would be upset if their Social Security Check did not arrive on schedule, “fraudsters”because only “fraudsters” yell and scream about not getting what they want, like Trump, Musk, Lutnick, Vought, Johnson, Graham, etc! He is a pig, a billionaire who forgot where he came from, a College Professor and an artist; he is a member of a Synagogue, donates to Jewish causes and has not a farthing of an idea of what the Bible teaches nor does he care, as long as his name is on a building. He is the one screaming, Musk is the one screaming, Trump always screams that he is mistreated, poor little rich boy that he is. This type of behavior, which is very prevalent among certain people in the Billionaire class and the unwitting followers who are being affected by their ‘policies’, is all about cruelty, it is all about getting more and more because there is never enough power, money, control when one is addicted to it to the extent Lutnick et al are.
We the People have to stand up! We the People are being called from within and from Mt. Sinai to “hear, listen and understand” that only God is God, not Donald Trump, not Elon Musk, not Howard Lutnick, not one’s parents nor oneself! This is the first commandment, yet we continue to violate the first 3 each time we call ‘der fuhrer’ ‘the messiah’, ‘christ’s messenger’, we continue to violate the first 3 commandments each time we cannot admit our own foibles, each time we seek ‘retribution’. Each time we steal with impunity, we take away freedoms, we violate the constitution, we wipe our asses with the Declaration of Independence, we violate the last 6! Yet, the charlatans, the idolators, the ‘holy rollers’ like Mike Johnson believe because they go to church, synagogue, the mosque on the Sabbath, they are following all of the commandments and the “bible is my guide, my road map for living”-cough cough-makes one want to throw up! AND, We the People must continue to protest, we must continue to speak truth to power, we must call on the prophetic spirit that is within us and continue to nurture our “mysterious dignity” and “awareness of one’s ultimate responsibility” so we can create the world as it should be, as it was designed to be: where Freedom Rings, when each person has their place lives their unique talents and gifts, where everyone knows they belong and we all find ways to compliment one another instead of compete with one another, one where the rich care for the poor, the well care for the needy and all of us nurture our inner life and live soul to soul relationships.
This is my quest and has been since 1987. I never hit the mark and stay there, the larger is always moving because I can never settle, nor can I sit back and say I’m there. It is a journey, frustrating and exhilarating, painful and joyous. I know it will end some day and until then, I fight against the Lutnicks of the world and I keep preaching the Gospel of the Prophets, the Bible, and pray someone hears. If not, I hear and this makes me keep growing and in awe of the “mysterious dignity” of all people and the world itself and it prevents me from thinking someone else should do what I am responsible for. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark