Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 82
“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)
Delving into this idea of our “that strength breaks down” is a critical idea in this moment. We are watching the take-over of our way of life by ‘strongmen’ and anyone who is not onboard with them gets threatened into submission or surrender. Paul Weiss Law Firm did not just surrender their dignity, they surrendered their commitment to the “rule of law”, they bent down, took it the ass and said ‘yes massa’ to Trump last week and keep validating their choice because of threats. They made a choice to not “make a significant choice”. Were they “unable” or unwilling is a question only they can answer and one that, ultimately, they will have to. The greatest lie the ‘strongman’ tells is that one has no “choice”, the consequences of not going along are too great, so ‘choose’ what they want you to choose. It is exactly this situation that the “refusal to delegate the power” is so crucial. It is exactly for times like today, here, in Israel, across the globe, that we have to have an “awareness of one’s mysterious dignity” and an "awareness of one’s ultimate responsibility.”
We are never “unable to make a significant choice”-full stop. This is a lie we tell ourselves and a lie told to us from childhood on, it is a societal norm that we can never be adjusted to if we want to live in freedom and wholeness. To be a person of faith means to believe and follow the dictate to Choose Life found in Deuteronomy. Yet, We the People buy into the lies and bullshit of another(s) and cede our power “to make a significant choice” to parents, friends, bosses, elected officials, autocrats. This is the foolishness of humanity, this is another example of Hillul HaShem, desecration of God’s Name. Each and every time we surrender our ability “to make a significant choice”, we are denying our responsibility and giving up our dignity and value. What makes us human, what makes us ‘above’ the animals and angels is our ability to make free-will moral choices, according to Rabbi Abraham Twerski, and every time we ignore this ability, every time we refuse “to make a significant choice”, we are denying the very foundation of our humanity so treating ‘those people’ like dirt, as slaves, looking down our noses at them makes perfect sense when we deny our core values and the responsibilities of making “a significant choice”.
I keep thinking about Rabbi Heschel’s experience in 1958 that drove him to write: “progressive vulgarization of society may deprive man of his ability to appreciate the sublime burden of freedom.” Immersing myself in these words, looking at today’s world and the “progressive vulgarization” that is happening daily, this sentence is so prescient We the People are the purveyors of this “vulgarization”, we are also the buyers of it, the victims of it and we seem to be unable to say NO to it! Looking at how both political parties have exploited the truth, ‘spun’ the facts, lied to We, the People, and, today, installed an authoritarian as President and Project 2025 as the blueprint to end democracy as we know it in America and across the globe, is it any wonder we have no “ability to appreciate the sublime burden of freedom”? Is it any wonder that We, the People, in 2016 and 2024, have sold our freedom, our democracy for a promise of gold, not even the actual “pot of lentils”?
And this is our current situation, one in which Jesus and the prophets, Moses and the disciples would be shaking their heads, their fists and their words of rebuke would be flowing. Yet, from some of our religious leaders we get the bullshit that Trump is the Messiah and somehow, religion and faith have become synonymous with autocracy, dictatorship, etc. We the People have to take back our democracy, renew our commitment to freedom and stand up for what is true, holy, sacred-each and every human being! We the People are being called upon to restore our sense of “the sublime burden of freedom” so we can guard it, protect it and grow it. Freedom is a burden because many people want it for themselves and not for another person, group, etc. it is burden to “choose life” each and every day, hour, because this takes vigilance and we cannot ‘go to sleep at the wheel’ or we wind up in the twin situations of Trump, et al and Bibi and his thugs-the ultra-orthodox idolators.
We the People are being presented with an opportunity to “stand up and be counted”. In 20 days we will sit with family, friends and celebrate our “liberation from Egypt” and most of us will be unaware of how enslaved we are. This year let us take these 20 days and reflect on what we need to let go of in order to be “ready to leave Egypt” on a moment’s notice. What do we need to pack for our journey to freedom? We need to regain our sense of “mysterious dignity” and pack it, we have to accept our “ultimate responsibility” and pack this in our backpacks, we have to let go of our need to be right and need to make ourselves good by putting another down, we need to let go of and take out of our suitcases and backpacks our bastardizations of the values and principles our Bible holds dear, we have to find and pack our authentic self, the self we were created to be and hold out for all to see and use the divine need only each one of us can fill. We the People can and must honor our self and another by seeing one another as human beings, not allies and enemies. In this way, we will no longer sell our souls for a “pot of lentils” nor for any price at all.
Having sold my soul for awhile, these words touch me to my core. My recovery is all about not doing this, or at least minimizing selling my soul. It is what makes me bombastic and unwilling to compromise when I know that going along will have me participate in the “progressive vulgarization”. I am so sad at what is happening to our country, I am overwhelmed with anger at how the Bible is being used as a weapon rather than a sacred text to help us “love our neighbor as ourself”. I am incensed at the surrendering of people to what they know is wrong based on an ‘economic equation’ rather than standing up based on a free-will moral choice. This is my challenge, I have missed the mark before and will again, yet this is the challenge that I take on daily and I pray you will also. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark