Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 86
“To be free one must attain a degree of independence. Yet the complexities of society have enmeshed contemporary man in a web of relationships which make his independence most precarious. Inherent in man is the desire to be in agreement with others. Yet today with a mass of miscellaneous associations and unprecedented excitements, it is a grim task, indeed, to agree with all and to retain the balance of integrity.”(Insecurity of Freedom pg. 17)
Hearing Rabbi Heschel’s words, reading them, immersing ourselves in them, one can appreciate the timelessness of them. He was not the first to warn affirm the need for independence in order to be free, and here he is, in 1958, reminding us of our need to “attain a degree of independence” in order “to be free”! Hearing the phrase: “a degree of independence” reminds us that there is an entity greater than ourselves, the “prime mover” as Aristotle says; God as people of faith refer to this entity; higher consciousness as many spiritual disciplines call this entity that is a part of all of us and not a part of us at the same time. The issue being raised here is; how much power are We the People giving to “the complexities of society”? How “enmeshed” have we become “in a web of relationships which make (our) independence most precarious”?
Looking at our country, our world, it is quite apparent that these words, this warning is as relevant in this moment as it was then, maybe more so. Rabbi Heschel was seeing something that the rest of the people were blind to at the time and he was being prescient, because his scholarship, his faith, his inner life and intuition, all converged to give us fair warning of what could happen, what could impinge, impede, and, possibly, deny us our freedom and our independence. Yet, once again, humanity did not look at the moment with their ability to see past, present, and future all in one moment. We study ancient texts, we study the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran not for their historical accuracy, we study them to learn how to be free, what impinges on our independence, how we willingly go along to get along and this way of being makes “independence most precarious”. We are in a moment that reflects the worst traits of leaders of democracies, the worst traits of our historical figures, like the people who fought to the death to own another human being so they could ‘make more money’, because rather than worship at the altar of God, they worshipped at the altar of money and power. “There is one who has all power” we say in Alcoholics Anonymous and the people who have money say: ‘money is the goal, with it you can do anything, without it you are nothing’, we are a society that equates self-worth with net worth and this causes us to lose both independence and freedom. It is so ridiculous that there are ‘so-called religious christians, jews, muslims’ who will, for the right ‘donation’ give you blessings over cars, over bullshit, promise you anything! Worshipping at the altar of money/mammon, is the foundation of the ministries of Joel Osteen and the ‘prosperity gospels’-all fly in the face of The Bible and Jesus’ teachings. Yet, because we are worried about ‘what will the neighbors think’, looking good rather than doing good, FOMO over being ‘in the club’, etc We the People have bought this bullshit hook, line and sinker-and it makes our “independence” and “freedom” sink as well.
In the political realm, Trump and his handlers like Putin, Musk, Thiel, as well as Bibi in Israel, know the truth of the words above and use them to their advantage, the inherent danger in a free society, in a democracy which the Founding Fathers feared and put measures in place to deter this. The Republican Congresspeople and Senators are prime examples of the last sentence above. In their desire to be in agreement with “Der Fuhrer”, they have lost their integrity, they have lost their desire to ‘do their job’, they have given up both their “independence” and their “freedom” so they can get re-elected, so ‘daddy won’t be upset with me’, so their families are ‘safe’, all the while losing everything that matters for their humanity, for their ability to face “the man in the glass” each and every day, to face their constituents who are paying them. When we get caught up in the “mass of miscellaneous associations”, the “web of relationships” that serve our bank accounts, We the People miss the mark because we have lost the most important relationship we have-the one with our inner life, the one with our higher consciousness, our intuitive mind. We have sacrificed this relationship for mammon, for money, power, prestige and we all are suffering the consequences in this moment. “For want of a nail” we are losing the battle for our “freedom”, our “independence”.
So, let’s find the “nail”. It is not far away, it is the smallest of details, it is the shortest journey that is so hard, so apparent, so accepted, that we continue to ignore it. The “nail” is our inner life, it is the nurturing, maturing of our soul, the acceptance of ‘knowing what we know’ and not needing to prove it to anyone. We the People are being called, once again, to “go to ourselves”, like Abraham was told. This call to Abraham still reverberates within each of us, it is the call to let go of the “web of relationships”, the “miscellaneous associations” that keep us from being who we know ourselves to be. To jettison the bullshit that we use to prevent us from doing the next right thing no matter what. The call to Abraham was not a one and done, we are still being called to “go to yourself”, “leave everything” that stops you from being aware of and growing your inner life. We the People are being called to STAND UP for ourselves, for the widow and the orphan, the stranger, the poor, and the needy. We are being called to scream/call from the Mountain Top, as Rev. King did on the day before his assassination, and we let the powers that be know we are continuing the march to making Our Land the Promised Land with “freedom for all”, celebrating and ensuring the “independence of all people” and the responsibilities “freedom” and “independence” bring. We the People are standing on the shoulders of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, King David, especially the Prophets not to replicate them, to further their message and our “freedom”.
I wrestled with these ideas for a long time. The “mass of miscellaneous associations” and the “web of relationships” made me question “who is this guy”? Yet, unlike prior to my recovery, in recovery I have been able to have many different associations and relationships and not lose my authenticity, not lose my “independence” nor “freedom” totally. Hindsight gives me the clarity to see when I was closer than I realized and each time before I fell into the abyss, something happened to wake me the fuck up, someone using my vulnerabilities against me and this took me back inside to repair the parts of me that bought the bullshit to the detriment of me and those around me. I have kept my integrity, I have grown it as well. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark