Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 88
“Good and evil have always had a tendency to live in promiscuity, but in more integrated societies man, it seems, found it easier to discriminate between the two, while in our turbulent times circumstances often stupefy our power of discernment; it is as if many of us have become value-blind in the epidemics of needs.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.17)
I am writing on the same sentence as yesterday because I have been disturbed by the truth of it, by the words, by the meaning and by the question that this sentence asks each of us as both individuals and as members of a tribe, Community, faith, etc. I know that even in “integrated societies”, there are turbulent times and people are able to “discriminate between the two”, (good and evil). The key being “integrated societies as I wrote on yesterday. I am disturbed that we did not harken to his warning that we are not aware of the disintegration of our society much less ourselves. I am disturbed that we are still not listening to nor caring about the un-wholeness, un-holiness that we as individuals and as communities, both faith and secular, are engaged in. Is it willingly or unwittingly, one could argue either side yet, with the sentence above, we have to face the truth and admit our complicity in giving up whatever integrity we might have had in the face of “turbulent times”. This is so sad.
Rabbi Heschel’s choice of words is always exciting to me, here he uses the word “stupefy” to describe our experience of “being struck senseless” when it comes to “discernment”; how apropos. Isn’t this what is happening? Were we not “struck senseless” in electing a grifter who promised to take a wrecking ball to our freedoms and our democracy? Were we not “struck senseless” when we elected a Republican Congressional majority in both houses that will rubber-stamp his lunacy and his grab, grift for absolute power? Are we not “struck senseless” when we went along/go along with the lie that Jesus wants people to suffer, Jesus wants the stranger deported? Are we not “struck senseless” with the lie that Judaism unwelcome the stranger, doesn’t believe that every soul is precious because we are all created in the image of the divine? Are we not “struck senseless” when we declare “Am Yisrael Chai”, the People Israel live when we have never been a ‘whole people’ for more than 20-30 years at a time and that was only once or twice in our history? Are we not “struck senseless” when we decided that Putin is a better ally than our European Partners? Are we not “struck senseless” when our government allows Elon Musk to threaten Social Security recipients with loss of their monthly income and our Congress says and does nothing? Are we not “struck senseless” when the rule of law, the freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and protest are under attack and “good people do nothing” like in Germany in the early 1930’s?
The choice of the words “value-blind” also intrigue me and, of course, disturb me. Is there no situation where we can make a decision that doesn’t involve invoking our values, doesn’t involve deciding between the “good and evil” of the situation? I would answer, NO, to this question after living into the words above. Every situation involves our values, our morality, our freedom to choose wisely, our freedom to choose dumbly, and reflects what we stand for and what we stand upon. Do we stand upon the lies we have told ourselves, the lies we have bought into, the deceptions of self and another, the bastardization of Holy Texts? Do we stand for and upon “the epidemic of needs” we seem to be in perpetually? Do we stand for and upon the foundational values and paths of the Torah and the Bible? Do we stand for and upon the teachings of Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Mohammed? When our needs are bigger than our values, we find ourselves in the most “turbulent times” possible. The turbulence comes from the inside and most people are unable to deal with their inner lives, it is anathema to them to look inside themselves, and blame an outer irritant. This is how “value-blind’ we have become, our confessions, our Tshuvahs, our amends often are tinged with some sense of blame, like ‘if only you hadn’t done this, then I wouldn’t have done that’ and the ability of our rationalizations to make the person we have harmed the perpetrator is enormous and soul-crushing; look at Trump, Bannon, Miller, Vance, and all of their cronies like Thiel and Musk.
WE THE PEOPLE are being called upon once again to stand up and on the values of our soul’s knowing. WE THE PEOPLE are being given the opportunity to become full of sense instead of senseless, to be able to navigate in these turbulent times without losing our course, like a ship in a storm. We the People are being invited and enlisted in a ‘holy war’, a war for our independence, a war for our freedoms, a war for our values and a war for the dignity, equality and uniqueness of each and every individual soul. We the People have to look inside of ourselves and say YES to the inner voice that called to Elijah, the inner voice that has been passed down by the prophets, the inner voice that is able to discern the truths of the Torah and sit under this “Tree of Life” and grasp the Torah’s “ways of pleasantness” and choose which of the “paths of peace/wholeness” is right for our soul. In this time, it is crucial to make a choice-either get in the fray or surrender to the idolator, the autocrat, and be like the Israelites after Joseph died and before Moses showed up-allowing “circumstances to stupefy our power of discernment” and give everything up because we have become “value-blind” and choosing money and power over what is right, what is good, over our ability to be free!
I know this place so well. I too have found myself becoming “value-blind” in “turbulent times”. Each time I have found myself either arrested, in prison, or bereft because I knew I was going against what I knew to be right. This is the most torturous part of going “value-blind”, the knowing one is doing it and everyone knows-no matter how we try and deceive ourselves, in our being, in our inner life-we know; I surely did! On top of this, reviewing the times I was “struck senseless”(stupefy) by my own doing, makes me want to scream. While this was mainly before my recovery, I also see where I have done this over the past 36 years as well. I made the usual excuses and they don’t absolve me. Whenever I allowed “circumstances to stupefy” my values and my “powers of discernment” convincing myself it was for a ‘higher good’, there was turmoil caused by my inner life. The inner voice took over my vocal chords and it wasn’t pretty. I realize right now, the reason this happened is described in the words above. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark