Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 89
“The glory of a free society lies not only in the consciousness of my right to be free, and my capacity to be free, but also in the realization of my fellow man’s right to be free, and his capacity to be free. The issue we face is how to save man’s belief in his capacity to be free.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 17)
Reading these words, I am stunned at how piss poor a job we Americans have done in saving “man’s belief in his capacity to be free”. Today’s situation is a logical conclusion of the myriad of ways we have bastardized the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bible, the New Testament, ad nauseam. In making America the country we are created to be, We the People have to first live into the words above.
There is a difference, however, between our “consciousness of my right to be free and my capacity to be free”. While everyone has a knowing that being enslaved is wrong, that being ‘trapped’ is a crime against humanity, the knowing, the consciousness of our “capacity” to be free often is missing, hence we are doubly trapped and enslaved. “Capacity” comes from the Latin meaning “to take hold”, one of the English definitions is “the ability to experience, do something”. Not everyone has this ability to “take hold” of their “capacity to be free” and actualize it, use it for the benefit of another, and never relinquish it to the sociopath, autocrat, et al who want to deny our “right to be free”. This is borne out in the ways people walk in lockstep with ‘der fuhrer’, of their particular movement, political party, faith, etc.
As we prepare for Easter and Passover, as we mark the end of Ramadan, these words are so appropriate to dwell in, to live into and to commit, once again, to the idea of freedom, to accepting “my right” and “my capacity” to be free! Of course, this puts the ‘burden’ of obligation upon us, we have to nurture our “consciousness” to be on guard against the alien thoughts and ideas, the spin, twisting of words and notions that enter into our minds without notice and our introduced to us by outside forces as well. MAGA is a case in point-America has always been ‘great’ because of our insistence on the freedoms found in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as well as all the Amendments since. We do not need to ‘make America great again’ in the ways of Trump, Musk, Bannon, et al-we need to make America live up to its promise, its goals, its charter as laid out in the Declaration of Independence. This cannot happen unless and until We the People accept, nurture and grow our “consciousness” and our “capacity to be free”.
We have to begin with ourselves in this process AND we cannot end with ourselves-this is how we are in the terrible situation we find ourselves in right now. There is enough culpability on both extremes so let us not play the ‘blame game’. Since the beginning, We the People have chosen to ignore “the realization of my fellow man’s right to free, and his capacity to be free”. In January of 1963, at a White House conference on Race and Religion, Rabbi Heschel says: “And racism is worse than idolatry. Racism is satanism, unmitigated evil.” Yet, it continues, it is a tool used by politicians to get elected, just ask Trump, Johnson, Graham, et al. Racism is not just about the Black people of our country, it is hatred against any group of people, who get lumped together, vilified, scapegoated, for the benefit of another person’s power, gain. We have not achieved Rev Kings goal of “people will not be judged by the color of their skin (I would add by their sexuality, religion, etc) but by the content of their character”, also said in 1963. Yet, 62 years later, we seem to have fallen back into a state of being that rivals the pre-Civil rights days. This is not freedom for another nor for ourselves.
Each of us are created in the image of the divine, the Bible says; the Talmud teaches that each of us are descended from Adam and Eve so we can’t claim lineage that is different from one another, and it confirms our uniqueness; given these two examples plus Jesus’ teachings about the dignity of all people, how can any of us deny the truth of “the realization of my fellow man’s right to be free and his capacity to be free”? Yet, we constantly and consistently do. We seem to need someone beneath us in order to feel strong, to feel right with ourselves. This concept of “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein” seems too foreign for the ‘good christian folk’ who promote bibles like Trump and the Republican Party. This way of being, totally in concert with the founding principles of the United States of America, seems to be a ‘libtard’ concept to the MAGA cult followers. Yet, it is inherent in the Bible, in the New Testament, the Koran, Buddha’s teachings, and We the People ignore our responsibility to promote freedom for all, to promote dignity for all, to promote the value of each individual. How sad, how devastatingly dangerous as we are currently finding out.
We the People our not powerless, however. As we gather this spring for Easter, for Passover, let us talk about the ways We the People have been like Pharaoh to ourselves and to another(s) and the ways We the People have been like Moses. We the People can then make plans with our Seder participants, with our Church community, to be more like Moses, to be more like the souls we are created to be, developing our “consciousness” of what freedom entails and that freedom needs justice and mercy to prevail, it needs a constant nurturing and awareness of the attacks from within that will cause it to disappear, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. We the People can learn how to recover our “capacity to be free” from the Recovery movement and the 12 Steps of AA, from the different faith traditions when taught and understood as principles of being free, ways to be free, not dogmatic, authoritarian ways for another(s) to control us. We the People have to stage another REVOLUTION TO FREEDOM. We the People have to save our democracy, our spiritual health and our neighbors rights to same.
I have been engaged in this work for my entire life and I have fallen short at times because of my inner war, my need to have money, my using my traits out of proper measure and creating chaos, evil, harm, etc. My freedom never has to come at the expense of another and, in my unorthodox ways, I have fought with people who want to deny their own “right to be free” and doubt their “capacity to be free”. I am proud of this fight and I continue it to this day. We all need to accept the inheritance of the prophets, our ancestors, and live freer each day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.