Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 98
“We are losing our capacity for freedom. New forces have emerged which regulate our actions. Modern man is not motivated anymore, he is being propelled; he does not strive anymore, he is being driven.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.18)
On the eve of the Great Shabbat, the Shabbat before Passover, and the eve of Passover (which begins Saturday evening), and, in the current chaotic state of the world thanks to the Republican Party’s choice to give free reign to Trump, the New Apostolic Reformation, and the Billionaire Boys club Trump has managed to coerce into joining him, the words above take on a more ominous and urgent meaning. Whether one is celebrating Easter or Passover (or both) the spiritual, moral, and political meaning of both of these Holy Day Celebrations is freedom.
Rabbi Heschel speaks elsewhere that “self-deception is a major disease” and these words show the depth of our self-deception. So many people ‘rebel’ against the ‘regulations’ of moral behavior as laid out in the Bible-not that everything in the Bible is moral behavior. So many people want “to be free to be me” not realizing how much of their ‘freedom’ is regulated by our peers, by our opposition to something rather than by our inner lives and/or our moving towards something. We are constantly rebelling from something rather than rebelling to something. Passover is the rebellion of a group of people in their march towards freedom of mind, body and spirit. Easter, in my opinion, is the rebellion of a group of people towards freedom from the chains of slavery of the mind, body and spirit imposed by the ruling class. Whether one celebrates either or neither, both of these Holy Days represent the triumph of the spirit over the rational mind. Why bother to rebel when the forces are so much greater than we are is the rational response, the response of a “free person” is: of course we can be free if we are willing to make the foundation of our rebellion “going to freedom”.
Yet, the very forces that promote both of these Holy Days, both of these Freedom seeking festivals, have within them forces that want to “regulate our actions” instead of allowing We the People to explore new ways and paths to “freedom”, there are forces in both faiths that want to tell us exactly what the Bible is saying rather than allowing us to seek the 70 ways to understand the Bible. They are the people who say “my way or the highway” and, in today’s America, want to banish, imprison, and deny basic rights to those who don’t fall into lockstep with them. The rise of the New Apostolic Reformation is the rise of authoritarianism through a perverted, in my opinion, relationship with the New Testament-where giving to the Pastors, making sure the Clergy are rich will help the poor person who is giving their last spare change! They are the Prosperity Gospel people who want to control every aspect of a person's life and do not want “freedom of religion”, they want the US to be a “christian nation” as they determine ‘christianity’.
Be it this ‘new’ Church, the Billionaire Boys Club of Trump and his pals who have made more fortunes while so many of us have lost our shirts in the volatile stock market based on his tariff bullshit, or the Jews who are certain that Israel should own the West Bank and Gaza, who believe in the messianic vision of Netanyahu, Trump, et al, who are willing to overlook the authoritarian ways of Orban, Putin, Netanyahu, Trump and be propelled to go against the very morality they proclaim to adhere to. So many people are willing to ‘get into bed’ with people who hate Jews, who hate people of color, who hate everyone but themselves and ‘their people’ because they are being propelled by their own hatred of uncertainty, their own hatred of equality, their own fear/hatred of the responsibilities of “freedom”. The people who fall into these categories are in the self-deception that they are “free”, they lie to themselves and believe they are the script writers of their lives rather than see how they are pawns, actors in a drama written by the autocrat, the cult leader, “der fuhrer”! This is not only sad, it is dangerous.
We the People have to use the upcoming Holy Days to re-invigorate our spiritual life, to recall and make fresh our journey to Sinai, to freedom because of accepting the “yoke of the kingdom of heaven”, of living into the truth of our higher consciousness rather than the desires of our base desires. Be it sex, business, child rearing, entertainment, sports, home life, any part of our daily living, we have the choice to live from our rational minds and rationalize our bad behaviors, excuse our thefts and lies, believe in the mendacity of another(s) and to live from our higher consciousness, our inner truths, do Tshuvah for our errors each day, forgive ourselves and one another for our imperfect moments, see the spark of uniqueness in one another and fulfill the task only we can fulfill. We the People, like our ancestors in Egypt, cannot be swayed or dismayed by the small numbers of our group, remembering only 20-50% of the slaves left Egypt. We the People get to make our journey different than the one laid out in the Bible, we get to find the common ground with one another, we get to join hands and work together as human beings seeking a better life for ourselves and one another, we get to fulfill the moral codes of the Bible by “loving our neighbor as ourself”, “Rebuking our neighbor and not bearing guilt because of it”, “Caring for the stranger, the poor, the needy”, etc. At the beginning of the Seder, we invite all who are in need to join and all who are hungry to have a seat at the table. We the People can make this a reality in this moment, We the People can, and must, join together to “liberate our souls” and liberate our bodies this year so we can rebel to and live in our higher consciousness, our spiritual values.
These words come to me in a moment of chaos in the world, uncertainty in the future, and deep faith that “let freedom ring” will win the day. The battle for the soul of America and Israel has been ongoing since their inception. In Biblical times we read about the battles for the soul of the Israelite people and the truth that we were never ONE PEOPLE, there has always been factions and the uniting of these factions happened maybe during part of the reign of King David. On Saturday evening and Sunday evening, I will be concentrating on my inner freedom to be who I am, on my inner freedom to speak the words and perform the deeds that my higher consciousness, my soul motivate me to rather than the ones that will ‘get me ahead’. I commit to strive to be more like myself, the self I was created to be in this next year, I commit to being more proactive in my fights for your freedom as well. I commit to rebelling towards Godliness rather than away from it. I commit to being more human, more willing to accept my imperfections and strive to be a little better each day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.