Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 99
“The principle of majority decision, the binding force of a majority, depends upon the assumption that the individuals who make up the majority are capable of discerning between right and wrong. But we are gradually led to believe that man is incapable of making a significant moral judgement.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.18)
Today is the first day of Passover, we have left the confines of Egypt, the boundaries of our enslavement and are now on our way to “the Promised Land”. Participating in the Seder I went to last night, the different polemics against early Christianity are apparent, the re-writing of history, somewhat, are present in the Haggadah, because of a “majority decision” in the Rabbinic Council of the 2nd Century, influenced heavily by Rabbi Akiva probably. While these sages were certainly “capable of discerning between right and wrong”, their prejudices, their agendas overcame their commitment to “let all who are hungry partake in the Passover, let all who are needy come and eat”. This is to show us how difficult it is to continue to make “ a significant moral judgement” when our egos, our agendas, our needs overtake our knowledge of “right and wrong”. This is not a polemic against the Rabbis of the early 2nd Century, it is just another way to see the agenda of the authors of the Haggadah so we can take from it what is spiritually important, what is morally just, and work to merge our agendas with the one of the Haggadah: Slavery Must End!
We the People have been living in a mostly “free” society and we are still at the mercy of the lawmakers in Washington and in our individual states. We have watched, many of us with horror, the disintegration of “the majority’s” ability to discern “between right and wrong” as “Party uber alles” is the name of the game for the Republicans in Congress and in State Houses across the land. They have no interest in making these discernments, they have no interest in ensuring the freedom of every person. The words in the Declaration of Independence mean nothing to “a majority” of Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives. They are not interested in what is good for the majority of their constituents nor the majority of the Country, they only care about what the wealthy are telling them and following the whims and whipsaws of “der fuhrer”, Donald Trump. This has been the case since Newt Gingrich in 1994 and what is happening now is the acme of his path to domination. In a “free society”, domination is not the goal, the goal is “we hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal”. We have failed in these past 249 years to make what is a “self-evident” truth a reality in our country, in our states, in our hearts. Our failure was corrected for a minute in 1964 and 1965 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and the Republicans and the ‘conservative’ Judges of the Supreme Court have been whittling away at these laws ever since where today, they are pretty much non-existent. The Declaration also states: “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”, yet We the People have not held our elected officials accountable enough to make these “unalienable Rights” become a reality for all people.
Rabbi Heschel’s last sentence above points to the erosion of humanity in our Country that has also been with us since our founding. Be it Black people, Chinese people, Irish, Italian, Jews, Muslims, Hispanics, the “white majority” of elected officials have sided with prejudice and slavery, denial of equality in pay, in ability to vote, in dignity and worth to anyone “not like us”. Today’s situation is a continuation of the plague that has been with us since our beginning. The Civil War that broke out in fighting in April of 1861 was the physical manifestation of the internal civil war in the Congress, in the States, in each individual. Today’s chaos is the physical manifestation of the internal rejection of responsibility for our own actions, the manifestation of blame someone of that which you are guilty of as Josef Goebbels taught. It is the logical outcome of years of erosion of our “capability of discerning between right and wrong”! For all the handwringing of the Democrats, they also are guilty, not as blatantly, not as cruelly, yet they also have moved from the foundational tenets of “certain unalienable rights” when they were more concerned about a small minority of people than they were about the majority, when they thought themselves so superior they did not have to explain and help people understand their reasoning and the truth that “justice too long delayed is justice denied”.
The Declaration of Independence, the Passover Story in the Bible point to the responsibility of We the People: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” This is what the New Apostolic Reformation and Project 2025 are doing and they are not doing it to make it better, they are the architects and ‘generals’ of ensuring that the Federal Government “becomes destructive of these ends” “the ends” mentioned above.
We the People, are being called to regain our capability “of discerning between right and wrong”. The people who are continuing to work at the Law Firms who have kissed Donald Trump’s ass should resign, be bought out, etc rather than work for a legal firm who’s no longer “capable of discerning between right and wrong”! We the People have to demand of our elected officials there agreement and their enforcement of the Constitutional separation of powers and stand up to the Bully in the White House, to the architects of “christian nationalism” and end their misguided placating, shaking in their boots when these chaos makers, haters, autocrats, theocrats, make a statement. We the People have to stop quaking in our own boots, stop buying into the chaos and stand firm within our selves in what we know to “be self-evident” and not buy into the deception and mendacity of people who are trying hard to make all of us “incapable of making a significant moral judgement”. This is the essence of Passover, of Easter, of honoring the people who braved the ocean to come to America since 1607.
I know what it is like to be unable of “making a significant moral choice” as my history points out. I also know that when I do make “a significant moral choice” it doesn’t always bode well for me and I am fine with this truth. This year, this Passover, I am free from any need to “go along” with evil when I am aware of it happening. I am also free from needing people to respond to me, to see me for who and what I am. It is enough that I know who I am and that my close family/friends see me and know me. In this way, I keep discerning “right and wrong” and choosing the “right” path mostly. God Bless, lets stay out of Egypt and stay safe, Rabbi Mark