Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 100
“We have made great contributions to the spiritual defamation of man. Far from eliminating the fear of man, our novels and theories depict man as untrustworthy, passion-ridden, self-seeking, and disingenuous.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 19)
Today, on the second day of Passover, reading these words, looking at the Haggadah’s readings, seeing what is happening in our time and in history, recent and 1000’s of years ago, can only make a person shudder, think and look inside of her/himself to see how one can stop defaming their own spirituality and the spirituality of another. Immersing ourselves in these two sentences, We the People only have to look at our current leadership here and abroad to see that Pharaoh is alive and well, Pharaoh’s courtiers/minions are emboldened and running to serve Pharaoh. Evil is in our midst, it is cunning, baffling and, when we do nothing to stop it early, it seems all-powerful. Isn’t it time to exam this phenomenon and take actions to stop “the spiritual defamation of man”?
It is happening now, as it always has happened. People seeking power and fame, money and prestige find someone, some group, who they can pick on, whom they can make to be “an other” and then defame them and convince everyone else that only “those people” are the problem, let’s deport them, let’s deprive them of their dignity and their humanity so it will be good for us. The greatest “spiritual defamation” happens when other minorities go along with this bullshit believing it won’t happen to me, now and/or ‘there but for the grace of God go I’. As soon as this “defamation” starts to take hold it is a short road till this way of being spreads to all of the other minorities, all of the people who resist the Pharaoh. We see this happening now as we see it in the Bible and throughout the history of humankind.
Perhaps, the worst “spiritual defamation” is best described in the Bible in Exodus Chapter 1 and in the Haggadah as well. Pharaoh says the Israelite people are more numerous and mighty than we are and if/when we are attacked, they will join with our enemies so let us deal shrewdly with them. The next sentence is there were taskmasters set over the Hebrews and we become enslaved. It is incredible that the people around this “new Pharaoh who did not know Joseph” wouldn’t stand up for the Hebrews because of what Joseph had done to save Egypt, because of the many years of being their neighbors, because of the myriad of relationships the people of Egypt had with the Hebrews. Yet, they didn’t. So the need to “deal shrewdly”, to enslave the people and, here is the “worst spiritual defamation”, the willingness of the Hebrews, who were mightier, more numerous, than the Pharaoh’s people, to become enslaved!
Rather than learn from this experience, Jews have continued to go along to get along, they have continued to ignore the warning signs of autocracy, of racism, antisemitism, and “spiritual defamation”. Mainly, I believe, because we have done a piss-poor job of raising the spiritual health of our family, friends, neighbors and people. In the 10th Century, Maimonides wrote a book called “Shemonah Perakim”, aka the Eight Chapters, which deals with the need for physicians of the soul, with the need for people to seek out and accept the spiritual healing they need so they can become whole. We are in the 21st Century and the Rabbis still don’t see this job as that important. When discussing it with colleagues and administrators of Jewish Institutions of learning, from Pre-K through Rabbinics, I am told that I am a “niche” Rabbi and ‘regular’ Jews don’t need the counseling I give to ‘those people’. Well, it sure as hell seems like we read the Haggadah and go through the Seder without it going through us. It sure as hell seems like we read Torah, we go through it line by line and nothing is penetrating because the Clergy is too afraid to stop defaming their own souls by continuing the charade passed down by the Pharaoh of believing their own bullshit and they are answering to a Board of Directors instead of answering to the call of their own souls and the call/demands of the Bible and the universe.
The Bible depicts the best and worst of humanity. It doesn’t’ believe we are stuck in the worst nor does it believe we are defined by our worst actions. Yet, it is a book that is either unread on the shelf(if people even own one), perused and argued about through the commentaries, and/or abused to prove a point that an autocrat, Jewish and non-Jewish want to prove. Yet, the prophets call out to us: “return, do T’Shuvah, God loves you, your backsliding can be healed. However, most people don’t read nor hear the call of the prophets, they don’t heed nor hear the call of our ancestors who lost their lives to people who practice “spiritual defamation”. This is because we are perpetrating it upon ourselves. We are constantly engaging in “spiritual defamation” every time we miss an opportunity to see our whole and authentic self. We are engaging in this soul-killing disease every time we buy the lies and bullshit of Trump, Pharaoh, Bibi, etc because we think “they are good for the Jews”.
It is time for We the People to demand of our institutions, our clergy, our parents, our children that Spiritual Health is mandatory for all people associated with us. It is time for We the People to stop making excuses for bad, wrong behaviors and actions that are done in the name of ‘the people’. It is time for We the People to end our need for being liked at the cost of our souls, at the cost of truth, at the cost of justice. It is time for We the People to stop the lies of the last sentence above and promote the truth of our unique value, infinite dignity, and spiritual connection with all. It is time for We the People to take our first steps out of the slavery that caused us to ‘give in’ to the bully, to ‘buy into’ the grifter’s bullshit, to indulge in our self-deception and relish being deceived by the liar-in-chief. As the Rabbis of the Haggadah did in B’Nei Brak, let’s put our heads together and find a path forward out of the slavery we have willingly walked into and “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”!
I have been in the “spiritual reformation” business since 1988. It is a hard business because reaching in to someone’s soul, cleaning it, guarding it, pumping it up with vitamin C of the soul-spirituality. I know this from my own personal experience of not being able to hear the myriad of people calling out to me when I was in “spiritual defamation” of myself and those around me. We are in a time where spiritual reformation, spiritual redemption is needed desperately. Through books, writings, on-line classes, individual spiritual counseling, I am here to help! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark