Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 107
“Acts of worship counteract the trivialization of existence. Both involve the person, and give him a sense of living in ultimate relationships. Both of them are ways of teaching man how to stand alone and not be alone, of teaching man that God is a refuge, not a security.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.20)
Reading and re-reading these words can give one a wonderfully painful look at one’s mode of living! Some of the “acts of worship” were delineated in the past two days and involve integrity, moral dedications, intellectual pursuits, etc. These are the “acts of worship that counteract the trivialization of existence”. Rabbi Heschel’s use of the word “both” takes me a minute to understand, I am not sure I do and here is my best effort. “Both” “acts of worship” and “trivialization of existence” “involve the person”. The question is how does “trivialization of existence help a human being to have “a sense of living in ultimate relationships” and “how to stand alone and not be alone”?
When we recognize our trivializing of our life through meaningless pursuits of gold and greed, of fame and power, of self-deception and the deception of another, we come to realize there is something bigger than ourselves, there is more to life than pleasure. This, of course, is the great issue of our time and every era: helping We the People get out of our narrow thinking; our confined spaces of me, me, me; our personal Egypts and out from under the ‘new Pharaoh’ who imposes harsh labor upon us. “Trivialization of existence” is what is happening right now in Washington D.C. and across our country, it is happening in Russia, in El Salvador, in Hungary, in Turkey, in many countries in the Arab world and, unfortunately, in Israel also. The stupid pursuit of fame and fortune by the current administration belies the “oath of office” Trump and Vance took, belies the “oath of office” the Senate and House members took, belies the “oath of office” the Federal Courts took! And these bullshit artists, and they are artists, have convinced enough of a plurality to continue to govern and rape the very people who elected them, whom they consider suckers, losers, and ‘marks’. These bullshit artists, unfortunately, include many ‘people of the cloth’. Clergy who have decided to sell their souls for a few trinkets much like the Indians did with Manhattan. Clergy who have rejected the path set forth by people of faith like Mother Theresa, Rev. King, Thomas Merton, Rabbi Heschel, Pope Frances, etc and seek to enrich themselves and empower themselves with lies, with fake holy water, and trample on the very “acts of worship” that Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha laid out for them and for us.
What is learned by the “trivialization of existence” by people who engage in “acts of worship” is how much better life is when one knows the joy, pain, uplift and exhilaration of “living in ultimate relationships” both with the Ineffable One and with one’s partner, with one’s Chaverim, one’s spiritual friends. What is learned by those of us who believe in living with moral dedication, integrity, etc is that we can stand on our own two feet because, as the “Footprints” poem says: “the time you saw only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you”. Our “acts of worship” have taught us that we know “how to stand alone and not be alone” because we are always near to our core spiritual self and to the spiritual force in the Universe. We know we are in a relationship that goes beyond words and is inexplicable. Instead of buying the subterfuge of the grifters and deceivers, we know that inexplicable does not mean not real, doesn’t mean fantasy, airy fairy. This is the lie these bullshit artists are trying to peddle so they can have the power using empty “acts of worship” to confuse us. The saddest reality is that so many people don’t know this. They are being fed lies and deceptions, subterfuges and mendacities for breakfast, lunch, and dinner so they can no longer tell the difference between truth and lies.
The last phrase above is truly mind-blowing to me: “security” comes from the Latin meaning “free from care” and “refuge” comes from the Latin meaning “flee back”. Being connected to God is not “free from cares and troubles” as some charlatans promote. Rather connected to God is a “refuge”, a place to “flee back” to every time we are lost, every time we mistakenly think we are alone, every time we need Good Orderly Direction, every time we think we are alone like Jacob thought when he had both of his dreams. When “acts of worship” is the blueprint of living we follow, when we know that we are in “ultimate relationship” with one another and with God, when we accept the truth of our need for one another in order to be more connected to the Ineffable One, we are deeply entrenched in living a life of purpose and meaning rather than a life exemplifying the “trivialization of existence”. It is up to We the People to take back our country, to take back our religious traditions and return them both to being on the path that our ideals and goals have set for us. It is time for We the People to demand of ourselves and one another, of the current administration and the current Congress that we are once again that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth”. We are still fighting the Civil War, it is not about North and South, it is about decency and freedom vs. power and autocracy. It is about living into and being changed by our “acts of worship” that Jesus actually called for, that Moses actually said, and no longer allow the grifters, the liars, the idolators who promote lies in the names of Jesus, Moses, and Mohammed to have power and rule. This is the call of the moment for We the People, will you answer it?
Sitting here since 2:30 this morning, reading and re-reading these words, listening to the lies of Netanyahu, Trump and the rest of their ilk, remind me of the myriad of times the “trivialization of existence” was my life. As Malcolm X says: “an examined life is painful”. Yet, because I must, can and do live an “examined life” as Socrates promoted, I can do my T’Shuvah, I can change, repair, repent and, most of all, “flee back” to the embrace of the Ineffable One. I find “refuge” in my spiritual practice, it helps me deal with life in new and profoundly different ways than I did when “trivialization” was the modality I followed. Caring, compassion, truth, justice, integrity, intellectual pursuits, love, all pay greater dividends than “trivialization” ever did. I was a ‘snake oil salesman’ for a while and I am here to preach the Gospel of Truth, the Gospel of “acts of worship”, the Gospel of spiritual counseling to find our true self and live an authentic life. Mine has not always been pretty nor ‘politically correct’, and I have not compromised my values, my truth, my voice no matter what the cost-and it has, at times, been heavy. I know I don’t “stand alone” and this is what brings me comfort and strength every day to keep on keeping on. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark