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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 184

“The idea with which Judaism starts is not the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man but rather the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do the will of God. There is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah, and precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will. This is why despair is alien to Jewish faith.”(God in Search of Man pg.378)

The word alien comes from the Latin meaning “belonging to another”. Rabbi Heschel’s use of this word in the last sentence teaches us to not take something which belongs to another. Despair comes from the Latin meaning “lack of hope”. Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom is reminding us to have faith, in the Jewish tradition and, I would add in any spiritual discipline, we have to have hope, we have to not take on something that belongs to another. This is a great challenge for most of us. We live in a world where despair is normalized, where hope is constantly being crushed by “harsh burdens” like those the Israelites experienced in Egypt. As Rabbi Heschel said at the Conference on Race and Religion in 1963, “At the first conference on religion and race, the main participants were Pharaoh and Moses…The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end.”

When we fall into despair, when we see hope as alien to us rather than despair, evil wins. We are seeing this a great deal in our world today. In despair we believe despots, we believe the Pharaoh’s who are telling us “work will make you free” as long as the work is what they want. In despair we are so spiritually ill, what is evil looks good, what is mendacity seems like truth, what is cruel seems kind, what is fascist and enslaving seems democratic and freeing. In despair our ability to engage and overcome our self-deception wanes terribly. In despair, Carlson, Trump, McCarthy, Cruz, Greene, Bannon, Pence, DeSantis, et al appear to be Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, instead of the Stalins, Pharaohs, Orbans, Putins, they truly are.

Rabbi Heschel, in 1955, knew what was happening and what was coming. He saw the dangers of fascism were still alive, he realized “the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man” was still strong and without wonder, without mitzvot/doing the next right thing, we would lose our desire “to do the will of God” and/or replace God’s will with our own will and serve our will and/or the will of Pharaoh. Unfortunately, his vision and his concern are alive and well right here, right now. Harry Belafonte, of blessed memory, said it best: “we have lost our radical thinking”. Rabbi Heschel is a radical thinker, Martin Luther King Jr. is a radical thinker, William Barber is a radical thinker, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith (the founders of AA) are radical thinkers. There are more radical thinkers today, and we have to listen to them, we have to act upon their wisdom, their visions, their words. We have to return to fulfilling the radical thinking of the Founding Fathers, build a nation of equality, build a nation of providing “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to all people without regard to gender, race, religion, creed, ethnicity, etc. We have to fulfill the radical thinking of Rev. King and judge people on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. We have to fulfill the radical thinking of Rabbi Heschel:” In a free society, some are guilty all are responsible.”

In the Jewish Faith, as in Recovery, despair does not belong to us. Jews and people in recovery pray for “knowledge of God’s will and the power to carry it out”, we do not pray for gifts, for riches, we pray to hear the call of God, to envision what the mitsvah in front of us is for us to do. We know that hope is alive and well in Judaism just by the fact there are Jews today, no matter how many times Pharaoh has tried to kill us with harsh labors, no matter how often Pharaoh has put us in Ghettos so we could take on what belongs to another, despair. The same is true in recovery! Early recovery is fearful and overwhelming, it is also exhilarating and hopeful because instead of Pharaoh, we are witness’ to the exodus from Egypt and there are many leaders, many Moses’ in the rooms for recovery. Instead of surrendering to the will of Pharaoh/despair, we hear and attach ourselves to the will of God, to the knowledge that just because it has always been this way doesn’t mean it has to stay this way. Faith, spirituality in both recovery and Judaism leads us to hope, to connection with God, to connection with another(s) human being and connection to our own souls.

Jerry Borovitz, z”l, taught me that there is always hope. He was a salesman who believed the next sale was around the corner. He had a smile and a handshake for everyone. I have not wallowed in despair, I have been troubled, I have worried more than necessary, and I know there is something to be learned and another mitzvah with my name on it to be done. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 183

“The idea with which Judaism starts is not the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man but rather the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do the will of God. There is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah, and precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will. This is why despair is alien to Jewish faith.”(God in Search of Man pg.378)

Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above is a reminder for all of us about the preciousness of life. We have the opportunity at all times, in every situation, to take the next right action and rejoice in the preciousness of life and the joy of living well. While many people see the mitzvah as a burden and/or as something that is no longer necessary, Rabbi Heschel is calling our minds to be subservient to our souls’ longing to engage in doing a mitzvah, to immerse ourselves in taking the next indicated action to make our life and the lives of another(s) better.

In the book, The Path of the Just, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato writes in his introduction that nothing he is saying is new nor untrue, in fact because of the truth of the teachings, most people become oblivious to them and forget to live them. I find the same to be true with Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above. We have forgotten the preciousness of life and have bastardized the will of God to fit our desires and needs rather than “do a mitsvah” and celebrate “precious is life”.

There are people in power, some of our elected officials who plotted to overthrow our democratic government, who violated the oath they took to “protect and defend the constitution”, like Ted Cruz. His conversations with Fox News people show the underbelly of those who work hard to deceive people into believing that serving oneself, serving the authoritarian, is actually doing a mitzvah, is what God’s will is. People like Ted Cruz, people who make the stranger the enemy and the criminal, people like Kevin McCarthy who want to burden the poor and the needy while catering to the corporations and the rich, are the antithesis to the teaching above. The bastardization of our judicial system by appointing judges based on their following so-called ‘religious values’, those who believe they are above the law like Clarence Thomas, judges who take bribes which we know “blinds the eyes of the righteous”, is another example of denying the preciousness of life and not taking “the opportunity to do a mitsvah”. They have been co-opted by and co-opt people of faith into believing or promoting that their self-serving, self-centered desires are what God wants. We are witnesses to similar conditions that the prophets of Israel and Judea railed about, we are participants in the drama of destruction of the spirit and the principles that our country was founded on and the will of God while believing we are doing God’s will! It is sad that this is happening and it is sadder that we are ignoring the preciousness of life, we aren’t taking the myriad of opportunities to “do a mitsvah” and fulfill the will of God.

We are not lost, we are not powerless, God has not forsaken us. The “opportunity to do a mitsvah” is always in front of us. In Judaism we believe the gates of T’Shuvah; repentance, return and new responses; are always open and God cries for us to return from our exile from God. We have the power, the technology, the will and the help to take the next right action, to stand up to the liars and cheats, the deceivers and our own self-deception. Being a part of a community of people who seek to implement the wisdom of Rabbi Heschel, who seek to follow the examples of the prophets of the Bible, seek to join with the movements of Rev. King and Rabbi Heschel that promote the dignity of every human being, even those we disagree with. We are not stuck with the status quo, we are not powerless over the mendacity and evil in our midst, we have the wisdom and teaching of great spirits from all spiritual disciplines to buoy our spirits and give us guidance as to the next right action to take.

This way of being is one of the foundational pillars of recovery. We call it taking the next indicated action, taking Good Orderly Direction. The third step of the 12-step program is to “turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God”. We know that service is the key to leaving the “bondage of self” and living morally, with decency, helping one another, welcoming the stranger, etc are stepping stones to doing the will of God.

Each day I rejoice in the preciousness of life, I engage in doing God’s will and take the opportunity to do the mitzvah that is in front of me to do. This is the way I find and stay on the path that God wants me to be on, a path of justice, mercy, love, truth, compassion. Recovering my Judaism, learning with Rabbi Heschel, living in recovery all help me honor the preciousness of life. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 182

“The idea with which Judaism starts is not the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man but rather the wonder of creation and the ability of man to do the will of God. There is always an opportunity to do a mitsvah, and precious is life because at all times and in all places we are able to do His will. This is why despair is alien to Jewish faith.”(God in Search of Man pg.378)

Rabbi Heschel teaches us the importance and necessity of wonder. Radical amazement, wonder are foundation aspects of Rabbi Heschel’s way of living, being human. In the first sentence above, Rabbi Heschel is again reminding us of who we are as human beings, how to approach our living and the world: through “the wonder of creation” and our “ability to the will of God”. Given the state of our world today and throughout history, this is a radical philosophy and an enormous task.

Many clergy of all faiths, practitioners of different spiritual philosophies and disciplines dwell on “the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man” to our great detriment. We hear in our churches, temples, mosques, about how we are all sinners, that the ‘devil’ is out to get us, etc. Yet, Rabbi Heschel is reminding us to immerse ourselves in the Bible as it is written, not as some have interpreted it. There is no “original sin”, there is a sense of wonder that creation even happened, there is a sense of wonder that Adam/human was created and from these two creations, all else has followed. The world was created and evolved, as I read Genesis, Chapter 1, it is amazing that the world still exists and we haven’t, as of yet, destroyed it. We can/should be in radical amazement that from the first human, “male and female he created them both”, we are all descendants. Yet, so many of us focus on the missing the mark of Adam and Eve as proof of our sinfulness and the snake as the realness of evil while forgetting the “wonder of creation” and our ability “to the will of God.”

The importance of adopting Rabbi Heschel’s teaching is for us to let go of our need to point our fingers at someone else for being evil, for us to let go of our need to denigrate ourselves for our imperfections, for us to let go of our need to by into the deceptions and mendacity of another, for us to be enslaved to the lies we tell ourselves. Those who dwell on “the realness of evil or the sinfulness of man” are people who are trying to deny the true foundation of being human, they are using the vulnerabilities of the rest of us against us and to have power over us, they find scapegoats for evil, they accuse another(s) of the very sinfulness they are engaged in. Remember Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Putin, Orban, and so many others? And we, the people, go along with these lies, believe in the ‘sinfulness’ of abortion, the ‘sinfulness’ of equal rights for all human beings, the ‘sinfulness’ of gun control, the ‘sinfulness of welcoming the stranger, caring for the poor, the needy among us, etc. We do this because, I believe, the megaphone of these deceivers and misinterpreters of the Bible, is so loud and we are so vulnerable to self-deception and to being deceived.

When we begin each morning celebrating and being grateful for being alive this day, celebrating and being grateful for the miracle of the sun rising today, committing to emulate God’s compassion and faith in us so we can do the same with everyone we encounter today, we are living in wonder/radical amazement I believe. When we carry these commitments with us throughout the day, we are less susceptible to the lies and deceptions of another(s) and our own self-deceptions. Beginning and living each day from “the wonder of creation” and the “ability to do the will of God” gives a new vision and way of being each day. We call out the lies of the charlatans, we give voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless, we cure our “eye disease” of prejudice and see each human being with awe and knowing they are worthy of our dignity and assistance. We seek to enhance the “unalienable rights” of every human being without regard to race, creed, religion, ethnicity, prior bad acts. This is not to deny the “realness of evil or the sinfulness of man”, rather it is the antidote to our living in evil and sin, it is the response to the pull of these negativities.

In recovery I, and so many other people, have found gratitude and wonder to be essential foundational building blocks for a good life, a life of sobriety, recovery, decency, and joy. Each morning we thank God for this day, we commit to make the most of this day, we know we will err and with wonder and gratitude, commitment to living along spiritual lines, we will recognize our errors quicker, repair the damage sooner and not hide from anyone. We are able to live authentically and joyfully, knowing there is a solution to every challenge as long as we stay in wonder and do God’s will to the best of our ability. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 181

“Jewish tradition, though conscious of the perils and pitfalls of existence is a constant reminder of the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good. We are taught to love life in this world because of the possibilities of charity and sanctity, because of the many ways open to us in which to serve the Lord.”More precious than all of life in the world to come is a single hour life on earth-an hour of repentance and good deeds.”(Avot 4:17)(God in Search of Man pg.377-8)

Today is Israel Remembrance Day, we remember the soldiers who have died in the battle to form and keep the State of Israel. They gave “the last full measure” of their lives to keep a dream alive, to make the dream of statehood alive for the Jewish People. They acted in concert with “the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good.” We, the beneficiaries of their sacrifices, have to honor their service by keeping the dream alive through expanding the democratic State of Israel. We have to take the actions that move us towards serving God, towards helping one another, towards seeing every individual as a divine reminder, towards being more charitable.Today, in the United States, we are facing the same challenge, as we have since 1789 when the US Constitution went into force. The ‘christian nation’ people are not acting as Christ would have them, the Supreme Court is acting more like a theocracy than a judicial body, the Congress is acting as opponents on a battlefield rather than a legislative body for all the people of this country.

What is the solution? Rabbi Heschel is offering one to us in the last sentence above. He quotes Rabbi Jacob from a part of the Talmud called: Avot, also know as Ethics of the Fathers, the only non-legally binding tractate of the Talmud. The solution is in “repentance and good deeds.” I have said this before and I say it again: we need a national day of repentance! This country, Israel, the world needs to take inventory of the ways we have missed the mark in fulfilling the promise of freedom, of democracy, of caring for one another, of being charitable rather than mean, of raising our standard of living to be more compatible with being a partner of God. We need to weep and mourn for the myriad of opportunities we have missed, the myriad of ways we have ignored our duty to serve rather than be served, the myriad of ways we have given into selfish desires and self-deception, the myriad of ways we have allowed ourselves to be deceived by the charlatans and liars in the media, in politics, in our religious institutions, in our homes, etc. It is high time for us to acknowledge our participation in the retardation of the promises of our Constitution, of the Israel Independence Document, of the Torah, the Bible, the New Testament, etc. We have to be responsible for our part, our actions before we can change, we have to accept our errors, learn from them and have a plan on how not to fall into them again.

Once we have repented for our errors, our missing the mark, we are able to move forward. Just as our good deeds do not cancel out our missing the marks, our errors do not cancel out our good deeds. Once we have done our T’Shuvah, amends, repentance, we can set our sights and our plans on how to live into the good deeds we are capable of, meant to do, and, truth be told, our souls are yearning to participate in. Doing “good deeds” is the spiritual solution to our hunger for connection, our hunger for ‘inner peace’, our response to God’s challenges and demands. In doing “good deeds” we are fulfilling a basic human need, the need to be needed, the need to be of service, the need to live with passion and purpose, the need to live a life of meaning. We cannot get here without a deep commitment to the here and now, without an awareness to our intrinsic worth and dignity, the intrinsic worth and dignity of every human being, without seeking the joy of being alive with possibilities to help another, to further the dream of the Bible, the dream of freedom, the dream of a covenantal life.

This is the life I have dreamed about forever. Yet, without being in recovery I could never approach it. In recovery, I have found repentance to be a strength for me, a way of being that helps me grow, be responsible, be vulnerable, and, at times, be subject to another using my vulnerabilities against me. What I have learned is that what someone else does is their business, I have to be right with me and with God and the people who know me and whom I know. I can’t worry about what someone else does with my admitting my errors. I also know that my plans for doing good are enhanced with each T’Shuvah I make because I lift one more piece of Shmutz off of me and my soul shines brighter and I hear it’s call louder and clearer. Each repentance and each good deed helps me move closer to hearing and experiencing Sinai, receiving God’s direction. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 180

“Jewish tradition, though conscious of the perils and pitfalls of existence is a constant reminder of the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good. We are taught to love life in this world because of the possibilities of charity and sanctity, because of the many ways open to us in which to serve the Lord.”More precious than all of life in the world to come is a single hour life on earth-an hour of repentance and good deeds.”(Avot 4:17)(God in Search of Man pg.377-8)

Rabbi Heschel’s words above apply to all spiritual disciplines and faiths. The mitzvah, good deeds, loving ones neighbor, honoring parents, caring for the stranger, widow, orphan, poor and the needy are major tenets in every faith tradition and all spiritual disciplines.

Yet, throughout history and in today’s world, we seem to have forgotten this due to ego, need to be right, drive for power, prestige, fame, wealth, etc. We are witnesses both through history and in our world today to the seemingly worship of the perils and pitfalls rather than engaging in “the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good.” This spiritual malady is permeating many faiths and many people are suffering in silence, in anger, in despair. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us that we do not have to stay stuck in our spiritual maladies, we do not have to promote our faith, our spiritual path through hatred, comparison, denigration of other faiths, paths. We can, and I would add, must engage in the myriad of ways our faith traditions and spiritual disciplines are a “constant reminder of the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good.”

Too often people are suffering in life believing that in the world to come life will be better, our suffering has meaning and is a prelude of rewards to come. Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above calls to us to “love life in this world” not because of suffering, not because of despair, rather because of these “opportunities to do the good.”

What is the good? It is, as he states, “the possibilities of charity and sanctity, because of the many ways to serve the Lord.” “Charity begins at home” is a popular saying of people who do not want to give to another, do not want to give to causes. And, it is an important value for all of us. We have to be charitable with ourselves, we have to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt that we are good, we are capable of doing good, we need to do good, and the doing good enhances our spiritual life, our inner life, and our outer life. Instead of hating one another, instead of needing to make one another either our enemies or allies, instead of the enemy of my enemy being my friend, Rabbi Heschel is teaching us to value one another, to respect one another, to help one another. Rather that seeing danger around every corner, instead of living in an echo chamber of lies, mendacity, deception, instead of believing what someone is saying rather than watching what they are doing, we are being called upon to search out the “everlasting possibilities to do the good.” As Elie Wiesel once taught me, any form of hatred, even hating intolerance, is a slippery slope and will permeate our thinking, our actions and we will make evil good.

We have to return to a way of being that is in concert with serving God, serving one another. We have to see the poor, the needy, the stranger as opportunities to do the good” rather than view them with mistrust, disdain, fear and using them as “whipping boys”. We have to, in order to live into Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and teachings, find cures for the “cancer of the soul” that our prejudices are causing, we have to go to physicians of the soul to have our “eye disease” of prejudice in all of its ugly forms cured. We have to live into our own holiness and recognize the holiness/sanctity of every human being on earth. We are in desperate need of doing this, we are in desperate need of calling our spiritual leaders to task when they preach hatred in subtle and overt ways, we are in desperate need of finding pathways that help us overcome “the perils and pitfalls of existence.”

In recovery we are living Rabbi Heschel’s words. We are pulling ourselves out of the deep hole that engaging in “the perils and pitfalls of existence” has put us in. We know the dangers of which Rabbi Heschel is speaking of because we have lived them. In recovery, we adopt and live the spiritual principles which open us up to “the grand and everlasting opportunities to do the good.” We engage in service, to ourselves through a constant path of ‘failing forward’ and being aware of our errors and repairing them; a path of spiritual growth, one grain of sand at a time; improving our conscious contact with God; as well as seeking opportunities to help another person who is new in recovery, another person in need, and being grateful for what we have, for what we can add to our corner of the world. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 179

“Evil is not only a threat, it is a challenge… The mitsvah, the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self, is our way of dealing with the problem. We do not know how to solve the problem of evil, but we are not exempt from dealing with evils.”(God in Search of Man pg. 377)

Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom in the last sentence above teaches us of the obligation and joy of being human, I believe. As we immerse ourselves in his brilliance, we are able to stop wringing our hands at the “evils” we witness and get into action to deal with them. We will never “solve the problem of evil” and we can deal with the with “evils”. This is our challenge and reminds us of our ability to “live a life that is compatible with being a partner with God”, as Rabbi Heschel describes what it means to “be human”.

Living into Rabbi Heschel’s words above means we can stop living in despair, we can stop whining and bemoaning the state of our world. We are not powerless over the “evils”, we can do something about them, we can mitigate them, we can cease to engage in them. By being a “mitsvah”l ie: by doing the next right thing; by seeking truth; living a life of service; caring for the stranger, the poor, the needy; by doing justly; loving mercy; we deal with the myriad of evils that we and others have perpetrated upon one another, upon ourselves and upon the world.

Having the courage to look inside ourselves, allowing the “mitsvah” to help with the “cleansing of the self”, gives us the roadmap to living well and dealing with “evils”. We are 2.5 weeks from the beginning of passover and 4.5 weeks till we receive the Torah, according to the Jewish Tradition. We take this time to let go of and cleanse ourselves of the slavery we were in last year, the ways we engaged in “evils” wittingly and unwittingly. We make a commitment and a plan in how not to get caught up in selfish desires, in self-seeking behaviors, in self-deceptions and in mendacity. Once we commit to live in truth, we can begin to see the world through the “eyes of God”, we can join with our neighbors and friends to talk about and see the whole picture of what is happening and how to deal “with evils.” This is a path to freedom, freedom from living life from a slave mentality, living life as oppressed/oppressor, living life in fear of loss, living life in a state of despair. Living in truth allows us to more fully realize the Serenity Prayer that Reinhold Niebuhr wrote: We are aware of the grace(pleasing nature) that acceptance(taking in) with serenity(clarity) of the things we cannot change can give us. We can take pleasure in accepting the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s words above, “ we do not know how to solve the problem of evil” with clarity and pleasure. It is a pleasure to know not only are there things I cannot change, they are the things I am not supposed to change! Then we can have the clarity to take in with pleasure “the things we should change”, the “evils” Rabbi Heschel is speaking about above.

Isn’t it time to stop bemoaning what is going on and get into action to change these “evils”? Isn’t it time for us to cleanse our selves of “doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results” as Einstein defines insanity? Isn’t it time for us to “love our neighbor as ourself” as the Bible teaches us? Isn’t it time to stop throwing stones at someone else while we are as guilty as they? Isn’t it time to remember that one can sell the Holy Torah if necessary in order to ransom the captive? Isn’t it time for us to stop being captive to the lies and deceptions of society? Isn’t it time for us to end our dependence on “evils” to get ahead and wield power? Isn’t it time for us to let go of our resentments and hatreds, our jealousies and envies in order to join with one another to make our world as free of “evils” as we can?

In recovery, we are constantly saying and living into the Serenity Prayer. It is not just a mantra, it is a path for us to follow towards the road of happy destiny. In recovery, we engage in freedom from the bondage of self, in freedom from the bondage of jealousy and hatred, freedom from the bondage of self-deception, freedom from the bondage of comparison, freedom from the bondage of resentments, etc. We live into service, into doing the next right thing, into taking Good Orderly Direction, into helping one another, into “loving our neighbor” with a newfound love of self. We are not engaging in the “evils” anymore, we are dealing with them as they come up and we are seeking help from one another. In recovery, we know we have to be vigilant and we leave despair because we learn anew and engage anew each day being free, serving God, helping another and cleansing our self. If only our leaders would engage in a program of Recovery, if only everyone would engage in a program of Recovery, we would deal well with the “evils” and maybe “evil” would diminish. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 178

“Evil is not only a threat, it is a challenge… The mitsvah, the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self, is our way of dealing with the problem. We do not know how to solve the problem of evil, but we are not exempt from dealing with evils.”(God in Search of Man pg. 377)

The prophet, Micah, tells us how to serve God: “Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God”, Moses tells us: “Choose Life”. The Torah teaches us to “care for the stranger, the poor, the needy, the widow, and the orphan” 36 times and the Holiness Code in Leviticus 19 gives us the practical ways of how to live: “You shall be holy because I, God, am holy”. Rabbi Heschel is reminding us “ the mitsvah, the humble single act of serving God” is the path to “helping man, of cleansing the self” in order to deal with the problem of evil. Yet we continue to avoid this truth, we continue to be indifferent to power, the joy, the necessity of ‘the mitsvah”.

Of course many people pride themselves on how many mitzvot they perform, how many times they proclaim their faith in God, Jesus, Allah, etc. These same people do not use the “humble act” of the mitsvah to actually serve God, to help another person nor to cleanse their inner life of the evil that lurks within. They wrap themselves in holy garments, in holy books, in the trappings of service all the while seeking to kill the spirit of another human being, love themselves while hating anyone who is different from them, put harsh burdens upon their ‘enemies’, “deal wisely with them lest when war comes they rise up against us with our enemies” as Pharaoh puts it in Exodus, Chapter 1. These so-called freedom fighters, these heroes of “the American Way” are antithetical to everything that the mitsvah stands for, they are using their bastardization of the mitzvah to do evil, to obstruct justice, to show no mercy, to walk away from the path God gives us.

People today are stuck in their own lanes and their own greediness, their hunger for power and their desire to feel good about themselves. Rabbi Heschel is calling out to all of us to change our ways, to remember/learn that helping another human being is serving God. As he says in his interview with Carl Stern, if you hurt a human being, you are hurting God. Yet, we continue to either participate in hurting another human being by treating them as less than human and/or not on equal footing as we are and denying their infinite worth and dignity. We do not seek to be merciful when guns are our answer to pulling into the wrong driveway, when killing innocent people because they are Asian, Jewish, Muslim, and/or because they are LGBTQ+. We are not serving justice when we pass laws that ban teaching the truth about slavery, anti-semitism, when we go to war with “woke” as an excuse to be cruel. We are not “walking humbly with God” when we take these actions and so many more and state we are doing mitzvot, we are acting in the name of God.

We are at another crossroads in this country, in Israel, in the world. We are engaged in another civil war to determine if this nation, every nation, dedicated to the proposition all people are created equal will last on the earth, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln. Living Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above calls upon all of us to re-dedicate ourselves to the Truth that all people are created with equal infinite worth and dignity, that all people are created as unique individuals with gifts and talents from God that are unique to them alone and we need all of us to participate in life and building a world that “does justly, loves mercy, walks humbly with God.” Each and every human being has to “Choose Life” for this to happen and we do this by living a “mitsvah, a humble single act”.

Service is one of the cornerstones of recovery in general and my recovery in particular. Mitzvot have been and are the foundation of my recovery, my growth as a human being, my transformation from con man to Rabbi, from selfish drunk to generous grateful recovering person. The mitsvah, for me, is the essence of service because I am serving God, helping another human being and cleansing/transforming myself, my inner life. I am angry at the bastardization of mitzvot, I am appalled at the lack of justice and mercy we are witnessing, and I am sad and distressed at the people who say they know what God wants and God wants them to be like Pharaoh instead of Moses. Being of service means giving another human being what they need, not necessarily what they want. Being of service gets me out of myself and into my true self/essence. I am always on the journey to Mt. Sinai, to meeting God and I have to remember to be awake enough, to be present enough in a mitzvah to not pass by the “burning bush”, the light God gives me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 177

“Evil is not only a threat, it is a challenge… The mitsvah, the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self, is our way of dealing with the problem. We do not know how to solve the problem of evil, but we are not exempt from dealing with evils.”(God in Search of Man pg. 377)

The more one immerses oneself in Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom, the more one can enlarge one’s soul, I have found. The teaching above is causing me to tremble with awe and consternation. The second sentence above, reminding us and calling out to us the importance of the mitsvah for our inner life, for our outer life, and to answer the call of God and pay forward some of what we owe to God is a moment, opportunity for us to look inside of ourselves and at the outside world to take notice of where we are, what we are doing and who we are.

The consternation one can experience is to see the myriad of ways we do not use the mitsvah as “the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self” and instead use it to bludgeon another person with our ‘holiness’; our need to have ‘christian law’ be the governing plan of our nation. The false belief that God wants us to kill innocent people because they are different than us, to kill people who make the mistake of getting in the wrong car, knocking at the wrong door, and saying we were afraid for our lives, that we were ‘standing our ground’? When local, state, and national judges and legislatures are deciding what is good medical care and calling this a ‘religious’ duty? When people are judged by the color of their skin, by the religion they practice, by the faith they profess, by the political party they are aligned with, by the zip code they live in, rather than the content of their character, than the service they provide, we should be in deep consternation over our state of being. When the lies that Christ/God cares for wealthy people more than poor people, that God wants whites rather than people of color to rule, that one group is inferior to another based on some ridiculous lies and deceptions, how can we not be in consternation and tremble?

Yet, we hear this type of mendacity every day from ‘good religious folk’, who have never used “the mitsvah” to truly serve God, to engage in “helping man” and do the work “of cleansing the self”. Rather they are bastardize the “humble single act  of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self” to mean they should rule over another human being, groups of human beings, that they know what is best and everyone should be serving them and their leaders who are authoritarians and fascists. How can we not be in consternation and trembling fear over what is going on in our country and in our world today. When we are so stuck in some euphoric recall of the past, repeating the same errors that the prophets came to Israel and Judea about and believing we are exempt, when innocent children and young adults are killed, shot at because of a broken tail light, because they knocked at the wrong door, because they pulled into the wrong driveway, where is our outrage at our behaviors, where is the call for a new way of being that is in concert with the call of the prophets, that brings “the mitsvah, the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self” into the forefront of how we live?

If this is not cause for concern and consternation, if this is not cause for cleansing our self of hatred, of our eye disease and cancer  of the soul as Rabbi Heschel defines prejudice; what will be the catalyst? The followers of these liars and cheats, these scammers and cons will wake up one day to realize their pockets have been picked clean, their fate is no better than the people they hate, and be bewildered at the betrayal by ‘their fearless leaders’.

In recovery, we experience this consternation when we first begin to recover from the mendacity, the self-deception, the horrific actions we initiated and/or participated in that demand our self and every other self we came into contact with. Our recovery is based on letting go of our need to self-deceive, our rolling around in mendacity, repairing the damage from our horrific prior bad acts. We begin to live in awe of “serving God, of helping man and cleansing the self”. We have committed to a new set of principles to live by and “we practice these principles in all our affairs” and stay in awe of how well our lives work and how grateful we are for what we have.

I have been living in consternation over what is happening in our world and I see how it permeates the smallest corners of our lives. I listen to people speak about “those people” and see only differences that make “those people” less than they are. I point out errors in how people are treating one another and I am blamed for my anger, my abrasiveness. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 176

“Evil is not only a threat, it is a challenge… The mitsvah, the humble single act of serving God, of helping man, of cleansing the self, is our way of dealing with the problem. We do not know how to solve the problem of evil, but we are not exempt from dealing with evils.”(God in Search of Man pg. 377)

We have forgotten the wisdom of Rabbi Heschel above and see evil as only a threat, only “how to solve the problem of evil” and not as a “challenge”. In between the first sentence above and the second, Rabbi Heschel teaches us that we are in a “tragic predicament” and hiding in temples and churches, mosques and synagogues, imploring of God to intercede, recognizing the peril nor faith in the omnipotence of God will “stem the tide of evil”(ibid). This was in 1955 when he wrote this and we ignored him then and, unfortunately, many of us are ignoring his prophecy, his call to us, his standing for God, Godliness and his deep faith in our ability to overcome our selfish desires.

One of the challenges of evil, I have found, is that most of us do not recognize it and/or ignore it. We see evil and shrug thinking, ‘this is just the way it is’. We see evil and we engage in self-deception and mendacity to explain that what we are seeing isn’t really evil. We are witnessing people point fingers at their ‘enemies’ and call them evil, we are watching people tell us not to look behind the curtain and if we do, not to believe our eyes, just listen to their words. We are witnesses to the evil of gun violence, senseless hatred, racism, anti-semitism, homophobia, misogyny, and so much more and we seem frozen to do anything. While it is easy to decry “evil”, it is crucial to heed the words of Edmund Blake: “evil flourishes when good people do nothing.” Hence our need to engage with the brilliance of Rabbi Heschel about “the mitsvah”.

Staying with the first sentence, for today, and thinking about our duty to “wage war with evil”, to honor what we “owe to God” from yesterday’s writing; isn’t it time for all of us to stand up to the challenge of evil rather than use it as a threat to impale our opponents, our antagonists, our enemies? When Tucker Carlson uses his megaphone to spread lies, knowingly in order to keep up his ratings and the stock price of Fox News, when Kevin McCarthy goes along with the fringe elements of his party to threaten the credit worthiness and promise of the United States, when the Republican Party is willing to have Trump, a twice impeached and indicted perpetrator of evil, of racism, of anti-semitism, of disdain for the rule of law as their front-runner for their party’s presidential nomination, when the 160+ non-freedom caucus members are too afraid to join with democrats and find solutions to our national challenges, we are witnessing the threat of evil and failing to meet the challenge of evil. We have become so afraid of the deceivers, the Putins in our midst, the Orban admirers here in our country, the thread of fascism that runs throughout our land because they have guns, they have taken over State Houses and State Government in some areas of the country that we cower when evil is in front of us and think we can hide from its effects. How asinine and stupid can we be, how ignorant of history and the failures of our ancestors can we be?

When we see evil as a challenge instead of just a threat, we seek to find solutions through communal discourse. We begin with our own tribes, of course, and, because we know we cannot meet the challenge alone, we begin to engage with other tribes to work together to meet the challenge of evil. Rabbi Heschel’s life is a perfect example of this. He banded together with Reinhold Niebuhr, Martin Luther King, the Berrigan Brothers, Union Theological Seminary, the Vatican, to meet the challenges of evil in his time. He did not need to solve it alone, nor did he need to say ‘only Judaism can save us’. He knew that to “wage war with evil” we would need the help of other tribes and only through creating a community dedicated to “dealing with evils”.

I have been engaged in an eternal struggle with evil my entire life. When I was acting in evil ways, I was a threat to everyone. My recovery, and everyone who is in recovery, is dependent upon seeing evil as a challenge and not let it overwhelm me/us. For me, I have to call it out, I have to confront it, which doesn’t make me popular, doesn’t make me welcome in “polite society” all the time. Yet, I continue to seek out people to work with and help me confront the “evils” we are facing in this moment. I understand Carlson, Murdoch, McCarthy, et al, they only want power because they believe with power they can control evil and use it as a weapon to stay in power. I have to rail against it because I am a student of Rabbi Heschel’s, I am a Jew, I am a human being, I am a son/grandson of men of decency and love, because I can’t live with me without doing this. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 175

“We do not wage war with evil in the name of an abstract concept of duty. We do the good not because it is a value or because of expediency, but because we owe it to God.”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, officially. Yet for the survivors of the Shoah, the soldiers who fought in this most ugly war, their dependents and family members, every day is Remembrance Day and we are trying so hard to forget what happened in Europe from 1933-1945 that we are seeing history repeat itself. I thought I was going to move on to a different teaching of Rabbi Heschel’s, yet remembering the Holocaust has to happen every day, otherwise we lose the battle and stop our effort to “wage war with evil”. We forget that we owe God our good actions, our good deeds, our good thinking and our good heart.

We are seeing the outcome of people refusing to “wage war with evil” that resides within each of us. We are born with the evil inclination and the good inclination, both come from God. In infancy, these two seemingly opposing forces cause the Tohu V’Vohu described in the 2nd verse of the Genesis; emptiness/void and chaos. The suggestion/commandment is to integrate these seemingly opposing forces so that our evil inclination works for and with the good inclination to make great things happen for ourselves, for human beings, for God.


Yet, Clarence Thomas, Jim Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, and so many others who claim to be ‘god-fearing people’, feed the evil inside of them, wage war with the good rather than “wage war with evil”. When we look at Varian Fry and Hiram Bingham IV, when we see what Mary Jayne Gold did to help them and the Emergency Rescue Committee, we see what God-loving Christians are. We see the humanitarian efforts to save people for being people, not excluding them because they are Jewish. We can draw the contrast between these Righteous Christians and the Unrighteous Ones parading around today. We see that evil has won their inner war, that mendacity, deception, power and Fascism are more important to them than repaying the debt owed God for being alive. We are watching the ‘maga’ crowd crowd out Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, God, Allah, Ineffable One, and call evil their power greater than themselves.

It is true, evil is a power greater than we. This is why we have to “wage war with evil” and seek God’s help in our inner battle so we can connect with other divine images, ie people, to join together to “wage war with evil” that Jordan, Trump, Thomas, McCarthy, Greene, Gaetz, et al represent and promote. “Wage war with evil” is, at its core, an inside job. Each of us has to look inside, do an inventory and see where and when we are indifferent/oblivious to the evil around us and the evil we are causing.

Engaging in TShuvah through this lens gives us all a new appreciation of the insidiousness of evil, the power of evil, the disguises evil uses, and the way evil has penetrated our thoughts and society to make us spiritually unwell. Maimonidies wrote a book: The Eight Chapters, about our spiritual ailments and how to heal our soul sickness’. He recommends a physician of the soul and, unfortunately, our clergy are either not equipped to be this spiritual physician, are abdicating the responsibility to therapists, or have lost their own war with evil and are adding to the spiritual ailments individuals and society are suffering from. One marker for knowing this is how many clergy, ‘god-fearing people’ support, clap for, agree with Putin, Orban, Netanyahu, MBS, etc. Anyone who attended the gathering where Orban spoke to CPAC, to the Republican Party core, is someone who supports fascism, supports exactly the opposite of what Holocaust Remembrance Day is about.

Harriet Rossetto, my wife, says “you don’t have to be an addict to be in recovery” and “you are either in recovery or denial.” We are living in a time where the principles of recovery have to be incorporated into every persons daily actions. It is a time where the teachings of Torah, the path of Jesus’ loving every person, Mohammed’s call to serving Allah have to actions we take all the time, not just words we spout. We all need to get back to the task to “wage war with evil” for our benefit, for the society’s benefit and to pay back what we owe God. I have been looking inside of me, I realize that my delivery at times is not understandable by some people and I also know that, at times, I lose my war with evil. I am able, however, to admit it, repair it and repair me. I also know that I live my principles no matter what, that without principles I would never be in recovery and I am deathly afraid to look the other way when evil is around me, when it is more expedient to stay silent. The prophets are the example for me and for you. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom- A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 174

“We do not wage war with evil in the name of an abstract concept of duty. We do the good not because it is a value or because of expediency, but because we owe it to God.”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Tonight begins Holocaust Remembrance Day, 80 years ago was the Warsaw Ghetto uprising where Jews took action against their oppressors. They waged “war with evil” in the name of God, not some “abstract concept of duty”, no matter what their religious level of observance was. They knew they were targeted because they were Jews and Hitler needed a scapegoat. Their actions showed they were not just going to do nothing, they were not going to be indifferent to the evil of the Nazis and the Poles who collaborated. Unfortunately, while we remember them tonight and tomorrow, we are not necessarily following their example!

We are living in a time where evil is disguising itself as good, where hatred and fear are running rampant, where Truth is being manipulated and facts are being discarded in favor of “alternative” ones. We are witnessing the proliferation of fascism once again here in our own country. We are hearing Netanyahu extolled for his authoritarian actions, we are being deceived by charlatans and liars, truth is being deflected through actions which will scare us into submission and some of our elected officials, some of our clergy, some of our lawyers, some of our educators, some of our media, some of us are surrendering to the evil being waged ‘in the name of good’.

We, the people, have to “wage war with evil” in the name of God, in the name of decency, in the name of humanity, in the name of justice, in the name of mercy, in the name love, in the name of freedom. We have to take back God’s Name from the liars and deceivers who use God’s Name as an abstract, who use God’s Name to promote evil as good. It is up to us to stop the mendacity being spewed in our streets, in our houses of worship, in our homes, in our halls of justice, in our halls of Congress. It is time for we, the people, to say NO to Marjorie Taylor Greene and her extolling of white supremacy, it is time to say NO to Ron DeSantis’ assault on freedom to choose and women’s rights, it is time to say NO to the lackeys who cozy up to the corrupt NRA and extoll a culture of guns and violence. It is time to say NO to criminals who hide behind their money, power, and lies. It is time to say NO to the authoritarians who are in power and those who back them, it is time to say NO to those for whom fascism holds such fascination and power. It is time to remember the stain on America prior to and during the Holocaust when our State Department and members of Congress were fans of Hitler and denied life-saving visas to Jews from Europe. It is time to say “Never Again” to allowing these fascist devotees to rule and ruin our freedoms and the Great Experiment called the United States.

Yet, saying NO is not enough. We, the people, have to say YES to a more just society. We have to say YES to ensuring that “ the moral arc of the universes bends towards justice”. We have to say YES to respecting the inherent dignity and worth of every human being. We have to say YES to the uniqueness of every human being, YES to their unique gifts and talents that were endowed to us all by God and are needed for everyone’s betterment. We have to say YES to growing our inner lives and living into our role as partners with God. We have to say YES to the good, YES to truth, YES to mercy, YES to lovingkindness, YES to walking in the ways of God, YES to paying back at least some of what we “owe to God.”

This is what recovery teaches and preaches. This is the only way to live in recovery is by saying NO to evil and YES to good, NO to mendacity and YES to truth. Our “searching and fearless inventory” comes after we “made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God”. We are deeply aware of the debt of gratitude for our recovery, we are committed to paying it forward through actions of good and repairing the evil we have wrought.

I know that my NO is very loud, it is very brusque at times, it can even be seen as harsh and it is very strong. I have spent the last 34+ years saying NO in order to say YES. I am constantly looking inside to take note of the good and enhance it as well as find the evil and repair it. I will never vanquish evil from the world nor from me completely and, as Rabbi Tarfon teaches, it isn’t my job to finish the work and I am not free to engage in it. I believe when we “wage war with evil” so we pay down what we “owe to God”, our life and everyone else’s is a little better. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 173

“We do not wage war with evil in the name of an abstract concept of duty. We do the good not because it is a value or because of expediency, but because we owe it to God.”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

In light of history, in light of what is happening today, these words of Rabbi Heschel send chills throughout my being. The first sentence reminds us that we must “wage war with evil” and I am afraid we have fallen very short of this fact, this demand, this calling. We have confused evil with good for so long and with such intensity that many of us are unable to distinguish one from the other. Another challenge we face as human beings “yearning to breathe free” is our indifference to evil, our going along to get along, our fear of standing for what is right and good, our submission to ‘this is the way it is’ and our subservience to “on advice of legal counsel”.

To immerse ourselves in the wisdom of Rabbi Heschel above, we first have to immerse ourselves in our own actions and inactions. We listen to people extol guns and assault rifles in the name of freedom and liberty while these same people seek to kill women who, for their own reasons and in their own anguish, decide to seek an abortion! They have decided that a fetus is human upon conception, which is different than what Judaism says, and call abortion murder instead of a medical condition that a women has to decide about, much like a cancer patient deciding which treatment to seek or not seek.

“In the name of God” people extol evil and discard good, saying that Jesus tells them to abuse the ‘anti-christ’ which is anyone who doesn’t believe what they do, whether Christian or not. “In the name of Jesus” these people make immigrants devils, democrats pedophiles, Jews liberal, blacks the enemy, etc. They are passing anti-voting rights laws, denying medical treatments to women and the poor, etc. Yet, Jesus’ words, like those of the prophets were to rail against such actions, he and they stood with the poor, the needy, the stranger, the widow, and the orphan. Jesus, the prophets, Abraham, Moses all stood with and for the people who were enslaved to a life of misery because they were conquered, enslaved, shunned, powerless and voiceless. Yet, these people who excel in confusing evil with good, go against the very people in whose name they speak and act!

They are acting in “an abstract concept of duty” that is only to serve themselves and we, the people, must stand up to their evil, must not go along with their confusing evil and good, must no longer be silent and indifferent. We, the people, have to look inside of ourselves and heed the voice of duty to God, duty to what is right and good, duty to our fellow human beings, and stand for the good, for our moral values. We have to stand with the poor, the needy, the stranger, so no one ever feels left out. All spiritual disciplines teach us and remind us that every person matters, every person has infinite dignity, every person is in need of assistance, community and everyone belongs because we are all created in “the Image of God”. We have to speak, we have to vote, we have to stand up to these charlatans and bullies and we have to stand with one another in strength, support and loving kindness.

In recovery, we join in a very concrete sense of duty in order to “wage war with evil.” Our recovery is based on the fact that we were people who made evil good and good evil, we were the type of people who bastardized morality to serve our desires and selfishness, we were the type of people who sought money, power, prestige, and were obstinate and stubborn just because we could be. Now, we have a new sense of duty, a new way of living, a returning to our moral compass and a return to decency and service. We join with one another and are loyal to a power greater than ourselves, to a morality that sees every person as precious and to a way of being we can be proud of with all of our imperfections.

Because of my life prior to recovery, I am acutely aware of evil and I have waged war against it for these past 35 years, even while in prison. I do it loudly, I do it brashly, I do it with an urgency that comes from deep in my soul. This past Friday was the 100th birthday of my father, Jerry, and I know that I have his loudness and his loyalty. I know that people are put off by my intensity and passion, yet I can’t be any other way. When I see, smell, intuit evil, I go to war with all the weapons available because I used evil to harm people. Waging this war comes from the sense of duty I have to my father’s example and memory, from the sense of duty I have to God and the people who need to be uplifted from the slavery they are in. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living rabbi heschel’s wisdom - A daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 172

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Holiness is a state of being in which we experience being set apart, elevated, and connected. While these three experiences may seem different, they are, in fact, very connected. Rabbi Heschel is, once again, reminding us and/or teaching us what it means to be human, what it takes “to overcome the powers of evil”, holiness through the mitzvot. We are called to be “a holy nation”, a “nation of priests” which means we do not relegate holiness to ‘those exalted few’, rather we are all responsible, capable and needed to live in the state of holiness. As imperfect as we may be at any given moment, we still have the obligation and reward of being holy.

We do not set ourselves apart from other people, we set ourselves apart from the “seductiveness of vice”. In turning and returning to our primordial state of being holy, we live into and lean into the “power of love” that abides in our guts and is diminished and defeated by our fears, our giving into “the powers of evil”, our self-deception that we are not good enough nor are we capable of being holy. Living into our innate holiness allows us to see the beauty of our souls, the power of our talents/gifts, and the strength to follow through on our calling and live our purpose and passion out loud. It is hard to do in the world of mendacity and illusion which has overpowered and sneered at our basic goodness of being and our holiness. Holiness is a gift that we are given at birth, and as Einstein reminds us, “we have forgotten the gift and worship the servant” which is what gives the “seductiveness of vice” its shine and allure.

We elevate our self and our world through “the joys of mitsvah”. The mitzvah is a pathway and a roadmap to our returning to our authentic self and being of service to God, other people, and our selves. It is our guide to finding the purpose and meaning in the seemingly smallest of acts and in the grandeur of living morally. Rabbi Heschel is calling out to us in this and every one of his teachings to “come home”, to leave the superficiality of ‘how things look’ and immerse ourselves in the joy, the learning, the liberation and freedom that engaging in mitzvot gives us. He is demanding we live up to our calling, live up to our being a partner with God, live up to the divine need we are created to suffice. We can only do this when we elevate our self from “the powers of evil” and return to “living in the light of the face of God”. We are capable, we are needed, we yearn to do this, it is only the deception of another(s) and our self-deception that prevents us.

As we set ourselves apart and elevate our self, we are connected to our souls and to the souls of everyone around us. Setting ourselves apart and elevating ourselves gives us the opportunity to relate to one another on a soul-to-soul level rather than on a role-to-role level. We also relate to God on a soul-to-soul level which replaces the infantile vision of God, replaces the anthropomorphic ideas of God and we relate to the creative energy, the morality, the kindness and compassion, the truth and justice of God. We are able to accept people for who they are and not “need” to make false images of them nor buy into the false images they present. We are able to accept our self with our imperfections and not need to hide behind facades and mendacity. Being connected gives us the “power of love” and the experience of “the joys of the mitsvah”.

In recovery, we set ourselves apart from the negative version of our selves that we engaged in with veracity and vengeance. Through the steps, through the mitzvot, we elevate our daily living and “act our way into right thinking and feeling”. Being a part of recovery allows us to know we are connected to one another and we are needed by another(s) and we need them as well. Being in recovery is being in holiness, being in recovery is hearing and heeding God’s call and Rabbi Heschel’s teachings.

I do not always live into my holiness, I make mistakes and have a negative impact at times. Yet, I also know how often I am living into holiness and how much joy I receive from the mitzvot. As I grow in my understanding of Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and in my own recovery, I find the “power of love” overwhelms me and allows me to feel sad for those who are stuck in their Egypts and joyful in connecting with others who “trudge the road to happy destiny’ with me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Livng Rabbi Heschel’s Wisdom - A Daily path to living well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 171

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself” we are taught in the Holiness Code in Leviticus, Chapter 19. “You are a Nation of Priests, A Holy Nation” we are reminded of a few times in the Torah. The Rabbis teach that “we are to see ourselves AS IF holiness resides in our guts,(we are full of holiness)”. We have 613 pathways to rising above the seductiveness of vice and engage in the “power of love” and “the joys of the mitsvah”. Isn’t it time we actually use “the light of the face of God” to engage with love and mitzvah, with one another as fellow travelers? Rabbi Heschel teaches us that we are divine reminders, so whenever we see another human being, we are seeing an image of God, a reminder of God. Hence we are “living in the light of the face of God” all the time and we keep being willfully blind to it!

Utilizing the “power of love” does not mean ‘live and let live’, it doesn’t mean everyone can do anything they want, it doesn’t mean that all behaviors are ‘cool’. Utilizing the “power of love” does mean we care about another human being; how they are physically, emotionally, spiritually. It means we care about our self and how we are doing emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It means that rather than engage in the usual negative self-talk-we praise ourselves for the good we do and make a plan to repair any harm we have done and stop trying to do things that are out of our realm, our capabilities, our understanding. We surrender to the fact that we can’t do everything and asking for help, giving someone else space to do their work/expertise is an act of giving, it is an act of grace to us that someone else can do what we can’t and an act of grace to another person by recognizing their talents and asking for their help. This is an act of strength, love, holiness.

Utilizing the “power of love” means we engage in conversations with people who we think may be heading down the wrong path. In rebuking someone one, we help the person see their own capabilities, see the faith we have in them that they can turn stuff around, and we are reaching out to stop a disaster, a harm to them and anyone else. Doing this from love means we are not berating them, we are raising them up, we are not lording over them, we are where they are at and reaching out a hand, an olive branch, a mentoring. Utilizing the “power of love” also allows us to accept people who shun us without resentments, it helps us keep the door to our hearts open even when we have to close the doors of our homes. The “power of love” helps us take the next right action and connects us to the universe and one another.

“The joys of the mitsvah” are too many to list, yet, I will illuminate a few. One joy is the connection that is made with God and another human being when we are in mitsvah rather than vice. While being part of a gang to engage in vice is fun, it is not joy, it is not sustainable, and it leads to ruin, “the joys the mitsvah” makes us part of God’s Gang and is not always fun, it is a sense of completeness, accomplishment, grace, joy of knowing that I am building a better life for my self and all those around me. It is a sense of fulfillment and a step closer to deeper connections with nature, humanity, God, universe. It gives one a deep breath and an ability to enjoy breathing and take everything in without needing to make it according to our design. The “joys of the mitsvah” and the “power of love” help us to live in acceptance of life, sadness at the pain, suffering, hatred, anger, and commitment to make our corner of the world a little better than when we found it.

In recovery and in my life since I began my recovery, there is no such thing as perfection! Living in the “power of love” and “the joys of the mitsvah” give us a glimpse  and a goal of how we want to live and the rewards of following a spiritual path that honors God, honors human beings, honors nature and honors self. We get to enjoy the good and have faith the sorrow will pass and we will know how to handle both with grace, joy, kindness and care. We are constantly living without resentments and in divine pathos for the people who are stuck in their anger, hatred, self-loathing, etc. We know how sad it is to be stuck in needing to be right, needing to look perfect, needing to be liked by the ‘right people’, and the sadness, pain and distress it causes. Living in the “power of love” and “the joys of the mitsvah” have lifted us out of this deep hole and we pray that others can experience this uplift as well. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 170

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Rabbi Heschel’s influence on America in a very turbulent time is historical. What many people miss, I believe, is his concern and influence on our inner lives. It is easy to blame “them” and march against racism, homophobia, antisemitism, Islamaphobia, greed of corporations, etc, it is harder to look inside of ourselves and see how we have been seduced by vice, how we have allowed evil into our hearts and minds willfully and unwittingly. Rabbi Heschel’s words above are directed at our inner lives as much as the outside world, if not more in my opinion and experience.

Immersing ourselves in these sentences necessitates a dive into our actions, our thoughts, our inner world. “The seductiveness of vice” emerges from our insecurity, our feeling of less/lacking, a poverty of our spirit because we have rejected the truth that we are “living in the light of the face of God” and we have the “power of love” to draw on. Instead we focus on what we don’t have, we focus on what another does have, we focus on quick, fast and in a hurry, etc. The other day I read an article in The New Yorker about the run on Ozempic as a weight-loss miracle drug and how diabetics who actually need it can’t get this life-saving drug because the rich, famous, etc are buying it up! Full-disclosure, I asked my doctor if it would help me in my struggle with weight and she said she didn’t want to take it away from her patients who have diabetes. This is how seductive vice is in our inner lives, we will selfishly use something that is meant for people who really need it for our own desires and wants. We live in a world where the inner life, while spoken about often and loudly by many clergy and eastern philosophy practitioners, is left adrift, is left unmoored and unattended to.

Rabbi Heschel’s words are meant for us to look inside ourselves, to see how we can overcome the “seductiveness of vice” by doing mitzvot, by taking the next right action no matter how/what we think or feel. Before Nike, Judaism taught: “just do it” (the mitzvot) and then the understanding, the feeling, the thinking will come. Before Descartes: “I think, therefore I am”, Judaism, through the mitzvot, acknowledged ‘I am a human being endowed by my Creator, therefore I think’. Looking inside of ourselves to see how we fall into “the seductiveness of vice” is crucial if we are to separate truth from lies, deception from reality, and make the changes necessary to “live in the light of the face of God” and experience “the joys of the mitsvah.” Rabbi Heschel is calling out to us and calling us out on our facades of piety, our fake religiosity, I believe. He is calling all the people who perform mitzvot, who wrap themselves in Jesus, who praise Mohammed and treat another person with disdain, use people for their own selfish needs, bastardize the Torah, the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran, the Eastern Philosophies for their aggrandizement and riches.

We have to end our dependence on “vice” and engage in “the joys of the mitsvah”; our inner lives depend on it. Without a stronger inner life, an inner life devoted to truth, love, compassion, justice, kindness… our outer lives will continue to be in the shambles they are in right now; democracy in the US teetering on its foundation, racism being flouted in State Capitals, the Halls of Congress, the Supreme Court, as well as in the streets, marketplace, workplace, hatred of Jews for no reason other than we are Jews, 2.4% of the population and 55% of the hate crimes, from many of ‘the good people’. We have “the power of love”, we have “the joys of the mitsvah” to save us. Tomorrow more on how they can.

I have seen a shift in my inner life since I began writing this blog. Rabbi Heschel’s words above reverberate truth and power to and for me. I have found a myriad of ways I had been seduced by vice and have repaired them through “the joys of the mitsvah” and “ the power of love”. I have no resentments, no angers, no blame, no shame, about the past. I still review it every so often to see how and where I erred and seek to repair my inner damage, my inner life and, of course, the damage anyone else experienced. I also know that I cannot change the opinion of someone else and if they take what I write, what I say, in ways I did not intend, if they consciously misinterpret my words and actions for their own false narrative, I am powerless and I rely on “the power of love” to send them prayers of healing and goodness. No hate, just love! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 169

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

I am not sure if the second sentence above was ever truly believed by human beings. It is, for sure, the teachings of Torah, Bible, New Testament, Koran, and all other spiritual disciplines, yet, it doesn’t seem to have been practiced by the “powers that be” very often! In his interview with Carl Stern, recorded 10 days before his sudden death, Rabbi Heschel says: “There was an old idea in America that virtue pays. And the idea was very helpful to many people, until some of us discovered that crime pays even more. And it does.” We have gone away from the idea that virtue, hard work, decency, truthfulness, kindness, compassion, etc. pays and believe that deception of self and/or another; stealing of souls, minds, identity, dignity; liberty to kill with guns so I can keep my assault weapon in case ‘they’ come for me; unwelcoming of the stranger, imprisoning the poor and needy; etc. We have become a society that rewards the thief if they can con and steal big enough, rewards the liar if they voice our ‘oppression’ loud enough, exalt the Pharaoh within and outside of us if they promise to cater to our fears of irrelevance and becoming ‘less than’ the ____(fill in the blank).

Whether it is in Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Sandy Hook, etc the gun violence doesn’t seem to matter to some people. Rather than seeking solutions to this uniquely American phenomena, some of the elected officials would rather take money from Gun Lobbyists and blame the individual. While it is true that the individual firing the assault weapons is responsible, in no way am I absolving them of guilt nor responsibility, it is also true as Rabbi Heschel says: “In a free society, some are guilty, all are responsible.” He goes on to say, in his interview with Carl Stern: “How can I pray when I have on my conscience the awareness that I am co-responsible for the death of innocent people in Vietnam?” Anyone who blames only the one who pulls the trigger is abdicating their responsibility as a human being, as a reminder of God, as a divine need, as a person of faith. These so-called ‘god-fearing’ idolators and charlatans believe in, practice and are overwhelmed with “the seductiveness of sin” and they find no “joys of the mitsvah”. We, the people, have to force the change; We, the people, have to stop these charlatans from making America small again, from re-creating the atmosphere that almost broke this country apart in the 1840’s on regarding slavery. Even after the defeat of the Confederacy, the emancipation of the Negroes, the charlatans in Government made the Jim Crow laws possible, still treated Black people as less than, still shunned the immigrant, etc, all in the name of the flag and patriotism. We, as a country, have practiced, been willfully blind and deeply committed to “the seductiveness of sin” over the “joys of the mitsvah” from our beginning and it is time to stop pretending, it is time to stop lying and it is time to stop bastardizing religion by saying this is what God wants when it is really what Pharaoh wants.

We have a choice that needs to be made: are we going to continue to give in to the “seductiveness of sin” or embrace the “joys of the mitsvah”? This is not an easy choice, it is not an apparent choice to most people. Many people see themselves as good people and they are willing to ignore the homeless, complain about what is not being done, ban the stranger from our doorsteps, not believe in redemption and rehabilitation, be unforgiving, be judgmental about another without ever looking at themselves, etc. While not overtly evil in their minds, their actions are always tinged with “the seductiveness of sin” by getting over when they can and ignoring the call of God to care for the needy, the poor, the stranger, and to defeat the inner Pharaoh as well as stand up to the Pharaohs in our midst.

In recovery, we find the joy of service, the joy of sobriety, the joy of a “new pair of glasses” and the joy of redemption. “We made a list of those we had harmed and became willing to make amends…” is the 8th Step of the Anonymous Programs and a crucial step because it moves us from shame about our errors into guilt for what we have done. This step moves us from “the seductiveness of sin” into the “joys of mitsvah” because we are now repairing the damage, asking for forgiveness, acknowledging the harm we brought to another human being, and having a plan to not repeat this bad behavior. Amends/Tshuvah is one of the greatest mitsvah and the joy of being free of shame and guilt, being reconnected to ones’ authentic self, and connected to people, soul to soul-not role to role.

God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 168

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Rabbi Heschel does not diminish the “seductiveness of vice” in this piece of wisdom from him, rather he acknowledges it and gives us the antidote to it, “joys of mitsvah” and “power of love”. As I delve into these three sentences above, I am struck with the simplicity and difficulty contained therein.

We have to “make a decision” as the 12 Steps of AA suggest to us, to live in “the light of the face of God”! We have to make a decision to stop hiding from God, hiding from one another, we have to stop worshiping false gods of our own making. We need to see the world through God’s ‘eyes’ and remember the call of the prophet Micah, the charge of Moses: “walk in the ways of God, guard and do these mitzvot, do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God.” Throughout the Hebrew Bible we see our heroes “living in the light of the face of God” and then living according to the mask they put on. No biblical figure is perfect, no biblical figure ever gets it all right, yet they manage to live the power of love more often than not because they seek to live in “the light of the face of God.”

This first sentence also teaches us that God’s face is always showing, God is not some distant entity (or made up story as some would say), rather God is close, God’s light is here for us to live in. When we see another person, we can choose to see the “light of the face of God”, as Jacob did when he reunited with his brother Esau. When Moses ‘met’ God, people could see the light radiate off of his face. When we see another human being, we have the choice to see the “light of the face of God”, the particular divine image that human being represents or to see the enemy, to put on our mask, to see how we could use this human being to further our selfish gains.

We are faced with this choice each and every day. Rabbi Heschel published God in Search of Man in 1955, he had the gift of prophecy that we here in the United States were going to face this choice over and over. Yet, today’s emergencies regarding speaking truth, diminishing racism, antisemitism, all forms of hatred have been building for a long time, almost since the end of WWII. It was difficult for Jews to get into the US even after the war, it was difficult for Blacks to vote even after fighting for our country, the Rosenbergs were scapegoated, especially Ethel who was known to be innocent, and executed. The National Prayer Breakfast began as an instrument to woo lawmakers and foreign officials to a new way of emulating Christ, be the lion-not the lamb, the prosperity gospel, etc. Rabbi Heschel saw what was happening in the name of idolatry and being called ‘god’ so he wrote to warn, to teach, to help us overcome some natural tendencies by “living in the light of the face of God”!

We are being bombarded by the charlatans in Tennessee who are willing to mistreat people for their love of Guns and Power! We are watching Florida ban a picture novel of Anne Frank, we witness parents being able to ban teaching about the Civil Rights movement, which Rabbi Heschel was a part of, because it might offend a white person, it might traumatize a young white boy or girl. We need to traumatize people, we need to help people reach a bottom of their own evil so they can recover their humanity. People like DeSantis, Pence, Hutchinson,  McCarthy, Greene, et al have to be shaken, traumatized, suffer in order to return to “live in the light of the face of God” and not in the darkness of the face in their mirror!

In recovery, turning our will over to the care of God, as we understand God, is a crucial point in our recovery. It is the time we embrace and commit to “the power of love” and to “living in the light of the face of God” to the best of our ability. Not perfectly and we seek to grow along these lines one day at a time and to seek spiritual progress.

I am blessed with the bounty that God has blessed me with, the power and strength to spread the “power of love” to another person. I am blessed to keep learning how to enlarge my life by learning new ways, new subtleties, as to “living in the light of the face of God”. I made the decision 34+ years ago and I make the decision each day I renew it, grow it, find new ways to understand my decision and realize how my actions of years ago were affected by my lack of understanding as I do today, yet not out of malice or ego. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 167

“Living in “the light of the face of God” bestows upon man a power of love that enables him to overcome the powers of evil. The seductiveness of vice is excelled by the joys of the mitsvah. “Ye shall be men of holiness unto Me” (Exodus 22:30).”(God in Search of Man pg 376)

Today is Easter Sunday and the 3rd day of Passover, this quote from Rabbi Heschel speaks to the experience of both Passover, Easter, and Ramadan, I believe. All of these Holy Days represent ecstatic experiences of being “in the light of the face of God” and are meant to imbue us with the “power of love”. These holidays give us a framework to remember, to immerse ourselves in these experiences of “a power of love” to “overcome the powers of evil” that live inside of us as well as those outside of us. This is the great challenge for all of us.

“What are you a slave to” is the question that Passover is the answer to. What Pharaoh have you set over yourself, what Pharaoh have you allowed yourself to become a slave to in your inner life as well as your outer life? These are, in my opinion and how I am understanding Rabbi Heschel today, the main questions that the phrase: “Every person should see him or herself as if she/he/they were brought out of Egypt” that is in the Haggadah and we read at our Seders. Slavery is evil, Pharaoh is evil and only when we are “living in “the light of the face of God” can we overcome these evils that dwell inside of us and outside of us.

Unfortunately religion, as practiced by some, has/is using the “light of the face of God” to enhance evil and diminish love. Unfortunately, there are people who claim to speak in God’s name who using “the powers of evil” to overcome “the power of love”. Notice that the use of the plural when speaking of evil and the singular when speaking of love in the quote above. Evil has many different insidious ways of infiltrating our living, many different forms of hiding in what seems “good” and “Godly”, and so many of us are willfully blind to the myriad of ways the “powers of evil” overcome us, deceive us, and we join with them. We are facing a great upswing from “people of faith” who promote evil, believe in guns that kill being okay to use for the sport of killing another human being, who expel people who disagree with them from the halls of power, who claim to be ‘populists’ when they are not trying to help the disenfranchised but trying to get people to go against their best interests by appealing to “the powers of evil” that live in their inner lives.

We are in such a state of disarray that if Jesus sat in many churches today, he would never recognize his words nor his way of serving God. He would be aghast at the use of his teachings to serve “the powers of evil” by bastardizing his helping the poor, the needy, the stranger, the criminal, etc. We are in such a state of disarray that if the Prophets of Israel were speaking out, they would be scorned, thrown in jail and, in some states, lynched! We are in such a state of disarray that Rabbi Heschel’s words are quoted and not lived, Rev King’s words are revered and not lived, because the “powers of evil” are using great teachings, great experiences of “living in the light of the face of God” for their selfish needs and desires. We are living in a time where the prophets are forgotten and used for evil, where Jesus’ teachings are used for evil, where the Hebrew Bible is used for evil by the mendacious and evil practitioners who claim to be ‘speaking the word of god’ and speak the words of idolatry.

In recovery, we know that only by “living in the light of the face of God” can we “overcome the powers of evil” that reside within us. We know the damage, the spiritual death that comes from living into “the powers of evil”, we know the lies we tell ourselves to become slaves while thinking we are free. We know that being human means we have to make “Free-Will Moral Choices” as Rabbi Abraham Twerski teaches. We are aware of our need to engage with the “power of love”, towards our self and towards another(s). In recovery, we see one another as holy souls, loved by God and our goal is to live into and from the “power of love”.

The “powers of evil” have taken so many forms in my life. I am aware and guilty of thinking I was being loving and actually being overcome with the “powers of evil.” I have been fooled by my own inner slaveries and inner evil. I am sorry to all who suffered because of it. I also know that “the power of love” is where I live more and more in these past 34+ years of recovery, not always, not perfectly, yet more than 51% and “living in the light of the face of God” more and more gives me the hope and the strength to persevere, to spread God’s message in my own unique way. I know I need help to “overcome the powers of evil” and God, family, friends are the help I am blessed with. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Year 2 Day 166

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 166

“The biblical answer to evil is not the good, but the holy. It is an attempt to raise man to a higher level of existence, where man is not alone when confronted with evil.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)

Now that the Seders are over, the work begins:) We count the Omer in the Jewish Tradition, 50 days until we reach Mount Sinai and receive the word of God, the experience of God and the guidance God gives so we can raise up to the “ holy”. It is also Good Friday today, when Christ and his disciples conducted a Seder and then, on Sunday, is Easter. These two holy periods, as I have said before, are periods of redemption. Immersing ourselves in Rabbi Heschel’s words, give us a new context for these events, the new context is raising our level of existence from the profane, from the depths of hopelessness, to the level of redemption, of hope, of connection, of the “holy”. 

It is only through our connection to “holy” can we attain the help we need to confront the evil that is around us and the evil that is within us. Prejudice, our inability to hear one another, our stiff-neckedness, our need to project onto another the negativity that we participate in and feel are some of the facets of evil we battle with daily. Our indifference to the plight of the poor, the widow, the orphan, the stranger is an indifference to evil, and Rabbi Heschel warns us that this is the greatest evil. Our complacency to “that’s life”, to “this is the way it has always been”, “be a man and take it”, etc is an indifference to evil, it is a giving up to the forces in the universe that are self serving and authoritarian, it is admitting that our own inner evil is too much for us. Yet, Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and truth above seem to be ignored and this may be the greatest weapon evil has-our ignoring of truth, our ignoring of guidance, our ignoring of the opportunities to be “holy”. How we got here is not at issue here, what we do now that we are aware of where we are, how we are and what to do with this uncovering of our eyes, this taking off of the blinders, this is what is at issue right here, right now. 

When school students walk out of classes and go to the State Building in Tennessee to protest the killing of 3 9-year old kids because the Republican majority won’t put a limit on assault weapons that were created for war situations, because they will not honor the humanity and dignity of LGBTQ+ and other ethnic minorities such as people of color, Jews, Muslims, etc, and the response is to unseat a duly elected Democratic Representative because he joined in a lawful, law-abiding protest, we are watching evil in action. When people go to church and hatred is spewed about “those people”, “the sinners”, “the murderers who exercise their freedom and choose abortion for any number of reasons”, we are witnesses and, for those who go along with these misguided clergy, practitioners of evil. We, the people, who left Egypt these past two nights, we, the people, who will celebrate Christ’s resurrection, and we do nothing to promote dignity and holiness, are not the people who follow Christ, are not the people who left Egypt. We are the people who chose to stay in the comfort of slavery, we are the people who desecrate Christ’s name and teachings. We are the people who give evil more energy, more fuel and more power. 

We, the people, live life as Christ preached, we, the people, who followed Moses out of Egypt, out of narrow places, we are the people who must stand with the students, must stand with the statehouse legislators who stand with our children. We are the people who get to raise our self and one another to the level of holy” and use the guidance and assistance of the people around us and the power greater than ourselves, i e God to confront and transform evil into holiness, into service, into kindness, justice, mercy, compassion, love, truth and freedom. While right now we are beginning the journey through the wilderness, connecting with “holy” gives us community and strength to be invigorated and enriched by the travails along the wilderness trail from liberty to freedom. 

“Honesty, open mindedness, willingness are the three key ingredients we learn in early recovery to be able to travail the pitfalls of our journey in recovery. They are also ingredients in reaching “holy”. We know that our journey is physical, mental and spiritual-with many of us believing that spiritual is the key component between not using and being in recovery. 

“Holy” is not a constant state for me, it is the only state of being that has allowed me to change, to ward off the inner negativity that wants to bring me down, to face down my enemies with strength, courage and kindness. I need the help that God, community, family give me so I can transform the evil within and outside of me. God Bless, Rabbi Mark

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Living Rabbi Heschel's Wisdom - A Daily Path to Living Well

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 165

“The biblical answer to evil is not the good, but the holy. It is an attempt to raise man to a higher level of existence, where man is not alone when confronted with evil.” (God in Search of Man pg. 376)

On this first day of Passover, as the dawn breaks and the Israelites realize they are no longer trapped under the thumb of Pharaoh, they are also on the run from Egypt, lest Pharaoh come to his senses and realize what he has done and chase after them. I am sure they feel exhilaration and fear, which is the description for our encounter with God and with the “holy”. While it is fun for some and boring for others to sit at the Seder table and tell the story, it is imperative for us to engage in the story of the Exodus from Egypt “as if we ourselves had been redeemed from Egypt”, as the Haggadah teaches us. Which, in my thinking means we have to leave at least one of the myriad of inner slaveries that we are in.

It is impossible “to raise man to higher level of existence” when we are stuck in the mud, the muck, the mire, of our inner slaveries. When we are stuck in an ego that says we are never wrong, when we have to be right to everyone on our outside, never admit our own errors/our own part in any negative interaction, when we have bought this lie of ‘smartest person in the room’, ‘don’t they know who I think I am’, we are enslaved and alone-no matter how many people we have around us. We also, somewhere, know that we are fallible, know we have to make/should make amends, desperately want to have real connections and we are too stuck in the deceptions of our inner evil inclination, hence we stay a slave to self-deception and mendacity. How many of us are afraid to raise up “to a higher level of existence” because it will mean we cannot wear the mask of perfection?

Our Seders, the story, the food, all come to remind us that redemption from slavery is possible, that leaving Egypt was not a one and done experience, it is a constant possibility, as long as we are willing to leave. There is a midrash(commentary) that says only 20% of the slaves left Egypt-80% were more fearful of freedom, of redemption, of the “holy” than they were of the ignominy of being a slave! Another of the inner slaveries that many people suffer with is ‘nothing will change’, ‘this is my lot in life’, ‘I am a victim’, etc and these lies we tell ourselves keep us locked into the slavery of blame and hopelessness. The story of the Exodus from Egypt, the story of crossing the Red Sea, all show how the “holy” raises us up to believe in and participate in our liberation, redemption and journey towards freedom. We are in a world where pointing the finger to deflect from anyone seeing us, to blame everyone else for our circumstances, to give up any hope, any effort to change are strangling the freedom that Passover embodies.

There are many more inner slaveries that I could mention. It is important for everyone to look at their lives and see which Egypt you are still enslaved in, which Pharaoh you are still serving with glee and joy, unaware of your enslavement. It is imperative to “lift up your eyes and see” as God tells Abraham, the masks you wear, the inauthentic lifestyle you practice and the evil you produce. “Holy” is here to help us, the Seder is “holy” because it comes to help us remember our proper place in life being free people.  It helps us to raise every person “to a higher level of existence and reminds us this is the call of the poor and the needy, the stranger and the citizen alike. Our inner slaveries are like cataracts on our eyes, they give us the vision that slavery is freedom, evil is good, profane is “holy”, they turn everything upside down, they are the source of the sickness of our souls. Yet, “holy” is still with us, the story is still being written by us and we can say YES to liberation and journey to freedom, we can say NO to self-deception and mendacity. Which will you choose this year?

Recovery teaches us to “live life on life’s terms” and “life’s terms” change daily, when I chose recovery, I changed the terms on which my life was based. When I engage in “holy” the terms of my life change, so “life on life’s terms” is a continuum, not a constant. Leading a Seder, participating at a Seder, just being a Seder, can change “life’s terms” for any and all of us. It does each year for me, I look at where I have been freer and where I am still stuck. This year I am leaving the Egypt of distraction, I am committing to set aside time to look at emails, texts, dumb TV, and limit rather than have distractions rule me. I pray you find your inner Egypt that you will leave this year. God Bless and here’s to a little more freedom, Rabbi Mark

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