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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 204

“The problem of living does not begin with the question of how to take care of the rascals, of how to prevent delinquency or hideous crimes. The problem of living begins with the realization that all of us blunder in our dealings with our fellow man. The silent atrocities, the secret scandals, which no law can prevent, are the true seat of moral infection.” (God in Search of Man pg.383)

The moral pandemic we are in the throes of, I believe, stems from our indifference to the dignity and humanity of people who are ‘not like us’. We are so used to seeing the differences, seeing the threats, believing the lies we tell ourselves, the deceptions of another(s), blaming anyone and everyone else for what ails us, we have become indifferent to the divine dignity and worth of each and every human being, no matter race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity. Society has used mendacity and ‘proof’ to help us continue and grow our “moral infection.” There is no place in the Bible that says Black people are inferior to white people, yet, we have made Jesus white, we have made every ‘hero’ white in order to make our treatment of black people as inferior, as slaves,  a ‘divine’ right. Our need to subjugate another person to our will, not God’s will, is a foundational part of our “moral infection.” Pharaoh was told: “Let My People Go” and he was unable to rid himself of his “moral infection” which led to his people being drowned in the Red Sea. While the plagues seem harsh to our modern senses, they were the consequences of the “moral infection” of the Egyptians. How do each of us practice some form of inferior/superior relationship in our thoughts, our actions towards another human being?

“Alternative facts” is another sign of our “moral infection”. Facts are, we can interpret them in many different ways and that is normal and important. Just as the Torah has 70 faces, (there are 70 ways to understand each verse) no one can claim to have “the only way”, so too can there be only one story, one Torah, one Bible (Hebrew and New). When we engage in these alternative facts, we are engaging in mendacity, we are engaging in the silent atrocities of deception and using the vulnerabilities of another against them. We are being indifferent to the evil we are perpetrating, we are calling evil good and good evil. All in the name of “being right”, all in the name of “winning”. We all engage in alternative facts when we deny the “blunder in our dealings with our fellow man”. We all engage in alternative facts when we are part of the “the secret scandals” that we are hiding for ourselves and/or for another(s). We read the Torah and the Bible each year, some each day, we pray each day, yet we are unwilling to face the truth, the wisdom, the call, the demand of God with our opaqueness. We are being called to not only be transparent, we are being called to open ourselves up so the diamond that is our soul, our being can be like a prism and shine light, reflect and refract the light of God, the light of our self, and the light of another human being.

Another sign of our “moral infection” is the ways we treat one another. When we see people in need as a threat, when we see people who are different than us as threats, when we witness the cruelty of the taskmasters who want to punish another race, another gender, another… for the sheer joy of power, for the sheer enjoyment of their ‘friends and base’; we are deep into our “moral infection”. When we are lying to one another in order to get ahead, when we deny the truth, when we spin things so much that they no longer have any foundation in reality and truth, we become so deep in our “moral infection” that we believe we are the morally healthy ones! When we take advantage of loopholes and then deny another from using them, ie affirmative action, when we engage in retribution for the slights we have experience, real or imagined, we are in our “moral infection.” When we fail to hear the call of the widow, the orphan, the poor, the needy, the stranger, we are deep in our “moral infection.”

Healing our “moral infection” is what recovery is all about. “Practicing these principles in all our affairs” describes the move from being sober to being in recovery. Our addiction is no longer in charge, our “moral infection” is being healed and we have taken inventory and stock of ourselves and how to live as better human beings by making our amends, changing our paths of living, no longer living in secret nor silence.

I have been making my amends by the way I continue to live free, live in truth, live without resentment. I live in wonder, radical amazement, gratitude and love. I am, at times, hurt by another, bewildered by the hate in the world and the hate towards me, and I have learned to accept rather than retaliate, to speak my truth, rather than continue the lies, be responsible for my part and leave another to be responsible for theirs-whether they do or not, is up to them. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 203

“The problem of living does not begin with the question of how to take care of the rascals, of how to prevent delinquency or hideous crimes. The problem of living begins with the realization that all of us blunder in our dealings with our fellow man. The silent atrocities, the secret scandals, which no law can prevent, are the true seat of moral infection.” (God in Search of Man pg.383)

We are in the throes of a moral infection, a moral pandemic if you will, right now. We have so many events bombarding our sense of morality, our sense of spirituality, our sense of what being human actually entails. While it is both fair game and an easy target to rail about the politicians who want to bastardize the word of God, who want to be as unmerciful, unwelcoming, unholy as possible while wrapping themselves in the flag of the US and in the name of Christ, it is more important, correct, and holy to look at us, the people who have empowered them, the people who support them, the people who have been either willfully blind to them and/or indifferent to what they were/are doing.

It is time for us to engage in some redemptive inner work, whether you call it confession, t’shuvah, amends, or some other practice, and we have to do it throughly, fearlessly, in truth, transparency, and authentically. We have to take the blinders off, we have to stop our indifference, stop making our self more important than God’s will, than the plight of another human being, than the fate of our democracy. The experiment called the United States is only 247 years old, it has so many possibilities for growth and we, the people should not be indifferent to what so many have given so we can be free, or at least freer than any other country on earth. Yet, we, the people, have been asleep while some autocrats, some wealthy people, some liars and deceivers have been at work to undermine our morality, to undermine our freedoms, to undermine our ability to discern that we have a moral infection.

We have been asleep for a long time and did not watch what was happening with our Supreme Court and our laws. We have been blind to what the far right, the UnChristian Right, UnChristian Nation, UnAmerica Firsts, have been planning and implementing to stop free and fair elections, to end a woman’s right to choose, to deny freedom of expression to anyone not like them. We have been indifferent to the calls for moral leadership, for spiritual practices to be lived out, for congruence between our faith and our actions, for adherence to our constitution rather than a dismantling of same. We have been indifferent to the calls and cries of those less fortunate, we have been deaf to the screams of the powerless and voiceless, we have been too busy ‘getting ahead’ to care for the stranger, the poor, the widow, the orphan, the needy. We have abdicated our morals and contributed to the “moral infection” that is pandemic size right now.

It is not too late, however, to admit our wrongs, to do the t’shuvah, the confession, the amends to reset our compass, morally and spiritually. It is not too late to take off the blinders we have worn so comfortably, it is not too late to shake off the indifference we have engaged in. It is not too late to get into action. Rabbi Heschel teaches “A Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of faith”, because as we all know, “faith without works is dead”. We have to respond to the call of God that we hear through our prayers and meditations, the call of God we hear through our study of Rabbi Heschel, Rev King, St.Francis, Pastor Niebuhr, the prophets, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed. We have to respond to the call of God that we hear from the poor, the needy, the stranger, the powerless, the voiceless. These are the “leaps of action” that are needed right now. It is time to take our own inventory instead of taking someone else’s. It is time to make amends for our part instead of blaming someone else. It is time for us to repair the damage to our souls, to our spiritual health and repair the damage we have done to another’s soul. It is time!

In my recovery, living into the principles of recovery, I find the nuances of my actions becoming clearer and clearer. I do not blame anyone for my life, I do give a lot of credit for what I do well to God, to Rabbi Heschel, to Dr. Susannah Heschel to my father, to the teachings of Torah, to Rabbi Feinstein, to my family, to Harriet. I continue to spread the word through my teaching, my living, my being of service. I  also do not blame anyone else for anything ‘bad’ that has happened to me, I own my part, do my t’shuvah, and pray for those people that need me to be ‘the bad guy’. I ask God and another for forgiveness each day, I heal my “moral infection” each day through this writing and I am grateful to all who read and hear me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 202

“The problem of living does not begin with the question of how to take care of the rascals, of how to prevent delinquency or hideous crimes. The problem of living begins with the realization that all of us blunder in our dealings with our fellow man. The silent atrocities, the secret scandals, which no law can prevent, are the true seat of moral infection.” (God in Search of Man pg.383)

The prophets were railing against and warning us about “the silent atrocities, the secret scandals” and we ignored them when they lived and we ignore them now-at our own peril. Humanity is in distress, we have forgotten what it means to be human, as Rabbi Heschel says often. We are in the throes of a spiritual malady that has ebbed and flowed throughout the history of humankind. This spiritual malady is indifference to our own blunders “in our dealings with our fellow man”, willful blindness to our own blunders, and even, purposeful blunders/deceptions in dealing with one another. The root of this spiritual malady is our desire to be “masters of the universe”, our inability to acknowledge a power greater than ourselves, our belief that “God is on our side”. We see this in the political, the social, the religious, and even the spiritual realms of living today as we have throughout history.

It seems as if this spiritual malady is passed down, generation to generation and we applaud people like Michelangelo, Cicero, Jeremiah, Da Vinci, for their art and their words without ever truly taking in the meaning and the message of their words and their art. When the showing the statue of David from the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, gets a teacher fired, when speaking of the history of slavery and how the southern plantation owners used slave labor to line their pockets with profits is banned, when books on the Holocaust are banned, all in the name of God, of Christianity, of decency, we are deep in the throes of a spiritual malady. When truth is sacrificed for power and control, when decency is sacrificed for winning, when mercy is sacrificed for popularity, we are deep in the throes of a spiritual malady.

In our churches, our temples, our synagogues, our mosques we hear the lies of ‘come to us, we have all the answers’, ‘come to us and find inner peace’ and other such poppycock. When our clergy, our spiritual leaders are preaching and/or teaching the “one solution” run away from them. Life is complicated, life is messy, life is full of blunders “in dealing with our fellow man”. Yet, too many people want to reduce life to a series of equations. Some people can’t believe in a power greater than themselves because of the evil in the world, some people believe that success is God’s way of showing one is a favorite and failure is a sign God doesn’t love you as much as God loves the favorites! Being rich, poor, middle class is not a sign of God’s love or disdain. This is an example of the spiritual malady affecting all of us. Jews were called to spread the words of Torah so everyone would have a framework to live within and live by; so we all would be aware of “the silent atrocities, the secret scandals” humanity is capable of and prevent ourselves from pursuing them. Jews were called upon to hear the words of Moses, the teachings of the prophets, learn the stories of the Bible as real life experiences that are common to all humanity; jealousy, competition, comparison, theft, thirst for power, doing whatever one wants, going through the motions, etc, as well as mercy, kindness, connection, covenantal love, caring for one another, joy for the success of another human being, sharing the wealth, living justly and being in truth. We are called to do T’shuvah, inventory, each and every day so we can recognize the ways we drift from our path of living well, repair the damage and course correct our way of life. The sad news is most people do not do this. This spiritual malady is so strong, so overpowering, and so blinding that many people fail to allow their Rosarys, their Prayers, their Mitzvahs, their actions to change their inner life, like the Priests at the time of the Prophets and the destruction of the two Temples, many people go through the motions, go through the Bible and never have either go through them!

I am guilty of blunders “in dealing with” people, I am guilty of missing the mark, I am guilty of “silent atrocities and secret scandals”. I can take solace in my T’Shuvahs for these actions, I can take pride in the lessons I have learned from them, and I have much gratitude for the spiritual healing I have received from God and so many people through the years. I live out loud today, I live transparent today, as I have throughout my recovery. I practice a spiritual discipline so I don’t fall into the old patterns and I recognize when I drift from the path quicker each year. I am learning to live with sadness and pain without lashing out as I have in the past. I am grateful for everything I have, even my sadness and pain, my troubles and my wonderful life.   God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 201

“The problem of living does not begin with the question of how to take care of the rascals, of how to prevent delinquency or hideous crimes. The problem of living begins with the realization that all of us blunder in our dealings with our fellow man. The silent atrocities, the secret scandals, which no law can prevent, are the true seat of moral infection.” (God in Search of Man pg.383)

Throughout the history of humankind, these words of wisdom have been ignored and dismissed. This truth has been spoken by Moses, by the Prophets, by the Rabbis, by Christ, by Buddha, by Confucius, etc. Now we hear them again from Rabbi Heschel, some 58 years ago and we still ignore and dismiss them. In our misguided, mendacious belief that perfection is the goal and an attainable goal. Buying into the philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome (both civilizations having been destroyed) we engage in self-defeating actions, give a home to the cancerous actions of atrocities and scandals towards another human being and help spread the “moral infection” that is so rampant right now, as it has been during other times in history.

Elon Musk believes he has the right to his Anti-Semitic opinions and to express them publicly and loudly. He believes his ways of being are the example for all people, he is sure that he is always right, always perfect in everything he does and it is everyone else who is screwing things up. He was called, “the Henry Ford” of our generation-an apt description given Henry Ford’s anti-semitic spreading of the “elders of Zion protocols” and other anti-semitic tropes and behaviors. At the same time, Republican lawmakers are trampling on the 1st Amendment rights of teachers, parents, students, etc through banning books, deciding what the history of the United States should be, rather than teaching and learning from our past they are trying to whitewash it, making life and death medical decisions for women and believing they know more that the FDA. Rather than be responsible for the bills we have run up under both Republican and Democratic leadership, rather than helping the poor and the needy, rather than welcoming the stranger, they want to push us to the brink of defaulting on our word. Rather than both sides of the aisle admit “that all of us blunder in our dealing with our fellow man” they blame one another. Where is the taking of personal responsibility that is called for so often when caring for the poor, the needy and the stranger? What is preventing Kevin McCarthy from agreeing to a “Clean debt ceiling bill” and then arguing and compromising on spending for the next budget? What would he be saying if Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats had tried to extort his fearless leader and the man he bows down to; Donald Trump? He would have called it blaspheme, he would have called it a sin against god since he believes that god is with whomever has the gold, the power.

While I am pointing out some of the rascals of our time, I am using current events to show how pedestrian our blunders are, how we ignore them with our self-deceptions, with our clean-ups, with our rationalizations. We find so many ways to ignore the blunders “in our dealing with our fellow man” precisely because we want to have power over another, we want to seem like we are in control, like the rules do not apply to us. Even our Judges lean into their politics rather than lean into the constitution and the law nowadays. Their defense of impropriety, of hiding, of ‘if I do it, it must be okay’ is sad and dangerous. People looking for every loophole to validate their blunders, using the blunders and vulnerabilities of another against them are them are being extolled and proudly proclaim their blunders “in their dealing with our fellow man.” Rabbi Heschel is calling to us, he did during the ‘best of times’ under Ike and during today’s longing for the ‘good old days’ of Father Coughlin, Christian Nation, America First’s promoted by Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, et al. Will we hear the call?

Recovery is all about hearing the call. Whether from a power greater than ourselves, from a family member, from a Judge, a police person, an eskimo/friend, from deep in our soul,  we come into recovery because of hearing a call. We quickly begin to move from defending our blunders to realizing them. We become aware of our errors in judgement and our errors in deeds, we slowly come to the realization that our way is not the only way nor necessarily the best way. We become teachable and we exchange the glasses of doom, blame, shame for a new pair through which we see possibility, responsibility, imperfection, community, and the truth of needing another(s) human being and being needed by another(s) human being. In recovery, our realization “that all of us blunder in our dealings with our fellow man” is seen as a relief and a challenge, not a defect nor something to hide. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 200

“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)

I was moving on to another piece of wisdom from Rabbi Heschel today, but, I am stuck on these sentences with all that is going on in our country right now. Kevin McCarthy is claiming that his Republican led House of Representatives passed a debt-ceiling increase bill knowing that the whole story is the that bill adds to “the suffering of human beings” and “that in regard to the cruelties committed in the name of a free society” they are guilty and all of us are responsible. The bill he and his cruel cronies passed would harm the people who need assistance most while ensuring that big Pharma, uber-wealthy people and corporations save more and the gap grows. His own constituents, both in his area of California and throughout the Red States would be negatively impacted-yet he says with a straight face he is helping the “average American”. Ron DeSantis’ war on people who are not white like him, not Christian like him seems to know no boundaries. He is against truth, he is against giving medical care to people who need it unless they tow his line, he is against a woman’s right to choose, he is against the idea of redemption. DeSantis, in his christian view, must believe he “is without sin” because he keeps “casting stones” at people who he has decided are less than he is. How does one go to Church, read the Gospels, pray to the Virgin Mary and hate the very people Christ served, the very people Christ lived among? Yet, he is considered the best choice to unseat Trump as the head of the Republican Party!

I am not speaking about the politics of these people, I am speaking of their morality and their spiritual sickness. I am immersed in the words of Rabbi Heschel above and keep being bewildered at the callousness and cruelty of people in leadership positions, of people who support the Neo-Nazi/White Supremacists who marched in Washington DC over the weekend. I am enraged that Sen. Tommy Tuberville would admit that MAGA Republicans are white supremacists and be proud of it, that Marjorie Taylor Greene has a lie to tell about someone other than herself as to what ails us as a country.

I am saddened by the inability of people to be in dialogue with one another. I experience the spiritual ailments of people unable to hear facts and deny them. I am seeking ways to help heal the isolation and anger that is rampant right now in the way people ignore one another, in the ways we find more and more to ignore “the sufferings of human beings”. I am in search of promoting ways to live life “the prophets sought to convey.” We are in desperate need of returning to the ways of the Bible, the lessons of the Bible, the path of return laid out in the Bible. God wants our return, we say everyday 3 times in our prayers. God implants knowledge within us and demands we care for the “sufferings of human beings” not add to them. Each and every day we are supposed to do T’Shuvah, an inventory of our day-good and not good; repair the damage/harm from the not good and enhance the good on the next day; and make a plan how to grow from our successes and our failures, ie fail forward. God wants our return, God wants our goodness, God needs us to treat one another well, God calls each of us to account and responsibility and we have to answer Hineni-Here I Am! Standing idly by the blood of our neighbor/brother/sister is an example of how co-responsible we are for one another!

In recovery, we do our 10th step each night. Each morning we write out a gratitude list, we pray for guidance and the strength to carry the guidance out. We have to be of service so we don’t sink into the selfishness of our past, we have to be vulnerable so we can learn more and be more authentic. We have to be responsible for another alcoholic who is suffering so we don’t lose our humanity. These are some of the ways people in recovery live Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above.

I have to be vulnerable in order to be grateful, I have to be grateful for the bounty I enjoy. Gratitude and vulnerability, responsibility for “the cruelties committed” by my fellows gives me the impetus and the sight to right the wrongs, to lift up the fallen, to be a light to another, to love more and resent less. Without responsibility there is no recovery, there is no T’Shuvah, there is no forgiveness given by me and/or by God and/or by anyone else. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 199

“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)

Witnessing what is happening in our world right now, knowing the history of humankind, we need to live into both Rabbi Heschel’s words and actions more rather than less! Whether it is extolling choking a person to death on a subway, mass shootings, holding the nation’s economy hostage so as to reduce the aid we give to those less fortunate, engaging in mendacity, holding sham hearings, we are in a state of being where we are ignoring “what the lives of the prophets sought to convey.” Humankind has the erroneous idea that perfection is the goal and we deny our foibles, our imperfections. We hide them from ourselves, we defend them as right and true to another(s), we live lives of dis-integration and take our angst over imperfect natures out on another(s) so as to feel good about ourselves. We are missing the wisdom, the demand of Rabbi Heschel, the call of the prophets and the will of God to be responsible. Without responsibility there is no integration of the self. We have seemingly opposing inclinations by design and we seek to deny this inner struggle by looking good, defending what we do wrong and not being responsible for our errors. This is a denial of what it means to be human, hence we continue to commit cruelties “in the name of a free society.”

Using the Torah, Jesus’ words, any of the Eastern philosophies, we see that imperfection is the permanent state of humanity. The goal of these spiritual paths is to be responsible for and to our imperfections, to stop the war within ourselves that we fight because we mistake our inclinations being at war with one another rather than realizing they compliment one another. Our good/divine inclination keeps us striving to hear and respond to the demand of ‘what is the next right action to take and to be responsible for our errors and our successes in this endeavor. Our evil/earthly inclination is the power and force to fulfill this demand and to stop hiding from ourselves and another(s), to be in action and learn from our errors and our victories. Living into a spiritual discipline, going to therapy, are to help us to integrate our inclinations and have them work together. Our challenge is to serve something greater than our self, our ego and in doing so, we realize our ability to stop the war within, to rise above our need for certainty and perfection and live into, as Rabbi Harold Shulweis taught, being Godly.

We are so lost in denial, in irresponsibility, in shame and blame, in dis-integration, in spiritual sickness, we have come to believe that bitter is sweet, that hiding is transparency, that kicking the poor, the needy, the stranger is actually caring for them, that might makes right, that mendacity is truth. Without being responsible for all that is happening in our lives individually and collectively, we stay stuck in doing the opposite of “what the lives of the prophets sought to convey.” We shirk our responsibility for what is happening, we ignore “the sufferings of human beings” rather than have concern for them. We actually hear people deny their cruelties towards one another, we witness the degradation of human beings and stay silent, we wring our hands rather than standing up for one another, rather than “thou shall surely rebuke thy neighbor”. To “love thy neighbor as thyself” we must be responsible for one another, we must be responsible to integrate our inclinations, we must stop the blame/shame cycle, we must embrace our imperfections and improve our self each and every day.

In recovery, while we don’t take one another’s inventory, we help one another live better, learn to accept our imperfections. While we pray for the removal of “every defect of character” we also acknowledge it is going to take our inner work to transform these “defects of character” into character assets. Our recovery stands on the foundation of being responsible and learning to live an integrated life.

I look at my life continually. I do the best I can in every interaction and there are times when my vision is clouded and I have been dis-integrated, causing more harm than good. I know this, I make amends for these moments, I learn to improve, be more integrated in my inner life, and I know integration in some areas has come very slowly. I seek to be responsible for my actions and the actions of another. I know Rabbi Heschel’s words are the path forward, concern for the suffering of human beings, including ourselves and being responsible and healing the cruelties we perpetrate are the only ways to heal our selves and our world. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 198

“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)

While progress is the hallmark of a healthy society/civilization, Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above reminds us of the need to use our past to make progress, to move forward in our care and concern for one another and for ourselves. Blame and shame are the enemies of responsibility and when we immerse ourselves “in the thinking of the prophets” we can move past both of these to being responsible for our part of each and every situation. As I immerse myself in the wisdom above, I am certain that being responsible is the path to healing the inner turmoil every human being experiences and moving us to a healthier and better society. While we learn to lie and deny from a young age because we are afraid of punishment, afraid of embarrassment, this is not a sustainable way of living well. Blaming of another for our foibles is how we stay stuck in the past, how we limit our human connection, how we shirk our responsibility, how we mislead ourselves into thinking we are safe.

Responsibility begins at home. It starts within ourselves. The Bible gives the examples of people who take responsibility for their actions, good and not good, as well as showing us what happens when we don’t take responsibility for our actions and for ourselves. Adam hides, he blames Eve, and he is sent out of the Garden of Eden until he can learn how to be responsible and teach responsibility to his children/descendants. Cain denies his crime and is sent to wander,Isaac goes along with the subterfuge of Rebecca and Jacob and when he hears Esau’s cry for a blessing, he still blames Jacob rather than admit his part in the theft. The Israelites learn how to do T’Shuvah, how to be responsible, how to admit their part in the various errors they make learning how to be free people. King David gives us the lesson of, after hearing of his crime, admits and repents.

It is crucial for us to be responsible for our part in every interaction; the good we do as well as the not good we do. Nothing is ever 100% our fault nor our doing. It truly takes a village to make things happen, good and not good. Witnessing what is happening in the world and our country right now, the return to authoritarianism, the return to false interpretations of spiritual truths, the bastardization of “what the lives of the prophets sought to convey”, we, the people, have to be responsible for the parts we play in the meanness, the vitriol, the selfishness, the deceptions, the mendacity that is plaguing us. It is not ‘just their fault’, we have a part and we must examine ourselves before we blame another. While I can and do rail about the charlatans, I also look within myself to be responsible for how I have allowed, through indifference, being too busy to notice, staying in my own silo, these deceivers to take such a strong hold on our society, on our government, on our daily discourse. Until we take personal responsibility, any solution we dream up will never truly work for long-term change. As a witness and participant to the progress of the Civil Rights movement in the 60’s, because people themselves could not be responsible for their prejudices, could not do T’Shuvah/Amends for their evil actions, the progress was only temporary, there was not sustainable change and movement so everyone could declare victory over our innate desires to blame, shame and rule over another group of people.

In recovery, the 10th step of AA is to “continue to take personal inventory and promptly admit when we are wrong”. This is the responsibility that all of us in recovery have to take in order to be in recovery. Our old ways of blaming, denying, shaming don’t work, they are antithetical to living well, to living a life of service, to living a life dedicated to principles, to spirituality, to something greater than ourselves.

I rail against the lies, the indifference, the refusal to learn from our past, for the Torah, from the prophets, etc that I engage in as well as those another engages in. I see the subtle ways I have been indifferent to the call of God, the call of people both before and since my spiritual awakening. I also know there is no perfection, only progress. What is most important is that I continue to seek the truth within me, I continue to hear the truth from another(s) so I can be one grain of sand better each day. Being responsible means my flaws no longer define me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 197

“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)

We live in a world of blame and shame, a world of either/or, a world of ‘the one who has the gold, rules’. We are witnesses each day to “cruelties committed in the name of a free society” and, it seems, we are indifferent, unmoved and point the finger elsewhere. This began with Adam in the Garden of Eden and we have learned his lesson well rather than the lesson of responsibility that his experience taught us. Rather than hearing God’s call to Cain to be responsible for his murdering of his brother Abel, we continue to deny and blame, make excuses and shame another(s).

Corporations no longer have to take responsibility, they can pay a fine and admit no guilt. Fox News doesn’t have to apologize for the lies they tell, they only have to pay money. Our politicians send our young men and women to wars based on lies, so they and their cronies can make money without ever admitting they were wrong. Racism is rampant in our justice system and we blame the people we are incarcerating rather than be responsible for the conditions we have created that cause these crimes. People become addicts usually to escape the lies and deceptions of themselves and another(s) and we blame them instead of understanding what is happening and help them heal. Our healthcare system is so broken that the poor and the needy have to suffer and/or use our emergency rooms for their doctor visits while people are angry about it and blame them, not the system. The poor and the needy are suffering and we stand idly by and do nothing. Homelessness is rampant and we blame the homeless for their own problems. We sit in judgement of another(s) and continually shirk our responsibilities to help, to solve, to resolve.

We are afraid to live Rabbi Heschel’s call to us, we are afraid to admit that we are   co-responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people from the Pandemic, from war, from the carnage on our streets. We are unwilling to accept our responsibility in and for what ails us, spiritually, mentally and physically. As a society we are unwilling to live into our part in whatever is happening that is not ‘good’, that does not extol us. We would rather blame another than be responsible for our part in what is happening. We would rather blame another than seek to find real solutions to what ails us as a society. We would rather worry about our money and power than be responsible and “care for the poor, the needy, the stranger” as God commands us to do in the Bible. Our society likes to claim they are doing “God’s work” while they steal, deny, blame and shame another(s).

In “a free society, some are guilty while all are responsible” is more than a bumper sticker, it is a prescription of how to live in the ways of the prophets. It is one of those phrases that sums up our responsibility as human beings, our demand from God. As our politicians, our clergy, our civil rights leaders, our employers, etc are figuring out their next moves to solve the problems they see, I hear Rabbi Heschel calling all of us to come together and deal with the problems God sees. I hear him calling us to account for: our actions good and not good; our inactions; our indifference to evil and suffering; our inability to take responsibility; and find a path forward that honors the dignity of our society and the members in it, find a path forward that honors our being a partner of God.

In recovery, we have group consciences’ to determine how to deal with any issues that arise in our meetings. We see ourselves as trusted servants rather than as leaders and deciders. We engage in being responsible for our actions, for the actions of the group and we stay away from politics, controversy, etc. We are focused on how to help, how to heal, how to be better human beings each day.

The prophets and Rabbi Heschel live inside of me, always have even when I could not articulate this truth and didn’t understand nor know how to live into it. I inherited this fire from my father and for a long time the fire consumed me instead of me using the fire to make things better. In my recovery, in my return to Judaism, I am doing the latter much more often than the former. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 196

“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)

The last sentence above haunts me and, I hope, haunts everyone. We are witness’ to the “cruelties committed in the name of a free society” and, most of us accept them, don’t worry about them, shrug them off, are indifferent to them. As I immerse myself in Rabbi Heschel’s teachings, I see them and weep, I witness them and cry out, when I commit them, I repent. We all have to reject these cruelties, we have to stop saying: “this is just the way it is”, we have to call out to those who commit these cruelties and we have to say NO to deceivers, to our own self-deceptions, to our indifference. In his interview with Carl Stern in speaking about the Vietnam War being a religious issue, Rabbi Heschel says: “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?” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, appendix 2)

Yet, we go on praying, we hear from those ‘good christians’ like Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, Kevin McCarthy about praying for the victims of gun violence while doing nothing to stop it and even, subtly, encouraging it. We hear the rhetoric of clergy spewing hatred of people different than ‘us’ and how wrong they are for their ways of living. We claim to be the home of the brave and the land of the free, when what is meant is: white christian people are brave and free while the rest of you have to do it our way! We listen to these charlatans pray for the United States of America while their actions seek to divide and conquer the states they think are ‘too liberal’. Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for divorce while praying for God to Bless America. These same people who are praying so fervently, people of all faiths and creeds, are praying fervently for their power and the ability to hold on to it; they are praying for ways to hide their true motives from God, from another and from themselves; they are praying for their selfish desires. They are not praying to hear God’s call, they are not praying to change their ways, they are not praying for forgiveness for their guilt nor they responsibility for these cruelties they are committing and the ones committed in there name. Yet, many people stay indifferent to the cruelties they commit and are committed in their name.

Rabbi Heschel’s description of his anguish over the cruelties committed by the US in Vietnam and his co-responsibility is a blueprint for all of us. Each and every one of us can and must look inside of themselves and see the cruelties we have committed ourselves, see the cruelties our society has committed, examine the cruelties our government engages in and repent. We have to become co-responsible and no longer point our finger at “those people” who are doing wrong. We have to no longer pray for “those people” and begin to pray for our selves, use prayer as the Hebrew word for it, “L’Hitpallel” means: to look inside/to judge oneself. We have to begin to truly pray for ourselves to change our ways, to do T’Shuvah/inventory and amends for the cruelties we have committed, those we have witnessed, and those we remain indifferent to. While there are no easy solutions for any of the challenges we face today and will face tomorrow, prayer helps us be responsible for our part, helps us clear the fog of self-deception and indifference so we can work together to find solutions.

In recovery, we accept responsibility for our part, we seek to change our ways, make amends for our cruelties, and be responsible for one another. We continue to go to meetings, to reach out to people, to be of service as actions that change us, that acknowledge our being co-responsible for what is happening in the world. In recovery, we seek God’s will and the power to carry it out rather than ask God to carry out our will.

I have committed cruelties prior to and since my recovery began. The greatest cruelties have come when I was indifferent/unable to hear the cry of another(s). I am so bereft from committing these cruelties and I am responsible-I have made amends directly and publicly whenever possible. I do not accept the scorn and blame people put on me because they cannot own their part, I have done and continue to do T’Shuvah for my part. These recognitions help me to be more free and more accepting, they help me hear the challenges of God and seek to find solutions. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 195

“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)

Immersing ourselves in these words of caution, wisdom and Rabbi Heschel’s call to us all will lead us to changing our selves and our world. Instead of increasing “the suffering of human beings” we can and must begin with healing our own inner suffering. Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries says: “hurt people hurt people.” We all suffer internally, whether from self-doubt, from our need for certainty, our fear of being responsible, our need to be right, our embarrassment for making an error of judgement, etc. All of this suffering is part of our human experience. We commit terrible crimes against humanity because of our inability, unwillingness to acknowledge our inner suffering, accept our suffering as part of the human experience, and heal our inner life. We can heal ourselves through connection, through seeing one another as divine reminders and divine images, through growing our spiritual experiences, and being responsible for our selves, our community, our actions. Father Greg and Homeboy Industries have taught us and given us ‘evidence based’ paths to “radical kinship”. Rabbi Heschel is calling out to us to see one another as fellow travelers, as fellow sufferings, as helpers and guides for one another.

This week I learned that Eric Trump, Roger Stone, and other Republicans are scheduled to be in Miami, Florida this weekend with the ‘Reawaken America Tour’ along with two proud anti-semites, Charlie Ward and Scott McKay. Ward and McKay go so far as to say that Jews were behind the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy! This has not gotten too much news coverage, the only people I have found reporting this are S.E. Cupp of the Chicago Sun-Times and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC. I wonder what they are reawakening America to?

It must be our recent history of extolling Hitler prior to Pearl Harbor, it must be a reawakening of Father Coughlin, the Christian Nation, Charles Lindbergh who thought Hitler was right, who were rabid anti-semites. Yet, we hear no denial, no denouncement by the Republican Party. We don’t even hear much about this travesty, this promoting of human suffering rather than concern for it in the media. We hear very little pushback about the lies being spread by Marjorie Taylor Greene, et al, from their Republican Party members, we are not hearing much condemnation of George Santos from Kevin McCarthy and the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives. Rather than engaging in healing their own inner sufferings which lead to the lies they spread and believe, these people along with most of us focus our energy and divert ourselves by blaming another, by engaging in mendacity regarding causes of suffering, and deceiving everyone else through spinning what is happening into a narrative they dream up.

“Hurt people hurt people” is an apropos description of what is happening in our daily living. When hurt people, people who are suffering gain power without healing their inner suffering, they take their hurt out on everyone else. Justice Clarence Thomas is reported to have told his law clerks in the 1990’s that he wanted to stay on the Court for 43 years because liberals had made his life miserable (during his hearing) and he wanted to do the same to them. So many of us take our suffering out on another(s) without realizing it, we defend it as ‘doing what god, parents, friends, society, etc’ wants and/or needs. So many of us are in denial of our own inner sufferings and bereft that we can heal them and this leads to many of the ills we encounter. More tomorrow.

Recovery teaches us that life is an inside job! We are not doomed to fate, we are not stuck in the torment of our inner sufferings, of our outer Pharaohs. We are, with the help of a power greater than ourselves/higher consciousness/God and our recovery group, our sponsor/guide, as well as others, able to heal our inner sufferings, able to repair the damage to our souls, able to change the ways we have been living and reacting to life’s stimuli. Being willing to live in the truth of what was, what is, what can be; the truth of our inner sufferings; the truth of how out of proper measure we have been; we are able to heal, to make better decisions, to connect and to live happy, joyous and free. I think we all need to be in recovery, as Harriet Rossetto says: “You don’t have to be an addict to be in recovery.” God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 194

“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)

While it is true that no one person can alleviate all of the “suffering of human beings”, I am hearing Rabbi Heschel’s description of “what the lives of the prophets sought to convey”: we all have to have concern for human suffering, we all must “feel for” human suffering. This concern and feeling will, hopefully, move us to alleviate the suffering in our midst, the suffering we are able to, and engage with community to eliminate the root causes of suffering. If not eliminate, at least mediate and lessen these root causes. “The suffering of human beings” has been with us forever, I believe and the Torah’s compassion for this suffering comes through over and over again. King David is called to account for adding to the suffering regarding his having Uriah killed, Abraham is lauded for his hospitality and openness to helping strangers and family alike. Jesus lives among the poorest and the most suffering.

Yet today, we seem to only care about our own individual suffering, we seem to have paramount concern for our self, our wants and desires, we have forgotten that Moses was sent to Pharaoh to redeem the slaves, we seem to have forgotten that Amalek is always waiting to attack us in our weakest spots, to surprise us and pick off the stragglers. Rather than having “no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings”, we seem to have no limit to our concern for self-interest, no limit to our appetite for ‘getting ours’, no limit to our self-deception, no limit as to how much pain we can inflict on those less fortunate, no limit to which we will not go to become Pharaoh, to be the authoritarian, to stop the freedom train. We see this in the discourse that people have, in the fact that there are no longer discussions/conversations, just dictates and talking past one another. We see this in the ways States are passing laws that ban freedoms that were fought for earlier for women, for minorities, for sexual orientation, etc. We see how people are willing to go against their self-interest in order to keep ‘the status quo’. We listen to the rhetoric about the “founding fathers” and rather than see their own incongruence; all men are created equal and I own slaves; and repair their wrongs, some people are intent on promoting their incongruence as a good thing and something we should follow. I wonder if these same people would support Britain going back to a monarchy as it was before the Magna Carta, if they would support the Russian Revolution. We know that many of these people support the policies of Hitler and the Nazis, as evidenced by their support of white supremacy and white supremacists.

While the ‘good old days’ of the 60’s and 70’s were not so good, while we made some strides and then got co-opted as Harry Belafonte, z”l, taught us, we were in the fight then, we marched against hatred and prejudice, we marched against war, we marched against “America love it or leave it”, we believed in and did our best to promote the “American Dream” of democracy and freedom for all. We are the “land of the free and the home of the brave”, for some and we have to be brave enough to expand freedom for and to all people of our nation. We can only do this when we are willing to see “the suffering of human beings” in our midst, when we are willing to acknowledge our own human suffering.

In recovery, we “made a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of God, as we understand God”. This decision for most of us is homecoming, it is our statement that we belong, it is a decision to be part of the human community as well as the recovery community. It is an action not of faith as much as commitment to “living these principles in all our affairs”. It is the foundation of our plan to “feel the suffering of human beings” and to be concerned about the suffering, the negativity, the enslavement in our midst. It is our covenant to stop engaging in activities that cause these problems and be part of the solution.l

I am well aware that I have and do cause my fair share of suffering. I also have “no limit to the concern” I “feel for the suffering of human beings.” I know that both of these statements are true. I work on my foibles daily so I not only feel the suffering of another(s), I do something about it. I have a good track record in doing something to relieve a piece of the suffering in our midst and I have to improve. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 193

“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)

Watching the news, listening to some of the in-depth reporting on the hate, the anti-semitism, racism being spewed by members of a prominent family and people in power in Republican politics at the moment, knowing that people of color and people of faith, Jewish and non-Jewish, belong to, adhere to, and abide by the white supremacist, hateful, and mendacious garbage they are spewing leaves me bereft, bewildered and enraged. How could the prophets not be enraged as they watched the Temple Priests bastardize the rituals of service, worship, devotion to God? How could Rabbi Heschel not march, protest and risk the scorn and disapproval of the Jewish world, especially the academics, as he watched America sink deeper and deeper into the fog that allowed Nazism to rise in Germany? How can we not be enraged at what is happening right now?

As Greg Abbott declares his support of Mental Health, he cuts the budget of the department responsible for supporting and delivering Mental Health services in Texas. As Ted Cruz offers prayers, he stops sensible gun legislation from happening in the Senate. As the Republicans wrap themselves in the flag, they are playing chicken with the credit worthiness of the United States. As more and more ‘red’ states pass laws that limit the freedom to vote, the freedom to express oneself, the freedom to control over our bodies, the freedom to read, etc and, at the same time, proclaiming they are living the principles and ideas/ideals of our founding fathers. We are witness’ to the proliferation of lies, the curtailing of freedom, the scapegoating of Jews, Blacks, LGBTQ+, and any other minority available. All of this mendacity, all of this practice of prejudices, all of this curtailing of freedom for ‘anyone not like us’, in the name of Democracy, in the name of Jesus, in the name of God! How utterly ridiculous and how disgusting that people go along to get along with their money-which will mean nothing once these grifters take over-the Jews lost everything to the Nazis, remember?

I am calling these bastardizers of truth, these charlatans of faith Nazis! It is time to speak out louder than we ever have. It is time to call em as I see em. It is time for Jews who brought morality into the world with the Torah, Christians who follow the Jew Jesus as he spoke his commentary of the Hebrew Bible as lessons to live by, Muslims who learned of how their countries were open to learning with and from Jews, Christians, anyone who would join with them to rise up together. This is not just an issue of racism, prejudice, etc; it is an issue of “human suffering”. When it is reported that Eric Trump is going around on a speaking tour with known and proud Anti-Semites and there is no loud outcry, when Jared and Ivanka are not yelling from the rooftops, when Jews and people of color are still members of the Republican Party of Marjorie Taylor Greene, et al, how can we say we have “no limit to the concern” we “feel for human suffering”. When the Republican Jewish Coalition proclaims their allegiance to a group that supports Viktor Orban, when Jews are not screaming in the streets, when Americans are not rising up to recall the authoritarians in our Congress, how can we look ourselves in the mirror, pat ourselves on the back and say we care about people and we worship God?

Alcoholics had to be anonymous in the beginning and even now because of the prejudices people had about ‘those who could not hold their liquor’. The belief was/is that ‘those drunks’ could not be trusted. Isn’t it ironic those of us in recovery are dedicated to living along spiritual principles, we are constantly ridding ourselves of resentments, we look for our part in every situation, we continue to carry a message to other people who suffer, we welcome everyone in our meetings, we have no dues or fees for membership, we “love you until you can love yourself”. Yet we have to hide this from the general public because of the prejudice that has been part of our society since the 16th Century!!

I am enraged at what is happening, I am afraid for my bi-racial grandson, I am afraid for my nieces, nephews, their children, for my neighbors, etc. We have uncorked a meanness and a hatred that is difficult, if not impossible to put back in the bottle. I am speaking out through this blog, I am asking you to spread the teachings of Rabbi Heschel through your actions and I pray God will open the hearts of these pathetic and dangerous human beings, as God opened my heart and Pres. George W. Bush’s heart  and helped us change and grow into better human beings. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 192

“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)

One of the reasons I began this iteration of my blog some 504 days ago is “the more deeply immersed I become” in the thinking of Rabbi Heschel, “the more powerfully it became clear to me” that we are in desperate need of hearing, learning, and acting on his wisdom, his guidance and his example of a life well-lived. We quote Rabbi Heschel much and often, we read the prophets often and we hear and deliver homilies on what their words. We study the ‘historical’ events of the prophets, of the Bible, we engage in critical thinking and learning of Bible, commentaries, Psalms, Proverbs, etc as well as quote the verses either in full or by citation. The problem is we are not immersing ourselves in the wisdom, in the prior failures of humankind. We are not living into, leaning into the spiritual and moral lessons of the prophets, of the Bible, of Rabbi Heschel-we satisfy ourselves with just quotations and citations. The Bible-Christian and Jewish, the Koran, the books of Eastern Philosophies are not to be read as history books, not to be called upon to make ourselves feel good; they are guides on how to live well, how to live in ways that are compatible with our being a partner of God, how to live one grain of sand better each day.

Rabbi Heschel is calling out to us to be “involved in the Peace Movement” that is in front of us today. Peace, as I am using it, includes seeing each person as a unique human being, ridding ourselves of prejudice and hatred, jealousy and deception towards another(s). It is ending the wars that we engage in with one another because we need to be right, we need to win, we need to be adored and we need subjects to serve us. Immersing ourselves in Rabbi Heschel’s Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity gives us pathways to getting closer to “what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings.”

Every human being suffers! We suffer loss, we suffer from fear, we suffer from the lies we tell ourselves and the societal lies we buy into. We suffer from our longing to belong, our longing to be connected to one another and to the Universe, to God. We suffer from the “eye disease” and “cancer of the soul” of prejudice as Rabbi Heschel teaches, we suffer from misplaced and misguided desires to be all-powerful-that job is taken by God, so isn’t it time for us to take our proper places?

The gunman in Texas over the weekend supposedly was all about white supremacy, students at UC Santa Cruz celebrated Hitler’s birthday last month, hatred is on the rise, gun sales are on the rise, fear is on the rise, there seems to be no place safe to hang out anymore, AND, elected officials offer prayers rather than action, they offer condemnations of those of us who are calling for sensible gun control laws, they wring their hands at the tragedies while doing nothing to solve our societal ills. Our religious leaders are not standing up for and together with people of color, Jews, Muslims, Asians. We seem to not be able to immerse ourselves “in the lives of the prophets” and what their lives “sought to convey”.

In recovery we stand up for and with one another, we are witnesses to the “sufferings of human beings” including our own sufferings. We are engaged in serving those who suffer, knowing that by being a witness and of service to those who suffer we heal our own suffering a little more. We are not willing to “stand idly by” the suffering of another, we reach out, we carry a message, we practice spiritual principles in all of our affairs.

I am so enraged at the state of affairs we find ourselves in because of how deeply immersed in Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and teachings I am. My career as a Rabbi is based on my “concern one must feel of the suffering of human beings” and I do my best to relieve some of this suffering. I am also aware that I contribute to the suffering of humanity as well. Each day, in writing this blog, I move the pile from suffering to healing at least one grain because I change my actions so I can live more congruently with Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom. I am sorry for the suffering I have brought and added to, I am strengthened by the healing I have brought and added to as well. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 191

“The more deeply immersed I become in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all our responsible.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity pg. 225)

Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above is from his essay: “The reasons I was involved in the Peace Movement”(1972). I remember hearing them from one of my Rabbis’, Rabbi Mel Silverman when I was a prison inmate in1987. Rabbi Mel spoke of hearing Rabbi Heschel speak to a group of Rabbis and how this moved him to change from being a pulpit Rabbi to a Prison Rabbi. Rabbi Mel wanted to make a difference and he could no longer shirk his responsibility for the spiritual malady that was afflicting people who went to prison.

In the light of the shootings in Allen Tx on May 6, 2023, these words haunt me, and should haunt us all. We are in desperate need for our elected officials, our communal leaders, and each of us to be “involved in the Peace Movement”. We are in desperate need for everyone to immerse ourselves “in the thinking of the prophets”, to become clear on “what the lives of the prophets sought to convey:”, that “there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings” and stop the carnage that is happening in our streets, our homes, our democracy.

Listening to the Governor and Lt. Governor of Texas send their prayers and thoughts, listening to Ted Cruz tweets: “Heidi and I are praying for the victims…”, hearing the Republican Congressman lauds the prompt police action. All of these statements, while true and nice, fail to heed Rabbi Heschel’s demand to all of us. These mendacious elected officials do not care nor do they have concern for the suffering of human beings as evidenced by their lack of action on sensible gun control. These deceivers blame mental health issues while refusing to pass laws about background checks. These false prophets blame guns rather than the proliferation of guns they promote. These ‘good christians’ pray to a false idol they have constructed and take none of the actions that Jesus spoke about, that the prophets railed about. Some of these people cowered and ran for cover when the Insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 happened and now extol these hoodlums as patriots, were in on the plans to disrupt our democratic norm of a peaceful transfer of power, and take actions on their prayers to keep these AR-15’s
“coming to a town near you”!

Mass shootings  and the hatred these politicians, Fox News, other Media outlets and everyday people are spreading that foster an atmosphere where these horrors are becoming commonplace are not a mental health problem in the classical sense of the phrase. These are not happening because someone did not take their meds today for their bi-polar, depression, anxiety, etc diagnosis. Mass Shootings are happening because we are in a spiritual crisis, a moral crisis, a crisis of mendacity. We have come to view political differences as war, thanks to Newt Gingrich and the deceptions he and his Republican cronies promoted in the 1990’s. We have forgotten the “compassionate conservatism” that President George W Bush spoke of. We have  bought into the deception of our elected officials who believe in terrorism more than they believe in democracy, who believe it is right to be ‘bought’ by special interests groups that guns are freedom.

We have lost our moral compass as individuals and as a country, we are in a deep spiritual crisis because “faith is completely replace by creed”(God in Search of Man pg 3), we have jettisoned truth in favor of power and money. Jewish tradition teaches that God is Truth, the prophets spoke truth to power and these ‘good christian folk’ are praying to some false idol when they send their prayers rather than take action to limit, prevent as much as possible the bloodshed and, more importantly “the suffering of human beings” from the hatred they promote.

The recovery movement is a spiritual solution to more than alcoholism, it is a spiritual solution to the lies we have become addicted to as a community, a people, a country. “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God” doesn’t entail hating our brother/sister in our hearts, does not mean it is okay to ignore the “suffering of human beings” in our midst, does not mean we have the cures for what ails us, it means we have to seek God’s help, the help of all people and not be locked up anymore in our self-deceptions and the deceptions of another(s). God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 190

“His compassion is greater than His justice. He will accept us in all our frailty and weakness. “For He knows our drive (yetzer), He remembers that we are dust.”(Psalms 103:14)(God In Search of Man pr.378)

These words of Rabbi Heschel bring me great comfort and great dismay, a real both/and! “God will accept us in all our frailty and weakness” is comforting and important for us to accept. Rabbi Heschel is teaching us, reminding us that we are not expected to be perfect, we are not expected to be strong, we are not expected to be anything but human by God. So, what is our need, drive to expect these things of ourselves, of another human being? I believe it is our inability to accept our own imperfections, our own frailties, our own weaknesses.

Societal norms are not the same as Divine norms and the reason, I believe, is that societal norms are for control and Divine norms are for compassion, connection and love. Our need for perfection, for defending our frailties and weakness as ‘right’ and ‘perfect’ come from our fear of showing weakness and imperfection. We defend, we deflect, we accuse another of that which we are guilty of, we deceive one another and ourselves in our desire for control, in our desire to hide. Unfortunately, we have learned nothing from the Garden of Eden story, we have forgotten that God’s compassion and love are contained in God’s plea to us: “Ayecha, where are you?”

Some in society have gone so far as to make Jesus into the lion, not the lamb. They have bastardized Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels to mean that the rich are loved and the poor hated by God! They have wrapped themselves in the mantle of the Romans and called themselves lovers of Jesus. There are Jews who have forgotten that 36 times in the Torah God tells us to: “Care for the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the poor, the needy”. They have forgotten the reasons the Rabbis gave for the destruction of the first Temple-ignoring the pleas of the widow, the stranger, the orphan, the poor; they have forgotten the reason for the destruction of the 2nd Temple-senseless hatred of one another based on jealousy and exclusion rather than radical kinship/love of one another based on inclusion and shared humanity. There are those in every spiritual discipline and faith that do the same within their own faith.

These are not the issue for us, however. The issue for us is that these people are the minority, not the majority. We are allowing ourselves to be ruled by a loud, vocal, irrational, mendacious minority and we are not standing up for God, for one another and for ourselves. We are accepting and defending these liars and bastardizers, we are cowering before them rather than standing for and with God and the Godly attributes of compassion and love. We are surrendering to their deceptions, we are submitting ourselves to whims of power-hungry authoritarians who are unable to admit their weaknesses and frailties, who are unable to say: “Oops I made a mistake”! We are so overwhelmed with their noise that we have begun to question ourselves and, at times, think maybe they are right and we are wrong. This is the spiritual sickness associated with denying the truth and importance of Rabbi Heschel’s words above. God “will accept our frailty and weakness” is not at issue, what is at issue is: will we accept our frailty and weakness and those of every one else, will we do T’Shuvah and make amends, learn and grow from them and ask for help from God and one another in these areas or continue to use the frailties and weaknesses of another as a club against them and a defense for our own?

This is one of the beauties of the Recovery movement. We “came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity”. Our hiding of our weaknesses and frailties got so overwhelming we could no longer stand up to them, they burst through all of our defenses and we have to admit our powerlessness over them. At that moment, God graces us by accepting “our frailty and weakness” rather than rejecting us. In recovery, we experience our connection with God, compassion, acceptance of whole selves, love so we can grow into better human beings than our worst actions, and we learn how to be more compassionate and loving to another and to our self.

I have many frailties and weaknesses, less than when I started this journey of T’Shuvah, return to decency, Judaism, recovery and still have them. I accept them more and more each day, I learn from them and I ask for help from God and from another(s). I no longer get angry at the weaknesses of my self and another(s), I learn and have compassion for me and for them. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 189

“His compassion is greater than His justice. He will accept us in all our frailty and weakness. “for He knows our drive (yetzer), He remembers that we are dust.”(Psalms 103:14)(God In Search of Man pr.378)

In Judaism, as in all spiritual disciplines I believe, God’s compassion is always greater than God’s justice. The prophets are always calling to us to return as God will “accept our backsliding”. Yet, it seems like these two truths are among the hardest for most human beings to accept and live into.

We are living in a time where some people’s ‘justice’ is greater than their compassion. Their definition of ‘justice’ is anything that keeps them in power, anything they can use to keep people enslaved, anything that servers their interests, anything that is mendacious and deceptive, and, of course, their ‘justice’ can and must be bought! We are witnessing the Supreme Court Justices defend their questionable behaviors regarding their personal finances and cases brought before the court. We are witnessing Clarence Thomas proclaim that filing a false financial report about his wife’s earnings and sales of property, acceptance of gifts is ‘perfectly fine’. We are witnessing the current Republican Party become a terrorist organization, terrorizing anyone they disagree with by lying, legislating, holding fake hearings on fake ‘testimony’ and reputing the Declaration of Independence’s statement that “all men(people) have certain unalienable rights”. McCarthy, Cruz, Greene, Hawley, et al may have had some information on the planning of Jan.6th, which they now call a “peaceful demonstration”. These ‘leaders’ and so many others of the Republican Party have been willing lackeys for their rich, powerful benefactors like Harlan Crow, the Koch’s, Rupert Murdock and Fox News, Leonard Leo, etc. None of these ‘good christians’ have any compassion for anyone who does not hew their ‘party line’ as evidenced by their treatment of Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, the people of the Lincoln Project, etc.

Imitacio Dei is a universal principle in Jewish and many other spiritual disciplines. Yet, imitating God, acting Godly by making compassion greater than justice, by rendering justice with righteousness, by tempering our selfish need for power and our unrelenting desire to be deceived, to deceive another(s) and engage in self-deception with truth, love, kindness seems to be ‘for suckers’ according to how some people understand faith, religion and God! ‘Religious’ people who see God as the Lion, who see God as Angry, who see God as vengeful, are living outside of what our Holy Books teach, living outside of the words of the Psalmist, living outside of Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom above.

We, the people, must rise up against the harshness and cruelty that is so prevalent today. We have seen the results of scapegoating, the results of “standing idly by the blood of our neighbors”, we have witnessed the chaos, death, ugliness that allowing these authoritarians, these terrorists have wreaked on Ukraine, on Germany, on Europe, on the Pacific Rim. We have the documentation of the Concentration Camps of Hitler, we have the lessons and power of Goebbels’ way of accusing another(s) of that which you are guilty of. We have seen the decimation of Tutsis in Rwanda, we have seen the “ethnic cleansing” of Milosevic, and, we, the people, have not risen up strong enough, fast enough in most of these cases to live “compassion greater than justice”, we have not responded from our higher selves, we have not followed God’s example, God’s call, nor the examples and calls of Rabbi Heschel, Rev. King, Bobby Kennedy, the Berrigan Brothers, Rev. Barber, Rabbi Brous, etc with the force and energy to stop these terrorists. We have the opportunity today to do this, we have to demand a NATIONAL DAY OF REPENTANCE for the Republican Party, the Democratic Party and everyone else for either our complicity, our inaction, and/or our perpetrating of terror and hatred, our absence of compassion and justice.

In recovery, we know that compassion is one of the greatest actions we can engage in. Compassion is more than a feeling, it is an action. We do this by letting go of resentments and praying for the welfare and good fortune of those people whom we resent. We do this by, as my first sponsor taught me, keeping our minds open enough to have them changed. In recovery, we are constantly asking ourselves “do we want to be right or be happy”, compassion is what helps us stay happy, joyous and free. When Dr. Susannah Heschel visited Beit T’Shuvah the first time, she spoke about seeing people who are stuck as pathetic: isn’t it sad that they are so stuck, unhappy that they have to act this way. Imitating God’s compassion has allowed me to let go of resentments and anger. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 188

“It is true that the commandment to be holy is exorbitant, and that our constant failures and transgressions fill us with contrition and grief. Yet we are never lost. We are the sons of Abraham. Despite all faults, failures, and sins, we remain parts of the Covenant.” (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

At a time when so many people are dying from Gun Violence, Overdoses, Alcohol-related causes, suicide; when so many people are being shunned and called outcasts and we are unwelcoming the stranger, taking advantage of the poor, imprisoning the needy; Rabbi Heschel’s teaching is sobering, giving one a bad conscience (I hope), and, at the same time, eye-opening and hopeful.

“Yet we are never lost” is reassuring and reminds us to constantly seek the guideposts, the paths to finding our unique way to serve one another, to be “parts of the Covenant” and to remember we are all brothers/sisters who come from Abraham. We are blessed because we are his descendants, we are all inherit his mantle, his ways of welcoming people along with his foibles. Yet, we are all inextricably linked together as kinsmen. Father Greg Boyle speaks often and powerfully about “radical kinship” and “erasing the margins” and Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above brings these concepts to our consciousness and the forefront of our mind. Jesus said: “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” and Rabbi Heschel is demanding we see our own sins, our own “failures and transgressions” so we can be filled “with contrition and grief.”

I am upset and concerned, have the anger of the prophets and the fear of the people within me right now as I witness the degradation of segments of humanity because of color, sexual orientation, religion, country of origin, etc. Who are these “righteous christians, righteous jews, righteous muslims” to dismiss the humanity and the connectedness of any one they deem “not good enough”? These are not God-fearing, God-connecting, people, they are not living in a manner which is compatible with being a partner of God, they are not embracing truth, justice, kindness, mercy, love; they are not walking with God nor in God’s ways; yet they wave the Bible around as a weapon instead of as a welcome home gift. The ‘red’ states are aptly named because they are willing to have blood flow in their streets before they will follow the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s teachings, they will allow suffering and misery, promote hatred and disdain of another person who is “not like them, ie white” while picking the pockets of poor white people with their lies and mendacity, their deceptions and use white people as amusement for them, ie Tucker Carlson’s comments as revealed in Court Documents.

We all have to stop the hatred, as Elie Weisel teaches. We all have to stop seeing one another as enemies, as less than human, as not “parts of the Covenant”. We have to have a NATIONAL DAY/WEEK OF REPENTANCE. I have said this before and I say it now as Shavuot, known in Christianity as Pentecost, is 22 days away. It says in the Torah that we are supposed to cleanse ourselves before we approach Sinai and receive Torah, receive God’s guide book on how to live well. What better way to do this than by every Church, Temple, Synagogue, Mosque take the time and energy to engage in a NATIONAL DAY/WEEK OF REPENTANCE? We are in desperate need of cleansing ourselves of the misguided hatred, the blaming of another for our “failures and transgressions”. What I am suggesting/calling for is a period of time where Clergy repent, then we help our congregants repent, we build together a different way of engaging in discourse where we can be adversaries, we can argue with one another passionately, and we never use vulnerabilities against one another, we never seek to destroy one another, we see one another as enemies instead of human beings, we accuse another of what we are doing, etc. We have to let go of the desire for authoritarianism to rule over one another and engage in a healthy, robust discussion of what is the best next right action to take now that is in concert with the Constitution-just as Rabbis have and still do “argue” with one another from the 1st Century BCE till now.

I engage in T’Shuvah each day, as many of you can discern from my personal accounts at the end of these blogs. I am so clear on my need to repent, my need to return, my need to be embraced by the “parts of the Covenant” that have shunned me, and on my need to accept that some people have decided they don’t want me to part of their covenant anymore and I am still part of God’s Covenant. Rabbi Heschel’s comforting words remind me that no matter what another human being does, God is here, God is welcoming, God is calling. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 187

“It is true that the commandment to be holy is exorbitant, and that our constant failures and transgressions fill us with contrition and grief. Yet we are never lost. We are the sons of Abraham. Despite all faults, failures, and sins, we remain parts of the Covenant.” (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

Reading the last sentence above demonstrates both the essence of Judaism, the call of the prophets, and the large tent that Rabbi Heschel lived in. Rather than shun people, rather than excommunicate people, rather than see differences as threats to his survival, Rabbi Heschel lived life and teaches us to live life as “parts of the Covenant”, not singular groupings, not identity politics, not blaming everyone else for what is happening in our lives and around us.

The governor of Texas blamed the victims for their deaths in the terrible mass shooting over the weekend in Cleveland, Texas. The governor of Florida blames ‘woke’ people for the troubles in his state, he probably blames them for the flooding that he was conveniently out of state for. The Republican Party joins with people waving the Swastika and spouting neo-Nazi slogans and political positions in their war on LGBTQ+ people. There is a foundation in Arizona that works with Uganda and other nations in Africa to make homosexuality a crime punishable by death. Taking away a woman’s right to choose, her ability to get an abortion to save her life, are ‘godly actions’ to some. The more conservative  Supreme Court Justices defending their questionable ethics, their non-reporting and lying on income forms and complaining that people are not nice to them; forgetting that as the top appeals court in the land, they must be above reproach and non-political, non-religious in their decisions no matter their backgrounds. They show no respect for ethics, they show no respect for settled law, they show no respect for anyone or anything that isn’t in their best interest or the best interest of their benefactors and wonder why their rulings are questioned and, soon enough, will come to be disregarded as they have disregarded the rulings of earlier courts and they disregard the dictum that justice has to be blind and “bribes blind the eyes of the wise” as the Bible teaches. We have to remember, however, even with their “faults, failures, and sins” they and “we remain parts of the Covenant”.

For those of us who are aware of our “faults, failures and sins”, Rabbi Heschel’s teachings come as good news, as relief, and as a reminder of our imperfection and God’s acceptance of our imperfect ways of being. We learn that we are never “thrown out” of the Covenant, that God is always near-no matter how far away we may feel from God- and we are always accepted. It also reminds us that everyone matters, what we do has impact far beyond our self, far beyond what we believe is our “circle of influence”, what we do, who we be, matters in the universe and to God. We are so important we are not tossed aside at the first or 1000th “faults, failures and sins”. We are so needed we are told in the Bible that when we “miss the mark” we need spiritual counseling, not banishment; we need to be known for our uniqueness and welcomed for our differences; we need to welcome everyone into our home, community, way of being rather than shun and be afraid of the stranger, the poor, the needy. In Deuteronomy, we are taught that we “all are standing here” from the heads of the tribes to the water drawer, everyone is part of the covenant and everyone is imperfect. Living into Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom allows us to take our proper place rather than abdicate it because of our imperfections.

In recovery, we surrender to truth, we surrender to community, we surrender to spirit. Rather than blame and shame, we are responsible for our actions-good and not good-, we are embraced by community no matter what and we embrace another(s) so they know they are welcome, needed, wanted and loved-no matter what. We make a list of our errors, our resentments, our failures without blaming another, without shaming ourselves. We share with one another our victories and our flaws, our successes and our sins, we believe that “failing forward” is the path to wholeness and living well. In recovery, we are constantly seeking to carry the message of recovery to those who suffer in silence, shame and blame.

My recovery has not stopped my “faults, failures and sins” from happening-it has made them happen less and, usually, not cause as much damage as before. I have come to believe that we all are “parts of the Covenant” even those who wish me bad, who have hurt me, who blame me and shame me, ignore me. If I welcome those who do me good, help me, raise me up, pay attention to me, I have to welcome those who don’t-this is how big God’s tent is and it has to be how big mine is. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 186

“It is true that the commandment to be holy is exorbitant, and that our constant failures and transgressions fill us with contrition and grief. Yet we are never lost. We are the sons of Abraham. Despite all faults, failures, and sins, we remain parts of the Covenant.” (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

Rabbi Heschel’s declaration and reminder to us: “Yet we are never lost. We are the sons of Abraham” is to bring us back to the reality within which we ought to be living. We are all children of Abraham, descendants of Adam, no matter what western faith we follow, no matter which Eastern discipline we adhere to, no matter which spiritual paths we practice, no matter even if we deny all spiritual practice and faith! “We are never lost” no matter how many times we fail, no matter how many times we transgress, we are not lost according to Rabbi Heschel.

Yet, we know when we have gone off the path of the holy, the good. We are acutely aware of when we have colluded with evil, with the deception of self and another(s) to “get ahead” all the while falling behind in our quest for inner peace. Being children of Abraham is telling us that we have the power and the possibility to return to a path of being holy, a path of decency, a path of truth, a path of love, a path of non-compete with another unique soul and a path of living authentically our self, our divine task, our joyous gifts and being part of a community to which we belong rather than have to fit in.

Rabbi Heschel is giving us a new way to understand ourselves and one another. Rather than shunning those of us who have forgotten we are all children of Abraham, rather than living in the shame of “failures and transgressions”, Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom and teaching gives us a new paradigm to understand ourselves and one another. Shunning is not going to help anyone! Locking them up and throwing away the key doesn’t serve God nor anyone society. Fighting the “woke wars” of DeSantis, Greene, et al isn’t going to give any of us surety nor safety. Yet, rather than understand, incorporate and live into Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom, these mendacious ‘god-fearing’ men and women and their clergy are using being a child of Abraham as a club against other children of Abraham. No where in Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom teaching above do we hear anything about an individual or a small group. The use of the plural WE, is to teach us to stop believing we are the only ones who “know”. We, the ones who have swallowed the ‘red pill’ as Jeff Sharlet writes about in his book, Undertow, are the true children of Abraham and the rest of us are imposters, and other such nonsense. Rabbi Heschel is calling out to us to remember that even when we fail and when we transgress(screw up), we are still in the world, we are still on a path, we are still part of Abraham, we are still worthy, we are still valuable, needed, loved.

The myriad of ways so many of us think about being lost, being alone, being despondent over life’s travails, are anathema to Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above. I am struck with how often I have used the language of being lost, of losing rather than experiencing God’s guidance, people reaching out, a new way of seeing what is, etc. Lost, alone, despondent are all ways of reacting to the world through our mental process’ and emotional lives. We have, as Eastern teaching as well as Jewish wisdom teach, become attached to the suffering, attached to the ‘winning’, attached to the various emotional states we cycle through and get stuck in some. This place of being stuck gives us the illusion that we are lost, that we are failures and transgressors rather than the truth: we fail at times, we transgress, we take our eyes off the road in moments, AND we are not failures, we are not “sinners” beyond repair, we are not lost and we are have a lineage of love and kindness to follow and enhance.

In recovery, we readily admit our imperfections and find ways to improve without needing perfection. We accept God’s love, forgiveness, embrace through our interactions with our brothers and sisters in recovery. We constantly see our failures and transgressions as opportunities to move forward, to learn and to grow. In recovery, we know we are home, we are not lost, and we are belong.

I am in awe of Rabbi Heschel’s wisdom, all the time, and certainly today. Realizing that I have a heritage that can guide me, an imperfect patriarch and matriarch, a history of failing and getting up, a history of transgressions and Tshuvah/amends, being forgiven by God and another(s) and forgiving everyone who has hurt me, failed me,(at least in my experience and understanding) gives me hope and knowing that I am never lost, I always have a path inside of me to follow, a path that another(s) can help me find and get back on, gives me hope and strength to persevere. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 2 Day 185

“It is true that the commandment to be holy is exorbitant, and that our constant failures and transgressions fill us with contrition and grief. Yet we are never lost. We are the sons of Abraham. Despite all faults, failures, and sins, we remain parts of the Covenant.” (God in Search of Man pg. 378)

Exorbitant is defined as “unreasonably high” and the Latin root means “from the course(usual). Rabbi Heschel’s use of this word in conjunction with “the commandment to be holy” is interesting to me. I hear him calling out to us to realize that being holy is a high bar that God has set for us, being holy is, unfortunately, a way of being that is far “from the course” of usual behaviors. The second half of the opening statement validates this truth. I am just not positive that most of us are filled with contrition and grief from “our constant failures and transgressions.”

This is our challenge as human beings always and in particular in our times. We have seen an uptick our “failures and transgressions” and a downturn in our “contrition and grief” over them. We are witnessing people of the cloth and people of faith use mendacity and deception on one another and of themselves to convince them that their “failures and transgressions” are actually holy so they applaud one another and give themselves pats on the back for their “failures and transgressions”, they defend them to the death rather than express and experience “contrition and grief”.

We all need to recognize that being holy is not the usual way of living for all of us, this is why, I believe, it had to be a commandment, it has to be told to us and we have to remind ourselves of this commandment and, as the Torah says, realize that holiness is a continuum. The commandment is in the imperfect tense in the Bible, meaning it is an action that has begun and is not yet completed. We begin as holy souls, we can choose to grow deeper into our innate holiness and we can choose not to. As I write this blog today, I realize how “radical amazement” is a necessity for us to grow deeper into being holy and how our adjustment to conventional notions and mental cliches keeps us from paying the “unreasonably high” price of being holy, of hearing and following God’s command. While it is not actually that difficult to be holy, according to Leviticus Chapter 19, verses 1-18, the difficulty we experience and the cause of our “failures and transgressions” lie with our immature egos, our attachment to self-deception and mendacity. This is why we have become so adjusted to the ‘normal way of doing things’ rather than seek new and “maladjusted” paths to fulfill both God’s commandment and our souls’ desire to be holy.

Contrition comes from the Latin meaning “to wear away, to grind down” and grief from the Old French meaning “burden”. As many of us who have experienced death of a loved one can attest to, grief is a burden we carry. Rabbi Heschel’s use of the word above gives me a new way of experiencing grief; recognizing the “burden”/heaviness of grief that comes from loving someone, loving a career, a mission that has been lost is important in learning how to carry the burden and know we have to share this “burden” with another(s). We also have to commit to not letting the “burden”, the “grief” negatively impact our living, we have to learn how to live with these “burdens”, with the myriad of grief we have for all our losses and “failures and transgressions.” We can only become contrite, when we allow our “failures and transgressions” to “wear away” and “grind down” our inauthentic ways of being, our mendacities, our false egos, our belief that our facades and false selves will save us from ever having to be contrite, our need to be right all the time and the smartest person in the room. “Contrition and grief” are, as I understand Rabbi Heschel today, what will save us from self-destruction, from destroying one another and bring us together to fight our common enemies, mendacity and evil.

In recovery and my return to Judaism, I learned early on that “failures and transgressions” do not make me less human, they make me as human as the next person. What recovery and my return to Judaism has done is give me the wisdom, the strength, the courage and the spirit to no longer hide from my “failures and transgressions” as well as no longer be the entire problem. I carry the truth of my errors with me as reminders and signposts now instead of as burdens and they have worn away and ground down my false ego to where I can openly and freely admit my errors and make my T’Shuvah, my amends. I just no longer have to make an amend for who I am, for my humanness, and this is the paradigm shift that my teachers and fellow travelers in recovery and Judaism have helped me achieve. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark