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Treating our Spiritual Values as "delicate, precious, and intangible" - Year 3 Day 335

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 335

“Spiritual values are, of course, delicate, precious, and intangible. They can neither be measured nor firmly and exactly described. And yet spiritual attitudes can be evoked and fostered, character can be affected, generosity and reverence can be cultivated.” ( Insecurity of Freedom pg. 61)

Today is Veterans Day in the United States and I am thinking of all who have served to ensure that we became a democracy, protected our democracy, fought in the World wars, in all of our wars whether or not they were ‘necessary’ and those who serve today. Each of these people and their families stood for and are standing for the very “intangible, delicate, and precious” “spiritual value” called democracy, freedom, equal rights for every person as our Declaration Of Independence states. When I asked my family members who fought in WWII, what they fought for, I remember my father saying he fought for people to not live in cages, not be uprooted from their homes and the horrors he experienced in the war were too much to speak of. Because they fought and so many “gave their lives that that nation might live”, we, their descendants and the recipients of their “generosity” must honor and cherish freedom for all, must continue to work to ensure the words of our Declaration of Independence are lived into, that we become a “more perfect union” one grain of sand each day.

Precisely because “spiritual values are, of course, delicate, precious, and intangible”, we have to guard them and ourselves a little more each day. What happens to most people is what Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato says in his book Path of the Just, to paraphrase, what he writes in it is not new, rather it is truth that everyone takes for granted and precisely because we take it for granted we become oblivious to the truth. The same is true of our “spiritual values”. We have come to accept them as true and necessary so we forget them and twist them to ‘our advantage’ rather than living into them so we can live better. We have become so used to saying “Christian values”, “Jewish values”, etc that these words are empty because we twist the words of Scripture, we abuse the words of the Koran, we make the words of Buddhism into serving us instead of us serving the wisdom and spirit of these Holy Texts! We take the “delicate” and “intangible” and commit adultery, we whore these principles because we want to do what we want to do, not be held responsible, and f**k everyone else. It is what corporations do when they say what they are doing to poison the earth is in the “best interests of their shareholders”, what clergy are doing when they go along with the powerful instead of speaking truth to them, it is what politicians do when they say they want to represent the people of their districts, states and instead represent the special interest groups that give them money, the party they are affiliated with, and/or their ‘christian/jewish/islamic/etc values’.

While we know these values in our inner life and we get a ‘pit in the stomach’ when we are going against them, we seem to be ignoring the preciousness of our “spiritual values”. They are “precious” because they are “delicate”, because they are “intangible”, because without them we relive the days of the Pharaoh in Egypt, we become slaves to the taskmasters, the worst traits of human beings are on display and everyone suffers. The perpetrators of the lies, of the harshness, of the hatred suffer from a deep sense of insecurity, a constant looking behind them and around them to see who is going to be their Cassius and their Brutus. The people who are being forced into camps and harsh labor-physically, mentally, and spiritually-suffer from the loss of dignity and freedoms. These “spiritual values” are what our democracy was founded on, what George Washington spoke about in his farewell address, what Lincoln labored to preserve, what  JFK meant when he said “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. We have to return our goal of seeing everyone as “created equal” not just some people, we have to return to our goal of ensuring everyone’s “unalienable rights; Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”

We have to return to our “spiritual values”, we have to learn and relearn them. We have to recommit to them and make them our “North Star”. While “they can be neither measured nor firmly and exactly described”, we know them when we experience them and we know them when they are not being practiced by ourselves and by another person, an entity, a government. It is time for us to stop needing ‘polls’ to tell us what is right, it is time for us to end our extremism on both ends of the continuum, it is time for us to stop lying to ourselves and it is time for us to return to being a people who believe and follow thru with our covenants, our commitments to God/higher consciousness. It is time for us to stop trying to prove these “intangible” “spiritual values” and live into them in our ‘everyday living’. We don’t need the Sabbath to live holy each day, we don’t need to be told what to do by some power-hungry autocrat or wanna be guru! We have within us, in our souls, in our guts, in our inner life the “spiritual values” that create worlds, that give life to the dead in spirit, strength to the weary and hope to the hopeless. Stop fighting against Donald Trump and MAGA, stop fighting against “the Woke”, stop fight ing against ‘your enemies’  and start fighting for our shared “spiritual values”, our shared infinite dignity as human beings, our shared desire for freedom, our shared goals of making the US “a more perfect union”, our shared heritage of caring for the voiceless and the powerless as Moses and Christ taught us, our shared heritage of admitting our errors, making our amends, and changing our ways as King David showed us. We have the power to do this, it is not in heaven, it does not have to be sought for in heaven or in Christ- it is within us, it is implanted in our inner life, in our spiritual DNA-we just have to practice our spiritual values out loud and, as the prophets showed us, Very Loudly!

I have been tongue-tied so often because I am unable to describe and explain what I know in my bones to another person and been rejected, called selfish, intractable, chaos producing, etc. Even when my predictions prove out, the people who are unable to connect to our shared “spiritual values” can’t admit their errors. What I am realizing is our ‘intangible”, “delicate” and “precious” spiritual values are not the same as morality. Our “spiritual values” are paths for us to follow in order to be moral, in order to not bastardize our moral goals and live an ethical, spiritual life. I keep growing into these “spiritual values” and my biggest error is not seeing that just because something is clear to me, doesn't mean everyone else will see clearly and I have to be more patient and clearer in describing the indescribable! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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How do you experience your Spiritual Values? Year 3 Day 334

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 334

“Spiritual values can be experienced in acts of love and compassion, in acts of ritual, in search for truth, in moments of sensing the mystery of living.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.61)

I have read and re-read this sentence over and over again and I believe the inner meaning of it is the difference between living authentically and living as a phony! Rabbi Heschel’s use of the word “can” causes me to dig deeper into this sentence. “Acts of love and compassion…” are all spiritual values in action-as I have understood Rabbi Heschel over the years and it is precisely when love is devoid of spirit, when it is transactional rather than covenantal that it is no longer “love”.

We have come to bastardize “spiritual values” over the millennia and, once again, the train of our indiscretions, the bullet train of our lies and mendacities is heading straight at us. Once again, the shrine built over 248 years is in danger of being breached, the “shining city on the hill” is in danger of being put to siege not by an outside enemy, rather by us. When we willingly vote against compassion, when we willingly vote for mendacity and falsehoods, when we discard “sensing the mystery of living” for the ‘joy’(?) of making someone else the ‘bad guy’, I believe we have lost our “spiritual values”, we have jettisoned them in favor of ‘feeling good’. When “love” is expressed by hating the same group, when “compassion” is expressed only for ourselves, when the “search for truth” is abandoned for reveling in the lie, we are reliving the times of the destruction of the Temple, we are reliving the break-up of the people Israel into two kingdoms, we are reliving the destruction and dispersion of the Northern Kingdom (the lost tribes) and then the destruction of the Temple and the exile of some Jews to Babylonia.

We are not in a unique position, we saw this in ancient times with Rome, Athens, Sparta, Cairo, Babylon, etc. We saw this with Germany, England, Russia, China, Japan, France, Spain and other countries in Europe. All of these countries/empires were dominant at one time or another in their history and believed they could do what they wanted to with impunity, they believed that “might makes right” and all were defeated and decimated. Yet, Jews, who hadn’t had a land to call their own, for over 1900 years, have survived-much to the chagrin of the rest of the world. It is precisely because, with all of our arguments within the different factions of Judaism, we held onto the “spiritual values” of our holy texts. We have held onto “care for the stranger, the poor, the needy” as a mantra and points us always to compassion for another human being, another group of human beings. We have suffered much death and hardship, thrown out of many countries just because we are Jews and so we know how important the “spiritual value” of “compassion” is. As a Jew we cannot vote for fascism, we cannot vote for mass deportations, we cannot vote for taking health care away from women, we cannot vote for favoring the rich and denigrating the poor-it is not in our Bible, it is not in our Covenant with God, it does not go along with the wisdom of Rabbi Hillel who said: “what is hateful to you, do not do to another person” - full stop. I would suggest that Christ would be appalled if a Christian acted in these wrongful ways, if a Christian denigrated the very people Christ hung out with!

The Bible is a “search for truth”, the “acts of ritual” are not to make us into robots because there are various interpretations of how to fulfill them, it is a road map to being able to “sense the mystery of living” and it is a book of love and loving of oneself, of God/of higher consciousness, of loving our neighbor as ourselves. We have the guidance to experience the “spiritual values” listed above, we have the inner desire to achieve them as well, we just have to allow our rational mind to be the servant Einstein reminds us it is instead of the great decider that we have made it.

We have to recover our authentic self, we have to return to a way of being that exudes and experiences “love and compassion”, that immerses us “in the moments of sensing the mystery of living” and to always engage in the “search for truth”. Without doing this, our lives are vapid and empty, without living in this way, we live transactionally and it is easy to forget the people who help us live well, it is easier to hate those people who remind us of whom we should be, who we can be. Without our “spiritual values” life is a zero-sum game and we need to win at all costs. This way of living is not sustainable, it is not Biblical, it is not Christian, it is not Islamic, it is not Eastern, it is not Jewish.

The American Election, the continued reign of Netanyahu are examples of our rational minds, of our “spiritual values” being hijacked by lies and we have become believers and followers of the irrational, of the deceptions of self and another, and we have jettisoned what we know in our inner life, in our souls for what ‘feels good’. Both the left and the right have made ‘feelings’ uber alles-not realizing that the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran, etc teach us to F U our Feelings (the name of my podcast) and take the next right action. In recovery, we may feel like taking a drink, a drug, making a bet, etc and we make a decision to forgoe that feeling knowing another one is coming up quickly. We know that our feelings will pass whether we indulge them or not. We have to make a decision to “turn our lives and our hearts over to the care of God as we understand God” as the 3rd step of AA teaches us. This is true whether one is an addict or not! We need to RETURN AGAIN to tenets of the 10 Sayings, surrender to something greater than ourselves, live authentically, not make false images of ourselves, take time to visit our inner life, honor the wisdom and experiences of our elders/ancestors and use it to make life better, no longer murder the soul of another(s) and/or ourselves. Stop whoring ourselves for money, fame, etc, no longer steal from another, from ourselves to ‘look successful’, stop lying about another person and want what we have rather than needing to take what another human being has.

It is hard to live up to and into the “spiritual values” of the Bible, of our souls and I have made it my business to keep trying. The only failure is to give up my “spiritual values”, to let go of the lifeline that has been and is being provided by faith, by community, by family. I am blessed to be able to “sense the mystery of living” and to stand up against unkindness, mendacity and senseless hatred within myself and when another takes these actions. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you engaging in the complexities of living or just dumbing everything down? Year 3 Day 333

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 333

“To foster depth of awareness, sheer openness of both mind and senses to what is given, is as vital to us as the training in the art of explanation and expression.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.61)

These words go right to the core of our very being. Either we “foster depth of awareness” or we live vapid, meaningless lives. Acknowledging that we will not always be able to have “sheer openness of both mind and senses to what is given” and that doesn’t mean we don’t strive to! The level of vapidity that many people live at is sad, distressing and dangerous. It is this very vapidity that has led people and nations to become overtaken by authoritarians disguising themselves as populists, puppets of other autocrats, people drunk on power who will hold it at the very ruin of their own country. America, in my opinion, is in this dangerous and precarious state-will Project 2025 make us a ‘christian nation’ without elections-as Lara Trump is saying-or will our democracy and constitution hold. This remains to be seen and We, the People need to “foster depth of awareness” and be awake, alert and ready to take action.

“Foster” means “encourage or promote the development of”, “depth” means “complexity  of thought”,  “awareness” means “knowledge or perception of a situation..” The first sentence above now can be read as: “To encourage and promote the development of complexity of thought for the knowledge and perception of this moment, of every moment… OY! What an order!! Yet it is also what makes us human that we can, I would add must, engage in developing our complexity of thinking, not complicating, not dumbing it down, not jumbling it all up. Complexity of thought is being able to hold two opposing opinions in our minds, in our souls at the same time, it is being able to discern the real from the fake, being able to think for ourselves rather than believe what people tell us to think, like the right-wing and left-wing media do. We don’t need to MAGA nor do we need to BLAME THE BILLIONAIRES for our current situation, we need to be able to hear the lies and the hatred, the ‘poor persecuted rich white guy’ and know they are lies and that spewing hatred is never the way to growing our democracy, our spirits. AND we have to also hear the cries of those who have been convinced of the lies, we have to talk to them, show them and have compassion for them-even though they may take our country down the path of ruin and autocracy. It is incumbent upon a person who wants to “foster depth” to develop these traits and practice them in all our affairs. We have to help another(s) “promote the development of complex thoughts” in order to grow their souls and their “knowledge and perception of their situation”. We are in a moment where we have to be sherpas to people who are unaware and who are in self-deception.

“Sheer openness of both mind and senses to what is given” its another conundrum for many people. We have already formed our opinions, we are unable, unwilling to engage in “depth of awareness” and we don’t truly see “what is given” because we are blind and deaf to anything other than the ‘radio station’, the ‘news station’ we have playing in our heads. Because we are blind to “what is given” we find ourselves ‘down the rabbit hole’ and unable to hold cogent and informed conversations with another person who has a different opinion, a different experience , a different vision, a different “depth of awareness” of “what is given”. We have become so tightly tied to ‘our corner’, ‘our side’, that we have stopped being able to have free and fair discussions, collaborative solutions, instead, it has to be ‘my way or the highway’. In Israel, Netanyahu has not taken responsibility for his lack of awareness on Oct. 7, 2023 and before-instead taking advantage of Joe Biden’s care and concern for the Jewish people. Bibi is willing to have the whole world hate him, roll the dice that Trump will not listen to Putin when Iran puts the pressure on Putin to make Trump abandon Israel-because autocrats have always been good to Jews and ‘Christian nations’ have always treated us so well! When one is unable to see “what is given” clearly and complexly, through the lens of personal as well as global history, when we decide to throw our lot in with the ‘strongman’, we set ourselves up for ruin.

There is a solution!! We have to “foster depth of awareness…of what is given” by maturing our spiritual nature. When we realize that “acceptance is the answer to all our problems today”(Dr. Paul in AA Big Book), that acceptance doesn’t mean approval, that we are Holy Human Beings, that we have “eyes to see, ears to hear” ever since we stood at Sinai and accepted the Covenant with God, one another, and with ourselves. The solution is to “grow along spiritual lines” and continue to “return to” our basic goodness of being, to allow the universe and one another to “heal our backsliding” and be welcomed back in love. We can change our minds based on what this situation is right here, right now. We can and must not allow our prejudices and biases to cloud our vision, to stop us from engaging “depth of awareness”, to go along to get along, to be overtaken by the liars and charlatans that are always at our door. In the Bible, Cain is told: “Negativity couches at your door, it desires you much AND you can master it”! We can master and transform the “negativity that couches” in our lives, soon to be in the White House, and within ourselves through the spiritual work of discernment and discovery, "openness of mind and senses”, and belief in something greater than ourselves, belief that there is more to living than our selfishness-we are called to go beyond our self to make life better for those around us.

I know the pull of negativity, I succumbed to it in my youth. I promoted it in my late teens through my late 30’s. Since 1987, I “foster depth of awareness” in myself and help those around me do the same. I find simplicity in the “complexity of thought” and continue to increase my knowledge so my perception of what is becomes more in line with what truly is rather than what I have seen before. There is no “same shit different day” in my world anymore, today is new, bright, pregnant with possibilities and I am excited each day when I awake to study, pray and write so I can be open for “what is given” to me today. Rather than bemoan everything, which I do also, I know that being in spiritual growing, taking action on reality rather than acting on the falseness my biases and prejudices bring is the only way to truly live into the Rabbi Heschel’s teaching today. I work hard each day to have compassion for people who are stuck and not get stuck with them. I am committed to “foster depth awareness” in myself and in another(s). God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living with an "awareness of our inability to say what we sense" - Year 3 Day 332

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 332

“To maintain that everything we know we are able to understand, that everything we sense we are able to say, is an invention of idiots. Intellectual embarrassment, awareness of our inability to say what we sense, is a prerequisite of intelligence.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 61)

Today in America and across the world is the day after the day after. Many people are rejoicing in the results of Tuesday’s elections both here and in Moscow, Teheran, Beijing, Jerusalem, etc. There are many of us who are in sadness, despair, abject fear and worry about what is next and were in mourning yesterday. I think of Rev. King’s statement: “The moral arc of the Universe is long but it bends towards justice” reminding us that change of moral behaviors takes a long time to get to a just, merciful and humble walk with God, with humanity. Today is the day we pick ourselves up and continue to bend the “moral arc of the universe” in America, in Israel, across the world. “Oh deep in my heart, I know that I do believe, We shall overcome someday”.

Rabbi Heschel’s words above are what help me to “know that I do believe”. The hubris of the commentators and pundits, the winners and the losers “to maintain that everything (they) know (they) are able to understand” shows that they are the “idiots” Rabbi Heschel is speaking about. Yet, all of us fall into this category at one time or another and the challenge is to recognize we are falling prey to our idiocy, to our hubris, to our false pride. We, have to remember that we have a soul, we have an inner life, a gut intuition-whatever one wants to call it-and this “knowing” without understanding, “knowing” without being able to express it, is the “prerequisite of intelligence” that keeps us human and humble.

Too many people throughout the millennia have promoted the idea that we can know everything, everything can be explained, and if one can’t explain it then one is just stupid or their “knowing” can be brushed aside. It is time for us to once again go back to the basics of being human, to realize that there is no “proof” for the miracle at Sinai, there is no “proof” that the Jews left Egypt, that they wandered for “forty years in the desert”. Yet, many of us know the truth of being imprisoned by our self-deceptions. Many of us know the truth of a spiritual awakening. Many of us know the truth of wandering and feeling lost until we find our place, until we know we belong in the community, the friends, the partner, the job, we are in. Many of us know the truth of ‘knowing something in our bones’ and not being able to explain it and being shunned, dismissed by another only to see the destruction we warned about happen. Many of know the shaming feeling of being laughed at and/or excluded because, like the prophets of old, we are telling people what we see and, because we can’t articulate it and we don’t fully understand the meaning of it, our words go unheeded. Many of us know the frustration of dealing with the “invention(s) of idiots”!

As the Democrats go through their soul searching, as they see what went wrong and point fingers at the strategists, at President Biden, at Vice-President Kamala Harris, it is more important, as we think about the words above, to listen to our inner life, to listen to the messages from our gut, from our soul, from our higher consciousness before we speak and blame, before we throw the baby out with the bathwater. One of the things that we know is that “self-deception is a major disease” and people want to be like the “white guy in charge” who never is held accountable, who can get away with murder, with taking the money of the government for their companies, for themselves and then complain about spending it on the poor and the needy, who are descendants of immigrants and don’t want ‘those’ people here and be allowed to “hate our neighbors in our hearts” with impunity. These truths are what caused the ‘red wave’, a bloodbath in our elections two days ago.

Do we really want to become like this? In our “awareness of our inability to say what we sense” is the intelligence to “know” truth and not have to convince someone else. We move from a need to be right and understood to a “knowing” we know what we know and see what we see, being a leader into light and awareness without needing to be exacting. When we surrender to our own “intelligence”, we aer heard better, we are seen clearer, and we walk stronger into the light of truth and justice. When we surrender to our “intelligence” we are bending “the moral arc of the universe towards justice” a little more and a little sooner. When we realize that the lies and subterfuge of our opponents can’t be used by us because it is not who we are, we can find different ways to combat the lies and deceptions they spew. When we are using our “intelligence” we connect with another human being in ways that transcend party, politics, etc and we connect in spirit, in freedom, in truth. When we use our “intelligence” to find responses to the problems we face, we no longer have to “win”, we only have to be in the solution and help self and another find the light they need and they path we are meant to be on so we can live justly, mercifully, and walk in the ways of spiritual values and truths. This is not an easy way to live, it is a counter-intuitive path, it is a path of counter-culture and it means we leave “identity” politics, we leave “our tribe”, and join the entire human race, we find the similarities we share with every human being, the fears and the joys, the love and the disdains, while learning to respect our differences without needing to get them on “our side”. Liz Cheney and Kamala Harris showed us how.

My “inability to say what (I) sense” causes me great angst at times. Growing up I was brushed off by adults and my peers because I could not express what I saw, I didn’t understand what I knew, and I felt a half-step off. Only my father could understand and finish my sentences for me and his death cut me off from the world and I got frustrated and angry-hence my life of lying and crime, hurt and anguish. When I had my first spiritual awakening as an adult, in a jail cell, I couldn’t explain it fully nor did I understand it-the difference being I had the time to just live into it and I have ever since. I “know in bones” certain things that I can’t explain and this used to cause strife at work and at home until people understood that I wasn’t being coy, I was unable “to say what I sense”. I have continued to “know in my bones” and I realize that there have been times in the past 4 years when I have failed to surrender to my own “intelligence”, failed to go with “what I know”. Today’s “life lessons from Rabbi Heschel” are making me recommit to “know what I know” and live into it more each day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Say a Prayer for the Lost Souls who have changed the U.S. - Year 3 Day 331

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 331

“Immortality of the soul ought to be our central concern. By this, I mean the immortality of the soul while the body is still alive. Some human beings die long before their bodies do. The first task of religion is to serve as a reminder that man has a soul, that community has a soul. Did we not witness how entire nations lost their souls? The surest way to forfeit the soul is to ignore the spirit.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 61)

I have written this entire paragraph today because I have no idea how to separate these sentences from each other. The soul never dies, it is energy and I hear Rabbi Heschel saying to us that we ignore our souls at our own peril, at the peril of our community’s health and well-being. The “central concern”, as I experience Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above is to keep the soul alive and in communication with the body, to stop our desire to kill our souls, to snuff out our spiritual nature so we can indulge in greed, lust, gluttony, etc.

“Some human beings die long before their bodies do” is another truth that is ignored because everyone knows this happens so we ignore the facts when it is happening to us, when it is happening to ‘our people’, when we want to indulge in self-centered narcissistic behaviors that our souls, our spirits want to stop us from doing. We kill off our humanity whenever we vote for our self-interest and/or for people who do not have the slightest interest in helping their fellow human being, we kill off our humanity when we believe we will be exempt from the behaviors someone does to somebody else because ‘we’re tight with the power people’ and other such lies we tell ourselves. We die before our bodies when we sell off pieces of our soul, of our humanity bit by bit in order ‘to get ahead’. We die before our bodies do every time we ignore the call of our soul, the power of the spirit, and run away from doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.

We are in constant need of being reminded that we have a soul and this is what makes us human, what gives us life, that soul and breath are the same words in most languages. We are in constant need of adding to the goodness of the communal soul, not adding to the negativity of the communal soul. We are care-takers of the members of our community just as they are care-takers of us. We have an obligation to care for the poor and the voiceless, to not take advantage of one another, to not lie in order to ‘win’. This obligation stems from being responsible and concerned about the “immortality of the soul”. This obligation is at the heart of being human, at the core of not dying before our bodies do!

We have read and witnessed “how entire nations lost their souls” and we are seeing this phenomena happed today! Here in America, the country elected a liar, a fascist, a narcissist, a traitor to be President once again. People could not take him at his word and, because their souls were already dead, they have abandoned most of the traits that make them human, they have been told by many of their clergy that they have to vote against their best interests, against upholding the Constitution, against the nourishment of their souls. It is too depressing and to sad to see where we have come, how far we have fallen from the ideals of Washington, Lincoln, and the rest of the Presidents who have served with humanly and distinction. Rather than “serve as a reminder that man has a soul”, some of the religions, some of the ‘religious’ have done the opposite. They have stood with a man who is dead already inside, who’s soul is as sour and as dry as Pharaoh’s or Hitlers, a man who believes hanging with dictators is the best way to be, who wants to end health care for people, who wants to jettison the regulations that have saved so many. A man who may very well make the U.S. a ‘christian nation’ that never follows the dictates of Christ!

Yesterday’s election is a preview of how the U.S. is in real danger of losing its soul, if it hasn’t already. What is happening in Israel is a preview of how it is in danger of losing its soul. Both nations are on the precipice of this fall from grace because of the leaders they have chosen, both nations are on the precipice because the populace still has the power to protest, still makes its voice heard. WE, THE PEOPLE, more than ever, have to march and shout, have to protest and do everything we can to block the darker instincts of these megalomaniacs. We have to have the courage of Navalny, we have to have the courage of the prophets, the fire in the belly of Christ, the strength of Moses, the spiritual awakening of the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai. Like the descendants of Jacob, after Joseph and his brothers died, we have allowed a “new Pharaoh to” arise and he will “deal slyly with us” and, if we don’t stay alert, if we don’t have our voices heard, if we don’t stay in opposition to his fascist ways, he will set taskmasters over us and they have names, Musk, Kennedy Jr., Bannon, Stone, Flynn, etc. We have to end our addiction to hatred, our fascination with lies, our self-deception that we need someone to protect us, that we are so pathetic we need an authoritarian in the White House, that the rule of law means nothing, that if you are rich, you can do anything.

I write this today with a heavy heart. Kamala Harris did the best she could, she gave it her all and the people who Trump has vilified loved him more for this vilification than they did before. Not enough young voters, women voters, ‘religious’ voters, latino voters, did not hear him nor hear her in their souls. I worry that their souls have died even though their bodies are still working. I worry for my grandson, a bi-racial child, I worry for my nieces who will be told by governments what healthcare they can have, I worry for my daughter who will be told to shut up because she opposes hatred and cruelty. I worry for my neighbors who will rejoice at the cruelty yet to come, I worry for the people who will be devastated when they find out their ‘hero’, their ‘savior’ is delivering them into the hands of taskmasters who care nothing for them, who only want power and control. I worry for my fellow Jews, especially those who voted for Trump, when they find out what it means to live under ‘christian nationalism’, because Jews have always flourished in Christian Countries, like Spain, England, France, Germany, Italy, etc. I worry for God, how devastating this is to see God’s Creations purposely vote, passionately march to their own destruction. I worry for all of us that we have fallen so far, that we have forgotten the wisdom of Socrates: “an unexamined life is not worth living” and we “forfeit” our “souls” by ignoring “the spirit.” God Bless and pray for the survival of freedom and democracy in the U.S. and in Israel, Rabbi Mark

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How do you treat your life as "infinitely precious... pregnant with beauty"? -Year 3 Day 330

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 330

“Life must be seen not piecemeal but as a whole. To every individual his own life is unprecedented, incomparable, infinitely precious. Every life is pregnant with beauty, and in need of a form in which to be expressed.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 61)

This is the greatest challenge for all human beings! In speaking with Harriet Rossetto, my wife, we were discussing the difficulties human beings have had throughout the millennia with holding onto the “unprecedented, incomparable” experience each person’s life is and, instead, denigrating someone else’s life because they are ‘not like them’, ‘not a member of their tribe’, etc. We have seen hatred and strife, wars-both civil and between countries-throughout our history and, rather than learning from them, we seem to be growing in embracing these negative attitudes and enjoying the vitriols people spew, it even gets them elected to lead governments, like Netanyahu, Orban, etc.

While I have never been a Republican, I had respect for people who were because they were serious, they believed in the words above: “life must not be seen piecemeal but as a whole.” They were willing to argue the points upon which we differed and find common ground. They did not dismiss me out of hand because we believed in democracy, freedom, the preciousness of human life, etc. This is no longer the case and we all pray we can return to this arguing for the sake of what is best for the majority while taking care of the poor, the needy, and the stranger. Unfortunately, in America we have been subjected to an onslaught of hatred, a distorted picture of what is because of a “piecemeal” approach and description by Trump and the Republican Party. Just as we have been subjected to a distorted picture of what is happening in the Middle East by both Netanyahu, his cronies who love to steal along with him, Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, etc. We have been subjected to the hatred and vitriol as well as the lies and deceptions of Putin and his cronies as well-all because we opened the flood gates of denigration in 2016, because Hillary ran a terrible campaign, because the American people wanted a change and wanted a white man in the White House.

Rather than see that “every life is pregnant with beauty, in need of a form in which to be expressed”, it seems as if many people believe only their life is “pregnant with beauty”and if you are not part of their crowd, if one doesn’t subject themselves to the ‘group think’ of hatred and against ____(fill in the blank) then your life isn’t “pregnant with beauty”! We can see this on both the far right and the far left, we see how they can even agree to hate the same group-Jews- with equal fervor. This is the problem that faces every individual in every age. This is the problem that religion/spirituality is the response/answer to. We all come from the first human being-whether you believe in the Bible or evolution or both- and since we are all descended from the first, we all have equal infinite value, hence “life is unprecedented, incomparable, infinitely precious” to the individual and to all of us. We are in need of one another, “it is not good for human to be alone” we learn in the 2nd Chapter of Genesis, so each of us, with our unique “beauty… in need of a form in which to be expressed” needs human beings to help us develop, fill in and assist in life’s challenges that our “life is pregnant with beauty”, doesn’t know, can’t do, isn’t our job to do.

The reason we can’t seem to get beyond our selves, to live into this teaching, the other teachings of Rabbi Heschel, the Bible, Rev. King, St. Francis, the New Testament, Mohammed, the Koran, Buddha, the Dalai Lama, is because we don’t truly see our lives as “pregnant with beauty”, we don’t see the whole picture of our living, we don’t experience the “unprecedented, incomparable, infinitely preciousness” of our life nor of any other life. We give into the rational mind, our reptilian brain, our unawakened mind so we can ‘win at all costs”, not realizing the greatest cost is to our selves, to our being, to our essence. This is why all of these victories we notch on our belts seem so shallow, so vapid, so fleeting-they are actually losses and we are too much in the ether to realize it. This is why negativity feeds our minds, this is why we buy into evil logic, because it doesn’t tax us too much, it is easy to digest, and we can puff out our chests and declare victory over our ‘enemies’. How sad, how tragic, and, as I write this I realize, this is the very definition of slavery. This is the reason we were promised that we the inner slaveries would leave us and they do, when we do our part of the work.

This is the work of religion, the work of living a spiritual life. It is not ‘woo woo’ shit, it is the daily grind of being grateful to be alive and recognizing that life is a gift and we are responsible to use this gift, our life, wisely, kindly, compassionately. Because it is a gift, we have to continue to root our the lies and self-deceptions we tell ourselves, we have to be vigilant to not become oblivious to what is for the sake of seeing only what we want to see. We have to look inside, illumine the inner chaos, transforming our negative inclination to serve our next right action inclination, and find the “form in which (we) need to be expressed”. We do this by remembering that justice, mercy, truth, compassion, faithfulness, Tshuvah are bedrocks of our foundation for living well. We do this with a commitment to see everyone as precious, to know that every life is “unprecedented, incomparable” and we all need one another to help us see life “as a whole”. We can do this, it has happened before in history, it has happened before in Israel, in America, across the globe-we just have to relearn the lessons, live into the lessons and live our values and faith in real time and in all our affairs.

I wrestle with the preciousness of my life all the time. Immersing myself in Rabbi Heschel’s words and my writing today has forced me to realize that I haven’t been engaged in seeing my life as “infinitely precious” for a bit now, I have retreated from the world in some ways and I can’t do this anymore. I know I have something to give, another act if you will, and I have been reticent to take my place on stage. I have been fearful of my past errors being brought up to shame me, to ‘put me in my place’ and I am guilty of seeing life as “piecemeal”. No one has said any of this to me, it is just where my rational mind, my negative inclination took me and I thought I was past it and today’s writing brought up the nuanced way I have been imprisoned by both of these inclinations. NOT NO MORE! I commit to see the preciousness of your life and mine, I commit to help you and me find “life is pregnant with beauty, and in need of a form in which to be expressed.” I am committed to serve and treat your life and mine as infinitely precious. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

P.S. My latest Blog is out: Check out the episode here:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3TZHjp4NwEYZU0TtK2V4eb?si=44985b0076834350
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f-your-feelings-with-rabbi-mark/id1587525986?i=1000675670315

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What do you truly "think of yourself, of society, of humanity"? Year 3 Day 329

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 329

“What man thinks of himself, of society, of humanity, determines his way of making a decision. Without an intimate awareness of the grandeur of living, the transcendent glory of justice and compassion, the earnestness and ultimate significance of freedom and responsibility, we will fail.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.60)

What do we think of ourselves? What have we thought of ourselves in each generation and era? How has society impacted our inner thoughts and self-judgements? What does it take to buck the trend, abandon the status quo thinking, leave ‘group-think’, put up with ridicule and derision for our ‘different’ way of being?

We have witnessed throughout history how little “man thinks of himself, of society, of humanity” and suffered through great wars, discrimination, destructions for this way of being. Whether it is the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the Jews, the Persians, the Babylonians, the English, the French, the Spanish, all of these peoples made a decision to think so little of themselves and of their fellow countrymen, their fellow human beings and were so full of themselves that they laid the foundation for their eventual destruction and descent into oblivion and ruin. While the Jews, the Persians, the English, the French and the Spanish are still around, I wonder if they learned anything from their history-it doesn’t seem that way in this moment. Herein is the challenge: given our knowledge of history, given our experiences of societal discrimination, societal senseless hatred, societal neglect of the very people the Bible and Jesus tell us to care for, will we change our way of being from the hatred and vitriol, the fear of not being all-powerful and the rulers to one of “an intimate awareness of the grandeur of living, the transcendent glory of justice and compassion, the earnestness and ultimate significance of freedom and responsibility”?

Looking at the world over the past 65 years, I am 73 and didn’t really become aware until around 8 years old, I am tearfully aware of the myriad of times we have risen to this challenge and the myriad of times the backlash against this way of living has taken over and crushed freedom, justice, compassion, etc of anyone who is not in the white power structure. There is nothing wrong with being white, there is nothing wrong with being Black, Asian, Hispanic, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc, it is only when being part of any of these groups separates us from our humanity, stops us from seeing that we are all created equal and “have certain unalienable rights”, that we are “to proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein” that is the problem! It is when we put on blinders and follow the words of the despots who want to feel better about themselves by putting someone else down, it is when lying, cheating, being ‘above the law’ becomes good that is the problem!

We are in such a time. We are in a moment that is reminiscent of so many moments in history. It is not about good and bad, right and wrong that we are facing-it is about who are we as human beings. Do we think so little of ourselves that we are willing to vote for and live with a ‘wanna-be’ dictator, a friend of Putin, Orban, Kim Jung Un? Do we see ourselves as so threatened by modernity that we are willing to go backwards and deny women their humanity, deny minorities their humanity, deny any faith but ‘christian nationalism’ their humanity? Do we think so little of ourselves that we are willing to give up our freedom and agency as the Children of Israel did in Egypt some 4000 years ago? Are we so arrogant as to believe that we won’t be affected by the authoritarian in our midst who promises to be a dictator, who has shown affection for our enemies rather than for the hostages in Gaza like Bibi Netanyahu or Donald Trump who is telling Zelensky and Ukraine to give up land to Russia? How sad and how ignorant of history we seem to be.

Tomorrow, we go to the polls in America, today Bibi Netanyahu is the favored candidate for Prime Minister in Israel and Donald Trump is in a dead heat for the Presidential race in America. How is this possible? Is it because we are answering the questions I posed in the beginning of this blog with a resounding yes, a whimpering yes, a weakling yes? Both of these men have caused death and chaos, both believe they are above the law and both are supported by ‘good god-fearing men, women, clergy’ and their supporters think so little of themselves that they are willing to empower people who don’t have their interests at heart only their own. We are in desperate need of a solution.

The solution is to: A) cultivate our “intimate awareness of the grandeur of living” by remembering the world has been entrusted to us to grow and make a little better by our presence and our hard work. B) living in ways that “climb over”, go beyond the norm and reach the joy, light, “glory of justice and compassion”. Knowing that without compassion there can be no justice and without justice there can be no compassion. C) opening up our eyes and lifting them up to truly SEE that slavery, cunning, mendacity are not the way, nor are they permanent conditions unless we make them so with our surrender to dictators. Opening up our eyes and circumcising the foreskins of our hearts to allow the power of freedom to rise from our souls and see the truth that Sinai was not a one and done, that freedom has to be nurtured, fought for, cherished, honored, grown every day in society, in family, and within ourselves. D) we are responsible for one another, we are our brothers’ keeper, we do have to redeem the captive, care for the stranger, the poor, the needy because we have been in all of these situations either personally or it is in our ancestral history.

Having thought so little of myself as to puff myself up with bravado and bullshit for around 20 years  and to see who I truly am in the past 37, I have lived the teaching of Rabbi Heschel fully. Today I see humanity with hope, I believe and know that change is possible and will happen, just not always in my time:)! I have seen the light of hope and freedom in another person’s eyes when they realize that justice and compassion are part of their solution to living well. I have watched in awe when another person realizes the “grandeur of living” for the first time and makes the commitment to grow their own grandeur, to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, to see the glass as half-full. I know the joy of freedom from the lies, the deceptions that I tell myself and the ones that I am told and I know that my purpose is to speak truth, to acknowledge our human failings and push myself and another(s) forward rather than sit in our shit. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you still trying to cure your "false problems"? Year 3 Day 328

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 328

“Most people are afflicted with false problems. They fail to be aware of what really ails them, of what is ultimately at stake in the life of man. Our most precious insights come from encountering that which is greater than ourselves.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 60)

The reason to study the words and deeds of people in our history and in our present is to educate, cultivate, grow our own sense of truth and let go of the myriad of self-deceptions we have cultivated and the ones we have adopted from another. These deceptions, be it self or outer, are the root cause of our being “afflicted with false problems”, I believe. When we buy into the deceptions and mendacities of the ‘leader’, of the authoritarian, we find ourselves condemning the good behavior of ‘the enemy’ and extolling the bad behavior of ‘our side’. These deceptions and mendacities lead us to becoming blind to truth, unable to hear what is real and hold tight to the “false problems” we are being told about by another and/or our self-deceptions.

What are we to do when the ways of Josef Goebbels is more advantageous than the ways of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha? What are we to do when the embrace of ‘false problems” leads us to take fake cures and after “drinking the Kool-Aid” we find ourselves sicker than before. What are we to do when the ‘fearless leader’, is a coward who denigrates everyone else except the ‘white folks’ he is talking to and promises them  superiority while “picking their pockets” as President Lyndon Johnson taught us? What are we to do when almost 1/2 of the country seems to like being led to the slaughter by Elon Musk, Miriam Adelson, Right-Wing Christian Nationalist billionaires, Donald Trump and their gang of crooks? What are we to do when the words of Rabbi Heschel from 1962 go unheeded and our religious education, our moral education, our civics education is so MEH that we find ourselves in this predicament 60 years after we passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, 60 years since we came to believe that equality was afoot, that the sacrifice of the Union Soldiers was being redeemed?

We have to stand up and speak TRUTH to the masses, we have to stand up and speak TRUTH to the powerful, we have to stand up and say NO to the lies of the billionaires, to the MENDACITY of the christian nationalists who go against all that Christ taught and did. We have to stand up and say NO to the bastardization of the ‘orthodox Jews’ who claim to be following God’s command while actually only following their desire for control and power, just like the priests, the royalty and the wealthy did during the times of the two Temples and we know how that turned out. We have to go to the heart “of what really ails” us, “of what is ultimately at stake in the life of man”-the ability to make “free-will moral choices”, the ability to “Choose Life”. We cannot do this as long as we “are afflicted with false problems.”

The cult leaders, the dictators, the authoritarians want us to be “afflicted with false problems” so that we don’t see how they are manipulating us for their own gain, for their own power and how they will treat us just like they are treating the so-called ‘enemy of the people’, ‘the vermin’, the “low IQ” people, the minorities, the Jews, etc. They have to keep us at each other’s throats because, like the Pharaoh of Egypt who pretended to “not know Joseph”, they are afraid of our strength, our resourcefulness, our healthy spiritual and moral courage when we gather together to CHOOSE LIFE. They are “petty tyrants” like King George, like the myriad of “petty tyrants” throughout history and they will be defeated-the question we have to ask ourselves is how much devastation, how much death, how much freedom do we have to lose before we revolt as the people of the colonies did in 1776? The “enemies within” are the ones that are in our inner life, the ones that keep us in self-deception, in blindness, in deafness, in the belief that we don’t have to follow the lessons of morality, the ways of being good citizens. We can jettison the truth in order to serve the selfish needs of ‘the leader’!

We have the solution! It is in our hearts and our souls, it goes beyond the rational mind which will believe ‘logical’ arguments even when the premise of such arguments is false! We have to hear the call of our souls, we have to encounter “that which is greater than ourselves”. This can be God, it can be nature, it can be another human being, it can be being part of a group that serves an ideal, a teaching of the Bible like, “in righteousness you shall judge, don’t put a stumbling block before the blind, don’t curse the deaf, don’t go around as a slanderer, don’t stand idly by the blood of your neighbor, don’t avenge a grudge, Love your Neighbor as Yourself”. When we see the commonalty, the humanity in another human being, in another group; skin color, religious belief, spiritual practices fall by the wayside because we see another image of the divine that compliments ours. We are given these teachings in the Holiness Code in Leviticus, Chapter 19. Many of them are followed by “I am the Lord” which can mean that just as we encounter “that which is greater than ourselves” in spirit, we have to take the actions we learn in the real world. We, the People, have to take back our power, we have to once again stand at Mt. Sinai, we have to once again encounter “that which is greater than ourselves” and hear the Shema, we have to once again listen intently to the words of the Sermon on the Mount, we have to imbibe the teachings of the Buddha. We have to be human in all our affairs and choose life!

I am a veteran of being “afflicted with false problems”. It is hard to rise above the self-deceptions and the outer lies I encounter, it is hard to sit with the sadness of being blamed for things I did not do, for not being forgiven for things I did and have done T’Shuvah for. It is hard to listen to the mendacity of the “holier than thou” people who, like the ones at the times of the Temple in Jerusalem, spread lies and deceptions to hide their own agendas, to hide their theft of the soul of freedom. It is hard to rise above what ails me truly when it seems like I am in my self-deception. I have the experience, however, of recovery. I have survived this condition with the grace of God and the help of so many people. I have come to see what truly ails me and continue to live the life that is authentically mine. It is so joyful to live a life of hope and possibility, a life of acceptance and moving forward, a life of reaching out to help another and learn so much about myself in the process. It is joyful to keep “encountering that which is greater” than me and knowing all is going to be okay as long as I stay in this embrace and do the next right thing and help another(s) do the same. My gift is to bring others to their own “encountering that which is greater than” themselves and I pray I keep living my purpose. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you engaging with your "inner chaos" or hiding from it? Year 3 Day 327

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 327

“We must address ourselves, in education, to the fundamental problems of existence: How to illumine the inner chaos? How to simplify the self?” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 60)

“I have the answer and give you inner peace” is the refrain of so many so-called religious people, cult leaders, etc. “I can take care of you and be your protector, your retribution” says political leaders, aka autocrats, and other charlatans. Yet, the words above show what true religious education is about, it speaks to the role spiritual growing has in our lives.

Because we are created, born with 2 opposing inclinations, because we have both a soul/gut intuition and a rational mind, because we like shiny things and gold attracts us, the “inner chaos” is built in! There is no getting rid of it, there is no great panacea or 1 thing that will solve this inner war no matter what the snake-oil salesman keeps trying to sell us. We are no different than our ancestors who bought into the ‘cures’ of the snake-oil salesman of the ‘wild west’, no different than the Israelites who had euphoric recall for the days “by the fleshpots in Egypt”, no different than the people who believed Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Caesar, Mao, King George. Yet, both ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ people seem incapable of accepting this truth! “To simply the self” is not to dumb down, it is not to become malleable like putty in someone’s hands, it is not to ‘kill’ the parts of self we don’t like, it is to “keep it simple stupid”! The way “to simplify the self”, I believe after being a student of life and Rabbi Heschel, is to remain authentic, not put on the myriad of masks we use to hide, not engage in mendacity and self-deception. Simple is not the same as stupid, “simplify” in this context is about dealing with the complexities of life, the prism of choices and knowing that doing the next right thing is the path to wholeness, authenticity, and quieting the “inner chaos”.

It is not easy to do this and our Clergy, our teachers often do not help us. Rather than “illumine the inner chaos”, they bring us pap to hide ourselves from it. Giving my troubles to Jesus, doing the Mitzvot, declaring the greatness of Allah will not solve my “inner chaos”, will not help me deal with my “inner chaos”; these can help me “illumine the inner chaos” I am experiencing so I can look at it, make better choices and determine the voice of negativity from the voice of positivity, the voice of spirit from the voice of rationality that wants me to hide, to ‘get ahead’ by any and all means. What we really need is to learn how the Holy Texts of each faith, of every spiritual discipline helps us “illumine the inner chaos”. In recovery, in Judaism, in Christianity, in Islam we do this by taking stock of ourselves through an inventory of our past; seeing the good and the not good actions we have taken, putting ourselves back in the moment of choice and relate the voice that was so loud in our inner life and learn how to deal with it differently than just blindly following it, making our amends and having a plan not to repeat this way of being again. Otherwise, when we say “I’m sorry” we are just trying to get the heat off, trying to appease someone else and have no intention of changing, no intention of dealing with our “inner chaos” any differently. This is the tragedy of ‘quick fixes’, of ‘follow me and I will solve all your problems’, of buying into the lies of the snake-oil salespeople like Stefanik, Johnson, Cruz, Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Ben-G’Vir, the Ayatollah, etc. All of these wanna-be dictators and actual dictators all promise big and deliver little, they all sound so empathetic towards the ‘downtrodden’, the powerless and voiceless and their actions are to take advantage of the “inner chaos” in their people for their own power and glory. Rather than helping to “simplify the self” through authenticity and finding ways to harmonize the 2 inclinations within each human being, they treat the self of everyone else simple and stupid. How disgusting and despicable, yet throughout history these ways of being keep rearing their heads, keep winning over the very people whose self-interest is being violated. As Mark Twain said: “As lie is halfway around the world before the truth gets its socks on.”

This is the challenge facing us right here, right now: are we going to engage in what religion is meant to do to help us “illumine the inner chaos” and “simplify the self” or are we going to continue to follow the leader/authoritarian/snake-oil salesman to our own ruin? We can “illumine the inner chaos” by using the Bible, the holy texts of other spiritualities to help us see ourselves in all of the characters, all of our archetypes, see our inner Pharaoh and our inner Moses, know they are carrying on the same argument as we read in Exodus. We get to see and hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and Moses’ farewell address and know that we can, and I might add should, Choose Life. We immerse ourselves in the text and have our own understanding of what these holy texts teach us, we are not bound by the words of ‘the sages’ or of the speakers themselves. Every holy text of every spiritual discipline is to be understood on so many levels and in different ways each time we read them, each time we immerse ourselves in them otherwise they cannot be dynamic, they cannot be viewed as eternal wisdom and eternal truth. We “simplify the self” by embracing our own unique spiritual type, we “illumine the inner chaos” through experiencing the confusion of Abraham when he is asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, when Esau doesn’t understand that his father doesn’t have a blessing for him, when we hear of the moaning and complaining of the Israelites in the desert, when we see the words of the prophets fall on deaf ears both in the Bible and NOW. We can do this as Deuteronomy 30:11-14 says: “For this commandment…is not hidden… it is in your mouth and your heart”.

I continue to have my “inner chaos” illumined and to “simplify the self” within me through this blog, through my studies, through my learnings, through my living an aware life. Socrates said: “An unexamined life is not worth living” and Malcom X said: “the examined life is painful”. Both are true and I have found the pain is worth the emptiness and vapidity of not examining my daily living. I am become aware of errors that I didn’t see at the time through this examination, I see my “inner chaos” better each day and deal with it better each day, I am more authentic through my “examined life” and strive to peel away the thin membrane of mendacity, self-deception, and vapidity that keeps trying to cover my heart and soul. It is hard, I am not perfect which is why this is a daily activity. I am enraged at the lies of the charlatans who profess to be ‘religious’ and the snake-oil salesman who claim to care about anyone but themselves. I pray I channel this rage into words and ways that “illumine the inner chaos” within you and help you be more authentically you. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you challenging the status quo or just "following the general trends"? Year 3 Day 326

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 326

“Religion in America is inclined to follow rather than to challenge the general trends of opinion, as if the task of religion were to serve as a handmaid to civilization. Religion begins where philosophy ends. Without religious education, general education may end in the trivialization of man himself.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 59/60)

Living into these words and immersing ourselves in the thought and spirit of them brings me to the realization that what we are facing today is long in the making. We are facing and experiencing religious life that “is inclined to follow rather than to challenge the general trends of opinion” especially when it comes to engaging with the power structure of countries and authoritarians. While the ‘religious people’ believe they are leading Bibi, Trump, et al-we know that is not the case. While these autocrats give lip service to the ‘religious, like Putin who gave ‘power’ to Chabad in Russia, they are doing what they want to stay in power for themselves and remove any and all challenges to them within the populace.

Just as the Catholic Church and the other denominations of Christianity were “inclined to follow rather than challenge” Hitler and the Nazis, we see the same in today’s politics. While it seems as if the “religious right” have sway over Trump and Bibi, they are only using them to get what they want-power and immunity while the Supreme Court here fiddles and Bibi and his thugs look to disempower the rule of law in Israel. They both have the same playbook and seem to be shredding all the defenses put in place to prevent this from happening.

I am being told how much of a fool I am by the people who believe that an authoritarian cares about freedom for Jews, freedom for Blacks, Latinos, etc. History says otherwise, history teaches us that the best philosophies have limitations and only when real religious education, actually following the wisdom of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha does civilization flourish. The people of the Renaissance were not non-religious, they had a belief in something greater than themselves, they painted and thought, built and discovered precisely because they could “transcend themselves” and “surpass their needs” to serve ends that went beyond their narrow world. Einstein, Pasteur, the scientists who came up with a covid vaccine in less than a year all challenged “the general trends of opinion” and have been rewarded with disdain by the autocrats and their useful idiots rather than with praise.

Religion is NOT a handmaid to civilization unless we allow it to be. I am not talking about fundamentalism that passes for religious life, I am speaking of the living, breathing power of Biblical teachings. Rabbi Heschel bemoans the lack of knowledge of the prophets by most people, I would add the lack of the real truth found in the books of Samuel and the truth of King David who continually reached out to something greater than himself for the strength to overcome his myriad of weaknesses and errors. Each time he did this, he catapulted himself to a higher level of living. He wrote the Psalms as praise for this power and gratitude for the opportunity to make mistakes, repair them and rise above them. When one cannot admit one’s errors, when one cannot take the text in context and has to bastardize the meaning by picking a word or phrase here and there, by bastardizing the intent of people like Rav Kook, by throwing away the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence of both the US and Israel in order to ‘be right’, in order to be the dictator they have always wanted to be, in order to turn one’s back on everything that allowed them to reach the position of power they hold - this is not religious living nor religious education. We find ourselves in this dilemma, how as a human being can we tolerate the “trivialization of man himself”? How can we be so blind as to not see where our actions are leading us? How can we go along with these autocrats knowing their propensity to shame and blame, enslave and fear-monger is their “religious life”? How can “we sit idly by the blood of our brothers” and call ourselves ‘religious’? WE CAN’T!

We, the People have to stand up for ourselves, we have to stop making excuses for making ourselves caricatures of being human. We have to retake the reins of religious as well as secular education, we have to teach citizenship and the fundamental principles of “care for the stranger, the poor, the needy” in our midst. We don’t have to go looking for them, they are right here in our midst and we have done a terrible job of caring for Americans who are needy, who are poor, who feel like strangers in their own land. We have seen the backlash to not caring for our own in the Black Lives Matter, the rise of the LGBTQ+ community, the demand of the various minorities for a seat at the table and then the backlash to this backlash by the White Supremacists and the autocrats. We, the People have to take back the reins of power and decency, we have to teach civics, the constitution, the declaration of independence not as some thing that is history rather as something that is alive and well because we keep living into them. The same is true for our religious education, we have to experience the Bible rather than read it and pick it apart. This is true for the ‘critical scholarship’ and for the fundamentalists-we have to experience the teachings, the law and the stories so we can sit around a table with one another and argue to learn the meanings and relevances of this text of eternal truth and wisdom for us right here and right now.

I am disappointed in my early religious education for not providing me the tools to explore the texts deeper and for not reading the texts with me as a living fountain of wisdom and spiritual sustenance. I am grateful that I learned enough Hebrew and text to whet my appetite, I am grateful to the ‘old men’ who taught me the beauty of davening/prayer when I was a teen. I am grateful to all the teachers who have helped me learn and use the wisdom of the Bible and its offshoots in my everyday living. I am grateful to the myriad of people I have studied these texts and argued with to make them come alive and find the relevance of them for the moment we were/are in. I am grateful that I have not stopped by religious education and I continue to fight against the “trivialization of man himself” each and every day. I am grateful that I continue to use prophetic wisdom and actions to guide my living. I am grateful to those who have disdain for me, who cannot accept my amends nor offer their own because they give me the experience of when I acted in this manner. I am grateful that the disciples I have raised and helped are living productive and meaningful lives. I am grateful that “religious living” has given me a life worth living. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you discovering the goodness of your soul through acts that transcend the self- Year 3 Day 325

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 325

“To educate means to cultivate the soul, not only the mind. You cultivate the soul by cultivating empathy and reverence for others, by calling attention to the grandeur, the mystery of all being, to the holy dimension of human existence by teaching how to relate the common to the spiritual. The soul is discovered in response, in acts of transcending the self, in the awareness of ends that surpass one’s interests and needs.” ( Insecurity of Freedom pg. 59)

Discovering our soul is the most important discovery we can make in our lifetime! Without this discovery, we are constantly wandering the earth and we are unable to “cultivate the soul”, we are unable “to educate” ourselves nor anyone else. Without this discovery we are unable to “relate the common to the spiritual”, we don’t even experience “the spiritual”!

We are seeing the truth of the words above in our everyday living both for ourselves and for everyone around us. What is our “response” to the pain that people are experiencing in Israel, in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Russia because of the darkness of a few people who have power in these places. Be it Bibi, Sinwar, Putin, they are showing us their souls, the darkness and the hatred in the responses they have to the wars that are ravaging their people. The innocents murdered on Oct. 7, 2023 were people who sought rapprochement with the very people who murdered them! The Ukrainian people are fighting for their sovereignty which shows the light of their soul as a people and as individuals. The response by Israel has been unrelenting and non-discriminatory-killing innocents along with the myriad of Hamas combatants hiding among the civilians-and Bibi could have found ways to get the hostages home, stop the killing by settlers of people in the West Bank and find ways to make a compromise that could ensure peace between Palestinians and Israelis, between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and stand together against Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah, and Iran.

In America, 10’s of million people are telling us they like the darkness in the soul of Donald Trump. They are saying “transcending the self” is for stupid people, voting for someone who believes that nothing can “surpass one’s interests and needs”! Since the darkness of the soul of Trump, Bannon, Miller, Flynn, et al are on full display, the people voting against their own interests, people supporting someone who cares nothing for them, is mind-boggling. Yet, this is where we are, 6 days from Nov. 5, 2024. We don’t know the outcome, we don’t know how these 10’s of millions of people will “cultivate the soul”, “cultivate empathy and reverence for others”. It is a scary time when a former President and current candidate rejects empathy, has no reverence for anyone other than himself, who is incapable of “transcending the self” and his “response” is darkness and hatred.

We have to decide what we are discovering about our soul, are we going to cultivate the goodness of our soul, do we want to cultivate the empathy necessary to be human? The Bible is full of stories of people who engage in “acts of transcending the self” like Abraham who fights for Sodom and Gomorrah. We have the example of Moses who does the same in confronting Pharaoh at great personal risk to free the Israelite people from the grips of slavery. We have the example of Joshua, King David, who are acutely  aware “of ends that surpass one’s interests and needs”. Then we have the prophets who stood up and spoke truth to power with no regard for their own personal safety because they had a calling, they showed the light of their souls through their constant care and concern for the the Kingdom of Israel and for Judea. When our calling, when our “empathy”, when our “transcending the self” are more important that “one’s interests” we show the light of our soul and we minimize the darkness, we are able to make amends for our “missing the marks”, and we can mature our souls, we can cultivate “reverence for others” and we can discover our authentic self. This is the goal of life, to live authentically. The Idols in the Temple want to impress the lie ‘if you live a false self long enough it becomes your authentic self’. These idolators, like Trump and his ‘religious’ supporters, want to push the false narrative of living the darkness is the most authentic way of being, that bowing down to authoritarians is the path to freedom, that showing no empathy for the plight of another is the true show of strength.

It is up to We, the People, to say NO to these idolators, it is up to us, we, the people, to say NO living a false script. It is up to us, we, the people, to say YES to “empathy”, Yes to “reverence for others”. We, the People, have to say YES to responding to life with goodness and kindness. We, the People, have to say YES to “transcending the self” so we can help another human being. We, the People, have to say YES to having “awareness of ends that surpass one’s interests” and We, the People, have to be like our ancestors the prophets and speak truth to the deceivers, speak truth to the people, shout it from the rooftops and not stay silent in the face of the lies of the Idolators who have taken control of some of our Temples, Churches, Synagogues, Mosques. We, the People, have to say YES to showing the goodness of our souls and stop hiding our purpose and passion for fear of being shamed by another, for fear of being discriminated against by haters. We, the People, have to end our ‘woke’ selves and deal in truth, “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”, respect the choices of another human being as long as they are not infringing on the choices of another. Racism, anti-semitism, islamaphobia, from any quarter is not okay and We, the People, have to stand for the poor, the needy, the stranger, the widow, and the orphan if we are to live authentically from our souls.

My latest podcast is out and your can find it on Apple Podcast and Spotify: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Xk2vy28li7xA91t2wmX7h?si=8a621455108e46ea Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f-your-feelings-with-rabbi-mark/id1587525986?i=1000674910133 . I am engaged in the cultivation Rabbi Heschel is speaking about, I have been engaged in responses that reflect my authentic self since February of 1987 and I have been “transcending the self” most of the time since then. It is hard, I am not perfect and I make errors, and each time I learn from my mistakes and discover new things about my soul, my being and how to be human a little more each day. We, the People, have the opportunity to discover more of who we are by the responses we make on election day, on the days after and in our dealings with one another. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you cultivating empathy or hatred, reverence for others or disdain? Year 3 Day 324

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 324

“To educate means to cultivate the soul, not only the mind. You cultivate the soul by cultivating empathy and reverence for others, by calling attention to the grandeur, the mystery of all being, to the holy dimension of human existence by teaching how to relate the common to the spiritual. The soul is discovered in response, in acts of transcending the self, in the awareness of ends that surpass one’s interests and needs.” ( Insecurity of Freedom pg. 59)

“Cultivate” comes from the Latin word “colere”, meaning ‘to inhabit’ as well as “to develop”. While it seems as if Rabbi Heschel is using “cultivate” to mean “to develop”, I wonder what he would say if we were to rewrite the first sentence above as: to educate means to inhabit the soul, not only the mind. It changes the emphasis a bit, I believe Rabbi Heschel is using cultivate to mean both “develop” and “inhabit” because without living into our soul, how can we develop it? Without developing our soul a little more each day, how can we inhabit it? “To cultivate the soul” is to live into the values, the spirit, the purpose and the passion that is unique and inherent in each human being. Rabbi Heschel is calling out to us to end our senseless abandonment of our soul, to end the ridiculous dependence on our minds alone, to let go of our fears of exploring and “cultivating” our soul.

Of course he then tells us how to “cultivate the soul”, how to inhabit our soul’s knowledge and wisdom, how to live from the inside out rather than from the outside in. While we know we have to experience the truth, do the mitzvot and then understand them, we do this so we can “develop” our soul’s knowing, our soul’s maturity, our soul’s strength to deal with the onslaught of outside influences and the war that our rational mind wages upon our intuitive one. These words, written 62+ years ago, ring in our ears, penetrate our souls if we are willing to be human.

Listening to the rhetoric of the current Republican Party, listening to Jews like Rosenberg and Miller spew hatred of immigrants when they are living in America because their families immigrated and were allowed in is disgusting and the reason Rabbi Heschel’s words needed to be heeded and followed in 1962 and ever since. Yet, alas, we haven’t. We have not developed “empathy and reverence for others”, we have not learned to inhabit “empathy and reverence for others” and so we are in the situation we are in today-people blaming innocent people for their own troubles, people looking to point fingers away from themselves so they can hide their evil doings. Rather than “calling attention to the grandeur, the mystery of all being”, these Republicans In Name Only, aka RINOs, are denigrating both the “grandeur” and the “mystery” of being, denigrating the divine image of their ‘enemies’ and themselves, all the while selling Bibles made in China which Trump denigrates, phony watches and other such grifts AND claiming to be the anointed one, claiming that Jesus sent Trump to save us all??!! We know bullshit when we see it and when we hear it, and to hear it coming from Jews, from other minorities is reminiscent of the Jews who thought Nazism would be a passing fancy. It has lasted for over 100 years and grows in the darkness and lies of it’s adherents.

We have to say NO to the fascists, to the authoritarians, to the war mongers, to the haters, to the ‘victims’ and say YES to living and developing “empathy and reverence for others”. YES to “calling attention to the grandeur, the mystery of all beings, the holy dimension of human existence by teaching how to relate the common to the spiritual”. When we say YES to relating “the common to the spiritual”, we are inhabiting the “soul” we have been given, we are developing along spiritual lines and we come to realize that the common is also spiritual, everyday actions are holy when we do them with intention to and for goodness, when we take these “common” actions for the good of another, when we say hello because we want to recognize another rather than ignore them. It is the very essence of “Namaste”, “the light in me sees the light in you”. When we say YES  to “calling attention to the grandeur, the mystery of all beings” we are living in awareness. Awareness of the vastness of the universe, the surrender of needing to know everything, leaving the mind’s need for proof and basking in the truth of beingness. When we say YES to “cultivating empathy and reverence for others”, we learn how to understand the experiences of another(s) and not need to make them wrong nor stupid, not need to tell them to ‘grow up’ and other such nonsense, not need to make them into bad guys and blame them for the evil in the world. When we say YES to inhabiting, to “standing in awe”(Latin root meaning) of another human being, we no longer need to make enemies, we can rebuke them with love, we can love them even when we don’t like them nor their actions, we can see the innate holiness just as God told Moses to “come to Pharaoh” and see the divine image in Pharaoh, speak to this image and try and bypass Pharaoh’s mind so he could see truth. The same is true for us today when we say YES to these ways of inhabiting and developing our souls.

This is a journey I have been on for a while, it is a three steps forward, one step backward process. It is not linear nor should it be. Yet, I have expected it to be and other people have demanded it be for me. I have fallen short at times in living into “empathy and reverence for others”, I have fallen short, at times, to seeing the “grandeur and mystery of being”, and each time I move a little closer to hitting the bullseye. In looking at my trajectory since I entered recovery in 1988, the times I fall short are much less and still painful when I do, I have been on the target more and more in each passing year while not hitting the bullseye, I am at least in the right ballpark. I am remorseful for my misses and grateful for my hits. The living in and developing of my soul has caused me to be more enraged at the actions of the people who want to denigrate another, who want to hold grudges, who cannot admit their part in any interaction that goes ‘wrong’, who are being authoritative because they are afraid of being wrong, who deny responsibility and scapegoat another. My inner Jeremiah gets activated as you can hear on my new podcast dropping later today on Apple and Spotify. Please hear the call of  your inner prophet and stand up and say YES with me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Choosing the wages of virtue over the payday of 'sin' - Year 3 Day 323

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 323

“We must not underestimate the difficulties of moral living. It takes great courage, wisdom, defiance, and depth of faith to remain moral. We have been guilty of oversimplification. We maintain that virtue pays, we forget that vice pays more.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 58)

The Rabbis say the reward for doing a Mitzvah is another Mitzvah, the sense that we have accomplished something that is in our best interest and the best interest of another, the knowing we have done something that connects us more to the power of the Universe and to another human being. They say the ‘punishment’ for a ‘sin’ is another ‘sin’, the truth that once we taste the ‘honey’ of negativity, we will be moved to get more of this ‘honey’. Both of these statements are true and, I believe, an “oversimplification”. No one is all good nor all bad-each of us has the potential to do both good and not good because we have both inclinations. It is even more nuanced because what may seem not good in one moment may, in the long run, turn out to be a mitzvah! Even when taking the action of a mitzvah, aka a good action, we may be doing it for our personal gain, to get an advantage and use it for not good outcomes.

“Moral living” is not black and white, unfortunately. While it is simple to be moral, it is also very complex and causes great introspection, great maturity, and the power to choose more than what our inclinations are pulling us to. In Numbers 15:39, after the missing the mark of the spies and the people Israel, we are told: “do not scout out after your heart and your eyes which you will whore after them”. The power of our heart to move our eyes to find what it desires can be applied to the brain as well, because the Rabbis thought the heart was the seat of both emotions and wisdom. To tell someone to “just do it” is an oversimplification of the complexity of being human, a failure to acknowledge the constant war within, pulling us to do the next right thing and the next wrong thing at the same time. The war gets even more complex because both inclinations can seem to be right in the moment and, maybe they both are! Allowing my ‘evil’ inclination to protect me when someone is a danger to me, to themselves, and/or to another is a good thing; allowing it to lie to me and think someone is a danger when they are actually a friend who is speaking truth is not a good thing. We have to engage in the nuances and the complexities that are inherent in being human in order to engage in “moral living”. It ain’t easy!

One of the lessons of the prophets is that “vice pays more”. The priests and the royalty along with the rich and powerful subscribed to this belief. We know this because they bastardized the rituals and the ‘laws’ of morality. They kept, like the sons of Samuel and Eli before them, using their positions to extort bribes and more wealth from the people rather than serve God, serve the populace, serve the good inclinations of their own beings. And it worked for a long time! We see this today with clergy promoting the welfare of the rich and the powerful, the liar and the charlatan, the fascist and the authoritarian. They do not believe in the Bible’s dictate: “One law for the stranger and the citizen alike”, they do not believe in equal justice under the law, they laugh at “freedom for all”! Some of the people in chaste in the Clergy of all faiths have sold themselves to their benefactors, their patrons in order to keep their positions-not caring that the words they speak are in direct conflict with the teachings of Moses, of Jesus, of Mohammed, of Buddha, of the entire Hebrew Bible. They will lie and attend rallies for people who believe that Hitler was a good guy! They will call Latinos and Blacks ‘vermin”, they will blame the Jews if Trump doesn’t win, they are calling out false claims about the election if they don’t win! These ‘men of god’ are descendants of the Priests in the Bible who Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, et al railed against, and, in the end, who the populace believed to their own ruin. While good wins out, eventually, these liars teach us how much ‘sin’ pays and how the aftermath of their ‘sin’ can last for centuries-19 in fact till Israel was re-established as a state!

With all of this about ‘sin’ we cannot forget that “virtue pays”! While the wages don’t seem to be as much, it doesn’t seem to win all the time, it does pay dividends in the long run. Herein is the dilemma: are we in our lives for the long haul, the long run or are we so caught up in instant gratification that we can’t wait? For virtue to pay, for us to be able to live with ourselves and not constantly want to jump out of our skin, we have to accept that we will not see the fruits of our labor in our lifetime sometimes. There is a story of a boy who asks his grandfather why he is planting a tree when he will never see it bloom and nor taste its fruit and the old man answers: for you to enjoy, for the sake of future generations and because it is the right thing to do. We don’t seem to have a lot of people telling and living this story right now and we have many more than we think. Each of us can choose to do the next right thing and read the immediate ‘payment’ of being able to quiet the war within, to let go of our expectations of glory, our resentments for not being noticed, our anger at being excluded for the ‘club’ we don’t want to be part of anyway. Doing the next right thing gives us a connection with another human being that is precious, a connection with the universe which is comforting and a connection with our souls which is life sustaining. So, yes “virtue pays” and it is up to us to choose this form of payment over the other one.

Having wrestled with this truth all my life, having given into the belief that “sin pays more”, I can attest to the truth that virtue is “the easier, softer, way”. The wages of ‘sin’ paid more in the moment and cost me friendships, relationships, a way of being okay with myself. Seeing “moral living” as a ‘sucker’s way’, I did things that I regret to this day and I impacted many people in harmful ways. I almost lost myself completely in ‘sin’ and I am grateful that I was shown, often, the enslaving ways of the Pharaoh of this way of living. Finally I made the decision to change, after about 20 years of being employed and paid by ‘the wages of sin’. I am testifying to the truth that “virtue pays” and the dividends are more than one can see on a balance sheet, they are within us. I can live with myself and my errors each day, I can forgive those who have ‘trespassed against me” just as I ask them and God to forgive me m ‘trespasses”. I don’t have to worry about the cops, look over my shoulder to see who is following me, keep my back to the wall so I can see the doorway at a restaurant, etc. I can walk into a room or a place where I know there are people who think poorly of me and hold my head up. I can breathe free and care about everyone without resentment nor fear. These are some of the ways “virtue pays”. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Having the Inner Strength to Live Morally in an Immoral World- Year 3 Day 322

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 322

“We must not underestimate the difficulties of moral living. It takes great courage, wisdom, defiance, and depth of faith to remain moral. We have been guilty of oversimplification. We maintain that virtue pays, we forget that vice pays more.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 57/58)

Rabbi Heschel’s words are ringing throughout the land today. Our arrogance, our obliviousness, our self-deceptions and mendacity have hidden these “difficulties of moral living” so badly that many people have come to morality as immorality and visa versa. We are a country, a world where the words of the Prophets are ignored, forgotten, or bastardized to fit the particular immorality being espoused. We see this way of being in some of our religious institutions, in some of our elected officials, in some of our homes, schools, business’, etc and we are blind to the long-term consequences and we are so arrogant as to believe what history has taught us about immorality and its consequences won’t apply to us!

People complain about the verses in the Bible that speak about what will happen when the people Israel “goes astray” calling God “Vengeful” when in fact, Israel is told of the consequences of immoral behaviors in any and all facets of living, work/employment, worship/religion, governance/caring for the people around us. These verses are n-t “vengeful”, they are prophetic. Just as the prophetic words of Deuteronomy which caution us against following a “False Prophet” call to us to stay moral, just as Moses reminding us that we will not last if we give lip-service to moral behaviors while plotting how to be immoral, how to lie with a smile and destroy the goodness within another person, We, the People, have to be aware of the deceptions of another as well as the lies we tell ourselves about the ease of “moral living”.

In Germany, the religious right, the Catholic Church supported Hitler and the Nazis, and the ones that didn’t stayed silent as Martin Neimoller’s  poem depicts: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” We saw Father Coughlin and other religious leaders support Hitler in the 1930’s with large gatherings of the German Bund at Madison Square Garden! We see the same type of support for MAGA, this time instead of Hitler, Trump and Musk are promoting Putin who we all know is the ‘most moral of men’-NOT! Yet Jews, Latinos, Blacks will vote for him because he is a liar who appeals to their lies, they are both immoral and get away with it so people think they will also, they spew hatred which appeals to the ‘downtrodden’ when Trump, Musk, and their cronies and thugs are “The Man” who has spread hatred and kept their knees on their necks! “The difficulties of moral living” are so vast and subtle, so nuanced and apparent, that most people are oblivious to them and believe the lies of liars to their own peril and ruin-just as the prophets, as Moses, as the Bible teaches and we fail to learn.

“It takes great courage, wisdom, defiance, and depth of faith to remain moral” is a truth  that we underestimate often, precisely because we underestimate the “difficulties of moral living”. From Abraham till now, to be a moral human being has always taken these attributes and most of us ignore the necessity to develop our “courage” in the face of societal conventional notions, the necessity to develop our inner “wisdom” in the face of the societal pull to ‘be like everyone else’, to develop our “depth of faith” and “defiance” in the face of ‘religion-lite’ practices and teachings. We have lost the words and actions of our ancestors the prophets because the people entrusted with their teachings and models of behavior; the Rabbis, Priests, Ministers, Imams, have given into their own fears, have cozied up to the powers that be too much and have been co-opted by the bribes they have been given and the fears that overwhelmed them. The Rabbis who were killed by the Romans have been immortalized and their ways have been forgotten and or used as ways not to be courageous, defiant, faithful and wise because one could die from it. Rabbi Heschel, Rabbi Prinz, Rev King, the Berrigan Brothers all demonstrated these traits in calling out  the immorality of Racism and of the Vietnam War. Rev Barber and others are calling out the immorality of Racism and poverty today and not being heard in the chambers of power as Rev King et al were in the 1960’s. Instead, Musk and Trump have more sway over the Republican elected officials than the needs and interests of their constituents! Instead of standing courageously and defiantly against the isolators who want control over women and their bodies, against the white supremacists who believe only white ‘christian' people should rule these elected officials, even Black, Jewish and Latino ones just go along to get along!

We, the People, have to stop looking the other way, we have to stop hiding our heads in the sand and we have to pull our heads out of our asses! The time is NOW, we have put up with the lies and deceptions for too long and we are at the tipping point-either we stand for Goodness, Truth, Kindness, Wisdom, and Faith in God’s ways or we surrender to the bullies, we go along with the deceivers, we relinquish our moral and spiritual heritage. It is not too late! Vote for decency and democracy, freedom and faith in the dignity and worth of every human being, vote from the divine image you are created in rather than the false ego, the evil that has been taught you. We can return to the goals of the Bible, we can get closer to the goals of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Kennedy, Reagan- we are being called to exhibit the “courage, defiance, wisdom and depth of faith” we have within us.

I come from a poor family who lived these ways of “moral living” faithfully, no matter the outer cost to them. Decency and kindness were the only ways my grandfathers did business and raised their kids. We were taught to argue for truth and not to be right, to respect every person no matter their religion or skin color. Morality was the number 1 rule in our homes and it is #1 for me in my recovery. No matter the cost, I have done my best to live a moral life in all my affairs and to be satisfied no matter the outcome as long as I am moral. I am not perfect and it is what I strive for, I refuse to stay silent in the face of immorality and I ask you to listen to my podcasts; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f-your-feelings-with-rabbi-mark/id1587525986?i=1000674219137 or https://open.spotify.com/episode/2DIT7Ls3Gp8GM0mVooOXcK?si=970f92e0de55406c God Bless and stay safe and Moral, Rabbi Mark

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Does your engagement with religious/spiritual teachings and teachers help with the problems of human existence? Year 3 Day 321

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 321

“For a word of the Bible to happen it must permeate the soul, relate to one’s problems, dreams, and emotions. Detached from the living issues of the human situation, our commitment becomes dim, inane. In other words, to teach religion means to teach a way of dealing with living problems of human existence, with the problems of the student who sits in front of us. Otherwise it remains trivial. And religious cannot survive as a triviality.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 57)


Today is Simchat Torah in parts of the Jewish World, Simchat Torah means the Joy of Torah, the joy of learning, the joy of growing in understanding, wisdom and actions. Rabbi Heschel’s words above are so crucial to celebrating the amazing blueprint for living that the Bible, the Torah is. The Bible and the Torah, while universal documents, are deeply personal to each and every individual, helping each and every one of us “dealing with living problems of human existence”. To be human is to have problems, to be deeply engaged in living gives us more problems and, as Rabbi Heschel says, the deeper the problems, the richer our living!

Religion is not a one-size fits all, it is not a panacea for what ails us, it will not take away our troubles. Religion gives us paths to deal with life’s challenges and problems, to deal with the war within us, to deal with living in a communal society without giving up our uniqueness, to live our uniqueness out loud so we can add to our corner of the world. Religion teaches us morality, it teaches us how to return after we err, how to fix our messes, how to restore our dignity and the dignity of another human being after we and/or someone else tarnishes/damages our dignity or the dignity of another. Religion teaches us the pitfalls of egocentric behaviors, of jealousy, of comparisons. It teaches us the dangers of worshiping false gods, bowing down to people and giving over the control of our minds and spirits to “the new Pharaoh arises”. Religion teaches us to hold onto our choices, to choose wisely, to not accept bribes, to not buy into the lies of the false prophets, to not engage in senseless hatred and to not ignore the plight of voiceless and powerless, the poor and the needy, etc.

On a more personal level, religion teaches “the student who sits in from of us” how to deal with their individual problems and, if as teachers and practitioners of religion, we are not doing this, if we are not seeing the individual student in front of us, if we are not responding to the call of their souls, if we are not helping them find their solutions in the text, then we should not be teaching religion because we are charlatans. If we cannot see the problems of the student who sits in front of us, if we cannot admit to our own problems then we are trivializing religion, we are making a mockery of what has sustained the world for over 2500 years and transformed humanity from ‘wild beasts’, from a “dog eat dog’ mentality to a society that has empathy and compassion, one that seeks truth, one that seeks to live into acts of kindness towards all. We have to see the person in front of us as a divine image seeking a framework to express their purpose and passion through religion, through the Biblical teachings and our job is to help guide them.

Of course, we see that religion “remains trivial” to so many because they were never seen as individuals in need, the teaching of religion has been more about rules than compassion, more about creed, power, habit and not about the crisis of today, not about faith as a living fountain that we can all drink from, it has become more about authority than learning solutions to today’s problems. We have allowed the liars and the deceivers to take over the Temples, the Churches, the Mosques, and the Synagogues. We have allowed them to do the least possible and we have accepted crumbs instead of demanding a seat at the table, instead of demanding that the words of the prophets be heard, taught and followed, we have allowed the people in ‘power’ to be more like the priests, the royalty, the wealthy when both Temples were destroyed and the 10 Tribes of the Northern Kingdom were dispersed among the Assyrian nation!


Religion is not the problem, it is the solution-full stop. We are the problem both the people teaching religion, the people espousing false religious beliefs and false prophecy as well as those of us who are accepting their lies and deviousness. When we fail to see that Donald Trump is a bad human being, when we fail to call out his love of dictators and Hitler, when we call him the ‘anointed one of god’ when we use ‘christian nationalism’ as a euphemism for control by the wealthy and the white supremacists and we believe that this is freedom - it is not religion that fails, it is us who trivializes religion. When we cannot see the difference between good and evil, when we cheer a team that celebrates what Hitler’s generals did, when we vote for a candidate that fomented an insurrection and/or his cronies who kiss his ass now when they know the truth of who he is and what he is, it is our failure, not religions.

We, the people, have to take back the teaching of religion. We, the people have to return to the text and follow the example of King David who could admit his errors and do his repentance. We, the people, have to stop thinking that the teachings of religion are far away, when they are “in our mouths and in our hearts”. We have to stand up for what is right no matter the personal cost because not standing up costs so much more. We, the people, have to look ourselves in the mirror, look our children in the eyes and answer the question: “Daddy, Mommy, why did you allow these idolators to take over the Temples, the Mosques, the Churches, the Synagogues, and the country?”

I live with the teachings each day, I have worked hard to never trivialize the texts and the lessons. I have found the solutions needed to deal with my problems and the problems of living that confront me daily in the Bible. I have done the best I know to teach another how to use the texts to seek the solutions for their particular issue in any given moment. I have counseled people for years and helped them find the solutions that are particular to them always seeking to lift them up and follow my passion and purpose. I believe the words above, I live these words and am profoundly grateful for all the teachers who have seen me and showed me texts that are my solutions. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Making "a word of the Bible happen" in everyday activities is possible when the words permeate our souls! Year 3 Day 320

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 320

“For a word of the Bible to happen it must permeate the soul, relate to one’s problems, dreams, and emotions. Detached from the living issues of the human situation, our commitment becomes dim, inane. In other words, to teach religion means to teach a way of dealing with living problems of human existence, with the problems of the student who sits in front of us. Otherwise it remains trivial. And religious cannot survive as a triviality.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 57)

Today is the last day of Sukkot, the eighth day and tonight is Simchat Torah, the rejoicing of the ending and new beginning of reading the Torah as well as the first anniversary, Yahrtzeit, of the Oct. 7th terrorist attack which killed over 1200 people, took 251 hostages of which some 101 hostages either dead or alive remain in captivity in Gaza. On the eighth day after a birth, a boy is circumcised and receives his name, I pray that on this eighth day the hostages and their families are given hope that a deal is being made, that the terrorists of Hamas, the government of Netanyahu and his thugs realize the importance of human life according the “word of the Bible”.

Rabbi Heschel, in the first two sentences above, describes the dilemma we are in, Be it in the Middle East, America, in our cities and communities, in our religious centers, in our individual being. “A word of the Bible” does not “permeate the soul”, it does not relate to one’s problems, dreams” and this is because many people teaching and engaging in “a word of the Bible” are unwilling to allow the words to “permeate their soul”, unable to hear truth and are more interested in twisting the “word of the Bible” to their selfish, greedy, goals of power and control.

I am struck by the first sentence in that Rabbi Heschel is talking about “a word of the Bible to happen”. He is reminding us and demanding of us, calling out to us and begging us to remember the words mean nothing if we don’t make them happen in the moment, in the world and in our inner lives. Otherwise, what is happening in ‘houses of worship’ is worshiping idols, is, in Hebrew, Avodah Zarah-worship of idols. He is also telling us how to make “a word of the Bible happen”, by having it touch our souls, by allowing ourselves to be changed by this “word of the Bible” in this moment and knowing that an imprint of this experience is left upon our inner life. We will never be the same after we allow “a word of the Bible” to “happen” to us, to “permeate the soul” because only then can we experience and understand how this “word of the Bible” relates and helps us find solutions to our “problems, dreams and emotions”. Only by making “a word of the Bible happen” in our souls so we make it “happen” in the world can we begin to breathe a little better, can we end our constant worry and holding of our breathe to see if we are going to be okay. Only by realizing that the Bible is a blueprint for all of life’s ups and downs, a solution “to one’s problems, dreams and emotions”, can we find the right solution for this moment in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Only by allowing “a word of the Bible to happen” can we end our constant fear and loathing of another human being, can we throw the Idols in the Temple out, can we light the candles of Hanukkah and rededicate ourselves to the words “of the Bible” in truth.

On page 3 of his book, God in Search of Man, Rabbi Heschel describes the reason for “the eclipse of religion in the modern world.”  “Religion declined not because it was refuted, but, because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid.” It has not gotten any better since 1955 when these words were first published, in fact, I would offer each of these descriptors have gotten more embedded in the minds, teachings, preachings of the so-called ‘religious’ establishment. Because so many faith leaders have “detached from the living issues of the human situation, our commitment” has “become dim, inane”. The so-called ‘religious’ establishment in Israel, in Iran, in Gaza and in Lebanon have made “a word of the Bible”, a word of the Koran, empty and use the words found in these holy texts for their vanity, not for the sake of heaven! The same is true here in the U.S. People who claim Trump was anointed by Christ to lead America are saying this for their own power grab, they actually believe Trump will not turn to fascism, they actually believe they will thrive under a man who worships Hitler, loves authoritarians like Putin, etc. It will not be ‘christian’ law, it will be Trump-Law and this will not bode well for anyone but the Trumps! We have Idolators in the Temples and the Churches, in the Mosques and the Synagogues, yet we continue to listen to them, we continue to pay them to destroy us, to tell us ‘don’t worry, he will fix all your problems,’ and other such bullshit! Because of the Idols in the Temples, religion has lost its moral high ground, it has lost its raison d’être, “to permeate the soul” and change our hearts and actions, to make a “more perfect union” between human beings and between us and God.

We can still turn this runaway train around, we can still rescue the hostages in Gaza, in Russia, in our own communities, in our country. It will take a herculean effort to throw the idolators out of our religious institutions, it means changing the power structure, the board structure, it means demanding of our clergy that they teach the Bible and the particular religious tenets as solutions to the problems of today, that they teach all of us how to use the Bible in order to “relate to one’s problems”, how to “circumcise the foreskins of our hearts” and how to let go of our vanity and stop worshiping the emptiness of mendacity and self-deception. We do this by immersing ourselves in the spiritual texts of our faith, we do this by making “happen” a phrase like “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” in our daily activities, we do this by making “happen” a call to “care for the stranger, the orphan, the widow, the poor, the needy” every day reaching out to help rather than abuse another. We have the blueprint, we have the inner strength, we have the leadership of Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, and our ancestors who have kept their teachings alive and present. We just have to have the courage to “Go for yourself, go to yourself” and live a life of blessings rather than be seduced by the curses.

I have been successful in my years of recovery to allow “a word of the Bible to happen” by having them “permeate my soul”. This is my “gift”, I can sit with someone, find the “word of the Bible” they need to hear so they can find a solution for their problems, their dreams. This is the honor I have been given by God and the task I have been created for. I am grateful that people keep helping me have the words of the Bible permeate my soul so I stay fresh, current and growing. I am no longer an empty, vain vessel, I am a servant and a student. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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"Learning, study" as a lifelong challenge to sort out our inner life - Year 3 Day 319

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 319

“Learning, study is more than preparation of young people for good citizenship. Study is a form of worship, an act of inner purification.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.57)

Rabbi Harold Shulweis, whose memory is a blessing, would re-enforce the importance of study as “a form a worship” when he spoke to Rabbinic Students, to congregants, to anyone at all. I am hearing his voice along with Rabbi Heschel’s in my ears right now. This thought is a radical idea for many, in fact it is so out of people’s minds that study is no longer important except for the way it will help someone ‘get ahead’, ‘make a fortune’, etc. Religious school education ends for most young people by the time they reach their teens and even if they go on, be it by choice and/or coerced by parents, they tune it all out. In our secular schools, Civics is no longer taught in many schools so young people are not even aware of the responsibility that freedom brings, the actions of good citizenship.

We are in a crisis of our own making. The United States is facing an election that could well decide the fate of democracy as one of the candidates keeps trying to show his ‘macho man’ way of being by loving Hitler, Stalin, Putin, etc; while the other one is a woman who has been in public service her entire life, who, as a daughter of immigrants, believes deeply in the promise of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. That the former President of the United States who fomented an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, could be close to regaining the Presidency shows how far we have fallen, how not only has “good citizenship” been jettisoned, people are showing the lack of “inner purification” and their disdain for same. WTF??!!??

To engage in learning means we have to hear all sides of the issue, be it secular and religious, spiritual and practical, as every issue confronting us has both spiritual and practical aspects, they are found in both the secular foundational texts of a country’s existence and the religious texts of the Hebrew Bible which, I believe, is the foundational text for all western faiths. Learning is the process by which we let go of our old ideas and open ourselves up to new ways of seeing the text, new ways of seeing our bias’ and our self-deceptions. Learning causes us to “lift up our eyes and see”, as Abraham is instructed in Genesis, so we can find the ideas, the actions we need to take to uncover the hidden gems within us, within the texts, within another human being. Learning is never done alone because we will constantly miss the same thing over and over again. In Judaism we have a Chevruta, a spiritual friend with whom we pour over the Bible, Talmud, the commentaries, etc because our spiritual friend, our Chaver, reflects our soul back to us so we can purify the dross that we carry within. Study is not to be done all day, every day, rather we are supposed to learn each day, I prefer morning, and then put the learning into practice throughout our day because study alone will not bring about change, it is not enough to engage in “an act of inner purification” and not be engaged in the world around us. This is a truth that the Rabbis of old knew because they had professions or benefactors so they never made a living by study or teaching, it was done for the sake of learning alone. So, Mr. Ben G’Vir, Mr. Smotrich, Mr. Netanyahu, protecting the Ultra-Orthodox from serving in the military, from getting employment goes directly against the teachings of the Sages that you revere so much, whom you quote so often, whom you bastardize thinking people will not check your sources! Without “an act of inner purification”, without “learning, study”, we are raising generations of people who’s inner lives are a mess and they think it is an issue of mental health rather than an issue of spiritual immaturity. It is not their fault, it is the fault of society, it is the fault of parents, it is the fault of the system of religious and secular education who have failed us all.

The founding fathers of the United States gave us a Constitution that was flawed so they also gave us the Bill of Rights and a path for continuing to improve upon the Constitution as we learned more and progressed. While once there was slavery and a Black Man was counted as 3/5’s of a person, everyone is free and is counted as a whole person who can vote their conscience without fear or favor, in theory. We know the Voting Rights Act of 1964 which the current Supreme Court has said isn’t applicable anymore because every state just goes along with it has been gutted in many states, especially those controlled by Republican Legislators. We know that our children in Florida are being taught that Slavery was good for Black people because it taught them a trade, according to Governor DeSantis. We are aware of the dangers of immigrants thanks to Trump/Vance and the Republican leadership while we are a country founded by immigrants, a country that decimated the Native American population because we were afraid of them. We are so far from the ideal, from the path of freedom that began in Boston and Philadelphia because of our lack of “learning, study” because we no longer engage in “an act of inner purification” and believe the drivel and dross being pushed upon us by Mike Johnson, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, et al.

It is time for us to stand up and say NO to the status quo and YES to “learning, study”. It is time for us to admit our need for inner purification and to vote for people who want to do what is right and best for the many while allowing the people who oppose them to be heard and change their ideas when alternatives that make more sense are provided. It is time for us to end the status quo that keeps people from hearing truth, the status quo that provides lies and the status quo that has made a Truth a useless commodity, the status quo that holds the Liar in higher esteem than the prophets words in the Bible, who loves Korah more that Moses, who believes that authoritarianism is better that “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”(Lev.25:10). We need to stand for “inner purification” here, in Israel, and across the globe.

I have been engaged in “learning, study” for the sake of my “inner purification” since I was arrested in December, 1986. I am still fighting the status quo of my youth, I am fighting with people who think the status quo is ‘good enough’, I am fighting with the people who are so blind, so drunk with their own power, their own false egos that they believe they have achieved “inner purification” while denigrating another, hating another, lying about another, and getting people to go along because the people are afraid of them. I still rail about this mendacity, I still fight the fight for “inner purification”, I am still engaged in “learning, study” and I am still growing. It is hard and it is exquisite, exhausting and exhilarating. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Engaging in "True learning", "the study of Torah" all involve getting beyond our selfishness-are you able to do this? Year 3 Day 318

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 318

“The study of Torah is a challenge to the mind as well as an act of being involved in the dialogue of God and man, an act of sanctification of time. True learning is a way of relating oneself to something which is holy and universal.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 57)

“True learning is a way of relating oneself to something which is holy and universal” makes one think not just of religious teachings, but of all learning. When we learn science, humanities, mathematics, language, as well as the Torah and all spiritual texts we are relating ourselves “to something which is holy and universal”. Thinking about this, hearing Rabbi Heschel’s call to us I am in awe of the simple truth of this sentence. Whether our learning is about our actions or the actions of another, whether our learning is discovering the ‘secrets of the universe’, or leads to a vaccine to prevent some terrible illness or at least mitigate it, or it is about how to live a better life from the inside out, or it is about a deeper understanding of our unique purpose and how to fulfill it; all of it depends on our willingness and ability to relate ourselves to something greater than ourselves, to relate our selfs to that “which is holy and universal”.

In the beginning, this discovery of what “true learning is” was found in “the study of Torah” because one could not learn Torah with only one’s mind nor only one’s soul. “The study of Torah” has to involve both mind and spirit, body and soul because it is an experience of matter and energy, hence it “is a challenge to the mind as well as an act of being involved in the dialogue of God and man”. Just as “true learning is” an act of our whole being and can be present in all learnings, so too is “the study of Torah” an action which involves all our faculties. Without our mind engaging in this study, we will be woefully deficient in understanding and in maturation of our intellect, without our soul’s engagement we will find the rationalizations and become dismissive of the wisdom of Torah that doesn’t make sense to our rational minds.

We are in desperate need of hearing the words above, of engaging in “the study of” all religious texts in the ways described above in order to let go of our self-deceptions and the deceptions of another. Thinking about the stories of Jesus in the New Testament, he hung out with all the people that the Christian Nationalists, the Prosperity Gospels adherents, the Project 2025 architects and believers, the Billionaire Trump Boys Club hate, denigrate, use as props for their authoritarian desires! In the Torah, we are challenged to care for the stranger, the poor, the needy, the widow, and the orphan 36 times! We are taught that God dwells among us when we make a space for holiness to reside within us and around us. While many people understand this as an edifice, I hear it as a space within our souls, within our minds where we engage in and are “involved in the dialogue between God” and ourselves-not just “man” as a separate entity from the individual, rather each of us as people wrestling with our minds and navigating the dialogue and the arguments between our soul’s knowing and our mind’s thinking. Hence the need to bring both of these ways of understanding and thinking, knowing and doing together to find the right action for this moment. It can never be to vilify someone for our own gain, it can never be to spew hatred and lies, in the name of God, it can never be to proclaim that ‘they’ need to be vanquished, ‘they’ are “enemies of the people”, “vermin” because another human being disagrees with someone, because another person is holding us to the standard of decency learned from Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, etc. When ‘religious’ people proclaim adulterers, coveters, thieves, false witness’, and soul murderers as “the anointed ones” we know they are Full of Shit and we have to say STOP.

It is crucial in this time of war, both civil and between peoples, that we go back to the basics of Torah and of “true learning”. Of course there are times when we have to go to war, when we have to battle, and the first arena any war, any battle has to take place is within ourselves. We have to “challenge our mind” and be “involved in the dialogue of God and man” before we make any outer decision and because of the bastardization of holy texts, because “true learning” is no longer important to these religious charlatans, to these False Prophets, we find good people being led like sheep to their own ruin and destruction and the ruin and destruction of freedom and our holy scriptures.

This is what we are fighting for right now in the US election, in the war in Ukraine and in the Middle East quagmire. We have to call upon the leaders and the people to “challenge the minds” of conventional wisdom and old hatreds that no one really knows the origin of anymore and engage in being “maladjusted” to these conventional notions, to these old animosities, so we can find a new solution, a way forward in, at the very least, respect for the divine image of each individual no matter what “side” they are on. We have to find pathways to reach out and help people who have ‘drunk the kool-aid’ on either extreme come back to a middle path, at least 10% away from their respective extremes. We have to say NO to the likes of Bannon and Flynn, Trump and Vance, Sanders and AOC, Bibi and Ben G’Vir as well as Putin, Orban, Kim Jung Un. We have to fight for that which is “holy and universal” like freedom, respect, justice, compassion, truth, kindness, etc with all we have against the forces mentioned above who want to be in control of all of us and have the world be a kleptocracy, which is what Elon Musk is trying to make happen by bribing people to vote for Trump! We have to demand better of ourselves and we do this by voting out the charlatans, the liars and voting in fighters for decency, democracy, freedom and truth.

I have been engaged in this challenge most of my life, even when I was a drunk and criminal. I have always been fighting the inner war I hear Rabbi Heschel calling us to wage and, unfortunately, my mind won far too often in my youth; my rationalizations won and I was the people I describe in the paragraph above-indecent, uncaring, lying, cheating, etc. I am remorseful to this day for the damage I caused. I am remorseful for the damage I have caused since 1987 and I realize the vast majority of my actions, whether someone found them good or not good, were the result of the trying to serve something “holy and universal”, they were after “being involved in the dialogue of God” and me. There were/are times when I hear me and believe it is God and more often than not, God wins the dialogue and people don’t want to hear it. I am continuing to “challenge my mind” and I continue to engage in “true learning” so I become a better version of me that I was yesterday. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you using faith as a guide, a challenge or as descriptive and literal? Year 3 Day 317

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 317

“The Torah is not description but guidance; not an acceptance but a challenge; not reminiscence but commandment. It is not a portraiture of that which is but a vision, an anticipation of that which ought to be.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.57)

In his commentary on Leviticus 19:2, the Ramban says we have to be told to be holy because there are people who will be “scoundrels within the bounds of the Torah”. I hear Rabbi Heschel echoing this sentiment in the words above. When we see Torah as ‘history’, it is easy to believe it is describing something that was, that we can just accept the laws/commandments, that it gives us a false sense of ‘how to be’. Yet, as at the end of the Holiness Code we are told: “Love thy Neighbor as thyself”, there is no description as to how to do this, nor is this a reminiscence because even the Jewish People who proclaim Am Yisrael Chai, the Jewish people live, have never all agreed on anything, except, maybe, the Shema is our watch phrase, our goal. The same is true with the other Spiritual Texts held in the same esteem, holiness as the Torah and the Bible; they are for guidance, they are a challenge to our status quo, they are commanding and demanding, they are a vision as well as an anticipation of that which both ought to be and can be-if we are willing to use the Holy Texts for their intended purpose.

“The Torah” is a manual that guides us on how to be more human today than we were yesterday, how we can be better versions of ourselves in this moment than we were a year ago, how to live a life that feeds our spiritual as well as physical selves and how our souls become the arbiters of what is the next right thing to do rather than our rationalizations and feelings. We are given 365 “don’t do this” commandments because, as we have seen throughout history, we do them with little or any thought when we believe it is in our best interests to lie, to commit adultery, to steal, to make the truth non-existent, to be misogynistic when we want to have dominion and rule over a woman and/or over another group of people. We are guilty of “Coveting our neighbors’ stuff” because we decided they ‘took’ it from us rather than come face to face with our own shortcomings and repairing ourselves, as long as we have someone to blame, we don’t have to be responsible for our part in our own demise, in our own current situation. We have 248 “Do this” commandments because we can see how often we didn’t-even having them spelled out to us, we find reasons not to take the next right action and do what we are called to do. A few of the most violated “do this” commandments is “care for the stranger, the needy, the poor and the orphan” another is “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”, still another is “forgiveness”. We think it serves us to denigrate the stranger, those who are ‘different than us, and hold onto our grudges! While there are many more, these three show us how we can deceive ourselves to go along with an authoritarian, with a societal ‘norm’, to our own ruination. Violating these three and the others ruins our humanity, we lessen our own value and worth, our own dignity and image; we tarnish the divine image we are created in and we deceive ourselves into believing someone will save us, rather than depending on our own strength, independence, wisdom and ability to join forces for good, for what is right and what is being demanded of us. Torah is guidance, it is not a nice story or a story of fear and punishment. It is guidance as to what happens when we take the next right action and what happens when we take the next wrong action. We don’t have to blame anyone else, we just have to look within which is the goal of Torah, to look within and then outside to see how we can add rather than subtract.

Torah is the challenge of building a world that we can live in with one another in harmony and detente, if not peace. It is the vision of how we ought to help one another, redeem the poor, ransom the captive, dignify another human being and see the infinite worth of every individual, after all we all stood at the bottom of Mt. Sinai, we all stood at the edge of the Jordan when Moses spoke to us reminding us that everyone was at the Jordan waiting to cross over and we all were equal from the water drawer to the head of the tribe.

It is time for us to reclaim the Torah from the Charlatans of the far right and the far left. It is time for us to reclaim the Bible from these ‘experts’ who believe ‘only i know what God wants’ when Torah has so many faces, so many understandings, so many interpretations. It is time for We, the people, to recapture the commandments, to use the guidance, to end our longing for the good old days and realize the best is yet to come because there living in the past is ignoring the beauty of today and the challenges of today. It is time of We, the people, to challenge the liars who claim life is so terrible, those authoritarians who want to tear everyone down so they can have control and dominion over people for their own selfish desires. We, the people, have to regain the vision of Shalom, wholeness that permeates every word of Torah, of the Bible. It is time for all of us to sit down and argue for the sake of heaven, for the sake of learning with the thoughts and values of the Bible, of the Torah rather than argue to be right and in control. We, the people, have to reclaim our heritage from the prophets, to speak truth to power and to the people, to be loud and proud of who we are and what we bring, to serve something greater than ourselves so we can truly be our authentic self. We have to ability, we have the texts, we just need to be willing-are you?

I have used the Torah and the Bible as guidance and hear the commands of the text over and over again in each reading and I hear the guidance and the commands anew each time. To this end, I have studied with Rabbi Ed Feinstein for 31 years going over the same texts, arguing anew over each one and finding new ways to set our vision in line with the divine, to hear the commandments anew, to deepen our compassion and understanding of our fellow human beings. Ed and I have been partners in Chutzpah as he says, partners in healing broken spirits, partners in loving our neighbors, partners in proclaiming freedom for all, partners in knowing if we are alive, we have to learn. The guidance and the vision of Torah has shaped my life for the last 35 years in ways that are too large for me to even comprehend. It has made me more responsible, more sensitive, more enraged at mendacity, more compassionate towards people who are just stuck. Torah has made me engaged in anticipatory excitement of what can and should be, it has cleaned my shame and allowed me to be imperfect, it gives me the strength and sight to do T’Shuvah and no longer worry about someone else defining me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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How are you engaging in enobling your humanity and the humanity of another? Year 3 Day 316

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 316

“The belief in the possibility to affect and enoble human beings is the rock upon which all of Judaism is built. Denial of this belief would render all of Torah innocuous.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 56-7)

While these two sentences seem obvious given the commandments we learn in the Torah and that are lived into in the rest of the Bible, we seem to forget this truth, we seem to be able to ‘spin’ the Mitzvot to our liking, to serve us instead of serving something greater than us. Rabbi Heschel’s use of the words “possibility”, “enoble”, “affect” point us in the direction of inner exploration and discernment. The Hebrew word for prayer is reflexive, we are not asking God, some other entity for something, we are actually asking our self for something, be it healing old wounds, finding new paths for reconciliation and peace, to truly understand what we know in ways that serve us and more than us, etc.

Prayer, you should, you should not commandments are for the individual human being and for a sense of communal spirit. They give us a “rock” of commonality of values and principles, they give us the wherewithal to change when needed, to help another person change, to keep a community together in truthfulness, kindness, love and loyalty to shared principles. Judaism is not just a religious movement, it is a way of living movement and we, some of us Jews, believe the spiritual principles, the commandments, the communal structure gives us a way to live with our imperfections and the imperfections of another. It is the belief that we all change, we all grow and we all have to choose what change we are going to effect in ourselves and which way we are going to grow.

Adherence, study, immersing oneself in the Torah, in the Bible gives the individual a sense of belonging, of being known, of being loved because all of the heroes in the Bible are flawed, they make mistakes and the need for Rabbis to make them perfect bastardizes the text! Understanding sibling rivalry, understanding curiosity, especially when told “don’t eat from this tree and that tree only”, standing up for people one doesn’t even know and calling the Judge of Judges to be just takes a lot of chutzpah and is necessary if we are going to enoble our humanity, if we are going to affect the ways another person grows their own humanity. We have the opportunity to do this each and every day, we have the tools, as Deuteronomy 30:14 says: “The word is very near to you, in your mouth, in your heart”. We don’t have to search too far for what will/can “affect and enoble” us, we just have to begin to dig down through the shmutz that has blocked our spiritual arteries, that is imprisoning our soul, that is denying this “belief in the possibility to affect and enoble human beings”, that is working hard to bastardize and deny the “rock upon which all of Judaism is built”.

What is the plaque in our spiritual arteries? It is greed, believing I have to ‘get mine’ and no else matters. It is power, believing I can bastardize Holy Texts to serve my power grab, my hatred of another human being, even though we are not to hate our neighbors in our hearts according to the Holiness Code in Leviticus. It is lying and making truth indiscernible, treating fiction as fact and fact as fiction, accusing another person of that which we are guilty of. It is when we don’t see the infinite worth of another person so we can enslave them, not give them equal pay, not see them as equal to us because of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual preference, etc. Laziness in not discovering what any spiritual tradition truly says and only going by what the ‘guru’ we have picked says it says tends to create a lot of plaque because we are not exercising our spiritual muscles, our spiritual flow, we are only taking in and not really giving out and this creates a blockage as well.

When we say, believe, practice the religion, the spiritual discipline of NONE, we have made the decision that the Torah, the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran, the Tibetan Book of the Living and Dead, etc are of no consequence for us. We have said they are not harmful nor helpful, they are not offensive nor defensive. How awful and foreboding is this! To say the Torah, etc are not offensive is like saying someone spitting in your face is love. To say the Torah is not helpful is like saying all of medicine is ridiculous because we don’t need any help from anyone nor anything. It is like saying the vaccinations developed are unnecessary, Pasteurization is too expensive and doesn’t do anything for us, the polio vaccine was a hoax, and other such stupid sayings. To “render all of Torah innocuous” is to tear down the foundation of democracy, of freedom, of Judaism and the structure of the world. We would be left with ‘survival of the cunningest’, we would see alliances no longer made for the greater good because there is no greater good than the survival of oneself, one’s community, one’s country, etc. We would see almost 50% of the people believing a convicted felon, a proven liar, a charlatan who is only out for him/herself selling a bunch of bullshit about caring for another and we would see so-called ‘religious’ people supporting him, we would see people who seem like decent people supporting the liar because s/he would be good for them. This person would be exalted because people have lost the foundational belief that Mitzvot, that faith and the actions that come out of one’s faith, can and must “affect and enoble human beings.

Sitting here this morning, getting ready to co-officiate at a wedding of two amazing young people, reading this makes me so grateful that I heard a call 38 years ago in a prison cell, that I responded to that call and began a way of being that begins each morning with prayer, study, gratitude, and writing. I am able to look back at old writings and see how faith has changed me, how AA has changed me, how Judaism has made me a better human being. I am in wonderment and disbelief that life could be so good for a guy who was not so good for much of the first half of his life. I know ‘in my bones’ that without Torah and the Bible telling me through the stories that change was possible, that Jacob could change and it was hard, that a King like David could screw up and admit his errors, do his T’Shuvah and be forgiven, that no one had to die for my sins to be forgiven, that speaking truth to power will not make you popular and is necessary as the prophets show us, that I do not have to add to the destructive forces in the universe in order to be successful. I know that money will not make me joyous, only living well will, only loving fiercely and being loyal will and I have come to realize the people I help do not always reciprocate and that is good also. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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