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Teach your children…” all men are poor” and we all need to have reverence for one another- Year 3 Day 355

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 355

“To keep our Abraham complex alive in our children remains our responsibility. The fear lest we fail to be sensitive to the situation of a poor man—and all men are poor—is the most important test of whether we have fear of God. Reverence for God involves reverence for man.”(Insecurity of Freedom pg. 66)

In the sentences prior to these, Rabbi Heschel posits that many of us have an Abraham complex along with a self-seeking complex. An “Abraham complex”, he explains as being like Abraham who is “doing what is just and right”. The idea that we can be and are more like Abraham than Narcissi suggests that we leave the tyranny of Greek Civilization’s belief we can be perfect and join the Biblical way of being just and following the moral and ethical paths that the Bible lays out for us. In the words above, in 1962, speaking to a group of Rabbis about religious education in general and Jewish education in particular, these words are ringing in my ears and, hopefully, yours as well.

Listening to the pronouncements of the President-Elect, hearing the ‘rest of the story’ about his ‘candidates’ to fill cabinet positions that keep our country safe, secure, a leader and power in the world, one could wonder how poorly his father taught his about the “Abraham complex” that resides in all human beings, along with the selfish and self-seeking complex. The question, as always, is which one is going to be subservient to the other-is our sense of doing what is just and true, right and righteous going to use the selfish and self-seeking part of us to serve the greater good or vice versa?

“To keep our Abraham complex alive in our children remains our responsibility” has given way to the standard we have adopted for ‘success’.  No longer do we send the best and brightest to seminary, to public service, we send our best and brightest to learn a trade; economics, banking, consulting, stock market, CEO, CFO, etc. Human Resources is does not have anything to do with being human and humane to employees, what is just and right takes no higher than second place to ‘getting ahead’, to ‘getting mine’, etc. We, the People, either re-think what a successful life looks like or risk getting more and more enslaved by the autocrats, the grifters, our own self-deceptions and then we are truly lost. The enslavement in Egypt wasn’t ‘caused’ by God, it was only foretold by God, according to the Bible. The enslavement in Egypt was caused by us, by buying into this Narcissi complex we have, because we allowed ourselves to buy into the lies and deceptions that Pharaoh was selling, because we let our “Abraham complex” wither and die within us and, therefore, did not keep it “alive in our children”. We shirked our responsibility, we let go of the moral, the ethical, legacy of doing the “next right thing” and went with what we thought expedient- sound familiar??

Rabbi Heschel’s fears above have been realized in our time, as it has in every age. It seems as if we are well on our way of perfecting our insensitivity to the poor man, to the poor parts inside of us, to the ways we suffer in “inner intelligence”. We have failed to see the plight of the poor, I believe, because we have failed to see the plight of our own poverty. We are afraid to look in the mirror and see where we have “missed the mark”, we are afraid to apologize to another human being, instead just deny, deny, deny, as our President-Elect does, as Bibi does, as Orban does, as Putin does. Some of us have watched in horror as people continue to spout their love of God and treat their fellow human beings with such disdain and cruelty. When the teachings and ways of Josef Goebbels’ become common place in a democracy, we know that the “Abraham complex” has stopped being taught to our children by their parents and this does not bode well for them or us-we have watched this movie many times throughout history and the destruction of human beings, the horror that is felt for generations, never seems to leave us and we keep coming back to these ways just like an addict comes back to drugs, like an alcoholic keeps drinking.

“Reverence for God involves reverence for man” is the key to what We, the People have to return to! It is incumbent upon us to teach our children how to revere another human being, how to see each and every person as our equal, treat and acknowledge their infinite dignity and value, treat each person with the love we have for ourselves which means we have to let go of our narcissistic love and learn to love ourselves as imperfect, flawed people. We, the People have to teach our children how to have reverence for people through our actions, as the saying goes, “actions talk, bullshit walks”. We, the People, have to stop hiding behind our ‘labels’ of being a good party line person, a true progressive, etc  thinking the outer trappings will hide the inner narcissist, however, the inner narcissist always leaks out. The progressive that wants to control and tell everyone else how to live has no more reverence for the poor, for another human being than the autocrat who thinks Hitler didn’t kill enough Jews - which their are people on the far right (and unfortunately on the far left) who spout this hatred.

Each day I marvel at how my ancestors taught me, grew in me and my siblings and cousins, the “Abraham complex”.  I am in awe of my daughter, nephews, nieces, cousins how have learned to be “just and right” in the ways they live. “Reverence for man” has been a guiding light for me over the past 37 years and I have returned to what my father, uncles, aunts, grandparents taught me-be decent, be truthful, be unafraid to fail and learn from your failures, rejoice in your ‘victories’. Caring for the poor and the stranger are second nature to me, even when I was in my addictions. I realize from today’s writing, that I was in my addictions because I forgot that “all men are poor” and thought I had to cover up my poverty with ill-gotten gains. We have raised our children to be of service to another human being either as a profession or an avocation. I have been privileged to witness the transformation of so many people that were thought of as hopeless addicts/alcoholics. I continue to speak out to the myriad of people who want to turn a blind eye to the cruelty of Trump, Bibi, Orban, etc because they ‘do so many good things’. I continue to rail against the unconscious way most people live, how many people purposely live willfully blind and uncaring lives. I can’t do this, I have to live with and on purpose and my purpose is guided by the “Abraham complex” that lives within me and seeks to do what is right and just in each moment-knowing I will fail, do T’Shuvah and move forward, always caring for the poor and having reverence for humanity. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living into our authentic self, letting go of the need for perfection and certainty- Year 3 Day 354

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 354

“The truth is to cultivate intellectual piety as well as ritual observance, stillness as well as discipline, the importance of patience as a way of listening, rejection of complacency and conceit, the vital necessity of inner growth, the building of responsibility, the active involvement in aiding our fellow men, as well as a sense of authenticity.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 65)

“Intellectual piety” can be defined as worship of God with mind and heart. It is not so much purity, as I hear Rabbi Heschel this morning, as it is about not being a human doing that is devoid of thought during our ritual observance-whatever that may be from our morning coffee to meditation, to prayer, etc. Listening to Rabbi Heschel’s words and his desire to help us grow our learning, to learn about the whole person we are, our children are, every human being is, and this is not an easy task since most people shy away from doing this and find the ‘easier softer way of willful blindness’.

“To cultivate” comes from the Latin words which could mean “inhabit’, and Rabbi Heschel is telling us that it is not enough to stand on the sidelines, it is not okay to speak of them and make them intellectual exercises alone, we have to “inhabit” “intellectual piety” and “ritual observance” in the same moment, in the same time, otherwise we can never find the “sense of authenticity” we all crave and search for. The greatest problem facing humanity is the problem of authentically inhabiting our whole being as well as inhabiting our connection with God and one another. Without doing this, we will continue to live in the “half truths” spoken about yesterday, which are, in essence, lies!

We, the People, in this time and in all times, have to “inhabit”, have “to cultivate”, to grow our inner life in order to achieve any form of “intellectual piety” and to live into our ritual observances not as check lists but as growth spurts for our minds and spirits. Denying the needs of our inner life because it is not ‘intellectual enough’, because “religion is the opiate of the masses” is as ridiculous as denying the needs of our intellects because “all we have to do is give it up to Jesus” when Jesus as cajoling his followers to care for one another, to not favor the rich, to speak truth to power, etc. The Ultra-Orthodox Jews use their “ritual observance” especially since Oct. 7, 2023, much like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell did after 9/11; blaming the non-observant, the people who follow the spirit of the Torah and the Bible for the massacre and saying God wants ‘our enemies’ to be totally destroyed and Gaza, the West Bank be part of Israel, so they can build the 3rd Temple. Be it the Far right Christians who want Armageddon, the Christian Nationalists who want power and control over everyone who is not white, christian male smart enough to be part of the power structure, or the Orthodoxy of some Jews to believe they are “chosen” to have dominion and rule over people-all of them are in denial of the message of Rabbi Heschel above. This is why We, the People have to “inhabit” and grow our inner life and have a response that stands up to the withering lies and onslaught of anger, denial and cult-like behaviors of those few who are seeking power and destruction of freedom for all.

We, the People, get to learn how to engage in “patience as a way of listening”, we can use “stillness as well as discipline” so we are better grounded in our self, in our truths, in our ways of being at one with the universe, at one with nature, at one with each other. This is the goal of the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran, the teachings of Buddha, et al-to be at one with self, universe, nature and one another. We cannot get there unless we are “listening” to one another with an open heart and mind-hence the need for “intellectual piety”.

We the People, also need to “reject complacency and conceit”, we have to end our need to keep the status quo because the world is always moving, the earth keeps spinning whether we feel it or not, we keep changing whether we are aware of it or not, the expansion of freedom and holiness is an onward march that some humans keep trying to retard with the status quo and it only works for a moment until there is another revolution and then another pushback. We, the people, in rejecting our “complacency and conceit” are making the statement that learning is the goal, learning from what we do well and what we don’t do well, learning from the wisdom of antiquity and the wisdom of today, engaging with the texts that have survived the test of time and action not to do the same as ‘they did’, rather to see how the wisdom applies to our lives, in the moment, in ways that we uniquely see and can engage with-the world doesn’t need another Moses, it needs each of us to be uniquely our authentic self.

“Building responsibility”, engaging in “the active involvement in aiding our fellow men, as well as a sense of authenticity” is the goal I set for myself long ago. I know without ‘intellectual piety”, “ritual observance”, “stillness”, “listening” “rejection of complacency and conceit” it is impossible for me to get near, much less reach this goal. I have been engaged in all of these behaviors for the past 38 years and it was a return for me to the days of learning from my father, grandfathers, relatives of blessed memory. I have built a life of being responsible for my errors and my good deeds, knowing they don’t cancel one another out and I have to acknowledge the good which is harder than beating myself up for the errors. I have built up inner responsibility with the many actions and ways I have been actively involved in “aiding” any and all human beings I can. I live authentically and it isn’t always pretty, in fact it is usually messy. Yet, I have no regrets for my life and I am remorseful for the actions that harmed people, especially those closest to me. I am not perfect nor is anyone, including God, asking me or you to be. We are “to cultivate”, to grow and live into our inner life, our responsibility, our caring for one another, and our authentic selves. We are not expected to be ‘there’! Yet, in the need for certainty and perfection, people have put this onus upon me and I have put this yoke on myself. “Inhabiting” the words and teachings of today renews my commitment to leave “certainty and perfection” so I can better live into what is right here, right now. I am asking you to join me in cultivating a way of being that rejects the lies of our conceited ego, that rejects the mendacity and deception of those trying to control us with falseness and deceptions of what freedom is. I am committed to living more consciously each day, to being a better version of myself each day, to forgiving those who harm me and discard me, to reaching out to people as a source of strength and wisdom, to wrestle with people over how to live the principles and values that inhabit our inner life and “to cultivate” a little more each day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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How do you cultivate your "Knowledge, Understanding"? Year 3 Day 353

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 353

“There is no knowledge without reverence. No understanding without love. Thought without a concern, an idea without the verification of living it is a half truth.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 65)

Rabbi Heschel believes: “The greatest hinderance to knowledge is our adjustment to conventional notions, to mental cliches. Wonder or radical amazement, the state of maladjustment to words and notions, is, therefore, a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is.”(Man is Not Alone pg. 11). “Reverence” is an essential part of the foundation for “radical amazement”, ergo: there can be “no knowledge without reverence”! Yet, too many of us think we know stuff and are so uninformed, so lacking in the historical and experiential wisdom of our ancestors and our own life experiences that we deceive ourselves into believing we are the smartest person in the room. We do this for many reasons, one of which is to hide from ourselves and another(s) our insecurities and fears, another of which is to gain and hold power through fear, lies, etc for our personal gain and the personal gain of our ‘friends’. We see this in business, in families, in politics, and in religious and other non-profit institutions. It is a great failure of society and of us as individuals. Blaming society for the ills of the world is a cop-out-we are society, we go along with the lies and deceptions because they help us hide from our lack of “reverence” and our lack of “knowledge”. We have become fat and lazy like Moses predicted in his last address in Parsha Hazzinu! Even though we read this every year, we are unable to see ourselves in the text so we keep repeating the same errors in new and different ways, much to our detriment. And, knowledge without understanding is also a waste of energy, a waste of time and a spiritual failing.

Understanding how to use our “knowledge” is a key ingredient of living well. It is the pathway to “radical amazement” and it truly takes us being “maladjusted” to what we think we know and how we have used our “knowledge” in the past. This moment is different than any other moment, I have to keep it fresh, I have to keep myself fresh otherwise I become stale and a stale human being is the greatest desecration of God’s name, of our dignity and value there can be because it leads to every other despicable action we take. The “love” of self, the “love” of another human being, the “love” of being called by God, Universe, Higher Consciousness to go above and beyond all of the limitations we have put on ourselves and allowed others to put upon us is the only path to true “understanding”. The “love” of learning, the “love” of connection, the “love” of service, the “love” of another human being are prerequisites for “understanding” the universe, our place in it as a species and as an individual. Without “love”, we would never care to “understand” the needs and desires of our partners, of our children, of the stranger, of the needy, etc. Without “love” we would never be able to “understand” the incongruences of ourselves and another(s), we would not care enough to speak to and deal with people we want to look down upon, with people out of our ‘class’, we would continue to segregate ourselves according to the myriad of ways society has devised.

“Love your neighbor as yourself” could be a proof text of the words above-when we “love” another and see our similarities, we can “understand” this person better.

The last sentence can, and hopefully does, shake us to our core. How often have we had thoughts only about ourselves, without a “concern” for another, without a “concern” for the aftershocks of our actions? How any “ideas” do we have “without the verification of living it”? Far too many I would posit. In her poem, “Judge Softly” from 1895, Mary T. Lathrap calls for us to “walk a mile in his moccasins” challenging  all of us to see things from the perspective of another. It also calls for us to “walk a mile” in our shoes, to stop pontificating as if we know something without ever living it. This is one of the problems with some of our Higher Education-great theories and the ones spouting them have no actual experience putting them into action-be it in business, religious education, secular education, the humanities, etc. When students call for the annihilation of Israel, when they see terrorists as freedom fighters, when they deny basic human rights to Jews and Israelis, and say they are ‘for the people’, their argument is pretty shallow and hollow because they are not “living it”! When we hear the lies of our politicians, of the leaders of institutions, who claim to care for the people they are supposed to be serving, while actually serving their own egos and bank accounts, this is another example of a “thought without a concern”, a “half truth”.

Herein lies the rub: there is no such thing as a “half truth”, it is like being “a little pregnant”, one is either in truth or not, one is either pregnant or not. We have used this phrase to cover our lies and to hide from our lack of “reverence” and our lack of “love”. It is time for We, the People to say NO to these false ways of being-to both ourselves and the people around us. We, the People have to say YES to “reverence” so we can obtain and retain our “knowledge”, YES to “love” so we can better “understand” how to use our “knowledge” better and differently each day, YES to ensuring that we our “thoughts” have “concerns” attached to them and our “ideas” are valid because we our “living” them. This is our challenge and this is our gift, we have the spiritual resources to make these ways of being a part of our daily living. We have to allow our inner life to override our rational minds because our rational minds have been overtaken by greed, by false egotistical ruminating, by our self-deception and by the “conventional notions and mental cliches” of society. We, the People are being called to step up, to stand up, to speak truth to power, to have the necessary “reverence”, “love”, “thought” and “ideas” to change what is into what should be. Through our “knowledge” and “understanding”, we can live the vision of the Bible, the hopes of our ancestors who came to America seeking a better life for them and their descendants, and the promise of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution “to form a more perfect union”.

I can only “know what I know” because I developed a sense of “reverence” in prison from 1986-1989 and have kept growing it ever since. There are times when I have retarded it as well and there are many times when I have not communicated my “knowledge” of the mendacity of another in ways people could hear. My “love” for people and God has led me to “understand” much more than I ever have, it gives use the strength to “take the blows and do it my way”. I live my thoughts and ideas-sometimes to my detriment and the detriment of another, especially family, and I work very hard to stay in truth, even when it ‘hurts’, when the truth indicts me, I plead guilty and repair the damage, change my ways to the best of my ability. This is what “verification of living it” means to me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Are you living into the "dialectic of a human situation" or choosing to ignore a part of yourself? Year 3 Day 352

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 352

“Personal meaning is meaningless, unless it is related to a trans-personal meaning…Religious education must recognize the dialectic of a human situation, pay attention to both the individual and the people, to discipline and spontaneity, to principle and example, to the pattern and the poetry, to inwardness and outwardness, to events and ideas.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 65)

One of the many gifts of the Bible is acknowledging the “dialectic” that every human being experiences. One of the tragedies of religious education and, I believe, the major reason people are not affiliating with religious institutions, is we have stopped recognizing “the dialectic of a human situation” and instead focused on dogma, on “personal meaning” and forgotten about the “trans-personal meaning”, on “trans-personal meaning” while telling some that their situation, their “personal meaning” is unimportant because god doesn’t love them as much-hence they are poor and here to serve the rich and the ones “god loves”.

What gives our lives meaning and purpose, as I hear Rabbi Heschel demands in my ears and my inner life is that is “related to”, and I would add, connected to a “trans-personal meaning”. We see this in the ways people feel when they post a Birthday fundraiser on social media-they are doing something that recognizes their birth, their life, and helping another human being, institution that is doing good beyond their own ability to help. Hence a joining together of “personal meaning” and “a trans-personal meaning”. We cannot do this without some type of religious education that does “recognize the dialectic of a human situation”. Dialectic meaning dealing with our contradictory natures to help and be selfish, to hunt and gather and to care for the animals and the stranger, to be greedy and want it all vis a vis the call to redeem the captive, help the poor and the needy. Rabbi Hillel says in the Talmud: “If I am not for myself who will be for me, if I am only for myself what am I, if not now, when?” Living in the tension of this quote, of the words in the first sentence above can bring us joy and despair, hope and cynicism, love and loneliness, community and isolation, etc. Finding the proper measure of being “for myself” and not being “only for myself” is a daily challenge. We are not being told to bow down to some authoritarian, some king, some wannabe god, we are being told to stand for our self, to stay rooted in the spiritual truths that we know and not be a doormat, not go along to get along, not give into the our selfish needs to the point we believe the lies of liars, the bullshit of grifters and empty our pockets of money, our spiritual muscles of the strength to stand up for what is good and right, what is true and holy. When we give into our “personal meaning” alone, we are truly lost and so susceptible to the deceptions of another(s), we often find things being done in our name that are anathema to our soul’s calling. The last phrase of Rabbi Hillel is crucial-there is no time to waste, there is no time to contemplate, to give moral equivalence to evil, to lies, to mendacity because we will find ourselves like Martin Niemoller who lamented his not standing up sooner because there was no one left to stand for him in Nazi Germany!

To a great degree the situation we find ourselves in is not the fault of the people, much of the problem lies in our religious education system. When it doesn’t engage in the both/and of a human being, when it believes and teaches the “fire and brimstone” approach, when it neglects the spontaneous discipline and control, when it forgoes the “poetry” and the 70 faces/meanings of each verse of the Bible for the “pattern” it wants people to follow like ‘good nazis’, when dogma is more important than “ideas and events”, when these “ideas and events” are twisted and bastardized to fit a certain ideology and agenda that the ‘preacher’, the ‘leader’ is pushing, we are in deep trouble. We then either turn people away who are seeking some responses to the challenges of living in this “dialectic” or we make them into robots who become immune to the troubles and fears of another person and believe in the “god punishing” bullshit, that has been fed to us forever, and ignore the cries of the oppressed and the call of the suffering-exactly the opposite of what the Bible teaches, what Jesus taught/said, etc.

We, the People have to stand up for ourselves, we have to live into the teachings of Rabbi Hillel: be for our self and demand of our spiritual leaders to learn what the Bible says and then interpret these words for ourselves, learn from the stories what principles are at the foundation of living well and how to practice them in all our affairs, use the examples of the ‘people’ in the Bible as the how to and how not to be human. We can read the poetry of the Moses, the beauty of the words of Psalms and find the patterns we can all follow to help another and ourselves at the same time, we can find the ways to incorporate our opposing inclinations to serve both our need for “personal meaning” and our need for “trans-personal meaning”. We, the People have to learn anew how to read and understand the Bible and the wisdom of the Greeks, Romans, etc from antiquity not as ‘history’ nor as ‘battle cries’ rather as eternal wisdom and truth about the “human situation”; the ways to be and not to be, the maturing of our souls and intuition so we can handle situations that used to baffle us differently, engaging in our inner dialogue rather than escaping it so we can become more integrated and congruent. Living in this way, finding meaning and purpose for us personally and being engaged in serving something greater than ourselves brings us to an inner breath that is deep, relaxing and we feel from our toes to our head-to me this is the greatest meditation technique.

In the second paragraph of my writing today I speak of Rabbi Heschel’s demands, the truth is I hear him cajoling me, encouraging me and helping me rise above my current spiritual status each day. The ‘dance’ of living for me and not only for me is fraught with imbalance and staying on this “narrow bridge” as Reb Nachman says, takes awareness and determination, grit and resilience, the desire to be free and the need to stand with the prophets and rail against injustice. It takes the constant exercise of my spiritual muscles, it means getting off my ass and doing something each day to learn and grow, to take inventory, make amends and change. Having Rabbi Heschel in my soul gives me no rest and I know I don’t need the ‘rest’ I thought I was entitled to prior to recovery and to ‘meeting’ Rabbi Heschel. I know the difficulty in being human and I know the excruciating pain of not being human. I choose the difficulty over the pain each day. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Is your Personality fully developed? Should it be? Year 3 Day 351

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 351

“It remains a question whether the full development of the personality is either desirable or possible. There may be aspects of one’s personality which do not deserve to be fully developed… To help an individual to satisfy the urge and compulsion of personal development is to act according to the law of life. Yet such help must not be given blindly, but rather in full consideration of a direction and greater meaning. (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 65)

Today is the day after Thanksgiving in 2024. As my friend and teacher, Rabbi Ed Feinstein says: “The day after a holiday is the most important day. How are you changed because of the celebration/observance?” How are you changed by your experience yesterday, are you more aware of the things you have to be grateful for? Rabbi Heschel’s provocative words above point out a flaw in both religious and secular education as well as the hubris found in human beings, especially in America where ‘you can be anything you want to be’ is such a common refrain. While many psychologists and therapists seem to say that “full development of the personality” is possible and desirable, I think Rabbi Heschel’s first two sentences above merit great consideration and, possibly be grateful that not all “aspects of one’s personality” are “fully developed”!

Diving into these thoughts above causes us to look at and in our own beings. What is the personality we have, what aspects have we developed, are they the ones that need/needed developing, etc. We have become identified and pigeon-holed by the labels we put on ourselves, the descriptors of our personality by another, the ethos of the group(s) we join and or belong to, the faith we adhere to, etc. We are witnessing today a truth that has been with us through time immemorial; the development of one’s personality is stunted by the group-think of the ‘tribe’ they belong to. In some ‘tribes’ it is good to hate, it is powerful to put down another, it is a show of strength to not be held responsible, a man who is a bully, sexually assaults women, thinks of everyone else as dumber and less than they are, etc is worshipped as a god, as an anointed one of Christ, etc. In some ‘tribes’, the literal words of the Bible are used out of context and as a club to keep everyone in line-not with the divine but with the particular religious charlatan in charge. These ‘false prophets’ promote hatred, xenophobia, better than and the lie that they know what God wants and their congregants, the members of their ‘tribe’ have to vote and act in lockstep with the wishes of the Priest, Minister, Rabbi, Imam, etc. Neither of these tribes nor most of the other ones “help an individual to satisfy the urge and compulsion of personal development.” They help a person develop a personality that could be anathema to their authentic self, they help a person develop a ‘false self’ that haunts the individual while serving the ‘group-think’ of the ‘tribe’ and tribal leader.

Which “aspects of your personality” “do not deserve to be fully developed”? All of us have within us greed, hatred, love, generosity, sloth and carefulness, meanness/self-centeredness and kindness and helpfulness, etc. The question that each of us has to answer for ourselves of which aspects “do not deserve to be fully developed” is a difficult one because all of the so-called negative aspects serve a purpose and can help us navigate life’s challenges better than if we did not have them. The phrase “fully developed” is, to me, the key to discerning how to grow and develop into the human being we are meant to be. We have to have a sense of danger and developing it so we detect danger with enough time to protect ourselves, run away, hide, etc is very important and, if it is fully developed, we can become paranoid about everything and everyone, we can lock ourselves up in our homes, we can accost people and harm/attack innocent people for no real reason. We have to develop a sense of self and if we develop this sense of self too much it is very likely we will look down upon another person as not ‘measuring up to the standards we hold dear’, we will see another human being as less than and buy into the bullshit that we are the smartest person in the room. We need to have a sense of ourselves as smart enough to learn and contribute and not so smart that we stop learning and don’t allow another to contribute.

As M.Scott Peck says in the opening words of his book:The Road Less Traveled, “life is difficult”! We are living in “interesting times” as the Chinese proverb teaches, and we have to decide if we truly want our elected officials to be people who have developed the tribal traits I mentioned above to be in charge of our government. We have to decide if we are going to continue to be “a government of the people, by the people and for the people” or if the end of the Civil War will be that a few white men will use their power to enslave and control the rest of us. We have to make a decision to ensure that We, the  People give “help” to these people, who have developed the less kinder and truthful aspects of their personalities fully, not “blindly, but rather in full consideration of a direction and greater meaning” We, the People, have to help them return to living life with a greater meaning and purpose than self-satisfaction, live in ways that rise above deception and mendacity, stand for the real principles of spiritual living rather than the phony ones that return their followers to being pagan idol worshippers. This is happening in our religious communities as well as our secular ones, it is making autocracy more appealing because of the blinders people put on by not “fully developing” their personality traits of “love thy neighbor, care for the stranger, don’t stand idly by the blood of your neighbor, do justly, love mercy, etc”. Rather they are “fully developing” their personality traits of greed, lust, hatred, meanness, etc!!

I know the difference because for a while I “fully developed” the personality trait of ‘victim’ because of my father’s early death and being left feeling alone-no one else understood me, etc. I was angry and thought I deserved whatever I could take because I had been fucked by society, etc. UGH, just writing this and remembering this way of being makes me shudder. Returning the the ways my father taught me to be, the paths he showed me to take, I have let go of this old identity, I have been a victim, at times and this is not my identity. I have made mistakes and I am not a mistake. I have done things that have been inappropriate and I am not inappropriate. Making these distinctions illumine for me that I am not my worst actions, my definition as a human being is made up of the total sum of me, my personality, my way of being and I use my teachers, family, Rabbi Heschel, to help me develop my personality appropriately, to help me develop it “in full consideration of a direction and greater meaning.” God Bless and stay safe-enjoy your leftovers:) Rabbi Mark

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Living in the worlds of the imminent and the transcendent - Year 3 Day 350

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 350

“We maintain that just as it its important for a person to select a particular objective for his own life, such as a career, it is important for him to live in the awareness of a meaning which transcends all particular objectives, the loyalty to which is ultimately even more important than the success and failure in the pursuit of his particular objective.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.64)

The beauty of Judaism is that it doesn’t deny our personal objectives, it doesn’t say wanting sex is bad, wanting to succeed is bad, pleasing one’s personal desires is bad, it does say that our pleasures have to coincide with an “awareness of a meaning which transcends all particular objectives”. We are being called upon to live in two worlds, the world of physical satisfaction and spiritual sustenance and joy.

In our pursuit of our “particular objective”, we have to remember the commentary of the Ramban-Moses Nachmanides-saying that a person could “be a scoundrel within the bounds of Torah”. We have to satisfy our “particular objective” and our physical desires and never be a “scoundrel” in doing so. We cannot take unfair advantage of another person in our pursuit of our “particular objective” because doing so would deny our “loyalty” to “a meaning which transcends all particular objectives”. We are called to live our lives being loyal to both our authentic self, desires and needs as well as a calling that is higher than the one for self. What an order! And, without doing both, we are just shells of human beings-by only concerning ourselves with the transcendent, we neglect the personal for ourselves and miss opportunities to help another-by only concerning ourselves with the personal, we neglect the higher calling which is constantly nagging us in our inner life, in our soul. By living in only one realm, we are constantly being pulled in the other direction and without living in proper measure, we find ourselves living on the edges of the extremes, being less than human.

Today is Thanksgiving in America, a day fraught with good and not good memories. The story of the Pilgrims is a nice one and makes us feel good yet, the ways we treated Native Americans then and how we treat them now is disgusting and degrading. Rather than have an “awareness of a meaning which transcends all particular objectives” the Pilgrims and their descendants only cared for their “particular objective” and killed, massacred tens of thousands of Native Americans in their thirst for land, control and power. While the Native Americans lived into their “loyalty” of their “awareness”, these fine “christian” folk did not. They were not loyal in their dealings with Native Americans, nor did they fulfill their duty to have “the loyalty to which is ultimately more important that the success and failure in the pursuit of his particular objective.” We are still unable to learn and live into the truth of Rabbi Heschel’s words above, we are still unable to live into the words, actions and deeds called for by the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran, the Buddha. We are still unable to let go of our need to satisfy our “particular objective” even when doing so goes against the call for loyalty to something greater than ourselves. We are still unable to let go of our rationalizing being “a scoundrel”, whoring ourselves while wrapping ourselves in the Holy Bible, like Trump, the Republican Party, the MAGA crowd do.

We, the People have to stand up for what is right and good. We have to call out the lies and mendacity that is constantly spread. We have to see and amend the bullshit and self-deceptions we have been promoting as well. It is time for us to take a real inventory, truly take stock of our lives and see where we have wrapped ourselves in the flag, in the Torah, in the Bible, etc to validate doing the next wrong thing. It is imperative that we recognize these moments and the paths we take to do this otherwise we cannot change and we are the same as the people point our fingers at!

We, the People have to find ways to live in both the immanent and transcendent worlds in the same moment, at the same time. This is the life-long struggle and challenge of what it means to be human. We need to remember, at all times, that we get to be grateful for what we have and, as I learned from a member of my former congregation, be grateful for what we don’t have! The wisdom above is calling upon us to live and care for our authentic self and the authentic self of another person, another group. We are being called to live loyally to the words of God to Adam and Eve; take care of my garden which you call earth and all the creations I have created. We are still hearing this call each day, it is the call of HEAR, you who wrestle with one another and with God, God is Oneness, part of you and your are part of me-ACT LIKE IT!! We have both a lower consciousness-the one that has the physical needs to be satisfied-and we have a higher consciousness-the one that is loyal to that which is transcendent. Both have to be tended to, both are necessary to fulfill the obligation to care for the earth and all its inhabitants therein. We are called to proclaim freedom, to love our neighbor, to care for the stranger, the poor, the needy, to violate the Sabbath to save a life, etc. We are called to live justly, to pursue righteousness and to combine righteousness and justice so we are not blinded by the bribe of another person nor by the bribery of our desires that are out of proper measure. We have the path to live in both worlds, we need leaders to help us and the will to go against the call of the narcissist, the call of the liar, the call of the autocrat, the oversized call of our lower self.

This is an area where I have fallen down numerous times and each time I get back up and learn how to not give into the subtleties of my lower self, the disguises of my Yetzer Hara. I am also guilty of not being aware of the loneliness of staying loyal to a transcendent meaning and purpose when the people around you say one thing and do another. I have a few priors in doing this as well. In fact, this is what my recovery has been centered on-alcohol and crime were merely symptoms of this underlying dis-ease of my higher consciousness arguing with my lower desires and not knowing how to integrate them. This has been the story of my recovery and I am not totally there yet and I no longer have to deny the truth of my errors, my getting it right, my hurts and my joys. No longer living as “a scoundrel within the bounds of Torah” has given me a freedom I thought impossible. My learning since 1987 continues to “set me free” with truth and joy, justice and redemption, unafraid to speak truth to power and willing to suffer the consequences. God Bless, stay safe, Happy Thanksgiving, Rabbi Mark

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Developing your highest possible self-spiritually and ethically! Year 3 Day 350

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 350

“What is the ideal of religious education? One of its goals is to give norm, purpose, meaning, direction, and depth to what may be regarded as one of the ideals of general education, namely, the fullest possible development of the individual…The individual is not seen in isolation but in relation to God and is subject to the norms which such a relation implies.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.64)

Immersing myself in these words causes me to take pause at how I have engaged in “religious education” both as a student and a co-learner, a teacher and a Rabbi. As I look at my life of religious education, beginning when I was a child, I realize how many times I sought meaning and was told to learn my alphabet (aleph-bet) and the prayers. Meaning came to me through my father’s guidance and patience to teach me, while not a religious man according to following dogma, etc; my father and grandfather were deeply religious men when seen through the lens of the words above. The failure of religious and general education “to give norm, purpose, meaning, direction, and depth” to each individual is, in my estimation, a crime!

We hear about the Fentanyl crisis, which there certainly is one, and the blame put on China, Mexico, and now Canada by the incoming President. We are not hearing about the responsibility of the people using, the responsibility of the people who have beaten down the poor, the stranger, the needy in both material and spiritual ways rendering them hopeless and despairing. We are not speaking about the unbelievably disgusting ways we treated our people returning from Military Service who became homeless as well as addicted because of the moral injuries suffered during their war years. We are not speaking of the broken promises of our Declaration of Independence and our religious traditions that have given false hope to the spiritual, moral principles that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were founded on as well as the democratic promise to do better than King George in knowing that all people are created equal and with certain unalienable rights! We are not speaking about the lack of treatment facilities that help people addicted to Fentanyl, other drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc that are treating this “Spiritual Malady”-only the ones using “evidence-based” practices. This is one example of the hubris of the ‘elites’ who make decisions in every administration-Republican and Democratic, the only exception being President George W. Bush.

We, the People have to demand from our religious institutions, from our Clergy an education that serves the goals listed above. We have to end our mindless “Tikkun Olam” repairing of the world and “Prosperity Gospels”, we have to end the bastardization of the Islam being used as a reason to kill and terrorize when the root of it is to “submit to Allah/God”. We, the People have to also be responsible for educating ourselves if there is no one else. In the Talmud it says if we are not taught by our parents we have to learn on our own-it goes so far as to say if one’s parents did not circumcise him, he has to circumcise himself! There is no way to ‘get out of it’ by blaming parents, teachers, Rabbis, Priests, etc. we are all responsible!

This is the rub of our times, we no longer care about our relationship to God/Higher Consciousness when it comes to being responsible for the “fullest possible development of the individual”. We only care for how to ‘get ahead’, how to ‘win’. Kids in college don’t go there for personal development, to find out who they are away from their parents; they go to get the education they need for the job/career that will pay them enough money to afford the luxuries they desire. They are in constant competition and comparison: grades, job offers, which college they go to are sources of tension and despair. Is it any wonder that our children are seeking escape from these burdens and pressures? Is it any wonder that they go along with a liar and a cheat, a criminal and a grifter believing at least he ‘tells it like it is’? They will find out that their ‘champion’ is going to screw them over the minute he has an opportunity, they will come to believe their ‘anointed one’ only wants communion for himself and his cronies and then they will seek escape once again. Without developing “norm, purpose, meaning, direction and depth” within oneself, we are always at the mercy and whim of someone else.

We, the People, have to change the educational system in both our religious systems and our general educational system. Mandating Bible studies using the Trump Bible-made in China by the way- is not the solution. We, the People have to commit to a rigorous course of study of our inner life to develop our “relation to God” and ensure the ways in which we live are “subject to the norms such relation implies”. Whether it is God, or whatever one feels about being in relationship to the universe, nature is immaterial-what is important is our realization that we have a spiritual life that needs to be nurtured and grown, that we have deep and serious spiritual maladies that affect our lives and the lives of another(s) as well as knowing the spiritual maladies of another has grave effects on our lives! We all have to demand better care from the Physicians of the Soul that our Clergy are supposed to be. They are called Spiritual Leaders-isn’t it time for them to do their job???

I am guilty of not providing these goals to people in my career-not because I didn’t make the attempt, rather because I could not speak in ways some people could hear and, for others, I speak eloquently when we learn Torah together as “street Torah”. My second career, after being a drunk and thief, has been to heal the spiritual malady I experience and the ones experienced by another(s). I have been unafraid to speak truth to power, I have been inappropriate and politically incorrect in my speech, actions and, when I am overwhelmed by mendacity and lies, I erupt like a volcano. I have paid a price for all of these ways and I know my life is enriched by both the errors that I made, (the ones I have done my own inventory of and made my amends) the times I hit the mark, and I am not bound by the ones people accuse me of, necessarily. My development as a spiritual being in a physical body continues to move forward, I don’t need outside validation to know when I am doing the next right thing and I call my colleagues in the Rabbinate, the clergy of other faiths to be accountable, to hold themselves and their leaders in the their faiths, in their countries accountable to and for “the fullest possible development of the individual” otherwise resign from your position and apologize to God! We, the People deserve nothing less. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Is your self-expression narcissistic or for the greater good? Year 3, Day 348

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 348

“There was never a time in which the need for self-expression was so much stressed. Yet, there was never a time in which self-expression was so rarely achieved. If self-expression is the only goal, it can never be achieved. The self gains when losing itself in the contemplation of the nonself, in the contemplation of the world, for example. Self-expression depends upon self-attachment to what is greater than the self.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 64)

Reading these words some 62 years after they were delivered at a conference of Rabbis takes one’s breath away or it should. In today’s world where identity politics, people’s belief they can do what they want to because they are ‘free’, where the next president of the United States brags about being above the law, who says he can grab women in their private parts because he wants to, where victimhood is a flag so many wrap themselves in because of ‘political correctness’, these words need to be embedded in our educational system for both children, teens, college students and adults! We have forgotten the Civics lessons from our Junior High and Senior High school days, we have forgotten that “self-expression” is not for the self, it is to enhance the greater good.

The self-expression that is being foisted upon us is not real, as I read the words above. It is for political, economic, and personal gain rather than for “the nonself”. What passes for “self-expression” is nothing more than narcissistic chatter, hate speech, power grabbing and money grubbing bullshit that uninformed people and those seeking to be ‘above the law’ eat up like dogs lapping at their food. As described, it is “red meat” for the followers of the people at the top of the food chain seeking more and more power-be it on the right or the left. This is true in business as well as politics, in education as well as at the dinner table. “Children should be seen and not heard” is a famous line that denies true self-expression and leads to rebellion that passes as “self-expression” to the one who is rebelling because they are unaware of what true self-expression is, never seeing it at home where ‘the parent is always right’, ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ ‘this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you’ and other such stupid sayings. When the leaders cannot be questioned, when their ‘enemies’ (aka anyone who wants to hold them to account) can be jailed and prosecuted for not going along with the ‘fearful’ leader (because she/he is afraid of a large scale rebellion led by these people) the self-expression of a nation is suppressed and authoritarian rule, crimes against humanity are easily committed and freedom is lost.

Rather than continue down this path, Rabbi Heschel was suggesting, telling the spiritual leaders of Conservative Judaism to wake up! In the 60’s, in the middle of the Civil Rights movement, in the beginning of the escalation of the Vietnam War, when the people who served in WWII were still dealing with the horrors they witnessed and the traumatic moral injury they suffered because they had to kill people or be killed, Rabbi Heschel is telling his colleagues that religious institutions have to help people with their self-expression, that Rabbis have to counsel people on how to be “in contemplation of the nonself, in the contemplation of the world, for example”. Having suffered the loss of so much family in the Shoah, having witnessed the world standing idly by the blood of Jews, trade unionists, Gypsies, political enemies at the hands of the Nazis and the anti-semites of Poland, France, Holland, Russia, etc, Rabbi Heschel’s demand to and calling out of the lack of religious education that benefits the human soul is heroic! Yet,  sadly, it is still not heard in every corner of Judaism nor Christianity nor Islam even today.

Since the clergy are still not heeding Rabbi Heschel’s words, it is incumbent upon We, the People to demand this way of being to be taught to our children and, more importantly, to us. In the first prayer of the Shema, the V’ahavta, we say: “and these words/ways I command you this day shall be on your heart, you shall teach them to your children, speak of them when you walk on the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, they are to be frontlets between your eyes, you are to write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates.”(Deuteronomy 6:6-9) The ultimate “self-expression” is when we live this prayer, this command, to the best of our ability. To do this, we have to bring our unique talents, gifts and ways of seeing what the next right thing is and doing it according to the call of our intuition/our soul. When we live into this prayer, then we are exercising the “self-expression” of our soul, we are connected with the universe, we are fulfilling the need that is in front of us and we are the most alive and most free that we can be. It is only by knowing and living as part of the whole while bringing our uniqueness to the table, can we really achieve “self-expression”.

“Self-expression” as described above is the goal set out in the beginning chapter of Genesis, it is the basis of all religious values and teachings: Care for the world I am giving you and have dominion(not domination) over the plants, vegetation, animals( not humans. Yet we have bastardized this foundational goal of “self-expression” by engaging in wars and starvation, spreading of diseases and toxic chemicals to control and enslave people, we have engaged in hatred of Jews and then others so we can have power over the people rather than be “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. We, the People have to demand of our clergy the teachings that return us to a primordial state of “self-expression” so we can “teach our children” and leave a better world for them to have care and dominion over.

This is the quest I have been on for a long time. I mistakenly thought my rebellion, my criminal behavior, my drinking was self-expression and I did not want to be judged. I have come to learn what “self-expression” truly is because of my teachers, family, friends, community. I am more prophetic than rabbinic, I am more bombastic than soft-spoken, I am more easily riled up than “slow to anger” and I can’t stand mendacity in another nor myself. I cannot “stand idly by the blood of my neighbor” so I say something when someone is doing the next wrong thing(IMO). I refuse to be silent when it is time to speak Truth to Power, I am ‘politically incorrect’ and I do not give into the current fad of unself-expression that is in vogue right now or before. I am a fighter for the soul of another and in doing so, I strengthen my own spiritual health. I am grateful that all of you have helped me. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Is your life "imprisoned" by the "one-sidedness of your ego"? Year 3 Day 347

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 347

“All needs are one-sided. When hungry we are in need of food, yet food is not in need of being consumed…It is in such one-sidedness that most of life is imprisoned. Examine an average mind, and you will find it dominated by an effort to cut reality to the measure of the ego, as if the world existed for the sake of pleasing one’s ego.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 63)

While I am not sure I agree with the “all” because human beings have a reciprocal need to be loved and to love, as it says in Chapter 2 of Genesis: “It is not good for a human to be alone”, I do agree with the rest of the words above. Let us not get caught up on the word “all” as a way of ignoring what is being said here.

Throughout history, “an average mind” has made “an effort to cut reality to the measure of the ego”, ensuring everything they see and experience is filtered through the lens of how it affects one’s ego. If it enhances it the experience is deemed correct and good, it if detracts from it, if the experience points out any shortcomings, the experience is deemed wrong and bad. Despots, authoritarians, monarchies take advantage of the “average mind” and we have seen the results. It is not that a person with an “average mind” is a bad person, it is just that they see only a small slice of “reality”, they are not trained nor interested in growing their vision, they adhere to the adage: “it was good enough for my parents so it has to be good enough for me”. People who are stuck in the “reality” that promotes the idea that “the world existed for the sake of pleasing (my) ego” cannot see the forest for the trees, cannot discern truth from fiction, self-deception from reality.

Another issue I find in the words above is that in the state of “one-sidedness that most o life is imprisoned in”, distinctions are not used to learn, to edify, a subject; they are used to compare one person to another. The distinction of race, religion, creed, nationality, etc can be used to make America the melting pot once envisioned and, instead, it is being used to compare black and brown and white skinned people to one another with the white man believing in their own superiority. The distinction of religious groups are being used to promote a ‘christianity’ that is unknown to the truly faithful people who follow Christ’s words and deeds, who hang out with the lepers, the strangers, the gays, the criminals, the slaves, the women, the hookers like Christ did!

We have been through a political debacle that has ignored the good that President Biden has done, the loyalty to the constitution, the loyalty to our allies, the loyalty to the people who are in need with the different legislative victories he secured. The lies of Trump and the RINO’s he commands-the Republican Party of today does not have the moral, spiritual, ethical nor intellectual underpinnings that made Lincoln free the slaves and Ronald Reagan proclaim the “shiny city on the hill”, have made the good that has happened seem irrelevant, they have demonized the illegal immigrants, people seeking a better life than the rape, torture, violence they experienced in their own country and people bought it because they needed a “bad guy” to blame their troubles on. This is reflective of Germany in the 1930’s, Russia when Putin was angling to take over, Hungary as Orban switched from freedom fighter to authoritarian and many others. We have to stay vigilant and make the distinctions that edify and illuminate the truth, moving past the smallness of our egos and out of the small cell that “most of life is imprisoned” in.

We, the people have to rise above satisfying our self-serving needs and realized that our small mindedness is actually not in our best interests. That serving Elon Musk and Donald Trump will not result in prosperity for the average person. Tariffs will make our lives exponentially harder and cause us to, once again, be seen as not having the courage of our convictions nor the desire to follow the covenants we have made and instead are just a transactional country, group, individual with no loyalty to anything other than our ego’s small needs, like ‘getting even’ with those who have spoken truth to power-reflective of the prophetic eras. We, the people are capable of so much more, we can listen to the words of President John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”, people who serve in our military are not “losers” as the soon to be Commander in Chief believes, they are patriots who embody President Kennedy’s words. His brother, Robert F. Kennedy SR. said: “Some men see things as they are and ask, “why?” “I dream things that never were and ask “Why not?”. This is the calling that the generation coming of age in the 1960’s were responding to and both of these heroes were senselessly assassinated along with Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Malcom X because they promoted a way of being that was threatening to the small minds and to the autocrats who felt threatened, to the white man who wanted to keep the “black man where he belonged-boy” not see everyone as human beings possessing infinite dignity and value. It is way past time for We, the People to stand up for the Constitution of the United States, to take back the promise of America, to tell the Supreme Court that justice cannot be pursued through a political agenda, that justice is not conservative nor liberal, it is meted out with righteousness and judges that take ‘bribes’ are blinded and cannot serve the truth nor be deliberate in their judgments. We, the People have to say NO to the dismantling of education and the promotion of one religion’s interpretation of the Bible, we have to say NO to any alliance with Putin and the other autocrats, we have to say NO to the lies of the far-right and far-left in our country and around the world. We, the People have to say YES to being redeemers of those whose “one-sidedness” has their “life imprisoned”, YES to being of service and caring for the stranger, the poor, etc. We the People have to say YES to helping the “average mind” expand it’s horizons and see the beauty of helping another person live well.

This has been my quest over the past 36+ years-both in my last prison term and since leaving prison. I have been saying YES to being of service, to helping another person expand their horizons. There have been times when I used distinctions to compare and feel superior and this was wrong and led to devastating consequences. I am sorry for this error! I have, overall, used distinctions to learn more, to increase my heart’s capacity for change and love, kindness and understanding. When I do this, I know I am doing my best, when I compare, I am a bull in a china shop as opposed to an advocate for the soul. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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"Ultimate ends" or selfish, narcissistic needs-which are your serving today? Year 3 Day 346

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 346

“Satisfying a need is part of the continuum of the psyche, serving an end, doing a mitzvah is a breakthrough…Ultimate ends, as seen by our tradition, are not timeless values, metaphysical entities, frozen absolutes. Ultimate ends are mitzvoth, demands.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 63)

As I wrote about before, Rabbi Heschel and Judaism do not vilify physical urges nor needs of the psyche. What he is speaking about here is going beyond serving just our psyche, just our bodies, and ensuring that there is an end that is more than just about us. There are many mitzvot about taking care of one’s body, one’s money, one’s home, one’s family, etc. These “demands” encompass our own needs so we can serve something greater than just ourselves, so we can rise above our self-centered, narcissistic ways of being that impede our living well and impede the forward motion of the world around us.

Rabbi Heschel’s statement: “doing a mitzvah is a breakthrough” is so radical that it could, should stop us in our tracks. What are we breaking through when we do a “mitzvah”? As I experience these words this morning, I know that  the “breakthrough” is our ability to finally “circumcise the foreskin of our hearts” as Moses instructs us in Deuteronomy. My experience of these “breakthroughs” is one of awe and trembling, never fear. It is the awe of realizing the goodness that lies within each of us, the goodness that so many have been afraid to show. It is the awe of wonder and, maybe for the first time, seeing another human being as someone to care for as Leviticus teaches us “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”. It is the awe of wonder, again for one of the first times, of seeing our authentic self and realizing that to serve something greater than ourselves is one of the highest callings we have, one that goes beyond the societal norms and our rational minds.

These “ultimate ends” in no way deny the need of serving the psyche, they do not negate our need for physical, emotional satisfaction. I would posit that satisfying our physical and emotional needs is a precursor to serving “ultimate ends”, otherwise we deny a part of us which then negates the “demand” of the “mitzvah” to bring all of ourselves to the table, to “walk humbly with God”, to live into and up to our higher consciousness.

The experience of serving “ultimate ends” by “doing a “mitzvah” breaks through our hardened shell of fear and self-loathing. It cracks open our false belief that we have to ‘do everything on our own’ to be a ‘rugged individual’ that ‘the one with the most toys wins’, that ‘winning is the only thing’ making it okay to win at any and all costs. This way of being is how we lose our spiritual health, how our needs overtake our psyche and prevent us from having a “breakthrough”. Remember, society doesn’t want us to have these “breakthroughs” because it would help us all throw off the yoke of these asinine societal cliches and norms. Serving “ultimate ends” creates within each individual a sense of freedom and joy, service, infusing our lives with an exhilarating feeling of indescribable spirit.

Hence, the reason that the autocrat wants us to serve them, not “ultimate ends”. Hence the reason that so many leaders, clergy, practitioners of different religions what us to serve dogma rather than “ultimate ends”. We have become so proficient at subterfuge and mendacity that many people have turned the Bible into their manifesto to enslave another person whereas the Exodus from Egypt, the five promises God makes to Moses and the Israelite people deny that slavery is forever. The experience at Mount Sinai, whether one believes the story of God holding the mountain over the heads of the tribes to get them to accept or not, is one of the importance of freedom by accepting an authority greater than ourselves. Even if one believes the midrash of God coercing the Israelite people to accept the Torah, the truth is we die inside every time we go against serving an “ultimate end”, we create more cognitive dissonance every time we ‘go along to get along’. We enhance the split between our rational mind and our intuitive mind every time we deny the “breakthrough” that occurs when we are “doing a mitzvah”. This is one of the ways society, people get us to go against our own best interests to serve the ‘man’ rather than serve an “ultimate end”. These elected officials who see mandates and want to destroy the democratic norms established in 1789 and improved upon ever since constantly fill our heads and minds with the lies that serve them-not us, serve them-not our country, serve them-so they can have ‘ultimate rule’ so that their selfish desires become our ‘ultimate ends’.

“We, the people” have to say NO to the bully, NO to the autocrat, NO to the idolator leading a religious community. We have to say YES to serving the “ultimate ends” of humanity, YES to “doing a mitzvah” as a “breakthrough”. Now is the time for all of us to take the next right action and break out of the doldrums and rote behaviors of either  rage or acquiescence. We have to break out of the societal norms and mental cliches that have prevented us from serving the best interests of our self, serving the needs of our psyche to go beyond our physical and emotional needs to serve more than just ourselves. Making love, a wonderful and beautiful action is more that just reaching an orgasm for both partners, it is the culmination of and the physical manifestation of the spiritual connection between 2 people. Righteousness is something we have to constantly and continually pursue and temper all justice with it. Rebuking our neighbor is to help them see the error of their ways and to not bear guilt upon ourselves for “standing idly by the blood of our neighbor”. We have the road map and the playbook for how to serve “ultimate ends” and we have the inner strength to “breakthrough” our narcissism to accomplish them.

I have been serving “ultimate ends” for over 36 years and in doing so, also have served my own needs. In fact, serving “ultimate ends” is what has led to the “breakthrough” I experience each day. I write this blog, do my podcast, and beginning a new group called “conscious living” in person and on zoom to serve “ultimate ends” to live my gifts out loud and to serve my need to serve. I also know that I am not ‘owed’ anything from anyone for serving “ultimate ends” even though they may have benefited from my actions. Doing the mitzvah is its own reward. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Finding the proper diet for our inclinations: Year 3 Day 345

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 345

“The error or idolatry is to idolize needs, to convert needs into ends. As I have said elsewhere, the goal is to convert ends into needs. To develop a need for that which we may not feel the need of, to desire what is commanded. (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 63)

I am repeating the last line from yesterday’s quote so the next sentence is understood in  proper context. In 1962, Rabbi Heschel gave us great advice and insight to the issues that have faced human beings since the beginning: Are we created, evolved to just satisfy our personal needs, are we created, evolved to hear and respond to a higher calling, is it both?

I believe, as some of Judaism teaches, that there are two Adams and Eves inside of us. Adam1/Eve1, found in the 1st chapter of Genesis, who is techno-man/woman-who wants to have rule and dominion over their environment, who work together for utilitarian purposes, who are much more self-contained, see personal needs as the highest achievement, and live a transactional life. This part of us will commit “the error or idolatry to idolize needs, to convert needs into ends.”

There is also Eve2/Adam2 within each of us. These are the people who find one another in Chapter 2 of Genesis, people for whom connection, covenant, ‘devekut’, union is of the utmost importance. Learning how to serve the needs of one another, leaving their parents home to begin a new way of being that is free, connected and elevated is the end they are serving. This part of us will, unlike the other part of us, commit “to convert ends into needs”.

The inner war that so many of us experience, that so many of us have surrendered to, involves these two parts of us. This always reminds me of the parable of Two Wolves from Native American culture. In searching for the exact words I came across a version of it I have never read. Rather than ending with “the one you feed”, this version, found on the Cherokee Copper Website, goes on to say: “But if you feed them right, they both win and so do you. You see both have good qualities. The black wolf has many qualities that we need, tenacity, courage, strong willed and great strategic thinking. These are the things the white wolf lacks.” WOW, the synchronicity of these last sentences with the Jewish wisdom that says “the good inclination is good and the ‘evil’ inclination is very good” is, to me, proof that wisdom is not the purview of one people, one person, rather we all have the ability and opportunity to rise above our personal needs to connect to our higher consciousness, to a higher power, to God. Every spiritual tradition has this type of story/parable in it so we know that we do not have to surrender to only one wolf, one inclination and that doing so-even if it is the white wolf, even if it is the good inclination-will result in more discontent and feelings of failure. As I write this, I realize that trying to live without the black wolf or the white wolf is another way “to idolize needs”.

Throughout history people have tried to show only one side of themselves in public, we call it our public persona, our ‘company manners’, our way of doing business, etc. We are so sick and tired of these facades both in another and ourselves that when someone comes along and tells you all the negative things you have been thinking and gives one ‘permission’ to not only have these thoughts but acting on them is ‘good for the soul’, people flock to the liar, the charlatan, the idolator, the autocrat, the cult leader, etc. This is a flaw in our educational system, beginning at home, continuing in both religious and secular schools. We are not learning/teaching how to feed both inclinations, how to help them work together “to convert ends into needs”. As a result of the failures of our educational system, we find ourselves in a world where ethics are situational, there can be alternative facts, liars and sexual harassers, sexual assaulters are considered ‘authentic’ people!

The solution “says simple and does hard” as the saying goes. We have to re-orient ourselves, re-educate ourselves and our children so they can educate their children correctly. We have to immerse ourselves in our spiritual paths, the teachings of which will lead us to find our own unique way to “develop a need for that which we may not feel the need for, to desire what is commanded.” We have to once again ask ourselves the how to questions rather than the why questions such as :

How do we rise above our selfish needs, how do we end our fascination with idolatry? We do this by dealing with our outsized Yetzer Hara, our overfed Black Wolf, so they no longer need to be dominant, they instead learn how to have “devekut”, union, with the Yetzer HaTov, the White wolf. We do this by also feeding the other parts of us, the good inclination, the white wolf the proper ‘vitamins’ so they can grow and meet the arguments of the Black wolf, the ‘evil’ inclination. Feeding them the proper diet of spirituality, of gratitude, of the joy of being commanded will strengthen them and help the ‘negative’ parts of us join with the ‘positive’ parts of us to form “a more perfect union” a more whole human being that is of service to more than just themselves. It is a hard job, it entails seeing the nuances of the demands upon us like “do justly” because we are also told that all justice has to be righteous, there has to be mercy within our decisions or they are not just and there has to be justice within our mercy or they are not merciful. We have to continually strive to find the “proper measure” of many traits and demands in order to fulfill one demand. It will take a lot of trial and error, being unafraid to admit our errors, clean them up, learn from them, and move forward. It ain’t easy and it is so gratifying and soothing to engage in this ‘war’.

I have been progressing in my service of ends rather than the needs my idolizing self comes up with. I hear the demands in my ears, in my heart, in my soul each day and I respond to the best of my ability. I have always fed both wolves, it is only in my dedication to a spiritual, religious practice that I have been able to feed them both according to their needs rather than according to my desires. I have stopped needing my desires to be met and respond to the demand of my higher self, my better angel instead-not always as successful as I would like and one grain of sand better each day. The how to questions fill my days and I am grateful each evening for the demands them! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Fulfilling "authentic needs" while not idolizing them - Year 3 Day 344

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 344

“Our tradition insists that we must neither defy desire nor vilify it. Far from defying legitimate needs, it regards authentic needs as spiritual opportunities. It tries to teach us not only to satisfy needs but to surpass them. The error or idolatry is to idolize needs, to convert them into ends.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 63)

Immersing ourselves in the words above, one can experience the radical revolution Judaism is! One can understand the desire of the followers of Moses to “spread the word”, be “a light unto the nations” because this way of being is inherent in our tradition and our nature. That followers of Jesus and Mohammed went in other directions using the Bible as their starting point is only further proof of the revolutionary nature of religion and spirituality.

When we “neither defy desire nor vilify it”, we have the possibility and opportunity to live in proper measure with our desires and to ascertain which desires are “authentic needs” and which ones are not. We have the choice to use our “authentic needs as spiritual opportunities” rather than have them define us or rule us. When our needs define and/or rule us we are either in or close to living in an addictive manner. When our needs overrule taking the next right action, when we make fulfilling them more important than anything else-we are in the throes of addictive behaviors, of possible narcissism, of being entitled, etc and herein lies the big problem. We are seeing more and more people fall into these addictive, hypnotic states and not realizing it because their ‘needs’ are for more money, more power, more recognition, more of the things society rewards us for and seems to value most. Hence we fall into the abyss of inauthentic needs, we “idolize needs, convert them into ends” and disregard the authentic needs we have and the ones people around us have.

Both the far left and the far right, the fundamentalist Christians, Jews, Muslims, the ‘christian nationalists’ and, I would add, even the humanists all dance on the edge of the abyss I mentioned above. All people who idolize needs, all people who convert their needs into ends are either about to or already have fallen into the abyss of idolatry and/or error. Rather than surpass their needs, to help another human being, rather than understand that each person has authentic needs that they need to fulfill, these groups of people and their leaders are only concerned with their need for power and control, their need to resist rather than co-exist, their need to have rule over everyone else and insist that everyone “bend the knee” and grovel in front of them. We see this with autocrats, with elected officials, we see this in America, in Israel, in Russia, in Hungary, in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, China, North Korea.

This is not a polemic against fulfilling needs-on the contrary as Rabbi Heschel states above, this is a call to action to discern what are our “authentic needs” and what are the inauthentic needs that we spend so much time seeking. The need of one party to claim a mandate to ‘rule’ over the country when the country is so almost evenly split is an example of an inauthentic need. Why does this happen? It is a “tell” that the party claiming the ‘mandate’ wants to use their power to enhance themselves, to feed their inauthentic needs of more money, lower taxes, bastardize the rule of law, spread more lies about our allies and extol our enemies, imprison people who are doing today what our ancestors did in the last century, come to America with no visa, some even snuck into the country because they were escaping persecution in Russia, in Poland, in Germany. Rather than seeing the “authentic needs” of women, the “authentic need” to care for the stranger, the poor, the needy, people who come to “idolize needs, to convert them into ends” are blind to what is good for the country, what is good for another person, another group/tribe-they are only interested in making their “needs into ends”.

This is the challenge that spirituality and faith come to respond to. When we are living consciously, when we are living faithfully to our ethical and decent principles and values, when we are in tune with our higher consciousness, we can respond to the desire to “idolize needs, to convert them into ends” with a HELL NO! Through the practice of our faith, our spiritual discipline, we exercise our higher consciousness, we are better able to articulate to ourselves our “authentic needs” and discern the inauthentic ones. We gain the insight to express our spirituality through the fulfillment of our “authentic needs”. Instead of being either in or on the edge of the abyss mentioned above, we find ourselves enjoying the sunlight of spirit, the ease with which we encounter life, the strength of mind to challenge the lies of societal norms, the joy of living in radical amazement at how great life can be and is. We stay maladjusted to societal norms and cliches and continue to enlarge our vision, our hearing, our connection to another human being, another group, tribe; seeing them as partners rather than competitors, making them allies in promoting a world where love, joy, justice, mercy, compassion, truth reign supreme.

This way of being takes discipline, it takes practice. We have to adopt or adapt a spiritual practice that exercises our higher consciousness, our soul’s voice, and gives us free and constant access to our inner life. Rather than ignore our inner life, when we fulfill our “authentic needs” and regard them as “spiritual opportunities”, we welcome the diverse ‘voices’ in our inner life not as put downs or elevators, we welcome them as helping us see the whole picture and give us the information we need to make informed and good choices. Rather than need to have dominion over another human being, we seek collaboration, we seek engagement to find the next right action to take and we reject the idolatry practiced by so many. We light the candle of hope and we become a “light unto the nations”, “a nation of priests” in our group/tribe and as an example of “reaching across the aisle” and bringing humanity together to better serve one another and live our spiritual nature out loud.

I continue to discern “authentic needs” from the false ones, it is a hard job! I also have stopped worshipping the idols of my past and I seek to collaborate and cooperate, I always say-I’m like Tom Sawyer, I want everyone to help me paint the fence. I know I have mixed up the real and the false, I know I have and continue to fulfill needs that another may look down upon and I know that I can no longer give into the whims of society, the rule of societal norms because fulfilling the “authentic needs” of mine and God’s is what makes me a better human being. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark.

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Are you living a life of intellectual effort or notorious cliches? Year 3 Day 343

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 343

“Intellectually, we know the universe is not here for our sake; it is not here to please our ego. Practically, however, we act as if the purpose of the universe were to satisfy our interests and needs. However, a life without demands on the mind, heart, body and soul, a life without constant intellectual effort, spells the doom of culture. We must not remain the errand-boys of yesteryears fashions; we must not embalm notorious cliches.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.62)

What does it mean to have “demands” put upon us? Do we listen to them, do we get angry about them? In today’s culture, we fight with one another when ‘one side’ puts “demands” on ‘another side’; like the current bathroom wars, the wars going on regarding who is in control of a woman’s body- her and her doctor or the government/‘religious christians’, etc. We don’t like it when the boss “demands” we work overtime when we are on salary and don’t get paid for it, we don’t like it when our spouse or children put “demands” on us when we just want to ‘relax’, etc. Yet, Rabbi Heschel is telling us, just as the Bible tells us that “a life without demands…spells the doom of culture and, I would add, the doom of the human being!

We are living in a time which is reflective of other times in history when the autocrat, the King, the dictator, et al, wants to tell people they don’t have to listen to the demands of the Bible like: “love your neighbor as yourself”, “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”, “care for the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the poor and the needy”, “choose life”, “do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God”, “one law for the citizen and the stranger alike”, etc. Trump, Putin, Orban, and their cronies do not want people to experience and respond to the “demands on the mind, hear, body and soul”. Responding to these “demands” enables us to make choices, to think for ourselves instead of ‘following the leader’, in essence these “demands” give us choice, they make us able to be free, they replicate the experience at Mount Sinai when the slaves redeemed from Egypt, the people who left the grasp of the dictator of the time, Pharaoh, said “we will do and then we will understand”. The acceptance of the “demands” as the pathway to wholeness, to growing intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, physically is mystical experience that can never be adequately described and cannot be replicated in a lab or by a drug.

The dumbing down of America, the dumbing down of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, are CRIMES! This is how great teachings and wisdom get bastardized and used against people instead of for people’s well being. It is not that autocrats don’t make demands, they just say they won’t, they just promise to ‘get even’, ‘be your retribution’, and then they demand you bend the knee, kiss the ring, line their coffers, and become subservient to their needs and “demands”! We are watching, some of us in horror and others with glee, as Putin’s useful idiots are being nominated to run essential departments in our government, a woman who praises Putin and Assad, a man who is a pervert, possibly had sex with an underage girl, a man who wants to bring back the crusades, people who worship Hitler, want their generals to be like “Hitler’s generals”, etc. Rather than teach our history in all its glory and gore, in all of the amazing things our democracy has accomplished along with the terrible actions we took under our flag, people want to deny truth today precisely because they want to live “a life without constant intellectual effort”. MAGA is the epitome of being “the errand-boys of yesteryears fashions” as well as the actions which “embalm notorious cliches”!!

We, the People have to stand up against this way of being-we have to end the “dumbing down” of Americans by both the far right and the far left. Our colleges and universities have to return to making “demands” upon our children to learn the whole story, let go of their need to present only one side, be it the ‘conservative side’ or the ‘progressive side’ because, in truth, both are regressive, both deny the truth of the ‘other side’ thereby lying to the people who are listening to them, stunting the “intellectual effort” that really living “demands” denying the “demands” of the soul, the mind, etc. We, the People have to stand up for our self, our authentic humanity and say NO to the autocrats on both ‘sides”, on both extremes of the continuum. We have to voice the “demands” of freedom for all, the “demands” of the poor, the needy, the stranger to be seen as human beings in need of kindness, the “demands” of one law for the king and the pauper, the citizen and the stranger, the “demands” of “righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue”, the “demands” of rebuking our neighbors to help them get back on a path of mercy, kindness, love, and truth, etc.

We, the People, do this by resisting the temptation to see the people who are sucked into the vortex of the extremists as our enemies. We have to see them as “pathetic” meaning we show them divine pathos, compassion that rises to the level of our best self, our “better angels” and reach out to find common ground and ‘argue’ out our differences so we can learn from one another, we can find compromises that respect the dignity of both people and open the eyes of those who are blind and help those who are deaf hear truth. We, the People do this by never giving up, not leaving our cities, our towns, our country. We stand with those who are in this fight and we demand our allies adhere to “freedom for all”, that we do not permit the backbiting and infighting that has split the coalitions of minorities that made the Civil Rights Act of 1964 happen. We, the People have to end the exclusiveness of ‘victimhood’ that has taken hold in the BLM, Women’s, and other movements, especially in the anti-semitism that is so rampant in the ‘progressive’ as well as the ‘conservative’ movements. We, the People, have to say NO to any type of prejudice against any group even those we are opposing, even those wanna-be Pharaohs.

It is not easy to “love your enemy”! I have had difficulty with this forever and I have learned that when I don’t, I become “my enemy”. I also know that I have fought for freedom for all and restraints on what people do to one another under the guise of ‘freedom’. I respond to the “demands” of my “mind, heart, body and soul” each day and I live in “constant intellectual effort” so I can keep sharpening my hearing of the “demands” that are being presented to me today. I am learning to be silent and take in the call before responding to what I think is the call. I am committed to never be the “errand-boy of yesteryears fashions” nor to “embalm notorious cliches”. I live in wonder and awe. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Dealing with Cognitive Dissonance- Year 3 Day 342

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 342

“Intellectually, we know the universe is not here for our sake; it is not here to please our ego. Practically, however, we act as if the purpose of the universe were to satisfy our interests and needs. However, a life without demands on the mind, heart, body and soul, a life without constant intellectual effort, spells the doom of culture. We must not remain the errand-boys of yesteryears fashions; we must not embalm notorious cliches.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.62)

The first two sentences, written and delivered in 1962, are more true today than when Rabbi Heschel first spoke/wrote them! Herein lies the cognitive dissonance of humanity, the realization that our beliefs and our actions do not match, are not congruent and we seem unable to bring them back together. When our “knowing” and our actions are in conflict with one another, something has to give and it is, unfortunately, our “knowing”, our values.

What was happening and continues to grow in more nuanced and overt ways is that “to satisfy our interests and needs” we will change our beliefs, discard our values, twist ourselves into pretzels to validate our incongruent actions really do serve our highest values, they actually are following the words of Moses, of Jesus, of Mohammed, of Buddha, of …! We have a society that believes in ‘christian values’ as long as we can treat the stranger poorly, take advantage of the poor, shut the door on the needy and make everyone subservient to the ‘ruling class’ of rich people. Because of our cognitive dissonance, people believed the richest man in the world was their friend and Putin’s stooge(s) want the best for the poor and the needy! A liar and convict was/is seen as truthful and authentically christian and the ‘anointed one’!

We know that we have screwed up the climate, we are aware that “drill baby drill” will only continue to retard the climate and hasten more and more climate changes. We know that putting people in “detention camps” and using the military on American soil goes against the goals of American democracy. We are fully aware that putting people’s health at risk and women not being able to receive the care they need because religious zealots and liars claim that it is against ‘christian values’ is bullshit. Yet, people buy into these lies and these harmful ways making themselves believe that it is for ‘the greater good of America’!! We find all sorts of reasons to buy into the cognitive dissonance of our practice being in direct opposition to our intellect. How sad that we were warned and have so many experiences throughout history of how bad this is for individuals, for countries, for a people and we fail to believe it.

The reflection of ourselves in the water, in the mirror has come to be a source of lies and subterfuge for us. Our narcissistic way of being tells us that we are the end all, be all and we can do whatever we want to with reckless abandon and no personal responsibility-this is one of the “interests and desires” we humans have. We see this in our choices of elected officials, we see this in the way we sit in the pews and nod our heads like good sheep, the way we sit in classrooms in colleges and schools around the country nodding our heads and going along to get the grade we need to secure the job we don’t want and make the money that we believe will bring us joy and/or a seat at the table of power. We have so convinced ourselves of the “goodness of power”, the “need to be rich” that we have done things that go against our very values, that we would be ashamed to admit to our children, in order to ‘succeed’, to ‘get ours’. This is cognitive dissonance at its height.

I asked my father, z”l, what he did in World War II when he served and he never wanted to talk about it. He told us a little, he was one of the radio operators for the atomic bomb run on Japan and he never could talk about the horrors he saw in Europe and in the Pacific. When my oldest brother went to “boot camp” for the National Guard, even though my father knew he wasn’t going overseas, my father cried because he knew what boot camp was like and he didn’t want his sons to have to go through the degradation and, God forbid, go to war and experience the horrors that he had. His war and his service were necessary for the good of the world, to stop Nazism from flourishing was a higher goal and what he had to do, what his friends and fellow soldiers had to do in order to achieve this holy goal was not so holy, what they saw was so degrading, so cognitively dissonant, he had to not talk about it, not think about it and it affected him for the rest of his short life. He was more intense about doing the next right thing, he was more intense about treating every person well-regardless of race, creed, religion.

We all need to find the ways to live into our cognitive dissonance rather than run away from it. We have to look in the mirror and, instead of seeing our narcissistic solution to the dissonance, see our cognitive dissonance for what it is and change our actions instead of changing our perceptions and values! We need to realize that “to satisfy our interests and needs” is not the ultimate goal of being human, it is not the reason we evolved and/or were created. We are told in the Bible to “care for the earth”, as we can see, the world is a garden and each of us has a plot to tend, grow, care for and we have to do the best we can each and every day to make it one grain of sand more fruitful and seek to multiply the yield of our bounty so we can share it with those around us. The cognitive dissonance of being human will never leave us, in fact it is a good thing like guilt if used for our benefit and the benefit of another. Both cognitive dissonance and guilt lead us to examine our selves, hopefully, and change our behaviors to be more in line with our values and principles, more in line with care and concern for the universe and our fellow human beings. This is the way to “teach our children” and the way to re-educate ourselves, to re-calibrate our ‘true north’ and re-dedicate our efforts to making the world a better place because we were/are here.

My father left the world a better place by his presence, his children live lives of kindness and righteousness to the best of our ability, his grandchildren keep making significant differences in the world by caring for people in need, and all of us fight our cognitive dissonance and use it to make our corner of the world a little better thanks to his example and love. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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How do you rise above your "interests and desires" to do the next right thing? Year 3 Day 341

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 341

“The prevailing philosophy of education operates upon the assumption that man and his destiny must be conceived in terms of interests and needs.I maintain that if we continue to entertain such a view, education will be doomed to failure. Such a view is part of a way of thinking which tends to flatten things. We deal with human beings as if they had no depth, as if the world had only two dimensions.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg. 62)

The prescience of Rabbi Heschel always astounds me and especially today. We have seen the failure of the philosophy he describes in italics above. When our mind is focussed on only our “interests and needs” is it any wonder why we are in the state we are in?

Identity politics, claiming of victimhood, wearing our ‘poor me’ on our sleeves has landed us in a state where people have put a convicted felon, a man found guilty of sexual assault, a bankrupt businessman, a liar and cheat in the White House. Whether one voted for him or not, the main motivator in the voting was not saving democracy from a man who told us he wants to be “a dictator on day 1”, the main motivator was what people perceived to be their “interests and needs”. In our daily living, we demonize ‘those people’-whomever disagrees with us- rather than seeking to find common ground and see how much in common we actually have and even where we disagree it is more about the how than the what. Yet, being a ‘victim’ of the white man, a victim of the Biden administration which did more than the Trump administration to help the working person, hating the over correction of the far left in their victimhood and shaming, cancel culture, etc. led us to believe that we could be like Trump and get away with all the bad impulses we have and he will champion our resurrection to being equal once again. While this may work for white men, anyone else-not so much probably and he sold this lie, he told us who he is, how he is going to get ‘retribution for all of us’ while seeking to get his revenge and still trap the working class and the poor in their misery.

When we fail to see life in three-dimensional terms, we will always live in either/or, zero-sum ways. These ways have led to the myriad of wars throughout history, they have led to the exiling of people, the enslaving of people, the mistreatment of people, the demonizing of groups of people just because it was convenient and expedient to do so. This has been true throughout our history, it was true in Egypt for the Israelite People, it was true in the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, it was true for early Christianity-hence the anti-semitism that exists to this day. It was true during the Crusades against Muslims mainly and today, the pick for Secretary of Defense is a man who has a Jerusalem Cross tattoo, signifying his belief in the righteousness of the Crusades, his anti-Muslim stance, and his belief that the U.S should be ruled by Biblical Law, as he and his fellow christian nationalists define it. The flattening out of human beings is as prevalent on the left as on the right. The left does it by demonizing those who hold different opinions than theirs, those who belong to a group they have determined are “colonizers, oppressors, etc.”, case in point-the far left is as anti-semitic as the far right and deny civil rights to the Jews in America and Israel while we were among the first to join with Rev. King and the Civil Rights movement in the 50’s and 60’s!

The failure of “interests and desires” , the flattening out of humanity, the lack of “depth” and living in “two dimensions” only has led us to our current state of affairs. In America, 1/2 the voters in our last election voted for their “desires” to not be responsible for their mistakes, for their crimes like their ‘fearless leader’ and they voted for what they were sold are their “interests” even though in reality they are the “interests” of the rich. On the other side, the demonizing of ‘those people’ and the lack of three dimensional conversations about policies, the lack of meeting people where they are, not speaking in ways that people could hear convinced people that the liars were telling the truth, that they were so much better off with the person who bungled the Pandemic and told us to ingest bleach to save ourselves!

We are in desperate need of a deep dive into our inner life. We are in desperate need of a return to our core values, the values of every spiritual path: justice, kindness, mercy, compassion, love, rebuke, amends, etc. We cannot do this when we only are concerned with our “interests and desires” and not with what is true and right. When we live two-dimensional lives we choke our inner life, we strangle our souls and this leads us to more misery and despair, it leads us to seek out ‘bad guys’ in order to make ourselves look good, we live in being a ‘victim’ and blaming ‘them’.

“Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country” goes the beginning typing test and it is true in this moment as it is in every moment. “Evil flourishes when good people do nothing”, a quote attributed to Edmund Burke and not validated, is as true today as when he said/intimated it in the middle of the 18th Century. We are the people being called upon, each and every person here in America, in Israel, in Ukraine, in the free world. We are the people who have to safeguard our freedoms and democracies so we can help others around the globe. We have the lessons from history when we have allowed a tyrant to take lands from a free country, we have the lessons of what happens when we demonize one group and coalesce around the hating of that group, so we know how to prevent these tragedies from happening again! It is an inside job. We have to live into the spiritual values we claim to love and hold dear-no more just spouting them. We have to “care for the stranger”, we have to “love our neighbor as we love ourselves”, we have to “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”, and so many more like “do justly, love mercy, don’t bear false witness, walk humbly in the ways of God”. To do this, we have to repair our inner life, we have to see our three-dimensional natures and live into them all.

The ways I do this type of living is to constantly review my days, quickly and slowly, to see what I have done well and where I have missed the mark-make my plan for amends and correction as well as a plan to enhance the good. I do my writing and studying each day and I engage in meaningful conversations. I do the best I can to engage in “Conscious Living” and I hope to spread this way of being beginning the week of Dec. 2 in small groups online and in person here in the Desert. I believe in the goodness of people and our similarities. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Is your heart and soul open to the wisdom we inherit from our ancestors? Year 3 Day 340

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 340

“Extremely important in Jewish tradition is the spiritual centrality of the word. It is…in the word where the insights and the spiritual power of more than thirty centuries is contained. These repositories will remain locked, the thoughts they contain will remain out of range, unless we approach them with heart and soul, with intelligence and imagination.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 62)

I have been trying to not have the same paragraph for more than 2 days, yet here I am using this one for 3 days because the ideas, the paths to freedom and “centrality” of the spirit are so wide that I could not write it all in just 2 days.

The “repositories will remain locked, the thoughts they contain will remain out of range” reminds us of how easy it is to be oblivious to the “word” and the “spiritual power” that are contained within each and every “word” of the Bible. We have been given a gift that goes beyond the comprehension of our rational minds, a way of being that responds to and helps to grow our inner life, our higher consciousness and appeals to a higher logic that can only be understood, lived, maintained and grown through “heart and soul, with intelligence and imagination”.

We are in an era where people who have or could have the keys to “these repositories” have either lost them, used the “word” to further their self-interests, not the interests of spirit nor of another human being nor of God. They are using the words in “these repositories” to bastardize the teachings of Moses, of Christ, of Mohammed, of Buddha, as well as using our Biblical characters and stories to lie about what was, what is and what should be-their being in control. Many of the people who have the keys to the “repositories” are more interested in lining their own pockets, in electing their own puppets-even if these puppets owe or pledge allegiance to Putin and his gangs-, and in selling their lies and deceptions to enslave the masses.

We have lost faith in our faith leaders because we have found them to be self-serving and mendacious. We have found them to not truly care about the poor, the stranger, the needy, etc. They are not interested in tithing themselves, they want everyone else to pay for their needs and the livelihood they have come to expect. The rich backers of these idolators are seeking to use them to make the masses more pliable as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer so the masses don’t revolt. Instead they teach the ‘prosperity gospel’ which tells the masses that they are not rich cause God doesn’t love them as much as God loves the rich! I call BULLSHIT on these liars and courtiers of Pharaoh, of Trump, of Putin, Orban, Netanyahu, etc. These ‘faith’ leaders have earned our disrespect, they have earned their low stature in the eyes of people who really have and live their faith.

The “repositories” are the scrolls that have been left to us by great spiritual leaders and thinkers. They are the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran, the words of Buddha, the Big Book of AA,  and other great teachers, they are the commentaries on all of these holy texts. I use the word “holy” to indicate words and deeds that elevate the human being, separate us from the animal kingdom, and connect us to one another. This is the main goal, I believe, of these “repositories” and, only when “we approach them with heart and soul, with intelligence and imagination” can we truly unlock their wisdom, their firm guidance, and the path to inner and outer freedom they gift to us. They are a gift that has been left to us, the inheritors of great spiritual elders, the inheritors of great inventors, the inheritors of the good people who, against all odds, have kept humanity from killing itself throughout the millennia. It is up to us to open these “repositories” and allow them to uplift and grow our inner lives, allow them to rip away the “foreskin of our hearts”, to use our mind and soul in cooperation and collaboration with one another to uncover the hidden gems of wisdom found in them. It is way past time for us to immerse ourselves in the “imagination” of these “repositories” by spreading the words: CHOOSE LIFE!

To live into the wisdom above takes the ego strength to live our lives in “proper measure”, which is what the Hebrew word “midot” means. A “midah” is a measure and “midot” is the plural-the word has come to mean “traits”, so each trait we have we are being called to use in proper measure rather than any way we want to. Each time we want to exert power just because we can, we are reminded by the “repositories”, by the spiritual will of our ancestors, to use our power to uplift and help, to continue and grow the individual and collective freedom for all. Each time we want believe our money, our station, our lack of money, our ‘victim identity’ gives us the right to ‘get what we want’, to ‘get even’, to ‘bend the law to our will’; our “repositories” illumine a path of “proper measure” for us to follow instead. We have to unlock “these repositories” for our sake, for the sake of our descendants, for the sake of human beings everywhere. The global world is not a new phenomenon, even though we speak of it as if it is. There were traders going from place to place sharing not just goods and services, they were sharing the wisdom and treachery of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Greek mythology, Roman Mythology, the Psalms of David, the Torah, the words of the prophets, the teachings of Jesus throughout the world that they knew and beyond as the Polynesian religion included “Cities of Refuge” in it-the only other religion besides Judaism to have it as part of their code! We have the examples of people who “approach them with heart and soul” like Thomas Merton, St. Francis, The Baal Shem Tov, Rev. King, etc that we can follow their lead if we are willing to summon the courage ‘go against the grain’ which is the foundation of the books and examples of living that these “repositories” hold.

These “repositories” were opened for me some 37 years ago and I keep having my mind, heart and soul opened and grown by my continuing to engage with them. They show me the “error of my ways” and are the guide book to living well. They help me forgive and not hate, rebuke and not wallow in guilt, accept life on life’s terms and continue to do T’Shuvah each and every day. They give me a bad conscience at times when I hear the them demand me to be holy when I just want to wallow in the mud, they pat me on the back when I do the next right thing and they are my punishment when I make an error-they force me to make amends and to emend my ways- and my reward when I do the next right thing-they force me to reflect my divine image back to me as a gift and an impetus to continue to live well. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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How do you live into the "word" that is in your soul rather than the desire in your heart and mind? Year 3 Day 339

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 339

“Extremely important in Jewish tradition is the spiritual centrality of the word. It is…in the word where the insights and the spiritual power of more than thirty centuries is contained. These repositories will remain locked, the thoughts they contain will remain out of range, unless we approach them with heart and soul, with intelligence and imagination.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 62)

Rabbi Heschel is making a distinction between the “word” and words. The “word” is, I believe, referring to the word(s) found in the Bible, in the holy texts of Judaism. Words are what we speak and use to convey our interpretations, our ways of living, or not living, the word(s) found in our holy texts-be they Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, etc.


What seems to be missing in many Jews is “the spiritual centrality of the word”, judging by the ways we treat one another in Israel and across the globe with one denomination needing to denigrate another, with one group of Jews proclaiming “we are the TRUE INHERITORS of the Bible and ONLY WE KNOW the ONE WAY to live Jewishly! What bullshit, what hubris, what a denial of our history, the words of the Sages they say they revere so much. “The word” is for all of us to immerse ourselves in, for everyone to contribute the “face of Torah” they experience this year, to come together and learn from one another-not to tell people they are wrong for their insights, not to tell people to “toe the line”, not to put people in the uncomfortable situation of either being true to “the word” as they experience it or deny their insights, deny the call of their soul so they can be ‘part of the community’ that doesn’t want them unless they ‘go along to get along’. When “the word” becomes the “spiritual centrality” of our lives, of the ways in which we live, then we no longer have to engage in the senseless hatred that destroyed the 2nd Temple and left us wandering for almost 1900 years without a homeland. When “the word” is the spiritual center of our way of being in the world, we run to care for the stranger, help the poor, give voice to the voiceless and find ways to ransom people who are captives physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. When “the word” is the spiritual center our driving life force, we no longer give in to the mendacity of another(s) and our own self-deceptions.

In our “repositories” we have 3000+ years of people’s “insights and spiritual power” of “the word” and the experiences that lead us to our own. We have so many stories which depict the humanness, the cruelty, the kindness and generosity of,  the fallibility of, the fragility of human beings. It is hard to be human and, as the Yiddish saying goes: “it is hard to be a Jew” because most people hate us and have hated us for millennia, we hold ourselves to the standard of “the word”, and we can never “rest on our laurels”, we always have to be doing a Chesbon HaNefesh, an accounting of our souls, make our amends, emend our ways, and continue to grow and change. We can never be satisfied for long, it is a daily, hourly experience and our satisfaction is based on how we be human in the moment we are in. At issue is, of course, who has the key to these “repositories”, who is ‘right’ about their interpretations of what is in these “repositories”, hence the in-fighting between denominations and within denominations.

Truth: We, the people, have the keys to these “repositories”, we, the people, have the right to interpret and understand according to our spiritual condition what is in these “repositories”! In the Torah, in Deuteronomy 30:11-14 “the word” says:”It is not hidden from you, it is not far away…because “the word” is very near to you, in your mouth, in your heart that for you to do”. This was Moses speaking to the entire Israelite people “from the heads of the tribes to the water carrier”, men, women, children and, of course, to us today. This is, I believe, the main reason for Rabbi Heschel’s teaching above-without “the word”, we would be lost, we would still be wandering in the desert, in the wilderness and not have a clue how to “come home”, how to “return to Me and I will heal your backsliding”.

Herein lies the challenge of our lives in this time and for all times: will we live into the “insights and spiritual power” of “the word” or continue to bastardize it, continue to deceive another by manipulating them and the words of our holy texts for our own selfish needs and desires. Will we continue to allow those charlatans who want to deny us our freedom to learn, freedom and obligation to fulfill the calling of our souls, to honor the infinite dignity and value of our self and every other self, etc to rule over us as the Pharaoh did, as the Priests, royalty, the wealthy did at the time of the destruction of the Temples and the Northern Kingdom of Israel? Even the fact that we call our homeland Israel hints to the rebellious nature of people, the hint that our country will be short-lived because of infighting, senseless hatred, and false priests just like the Northern Kingdom of Israel became dispersed in Assyria and, according to our lore, never heard from again.

We, the people, have to stand up and say YES to living “the word” in all our affairs, we have to recover our eyesight and our hearing, we have to be sober and serious in our play and our living, we have to engage in our own interpretations of “the word” so we can use the insights of our ancestors, add our own and make life so much better than it was yesterday and not as good as it and we will be tomorrow. We have the path, we have the “insights”, we have the “spiritual power” and we have the ‘permission’ from our Torah, from our Bible, from the prophets to use all three. The question we face, in this time of chaos and turmoil across the globe, especially in Israel and in America: Will we, the people choose to say YES to “the word” and NO to the liars, the charlatans, the idolators, the mendacious ones who are trying to deny us Freedom, deny us the spiritual heritage and “power” that is our birthright?

I get into trouble each time I speak like this, each time I call our bullshit someone gets angry with me and when it is the people ‘in power’ who are angry it usually doesn’t go so well for Truth. I see what is, what can be and say, like Robert Kennedy Sr., why not? I am an optimist, I am a believer, I know that Truth will win out and, even if not in my lifetime, the enemies of “the word”, who are running shit right now will surrender. Be it in business, politics, goodness will win the day and I will continue to fight for truth within myself and the world. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living Congruently is a challenge we all face - Year 3 Day 338

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 338

“The language of Judaism is that of deeds. What cannot be uttered in words we try to utter in deeds. Extremely important in Jewish tradition is the spiritual centrality of the word… in the word where the insights and the spiritual power of more than thirty centuries is contained. These repositories will remain locked, the thoughts they contain will remain out of range, unless we approach them with heart and sou, with intelligence and imagination.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg 62)

These words are essential for an understanding of both Judaism and humanity. While many people believe it is about our intentions, “the spirit  is willing and the flesh is weak” is an excuse often used, “she/he means well” is another one we hear a lot. Yet, in Judaism, what is in our hearts are not as important as what we do. At Mount Sinai, the people said in “one voice”, “Na’aseh V’Nishmah”-“we will do and then we will understand”. Since there has been a Jewish people, deeds have been more important than feelings.

There are 365 “don’t do” deeds in the Torah, corresponding to the days in a Gregorian year. Why would we need to be told “don’t do” if these were so logical? Why, in the 10 sayings are we told: “Don’t murder, Don’t whore yourself, Don’t steal, Don’t bear false witness-aka lie, Don’t covet” if these are so logical? Why are we told: “Do not boil a mother in its kids milk, Do not worship idols, do not follow after your heart and your eyes because you will whore after them, etc”? Because we would, because at the time people were! We have 248 “do” deeds in the Torah as well, corresponding to the number of limbs in the body. Each “do” deed we engage in helps to heal and strengthen our spiritual limbs, according to Jewish lore. Why would we need to be told to “honor your father and mother”, “love your neighbor”, “leave the corners of your field for the poor and needy”, “care for the stranger”, “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God” if these are so obvious? Our deeds speak more about us than our words and yet, most people will believe someone’s words, relish in the “retribution tour” of our ‘savior’, anoint the exact opposite of Christ, of King David to be the ‘messiah’, see the reflection of history in the words of someone else and, ignoring the lessons from history, support and pray that our ‘messiah’ will kill our ‘enemies’, care for us, etc- all the while this false ‘messiah’, along with her/his false prophets will care for themselves, their cronies and lead the rest of us to ruin and enslavement. “MAGA” stands for taking us back to the ‘good old days’ of hating the immigrant-legal and illegal, putting down anyone who is not a ‘good old white boy/women who follows their man’, and raping the treasury, the treasures of our country. We are witnessing throughout the world “what cannot be uttered in words we try to utter in deeds” we see it here in the U.S., in Israel, in Hungary, in Russia, in Turkey, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, etc. The leaders have done in deeds what was unspoken at the time of their ascension to power, it is only in their deeds that we see who they really are.

Only in our deeds do we see who we really are, according to the Jewish tradition. When we “stand idly by the blood of our neighbor”, we are showing ourselves to be cowards, to be ‘okay’ with the discrimination, the hatred, the abuse of another human being. When we cheer to demise of ‘our enemies’ we are going against the way of God when the Egyptians were drowning who, according to Jewish lore says:”My children are dying, My children are dying”. Cheering the degradation of ‘those people’, believing they ‘deserve it’ is another way of demeaning God’s creation since all of us are “created in the Image of God”. When we pervert the justice system for our own ends, when we jettison mercy, when we walk as if we are God, we are telling everyone that they are unimportant, they are only “useful idiots” in our march for superiority, in our drive to have “rule and dominion” over all of humanity. How much hubris can we stand in ourselves? How much self-deception can we build up in ourselves before we see the truth of whom we have become? As Moses asks Pharaoh: “Until when/How long” will you continue to defy God, be willfully blind to the truth? Our inner Moses has to ask our inner Pharaoh this question each and every day.

What passes for religious today is a sham in many cases; people making these spiritual infusion exercises into a ‘checklist’, bastardizing the words of Christ, the “laws of Moses”, to use them to have control and power over ‘the masses’. These charlatans who preach fire and brimstone, who separate themselves and their ‘true believers’ from the rest of those ‘sinners’ who are part of the same religious group, are the false prophets the Bible warns us of. The leaders they ‘pick’ are the same as the royal houses in Ancient Judea and Ancient Israel-corrupt, false, and antithetical to what our Holy Texts teach us.

We, the people, are called a “holy nation” and a “nation of priests” in order to let us know it isn’t good enough to confess to wrong doing without asking for forgiveness, without changing our ways, it is not okay to say “they deserved it”, “don’t get mad, get even” is not the way of the spiritual path, of the ethical and moral path. We, the people have to rise up once again, as we did in 1776, as the prophets did before, during and after the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem, as the country did in the 1960’s to stand against an unjust war and for Civil Rights for all people. We, the people have to constantly look inside of ourselves and see what do our deeds say about the people we are? How does taking the next right action change our inner dialogue? Are we watching the deeds of another and are we okay with their dismantling of everything that we have held dear, everything that makes us all free? Have we stopped proclaiming “freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”? Have we let go of the command to “welcome the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt”?

Each day, I see what my deeds say about me and I am painfully aware of the times when inaction says I am not going to get involved, I am okay with what is. I feel inner disdain for these moments and they have become less and less as I grow older. I look back on my deeds and know I have made my share of mistakes AND I have done good as well. I am proud of the the ways I have served human beings, I am proud of the ways I have been a father, brother, husband, friend, Rabbi to people and I have regrets about the ways I fell short and my deeds spoke differently than my words. Most of all, I know I grow in congruency, my words and deeds match more often than not. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Leaning into our Artistic Selves - Year. 3 Day 337

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 337

“Reality we seek to express in terms of mathematical figures and conceptual generalizations. The artist knows that a human face, for example, represents an image, the complexity and uniqueness of which cannot be captured int the language of science. What the artist conveys in the language of color, shape, light, form or sound remains beyond the grasp of generalization and conceptualization.” (Insecurity of Freedom pg.61-62)

The words above, hopefully, give us pause as to how we define “reality”. While many people want to ‘keep it simple’ and make science and math our guiding lights and the only ‘true’ expression of reality, there is another group that sees the generalizations and conceptualizations as the limited and necessary tools that they are. We have been teaching the “three R’s” for a long time and two of the three are Reading and Writing-both expressions which go beyond the boundaries of mathematics and generalizations. Our emphasis on technology, on science, on math is good and not the End All Be All! Yet, we seem to be in a war between the scientists and the fundamentalists, with the artist, the reader being pushed out of the way by those on the extremes.

We need to know the math to make decisions and sometimes the math says 1+1=3! We need to have a general concept of the roundness of the earth, even if we don’t ‘feel’ it rotating or feel like we are going around and around when on a world cruise ship. We need to be able to have a general concept of anatomy, of astronomy, of biology, of geometry, et in order to function well in the world and find a language that can speak to another human being. This is true and important.

We need to know history and derive lessons and ways to be from it so we can change course when we are going down a path that reflects the worst of human behavior. We need to know the Bible, New Testament, Koran, Tibetan Book of the Living and Dead, other spiritual texts so we can have a language of and for our soul and be able to speak to and with another soul. We need to acknowledge the creative power within us so we can appreciate the creative power of another artist, so we can be in awe of the “complexity and uniqueness” that each artist brings to the world, that each of us human beings bring to our world, our community, our family. We need to be able to see the dignity and infinite worth in ourselves and in all human beings. This is true and important.

We do not need to listen to the fundamentalists of science nor of religion. Neither one speaks for the core, the essence of their ‘chosen field’. “Let my people go” is not just a cry, a plea, a demand of Moses some 3500 years ago, it is a cry, demand, plea that reverberates today. The Big Bang theory is not in opposition to the stories of creation, it is just another way to express the unknowable, to express our powerlessness to understand everything. Just as saying that it was 7 24-hour days in which the world was created is a bastardization of the teaching that says there are 70 faces to the Bible, 70 ways to understand the words, the stories, the commands, the demands, the pleas. What we know, when reading the Bible, when creating a work of art is that there are no two pieces that are exactly the same, unless we use the same mold, the same printer, etc. What we know, when studying the myriad of spiritual texts, is that each human being is different and unique so engaging in comparisons and competitions is a fool’s errand. Saying that my way is the only way, be it in medicine, science, logic, philosophy, religion belies the beauty and breath of all of these ways to be in the world. It is a denial of the wisdom that each of us human beings have within us and it is a lie.

The generalizations and conceptualizations that are ‘in vogue’ now are how people seeking to live free in the U.S. are bad and wrong, “enemies of the state”. The people being charged with ‘reducing waste in government’ are the very people who want to deregulate businesses while regulating what medical procedures women, men can have. While the Insurance Companies, including Medicare, play the actuarial tables, play the odds, people suffer and these regulations are considered good by the very people who want their hands untied to dump waste in our water supply, put toxins into the air so the O-Zone deteriorates further, and want their taxes lowered while the poor and the middle class bear the burden. They want to add tariffs onto imported goods and not build up manufacturing in the U.S. They want to keep wages low so they can make more profits and raise prices on their goods and services. And they are supported by and members of “christian nationalism churches” and consider themselves “good christians” while going against Christ’s teachings and ways of living!

We, the people, need to rebel against these generalizations and conceptualizations. We need to “Come to Pharaoh” within ourselves and speak to the divine soul that is within us so we can rise above our mathematical figures and see the artistry that is our world. We have to “come to Pharaoh” and speak to the artist within the people in our orbit and  band together to make our corner of the world into a beautiful, imperfect, flawed, unique piece of art. We need to band together with the other ‘misfits’ who seek to explain everything in simplistic terms, in complex mathematical terms and help them see the beauty and the art that go beyond these ways of being. We need to band together and compromise with one another, not on values or principles which are similar in all spiritual disciplines, rather in ways to carry them out, no longer needing to “be right” no longer denigrating the poor, the needy, and blaming the “stranger” because we are all immigrants, we are all needy and poor, we are all estranged at one time or another from God, from our authenticity.

I ‘see’ things differently than many people and I have found frustration in trying to convey my insights. I am an artist, however, in clay, in writing, in interpreting, and in living. I endeavor to live my life as a work of art each day and I have a “math brain”. Blending the two together, integrating them helps me reach wholeness a little more each day. I do not jettison “conceptualizations and generalizations” and I don’t make them the only way to understand how to live well. I am not a fundamentalist except when it comes to searching for truth, which makes me open to another’s point of view. It is hard to live with uncertainty in a world of people who believe in their own “certainty” and this is when we need to “come to Pharaoh” the most. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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Living into our Spiritual Attitudes - Year 3 Day 336

Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel

Year 3 Day 336

“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)

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities). We find ourselves in this conundrum once again; for some the recent elections are “the best of times” and for others it is “the worst of times”, for some, jettisoning wisdom in favor of foolishness and feelings makes perfect sense and for others it is catastrophic. While most people in the world and in this country believe in something, follow some moral code, many believe in the goodness of humanity in the face of historical proof that countermands this belief, others believe fiercely and ferociously in false gods and idolatry passing it off as ‘religion’, and those of us who believe in something greater than ourselves,God, or higher consciousness guiding our actions we are filled with incredulity over the charlatans and deceivers who are about to ‘run things in America’.

The words above come as a reminder and a hope that we, the people, will evoke and foster “spiritual attitudes” in our leaders and their followers. It is a reminder that no matter what we ‘feel’ our actions have to reflect the “spiritual attitudes” and “spiritual values” we posses and profess. In a time when “character can be affected” by both the negative and positive we, the people, have to take care to live our intentions, live our spiritual values and show our spiritual attitudes in the actions we take, in the ways we resist temptations to “go along to get along”, the ways we resist temptations to “burn it down, baby”, in the temptations to hide and run away. While it is a little “pollyannish”, to believe we can change another human being, I do believe “spiritual attitudes can be evoked and fostered” and in doing so: people change! We have proof in our lifetime of this truth-for almost 90 we have witnessed this to be true through the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, for 60 years we saw this to be true through Civil Rights legislation, for over 3500 years we have read and seen this to be true through the Hebrew Bible’s stories and tenets. Let’s look at some “spiritual attitudes” that need/can be “evoked and fostered”.

  1. Love-In the Bible we are told to love God, to love our neighbor and to love the stranger, with the stranger being mentioned 36 times in the first 5 Books of the Bible! Love does not mean the same as liking. It is a higher form of living, one that calls upon us to forgoe the ‘feelings’ we may have and rise to a way of being that sees the Divine Image, the humanity, the dignity and worth in every individual and, like God tells Moses to do with Pharaoh-“come” to that divine image, that basic goodness of being, the soul of another persona and care for it, speak to it, help its “spiritual attitudes” be “evoked and fostered”. Using the “stranger” in this way, while never saying to love parents, teaching us to have “devikut”, union with our spouses and not using the word love, one can deduce that “loving the stranger, loving our neighbor, loving oneself” is the path to truly loving God with heart, with our soul and with our everything.

  2. Truth- We say “God is Truth”, the first letter in the Hebrew word for truth is the aleph, which I say represents the first letter in the 10 Sayings, Anochi. If one takes the aleph away, we are left with the Hebrew word Met, which means death. Without God, without our ability to breathe, we are dead and, I posit, without the truth, we are also dead. This death, the death of truth in our way of being, is the most painful and excruciating because when we become aware of it the pain of our actions is overwhelming and, if we never become aware of our jettisoning of truth for our ‘personal gain’, the pain of emptiness and the inner chaos and war is also excruciating. King David, while a great King and a great Sinner, did not deny truth when confronted with it, did not care where the rebuke and the truth came from, he was a strong enough human being, he was connected enough to God/spirit to be able to admit his errors and return to truth. There were no “alternative facts” in Biblical Times, only in Kellyanne Conway’s world which seems to have been adopted by many. We can and must affect our character with Truth.

  3. Generosity- “even a beggar is commanded to give charity” is a statement I have heard throughout my life-I first learned it from my father and grandfather who, while they had very little, always made sure their children gave Tzedakah at Hebrew School. They always paid people on time and no one was paid less for the same job-regardless of color or gender. There is also “generosity of spirit” which teaches us to give the benefit of the doubt to people, as we learn in Pirke Avot. The nuance of this type of generosity is to also know that when a human being who is miserly and miserable, who is mean and hateful seems good, we have to be wary that it is not the Yetzer Hara disguising itself as the Yetzer Tov to get what they want. Generosity of Reciprocity is also an important concept-not expecting the person we have helped to help us, rather because of our generosity towards one, generosity of kindness, love, etc will be returned by the universe.

I live these “spiritual attitudes” each and every day-sometimes well and sometimes not so well. I believe in these and so many more. I am an example of them being “evoked and fostered” by family, friends and teachers when I was ready, able and willing to hear them. They were not foreign to me, I had been raised with them, I knew them in my soul and I had jettisoned them for a while, a long while! My recovery is based in raising up my character, becoming the ‘character’ I was created to be, and no longer apologize for who I am and for being human. My character is “affected” by my learning, my prayers, my experiences and by watching “how my teacher ties his shoes”. I write on Rabbi Heschel each day because this helps me with my reverence for the human spirit and is my generosity of spirit to give my wisdom and ways to people who desire to learn and want to argue with me. I am starting a new project: Conscious Living. It will be rolled out over the next two weeks, please stay tuned for it. God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark

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