Great in Goodness
I thought long and hard about whether or not I wanted to weigh in on the current crisis in Israel. In the end, I couldn't not, and I found myself turning as I often do to the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
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I’ve thought long and hard about whether I wanted to weigh in on the current crisis in Israel. Like so many others I’ve been devastated to witness a modern day progrom against our people, that progrom isn’t even a word recognized by spellcheck, that people around the world are justifying murder and kidnap as just acts of resistance. I’m also horrified at the idea that people in Gaza are fighting over loaves of bread, that Jews have the power to change this however difficult it might be in reality, and that we haven’t at least at the time that I’m writing this.
Listeners to this podcast will know that I’m a fan, a big fan, of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. A leading Jewish thinker of the 20th century, Heschel was descended from generations of Talmud scholars. He was saved from the Holocaust by Julian Morgenstern of Hebrew Union College, and spent the rest of his life writing, teaching, and thinking about Judaism. He represented the American Jewish community at the Second Vatican Council. Dr. King called him a “truly great prophet.” He spoke often of the necessity to “pray with your feet.”
There’s a collection of essays by Heschel that I turn too often. It’s called Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, and published it after his death by Heschel’s daughter, Susanna Heschel. In her introduction, Susanna Heschel shares some of what she learned from her father about the power of words:
“Words create worlds, he used to tell me when I was a child. They must be used very carefully. Some words, once having been u uttered, gain eternity and can never be withdrawn. The Book of Proverbs reminds us, he wrote, that death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
Now more than ever, words are tremendously powerful. They can bring us together, or tear us apart. I’m sure there’s someone who’s already stopped listening because of something I said or didn’t say, or that they thought I said, or didn’t say.
There’s a particular essay from Heschel that I’ve found helpful in the past few days. It’s titled The Meaning of This War (World War II). He put World War II in parentheses in the title, perhaps to suggest that what he has to say could work for any war, if you just change the particulars of who, what, when, and where. Heschel writes that “the mark of Cain in the face of man has come to overshadow the likeness of God,” as he asks plainly, “who is responsible?”
Heschel goes on to describe the world as a pit of snakes into which we are slowly sinking, and have been for generations. He acknowledges that this isn’t actually our fault, that as he says, “the conscience of the world was destroyed by those who were wont to blame other rather than themselves.” But he warns against the use of violence, and war, even for the purpose of redeeming humanity from this pit of snakes.
“Tanks and planes cannot redeem humanity. A man with a gun is like a beast without a gun. The killing of snakes will save us for the moment but not forever. The war will outlast the victory of arms if we fail to conquer the infamy of the soul: the indifference to crime, when committed against others. For evil is indivisible. It is the same in thought and in speech, in private and in social life. The greatest task of our time is to take the should have men out of the pit. The world has experienced that God is involved. Let us forever remember that the sense for the sacred is as vital to us as the light of the sun. There can be no world without the Torah, no brotherhood without a father, no humanity without God.”
But this is the part, as we read the story of Noah this week in the Torah, and remind ourselves of the potential for redemption, this is the part of Herchel’s essay that really sticks with me.
“God will return to us when we are willing to let God in–into our banks and factories, into our Congress and clubs, into our homes and theaters. For God is everywhere or nowhere, the father of all or none, concerned about everything or nothing. Only in God’s presence shall we learn that the glory of man is not in his will to power but in his power of compassion. Man reflects either the image of God’s presence or that of a beast. Will the voices of those who in this very hour are pushing tumbrels [wagons] with shriveled, bare-bone corpses of Jews to a huge grave outside the ghetto walls reach the ears of statesmen?”
And then, as if this essay was written for this week, Heschel says:
“Soldiers in the horror of battle offer solemn testimony that life is not a hunt for pleasure but an engagement for service; that there are thing more valuable than life; that the world is not a vacuum. Either we make it an altar for God or it is invaded by demons. There can be no neutrality. Either we are ministers of the sacred or salves of evil. Let the blasphemy of our time not become an eternal scandal. Let future generations not loath us for having failed to preserve what prophets and saints, martyrs and scholars have created in thousands of years. The Fascists, [today you might insert Hamas] have shown that they are great in evil. Let us reveal that we can be great in goodness. We will survive if we are as fine and sacrificial in our homes and offices, in our Congress and clubs as our soldiers are on the fields of battle. “
It’s not easy. I know that. I’m not trying to suggest that it is. I don’t know how exactly, we do this either, I just know, like Heschel, that we’re eternally faced with a choice between life and death, and we’re supposed to choose life.
I’ll let Heschel’s writings finish of this week’s spontaneous recording. It’s like he was writing for moments like these.
“There is a divine dream which the prophets and rabbis have cherished and which filled our prayers and permeates the acts of Jewish piety. It is the dream of a world, rid of evil by the efforts of man, by this will to serve what goes beyond his own interests. God is waiting for us to redeem the world. We should not spend our life hunting for trivial satisfactions while God is waiting constantly and keenly for our effort and devotion. The Almighty has not created the universe that we may have opportunities to satisfy our greed, envy, and ambition. Israel has not survived that we may waste our years in vulgar vanities. The martyrdom of millions in this very house demands that we consecrate ourselves to the fulfillment of God’s dream of salvation. Israel did not accept the Torah of their own free will. When Israel approached Sinai, God lifted up the mountain and held it over their heads saying: “Either you accept the Torah or be crushed beneath the mountain.” The mountain of history is over our heads again. Shall we renew the covenant with God?”
.כן יהי רצון
May it be God’s will.
With the wisdom of Heschel in our ears, with prayers for the hostages being held in Gaza, for the soldiers of the IDF who want desperately to bring them home, and for parents and children everywhere who are huddled in fear of all sorts, I wish you a Shabbat shalom. Do something that helps you connect with a sense of awe that we’re even here in the first place. That’s probably what Heschel would have wanted.
*written formats may differ slightly from podcast recordings
