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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 70

The second and third directives of yesterday’s quote: “Hate the evil, love the good and establish Justice in your gate”(Amos 5:15) are crucial for We the People to establish, maintain, keep and grow the democratic way of being that was set into motion here in America some 250 years ago. Rather than see the “good” as a fool’s errand, as a way of ‘getting over on someone’, as a tool in exploiting another(s) for personal gain, as is the case in America today by many of we the people, the good is not arbitrary, it is not wishy washy, it is written in stone tablets, aka The 10 sayings Moses brought down from Mount Sinai.

The “good” is not situational AND how it is achieved depends on the situations we are in. While ‘thou shall not murder” is one of the Commandments, if someone is breaking into your home with a gun and you shoot them first, while some would say it is ‘overkill’, the Bible would say you are correct in defending your self, your family, your home. While it is not okay to steal, if you are hungry, starving, and you steal a loaf of bread to feed you, your child, is this really a crime? The “good” is to do the next right thing, to acknowledge the humanity of your self and another, to obey and disobey the commandments depending on the context, etc. What ICE is doing is NOT “GOOD”! What Trump is doing with his power grab is NOT “GOOD”! What the Supreme Court is doing with its political right agenda, its giving undue and unchecked power to this Administration, we will see how they reverse themselves when a Democrat is in the White House, is NOT “GOOD”! What we the people are doing by having re-elected Trump, knowing what Project 2025 had in-store for us, knowing who he is, is NOT “GOOD”! What we the people are doing by going along to get along, to make money (big business, big law firms, etc) by staying in the ether of self-deception and buying the lies is NOT “GOOD”! Yet, many of our ‘fine christian nationalist clergy and adherents’ praise Jesus and invoke Jesus’ name to validate their crimes. Many of our fine ‘jewish nationalist clergy and adherents invoke the name of God to validate the killing of innocents, the unkindness to the stranger (after all, they are the goyim), even the unkindness to another Jew(s) who don’t share their prejudices and racism! Rather than fulfill their duty to disobey the idolators and false prophets, the ignorant and immoral additions to the Bible, the massaging of Holy Texts to suit a need of “Der Fuhrer”, these ‘fine christian nationalists and jewish nationalists’ are fulfilling their personal desires for power and greed. This is NOT “GOOD”!

“Establish justice in your gate” is so chilling and so awe-inspiring, I am shuddering as I write these words. Amos is telling Ancient Israelites, descendants of people who received the Commandments at Mount Sinai, descendants of people who first established true judicial reforms in the world to “establish justice in your gate”!? Can you imagine how far the people of Ancient Israel had fallen that they were being told to “establish justice” in their land, that “justice” had been bastardized and beaten to death so badly, it no longer existed in their land? Yet, here we are today, doing many of the same things that led to the fall of Ancient Israel, perverting “justice” instead of “establishing” it, taking bribes which blind the just, recognizing ‘friends’ and tipping the scales their way, caring more about ideology, about dogma of political purity than about the adminstration of “justice”, rather than “establish justice”. It is both sad and infuriating that Todd Blanche is being put up for Attorney General when all of We the People are acutely aware of his prejudices, of his racism, of his being a lackey to the lunatic in the White House!

What is at stake here with both “the good” and “establish justice” is the soul of America, of course, and, more importantly, the soul of We the People, collectively and individually. None of the transgressions of today are possible when we the people take seriously the words of Amos above, the historical facts of what happened to Ancient Israel, the call of God from Mount Sinai from the time of giving of the 10 Sayings till now-God’s call hasn’t changed-We the People have. Instead of listening, instead of hearing, instead of doing so we can understand the wisdom and beauty of “the good”, we the people have twisted and turned “the good” into such pretzels for the sake of power, for, for the sake of prestige, for the sake of money. It is time for We the People to wake up to the lies and deceits of the Graham Platner’s, the Socialist Democrats like Mandami who couch their hatred of Jews in ‘anti-Israel’ rhetoric, the Bernie Sanders’ who just go along with anyone who spouts his rhetoric without checking shit out, the Trump MAGA, Christian Nationalists who want to make this a White, (not really)Christian Nation and We the People have to do it NOW!

ACTION STEPS
What are you doing to “establish Justice” within your self, within your gates

How are you doing “the good” in the face of the pushback of another(s)

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 69

The more that I am writing, I realize that I am speaking about what is going on in the world and some people may not see the relevance to their own living. This is NOT my intention. What is going on around us is begins with what is going on inside of us. While I know many of you reading this blog are not cruel and indecent, all of us have a Donald Trump, Howard Lutnick, Mike Johnson, et al within us, just as we have a Moses, a George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Jacob, Esau, King David inside of us. The archetypes from the Bible reside within each of us, some traits stronger than others, some we have developed more than others, some we have jettisoned because they ‘didn’t help us get ahead’. This is the conundrum we human beings find ourselves in every day. Hence the admonition to “walk humbly with God” by both Moses and Micah. Maybe Abraham’s walking before God was a subtle hint from the Bible to be careful as to how ‘spiritual’ we call ourselves and/or another.

Graham Platner is leaving the Maine Senate race without any admission of wrongdoing. Do I know if he sexually assaulted the woman claiming he did, NO. Do I know that his other behaviors which he pooh-poohed were also out of the realm of decency, YES. Yet, he decided to blame the Democratic Leadership in DC rather than take responsibility, he decided to extol himself rather than offer an apology to the voters of Maine, which he claims to love so much. Could the woman who made the accusations be lying-I guess it is possible, yet it seems like a great conspiracy on the part of the Republicans, their supporters and, unfortunately in this day and age since the “MeToo” movement, since Trump and the assault on truth, it is possible. This is not to cast aspersions on the woman who came forward, there is plenty of smoke around Platner, it is to say that living into the subtleties of life, finding and exploiting the vulnerabilities of another, accusing people of things to serve a personal agenda, get money, is the path of the unjust and there is PLENTY of injustice happening around us.

Amos tells us: “Hate evil, love the good, and establish justice in the gate”(Amos 5:15). This is the call to all of We the People who believe in, relate to, and made a covenant with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the United States of America. Yet, over and over again, We the People have allowed scoundrels to get ahead, grifters in Congress to make plenty of money from the lobbyists, on both sides of the aisle and reelected these gonifs(thieves). Rather than “hate evil” we the people have continued to return people like Mitch McConnell, Bernie Sanders, Mike Johnson, AOC to Congress and then wonder why nothing gets done?! Rather than “love the good”, we the people return people like DeSantis to be Governors of the different states, and then wonder why “we all can’t just get along”!? Being witness’ to the desecration of the rule of law by the Supreme Court reminds we the people of how far we have fallen away from Amos’ call to “establish justice in the gate”!! AND WE THE PEOPLE are still NOT RISING UP and SHOUTING “WE WON’T TAKE IT ANYMORE”!!

The reason, of course, is because in rising up and shouting “we won’t take it anymore” entails a look inside of ourselves, an honest appraisal of how we have and do give in to the same impulses we say we abhor in our politicians, in our neighbors, in our country and in our world! “Hate evil” was not just about the rich, famous, powerful, controlling forces in Ancient Israel, nor was it just about the leaders of Sodom. “Hate evil” was directed and is directed to We the People, to our own inner lives, to our own foibles and self-deceptions. “Hate evil” is not the same as trying to kill it, because as we all know from experience, the evil inclination that serves the good inclination makes us a whole, authentic, person who is BEING HUMAN! Amos is not preaching perfection, Amos is not chastising We the People which is how many people experience the prophets, rather Amos and the other prophets are reminding us of our importance, of our partnership, and rebuking we the people so we get back to being God’s partner instead of God’s adversary!

I hate in evil within me that remains untamed, that flares up at the people I love and those I don’t know. In hating it over the years, less and less remains untamed-thank God and all the people who have helped me grow over the years. It is a tough job, it is an exhausting job and it is the job that keeps me most in touch with my soul, with God, with we the people that are in my life. I know the power of “evil” within me and each day I go to war with it and each day, the power lessens a little, this lessening allows me to be hurt less and resent less those whom I don’t understand why the ghost me, why I am persona non grata with no explanation, and it doesn’t matter so much anymore-I am in acceptance of what is and in constant awareness of the “evil” that wants me.

ACTION STEP

How and what “evil’ are you no longer going to allow in your life

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 68

Is Mitch McConnell alive, is he awake and alert, did John Thune really speak to him? What will Trump do with NATO, will he follow through on the sale of fighter Jets to Turkey, will he dis the other NATO countries as he has been, will he lie about Meloni’s amorous intentions towards him(NOT), will he blow up the Iran cease-fire by once again bombing them? These questions and more are swirling around the political world right now. In these worldly affairs, one constant feature that I hear in the News is the word “genocide” to validate the Socialist Democrats belief in the “rightness” of their hate of Israel and deny their antisemitic beliefs, the right wing nuts speak of Israel having too much power in our politics-an old, old anti-semitic phrase. It is amazing to hear both the left and the right take off on Israel but ‘love their Jews’-sort of like the South who enslaved Black people and loved their mammy’s! Listening to, reading about the exploits of our politicians, our wealthy, our poor, is to worry about the fate of humanity.

The prophet Amos is a good reminder of who we are, who we can be: “For I know your transgressions, your sins, you who afflict the just, take a bribe, turn aside the poor at the gate…Seek good and not evil, that you may live” (Amos 5:12,14). What some of We the People are witnessing and some of we the people are participating in is what is described by Amos and yet, all of these ‘good god(idol)-worshiping ‘christians, jews, muslims seem to conveniently forget these words, become wittingly blind and purposefully deaf to the cries of Amos, to the shouts of Amos, and put him down because he is so angry and hurt, he is so afraid for the people and disgusted by their lack of fidelity to God, as Frank Sinatra sang: “stick with me, baby, I’m the One you came in with” and Bibi, Trump, and their ‘friends’ are like “lady luck”, they go and “blow on another guy’s dice” and, like our ancestors throughout history, forget “the One who brought them to live free, who rescued all of us time and time again from the “narrow places”, the Egypts we continually put ourselves into.

Sitting here this morning, after watching and hearing Chris Hayes, who I respect, constantly go on a tangent about “genocide” is very disheartening, hearing him extol these “social democrats” and their anti-semitic leanings is concerning. Knowing that whether the prejudice starts with Jews or Blacks, Hispanics or Asians, the poor or the lame, the blind or the deaf, it reaches into everyone’s life. Prejudice is not something that is contained to only one group of people, one class of people. Prejudice is like water, it goes everywhere. When God separated heaven and earth, God separated the waters and, had a hard time-took two days! Yet, too many of we the people are of the belief they can limit their prejudice to just the “Jews” and only the “Jews in Israel”, AIPAC, and, oh you know,  the rest of the Jews who they know support Israel, as demonstrated on College Campus’ . “When will they ever learn”, Pete Seeger’s refrain, for me, for us is based in the words of Amos in the Bible. Do the people perpetrating these prejudices, those who “afflict the just”, those who “take a bribe”, those who “turn away the poor at the gate” really believe they are doing the Will of Christ, the Will of God in the Bible? PLEASE, give me a break! And what of the rest of the people who refuse to stand up, who refuse to demand proof of Mitch McConnell’s alertness, of Trump’s baseless claims and goodness? Where are our morals, where is our fidelity to “the One who came in with”?

The “Bernie groupies”, the “socialist Democrats” are in a quandary because of Platner, they backed him against a moderate, against someone who seeks consensus and now he is their embarrassment and, could throw the election to Susan Collins-a terrible liar, a terrible person who supports the overturning of Roe v Wade, the demolition of Voting Rights, the pumping of dark money into our election process, etc. All of this because so many of we the people are unwilling to hear Amos’ warnings, Amos’ calls to return to God. It is embarrassing to witness the wanton destruction of the Declaration, the Constitution, the words and ways of both Christ and the Bible. Yet, too many of we the people are too stuck in their willful blindness, deafness, arrogance to change, to hear Amos, to return and all of us suffer for their refusals.

I am aware of my ‘naivety’ as Harriet puts it and I cannot believe how many people can’t see what is right in front of their eyes. I have not valued myself, my vision enough to realize that most of the world is blind! Even in my worst moments, my worst actions, I KNEW THEY WERE WRONG and this doesn’t seem to be the case today. This is the challenge of our time, to “rebuke your neighbor and not bear guilt because of them”. This was the way of the prophets from Nathan to today, the way of Heschel and King, the way of Bobby Kennedy after he had a spiritual awakening. I suggest We the People “lift up our eyes and SEE” what truly is!

ACTION STEP

What are you willfully blind to and how does it serve you

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 67

No matter what channel one turns on, no matter what newspaper one reads, no matter which podcast one listens to; it seems as if they all spew the same rhetoric: an either/or societal way of living. Both ‘sides’ lie and exaggerate, both sides paint each other as the ‘devil’, the ‘communist’, the ‘fascist’ and, both may be true! Graham Platner is being called upon to leave the Senate race in Maine because a woman has accused him of rape-a very serious charge and one that did not preclude Trump from getting elected. I agree that these are very serious charges and no one knows if the woman is a plant like other Republican operatives have been in this race and others. I also agree that Platner is a very flawed candidate and it is up to the voters in Maine to tell him what he should do. Yet, the Republicans have supported sexual predators in the past and in the present so them going on and on is a ‘bit’ disingenuous!

I am watching the disgusting spectacle that Trump has called ‘the greatest celebration of America ever’ and I am nervous about what he will do at the NATO summit after talking to his ‘daddy Vlady’. I am concerned that his cruelty knows no bounds, that the people around him cheer with glee at every turn as they get to push him and themselves to crueler and crueler. I am watching and discussing life with people on the other side of the political spectrum than me and keeping it civil and personal, keeping it curious and informative, showing another side of the story and, maybe, just maybe, opening up something within the people I am speaking with as they do with me. A serious, respectful exchange of ideas is how things got started here and it is an important foundational aspect of how we have survived, thrived, retarded and moved forward from the different eras in our 250 year history.

What is striking me today are words from Amos 5:4 “this is what God says: Seek Me and you shall live”. 5 words that are the difference between life and death. Yes, I know that this is not about physical life and death AND it is, in a way. Once my spirit, once my moral core, once my intuitive mind is silenced, I become a walking dead person, a shell of what a human being is, so while my spiritual life is on life-support, my rational mind can put me into dangerous situations often. What this is about, however, is the loss of our spiritual and moral cores. When a human being ceases to “Seek Me”, we begin the somewhat rapid process of losing our paths, losing our raison d’etre, and losing our humanity. In other words, we the people who choose not to seek God, not to emulate the ways of God, to build on our cruelty, to give more and more oxygen to the negativity that resides inside of every human being, to crow about the theft, graft, grift we are perpetrating upon another(s) person, upon an entire country and do so in the name of ‘jesus christ’(in small letters because their ‘worship’ is not of Christ in the New Testament, it is of some false prophet they have once again made up), are the cause of the fall of Israel, Judea, Greece, Rome, Assyria, Persia, etc in the ancient world. I would add these are the reasons for the fall of the European Countries in the Middle Ages and, could be the power behind the next giant to fall.

That these indignities are being pushed by ‘those fine white christian, jewish, black, hispanic, muslim’ clergy and their ‘born-again’ adherents is SO WRONG! JD Vance telling the Pope he doesn’t understand scriptures and he has no business talking about political issues when Christ’s entire ministry, his entire preaching and acting was all about ‘political issues’ is infuriatingly insane and inane! Mike Johnson telling us if we want to know his politics, look at the Bible, and I am looking for where it says HATE the STRANGER, HATE YOUR BROTHER IN YOUR HEART, LEAVE NOTHING IN THE CORNERS OF YOUR FIELD, etc, can someone show me these commandments?

I have done a few searches and cannot find these commandments anywhere and, having been one who did lose my humanity, I can tell you that I was one of the walking dead-I cared about people close to me and I did not know how to be connected with any of them except Heather and even there I failed her by being a drunk and going to prison. Upon my awakening, upon hearing Amos’ call, upon “Seeking God”, everything changed, the true me began to emerge, the politically incorrect, passionate advocate for the soul of another(s) and mine began to be on full blast, loud, angry at myself for losing the humanity God placed in me and my father had nurtured, frustrated with people who continually refused to see the light of their own soul, who wanted to stay stuck so I would yell, cajole, etc to get them to wake up-some even said they were going to grow just to spite me-Baruch HaShem! Was I always right, of course not, was I always attempting to “Seek God”, absolutely.

ACTION STEP

Each day, for at least one week, write on “SEEK GOD” in your daily affairs

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 66

Thinking about the experiment in democracy that the United States has been in for 250 years now and reading, learning our history, it is apparent to me that, like Israel, we the people have never been united on so many things, ideas, ideals, ways to “form a more perfect Union” AND We the People, up until recently, believed “to form a more perfect Union” was the goal. Today, not so much on either the side of the progressives who have nothing but disdain for moderates and conservatives, seeing moderates as weak, stupid, etc and conservatives as bad, bad, bad, and wrong, wrong, wrong nor on the side of the far right conservatives who call moderates and progressives “communist”, invoking the Red Scare of the late 1940’s/50’s, reminding us of the McCarthy Era, not caring about truth, about justice, only about winning and making names for themselves. While both give lip-service to one of the founding ideas of the framers of the Declaration of Independence, they don’t care about it, they only value their ideas, ideals which boil down to “my way is the only way”! Both do, however, invoke some Holy Text that they say guides them, with many on both extremes claiming the Bible as their guide and place their extremist attitudes in Biblical terms, etc.

This way of being by the progressives who claim the Bible, Jesus tells them to be more progressive, and this way being by the far right who believe that Jesus was the Lion, not the lamb, that the Bible gives them permission to murder people, to be the ruler of the land, etc is ANATHEMA to what the Bible teaches, the ways Jesus spoke and lived and the ideals of the Founding Fathers. As Amos 4:5 relates to us: “Offer a sacrifice(offering) of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, proclaim free will offerings, publish them, for this is what you like to do…” Amos, in God’s name, is castigating the People of Israel for trying look good while doing bad, trying to say ‘look how religious we are’ while going against the spirit of the Commandments, not utilizing the power of change that the Commandments and Blessings afford us. This is happening here and in Israel-both places that began with ideals and ideas, with promises and hope, by people who had been oppressed and abused in their countries of origin and, sadly, are oppressing another(s) in their countries. How sad, how infuriating and how desecrating to God’s name doing it in the ‘name’ of religious fervor!

Watching the celebrations, listening to the lies of the politicians, on both ends of the spectrum, turned my stomach, made me want to throw up. That some MAGA people believed PBS was disrespectful towards President Trump by reading the Declaration of Independence  tells us the MAGA’s KNOW that what they are doing goes against the founding documents of our country, that they KNOW we are going backwards in the experiment that is the United States of America. The United States of America have never been completely United! We have been at odds with one another since the writing of the Declaration of Independence about slavery, about the worth of Black people, and the compromises made in the Declaration and the Constitution represent the path to creating a democratic union of people who could have differences and find compromises, solutions to benefit the whole nation. Again, this is no longer true, this seems to be a time like 1860 where the South decided they didn’t want to be part of the experiment anymore and, instead of just leaving, they started a war. I pray this is not repeated. Amos’ words represent what is happening here and in Israel; the use of the Bible to justify lies and deceptions. Yet, just like the people of Ancient Israel, we the people, do not believe we will be found out, that the MAGA’s will not have to face their hypocrisy, their treachery, that the progressives will not have to face their incongruence over hating Jews/Israel, loving the regressive ways of Hamas, Hezbollah, and proclaiming “all people are created equal”.

We the People need to wake up, we need to put on a new pair of glasses as Chuck Chamberlain teaches us in his book by the same name. We the People are being called upon by Amos, by the Bible, by Christ’s ways and words to STAND UP and stop our own hypocrisy. I remember going to Temple for services and stealing the rest of the time, I remember telling my daughter how much I loved her and going to prison and abandoning her, I remember being outraged by immorality and continuing to be immoral, I remember being angry about the thefts by politicians and continuing to lie, cheat and steal from anyone and everyone. No longer being a hypocrite was the beginning of my recovery, no longer needing to hide, no longer needing to watch and wait for an opening to steal is a mainstay of my recovery. Being HUMAN, Loving God, my neighbor, the stranger, the poor, the needy, the widow, the orphan are the foundation for me to “make a more perfect union” within me.
ACTION STEP:

How are you “making a more perfect union” within your self?

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - WAS CHRIST A COMMUNIST?

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 65

Listening to the Rhetoric coming from Trump and his allies(?) or sycophants in the Republican Party, hearing from the progressives both of whom are dismissive of religious life, anyone who doesn’t think like them, got me wondering:

WAS CHRIST A COMMUNIST?

After all, he believed that all people are created equal, all human beings, including women, deserve respect, to have their inner dignity to be acknowledged and for no one to think they are “better than” anyone else. He preached about LOVING THE STRANGER, FEEDING THE POOR, and “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ SAKE” and so much more of the things that are being called out for being communist propaganda by the Trumpists and ultra conservative rhetoric by the progressives!

So, the only conclusion I can come to is: CHRIST WAS A COMMUNIST according to today’s ‘leaders’ of the right and the left. Ergo: all of We the People that believe in kindness, decency, loving the stranger, feeding the poor, caring for the needy, respecting the dignity of ALL people, appreciating the gifts and talents of our every human being, being responsible for our imperfections and repairing the damage they wrought instead of denying there is anything imperfect about is: MUST BE COMMUNISTS TOO! This is a common ground for Pope Leo and his followers in Catholicism and Jews who live in these ways towards ALL people, and Muslims who seek the peace that Islam guides them to and the Eastern Spiritual disciplines to forge new alliances, to stand together against the charlatans, the idolators, the money-changes in the Churches, Temples, and Government of the USA and Israel, to name two.

Of course I am mocking the current bullshit of Trump et al and I am also mocking the ridiculous of the progressives. I am being outrageous to make a point: every time we are going along for the ride on the pendulum swings, we are denying the Truths Christ spoke, the Blessings that he gave, the warnings he delivered and the mercy he showed. “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do” as he is being crucified is not just a wonderful spiritual message of forgiveness, it is a call to action for all of us, Jew and Gentile, Christian and Muslim to “lift up our eyes and see” as God tells Abraham, as we are being called to do by Christ, and by the moment we are living in. Most of all, I am being outrageous to get the Clergy who are promoting this bullshit, the Clergy who are co-signing, urging on Trump and his ass-kissers and Netanyahu and his ‘religious’ allies who spread hatred and spew lies about Arabs, about what God wants, etc.

What is wrong with we the people that we have fallen so far away from the teachings of Christ, that we have co-opted the words of Sermon on the Mount to mean the exact opposite of what Christ said. Being merciful is an attribute, not a weakness, being meek is what will remind us that God is God and we the people are not! It is so important to re-capture the essence of what Christ preached; kindness, truth, mercy, righteousness, forgiveness, love because our world is so empty of these actions we may be on the precipice of spiritual and moral extinction. Our bodies may continue and we the people will walk around shell-shocked, empty and as bewildered as people on thorazine. This is the fate for all those who continue to believe and preach: CHRIST WAS A COMMUNIST!

It is HIGH TIME that We the People re-capture the Spirit of 1776, that We the People and the path to compromise with people who we disagree with re: paths to achieve a “more perfect union” and who we agree with that a “more perfect union” is what we seek. It is HIGH TIME for We the People to come to grips with the ways in which we have not practiced what Christ preached: love, kindness, truth, mercy, forgiveness, righteousness and REPAIR the damage we have wrought while admonishing those around us who are not even willing to acknowledge their errors. It is HIGH TIME for We the People to appreciate, and pat ourselves on the back for the myriad of times and experiences when love, kindness, truth, mercy, forgiveness, righteousness were on full display in our actions towards God, towards every human being. It is important to acknowledge the ways in which each of us, as individuals, have are the peacemakers by standing for and with God and God’s ways. It is a hard life, this examined, accountable way of living and it is the most exquisite, joyful, meaningful, purposeful, loving way of life.

ACTION STEPS:

  1. How are you ‘going along to get along’ with the groups that believe Christ was a Communist?

  2. What are the ways you live into and promote being loving, forgiving, etc?

  3. How are you living “this examined life” each and every day?

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 64

Tomorrow is the 250th anniversary of the signing of The Declaration of Independence, an amazing document, the foundational document of our Democracy, of the United States of America. I have been writing about the similarities between what our founding fathers accused King George III of and what Donald J Trump and his gang of Thugs, Thieves, christian nationalists are doing today. Yet, in the finest display of what Chutzpah is, means, these thieves, thugs, christian nationalists who want to control everything, who don’t want to answer to Congress, to the Courts, to We the People are planning the ‘big celebration’ by syphoning off money from the America 250 organization that was set up in 2016! Rather than have a bi-partisan commission do it right, Trump et al decided to figure out ways to syphon the money, solicit and steal new money coming in and make a mockery out of something Holy and Spiritual-the celebration of the founding  Spiritual, Moral document that pointed the founding fathers and everyone since in the direction that God had opened their hearts and eyes to! Alas, the progress towards the goals and principles laid out in this ‘holy scripture of democracy’, has been forward and then retarded, depending on whom was in power in the Presidency, in the Congress, in the Courts-allowing petty politics, grabs for power, resentments, fears, hatreds undermine the progress the founding fathers hoped would happen.

Today, there is no pretense of aiming for these goals, no pretense of living these principles, no pretense of surrendering to the principles and goals of Christ, of the Bible, of the Declaration of Independence nor to the Constitution! Yet, way too many of We the People still support these thieves, these charlatans, these idolators-at least 33+%, when all of We the People need to rise up and say NO to Trump, to Vance, to Lutnick, to Vought, to Miller, to Rubio, et al in the name of our Holy Documents, “to proclaim Freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein”!! Yes, I am angry that the Freedoms my father fought for in World War II, that my friends fought for in Vietnam, that men and women have been fighting for since 1776, that my friends and I, along with millions and millions of people fought for in the 1960’s and ’70’s are being trashed, stepped on, shredded by John Roberts and HIS LYING Cohorts like Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh( that fine christian man who believes he should be able to take any women he wants to) and, at times, Gorsuch and Coney Barrett. Yet, these Mendacious Band of Merry Men(Coney Barrett belongs to a sect of Christianity that says MEN RULE) along with the Men and Women who serve themselves and Trump have convinced enough people to still scare the Republicans in Congress to shut the fuck up and kiss Trump’s ring, ass, whatever he tells them to.

And now, the Democrats offer stupid pap and far left “socialist democrats” to the mix! Bernie, AOC, Mandami all are having a field day promoting and supporting the Palestinians like Hamas who have done more enslavement of their people than Israel has-which is saying a lot! They are supporting the paths of religious fervor, Sharia law, keeping women ‘in their place’, hating Jews, making Israel the enemy, the hatred and death sentences for being gay, trans, etc. Hey Zoran, Bernie, Alexandria-how is this “proclaim freedom thought the land and to all its inhabitants therein”? Just asking to see if you are aware of the lies you are telling yourself and just practicing deception upon the rest of We the People or if you are so far in the ether that you believe in the goodness of people who rape and murder men, women, children and babies-all of whom were trying to find common ground, gave jobs to the people who viciously attacked them and whom you have proclaimed since October 7th as ‘freedom fighters’, repeating their slogan “from the river to the sea” which has the historical context of killing all the Jews in Israel and then the world? Is it true that you took the name Socialist Democrats from the party that ruled Germany in the 1930’s and 40’s? Both these “socialist democrats” and these ‘fine upstanding christian nationalist men and women’ join together in their hatred for Jews, for Israel, for Freedom of Speech, , for Freedom of Religion, for Freedom of the Press, for Freedom of thought and Free and Fair elections. Both will scream “fake news”, “stolen elections” and laugh all the way to the bank while fleecing the rest of us and the government- just wondering how a poor girl like AOC immediately began wearing designer clothes?

ACTION STEPS:

Read and immerse yourself in the Declaration of Independence- see how you can further the goals of our founding fathers and overthrow the new Pharaoh who knew not Jefferson, Franklin, Hancock.

Make a Decision to celebrate the Flag and for which it stands-not the confederacy, not the christian nationalism being promoted

Get together with people, democrats and republicans, who believe freedom is more important than petty differences and seeking power to find common ground and a plan to change what is.

Happy 4th, God Bless America, God Bless all of you, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 63


“He has obstructed the Administration of Justice…HE has made Judges dependent on his will alone…he has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislators…For imposing taxes on us without our consent”(from the Declaration of Independence)

WOW, what a long list of crimes the founding fathers accused King George of! It was so long and there are some of the more heinous crimes, to me, that the only recourse was to declare Independence and as We the People come closer to the 250 anniversary of the sending of this Declaration, reading this Declaration, it is high time for us to hold this administration accountable for these same crimes that it is perpetrating upon We the People! The Congress has to STAND UP and do the job they took an OATH to do, not the bidding of a raving lunatic, I guess in this way Trump and old King George have a lot in common, sharing a lunacy, a meanness, a cruelty that knew/knows no bounds.

More importantly, of course, is our own dive into our being, into our actions, into our souls and find the ways we have ‘gone along to get along’ (billionaires, media, racists, anti-semites, fascists, etc) and ask ourselves how our actions are in agreement with the Declaration made so long ago that, we as Americans, are responsible to uphold and push further towards completing and retarding the task our founding fathers began 250 years ago. In order to “Let Freedom Ring” We the People have to keep the bell sounding, we have to keep the clanger on the bell in pristine condition, cleaning the inside of the bell, the clanger and ensuring that when we are ringing it, the sound is true, authentic, and in line with the divinity of the Declaration. In order to keep a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”, We the People must be part of the solution and, in my humble opinion, we are in danger of fucking it up AGAIN!

Electing Trump twice is a deliberate attempt by Russia, by the Democrats, by the Republicans to undermine this Holy Document that forms the basis of our RIGHT TO REVOLT, our DIGNITY as human beings, and THE EQUALITY of every human being! Now, when there is a good opportunity to flip the Congress, the Democrats are hellbent on electing ‘progressives’ who are as FASCIST as the Republicans in Congress today! WTF, Democrats?

I would ask all these Anti-Semites who hide behind “anti-zionism, anti-Israel” slogans what Hamas did for the People of Gaza all these years? To the LGBTQ+ community and their allies, how many GAY PRIDE parades happened in Gaza, in any Arab country? How many DIKE marches have been in these places? Do you remember that it was the Arab countries who attacked Israel as soon as the UN Mandate was in place? Do you know that Israel has Gay Pride Parades? Do you know that Israel is/was one of the first nations to respond to disasters all across the globe? How many Saudi Arabians have responded? How many Qataris’ have responded, how many UAE scientists have produced ground-breaking drugs as cures, aids for many different ailments?

Do these achievements absolve the current Israeli government from its actions? NO, NO, NO! Holding Netanyahu and his gang of thugs accountable is as important as holding Trump and his Mafia accountable. Both fascists are guilty of the crimes that led to the Declaration of Independence, to the Revolutionary War and We the People need to rebel against both of them and their lawlessness, cruelty. AND, the ‘poor Arabs’ that these Socialist Democrats are so supportive of, in part  because of the propaganda being spewed for years by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Iran on college campus’ never gave their people Freedom of Speech, Freedom of thought, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of the Press, and these are the people the fascists on the left are supporting!

It is way past time for We the People to SHEMA, (hear, listen, and understand) the words of Amos the prophet:”For they do not know how to do right, said God regretfully, those who’s inclination is towards violence/chaos and robbery in there palaces”. We the People are being called upon on this 250th Anniversary to regain the spiritual strength of the leaders of the 13 Colonies, the prophets and speak Truth to Power and hold the powerful accountable.

ACTION STEP:
What are the ways you have allowed the abandonment of the principles of the Declaration to happen

What are the ways you uphold “these truths to be self-evident”

When will you throw out the Fascists on the right and left

GOD BLESS, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 62

I am completely fascinated by the words, the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the 250th Birthday of it being published. That the MAGA crowd, the Republican lackeys, the Socialist Democrats, are waving the flag and planning great celebrations is RIDICULOUS! What all of these groups have in common is a complete disdain for the Holiest document in American History, they are shitting on it daily, hourly and trying to convince We the People of how patriotic they are by waving the flag, by flying it from their homes, etc when in reality, even the Supreme Court Justices can’t hide their contempt for both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution because they are putting their agenda, their politics, in the case of Clarence Thomas his need to be white, above what is their sworn oath-to protect and defend, to uphold the Constitution, not give in to a wannabe King, not allow grift and graft to happen in the hallways of our Government and they FAIL much more often than not! Just for shits and giggles, Baron Trump would have to be deported because Melania wasn’t a citizen at the time-just saying!

The founding fathers(yes I know the women were not there, yet I believe they had a little hand in telling their husbands what to do) wrote: “When a long train of abuses, usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces the same design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, their duty to throw off such government”. Can you imagine the people who wrote this watching what is happening today and asking WHERE IS CONGRESS? WHERE IS THE SUPREME COURT??! Well, it is high time, We the People respond to these questions, it is high time for We the People to look in the mirror and face “the person in the glass”, face the call of our souls, the cries of the poor, the needy, the begging of the stranger and the ruthlessness, cruelties of the rich bastards who are supporting this “government” and, as in Egypt, tell the Pharaoh to “LET MY PEOPLE GO” and take control as our ancestors, IMMIGRANTS ALL OF THEM, did some 250 years ago.

We the People seem to be deaf to the cries of our own souls, the screaming of our intuition that tells us; watch out, they are coming for ‘them’ now and they will come for you. I hear Martin Niemoller’s poem reminding us of Ben Franklin’s words: “We all hang together or we all hang separately” and I hear the similarity between ‘socialist democrats’ and ‘national socialists’ as both hate Jews, blame Jews for the evils, and they join with their polar opposite far right “christian nationalists” to promote anti-semitism and Jew-hatred as well as many other despicable hatreds they spew venom about.

The prophets keep calling us back, calling upon us to return to the commandments of God, to return to boundaries these commandments put up. They are not asking for perfection, they are asking for transparency, they are asking for fidelity to the 10 Sayings, to our spiritual history, to our soul’s knowings. Just as We the People, at least some of us, are demanding we return to both the first founding in 1776 and the second founding in 1863, 1865 at Gettysburg, at Appomattox. I am left speechless at the love of deception that so many people have, the readiness to believe the liars, believe their own lies, and blame, shame, exile good people because of their ethnicity, their religion, their seeking of the American Dream? I know something has to be done to reform our immigration policies, I also know that Stephen Miller, Tom Holman, JD Vance, Marco Rubio would have sent the St. Louis back to Europe, I know they would not have taken in the refugees from Cuba-‘little Marco’, and they would let people die in the streets, like Veterans are doing right now. The “long train of abuses, usurpations” is as great as it was in 1776 and that it is being done in America, that it is being carried out and approved by the Republican Majority in Congress and the Fascist Supreme Court is beyond the pale. There is only one solution: STAND UP and FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT-not just elect Democrats, elect serious people who will follow the law, hear God crying about their harlotry by serving Trump instead of We the People, serving their financial goals, serving the lobbyists rather than We the People. KICK THEM OUT OF OFFICE!

First, however, We the People have to surrender our desire to deceive and be deceived, stop waiting for Jesus to come back, for the Messiah to show up. Rather, We the People who are faithful to the principles found in every Spiritual discipline, who are willing to be in the solution, have to create the atmosphere for Christ to show up and be recognized, to create the space and places for the Messiah to be heard. Remember, both Christ and the Messiah may have visited for a minute and been rejected by we the people in our desire to engage in “abuses, usurpations”!

How are you rebelling against the “abuses, usurpations” of self and another(s)

God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 61

“Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” are themes woven throughout the history and meaning of being American, of what the United States stands for at its core. As always, these “founding principles” are once again under attack. Rather than hear the call of the spirit of these words, there have been members of Congress, Presidents, regular janes and joes, like we the people, who have bastardized and remained blinded by prejudices and fears so they have narrowed and narrowed the scope of these words.

We learn in the Bible that “all people are created in the Image of God” and “God blew spirit into the human” and we came alive-so how can any of these principles, which come from the Bible, be narrowed into only ‘the white race’ should have the privilege of these principles while the rest of us Jews, Blacks, Muslims, Hispanics from Latin America, refugees from Haiti and Syria should be subservient to ‘the white man, the master race’? Sounds a little familiar, oh yeah, this is part and parcel with all Fascists, all authoritarian governments! 81 years ago we won a victory over this type of government in Europe and, it seems, lost it here at home, Lindbergh, Coughlin, et al are cheering the current government on, I am sure.

“Liberty” in Biblical terms is Freedom. “Liberty” implies being able to do what one wants to do, whenever one wants to do it and this is not the spiritual calling of the founding fathers, rather, as the Bill of Rights asserts, it is about Freedom, the surrendering of our false egos, the ending of our servitude to Pharaoh, and joining, signing the covenant with God. This covenant is found throughout the Bible, it is found in the words of Jesus-not necessarily Paul- and it never ends, we can never break it. While we can turn away from it, there will always be a prophet to remind us of our covenant, remind us of our duty to obey and our duty to disobey, as Rabbi Harold Shulweis, z”l teaches us in his book by the same name.

In this moment, We the People are once again faced with the decision that the Israelites were faced with, that so many peoples throughout history have been faced with: Will we surrender to Pharaoh, or will we join with God-in both cases, we are “turning our will over to the care of” some entity other than our own ‘self-sufficiency’. The question is not will we surrender, the question is to WHOM/WHAT will we surrender. When “the pursuit of happiness is understood in its narrowest form, ‘how can I have fun’; we once again are bastardizing the concept. In every Holy document, the language is terse, is expansive, is pregnant with various meanings: the literal, the allegorical, the homiletic and the mystical. For far too long, the racist, xenophobic white trash-I mean anyone regardless of economic status, who believes their whiteness gives them superiority over anyone and everyone else, who believes their Non-Christian christian nationalism makes them closer to God(IDOL) have been in charge, they have taken over the country and spread a virus that makes Covid look like child’s play. These Fascists have infused our country with, what I believe is the worst sins, Indifference, Mendacity, Virtual Reality that is not even close to Truth, and, their favorite-accuse another(s) of that which you are guilty of.

“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” can only be realized when We the People stand up for God, for the Covenant We made with God, for the spirit of these words, for the gift of our Constitution, for the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the needy, the poor. When We the People ensure that our way of being is congruent with the words on the Statue of Liberty, when We are ensuring the word on the Liberty Bell are being fulfilled, to ensure that “all people are created equal” is the goal and the ways of living We the People are pursuing and commanding our Government to pursue these goals and ways as well.

These three words in and of themselves can take days, weeks, a lifetime to unpack. I know from my personal experience with slavery, with following a Pharaoh of my own making, of being a Pharaoh to the people who loved me and whom were so deeply impacted by my evil ways, how important living these words out loud, living the spiritual meaning of them and making sure that everyone else has the same opportunity. I can have no life if I allow suffering that I can help heal go on unabated, if I I want freedom only for me and mine and not all, if my “pursuit of happiness” infringes on anyone else. This truth seems to be missing from those ‘fine white christian nationalist prejudicial men and women who bow down to them’! It is WAY PAST TIME to take our country back, to honor the Declaration!

ACTION STEPS:

Do an inventory on how your are pursuing “Life, Liberty, pursuit of Happiness” in honorable ways

Define the ways you bastardize these principles to “get ahead”

Ask yourself why you go along with, don’t fight the Fascists at our Gates

How is  America similar to Ancient Israel and Ancient Judea

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 60

Continuing with the words of our founding document, after acknowledging every person has a unique gift, unique relationship with “their Creator”, we move to “certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness.” The bolding of “among” is mine because, once again, as with “their Creator”, the founding fathers did not limit our “unalienable rights” to just those three! Yet, we seem to forget that We the People, and all human beings living here or abroad have “unalienable rights” that the United States should be helping to protect and we did for 83 years, as our alliances with NATO countries proves.


Today, as we approach 250 years of living with, against, into this Holy Text of our nation, We the People are facing down a “new Pharaoh” who has arisen from the ashes, from the garbage heap and doesn’t know this document, doesn’t know Washington, Lincoln, Truman, Reagan, et al. Like the Pharaoh in the Bible, the current President and his merry band of thieves and cruel, malicious, mendacious men, the narcissism is rampant, the vision is limited, the control of a segment of we the people is total-a recipe for disaster that is happening in front of us and too many of We the People are handwringing and feeling powerless while the idiotic Democrats, who have/had a chance to reassert some sanity in Government, are supporting Anti-Israel candidates, promoting Anti-Zionism as a cover for their Anti-Semitism, going as far to the left as possible and, once again, as they did in 2024, promoting an American Dream that is full of hatred for ‘the other’, disgust and disrespect for anyone but “the underdog of the moment” and being as exclusive and ‘elite’ as they were 2 years ago-BRILLIANT!

I hear the call of the prophets to the People Israel and the People of Judah, to the people in the America, to the people living in Israel in this moment, “RETURN, RETURN” the call of God to those of us who have exiled ourselves from the covenant, from the teachings of Adonai, of Jesus, by being bullies, by being so arrogant as to believe we don’t need a spiritual practice, by having the hubris to believe everything we do is “God’s Will” when it is, in reality, our egocentric desires we masquerade as “God’s Will”. What the prophets are calling to us is, I believe, encapsulated in Shlomo Carlbach’s song: “Return Again”. The lyrics go like this: “return again, return again; return to the land of your soul; return to who you are; return to what you are; return to where you are; born and reborn again”. These words capture the message of the prophets, the message of God, that every return has to begin with a “return to the land of your soul”. This is, I believe, what Thomas Jefferson and others were doing when they were blocked from including freedom for Black Slaves in this document and hid their belief in “liberty for all”, even black slaves and believed that everyone deserves a life that fulfills what, who they are created to be without interference from the new ‘king George’, the new ‘pharaoh who has arisen’!

Unfortunately, like the representatives from the Southern Colonies for whom their entire economy was built on slave labor, who had already developed their willful blindness to the fact that Black Men and Women were and are human beings deserving of dignity, seeing both their worth and their equality with every human being, and saw their uniqueness as either only for their gain or as stubbornness that had to be beaten out of them-man or woman, is on steroids today with the “South as risen again”, with the prejudice, the cancer of the soul that prejudice is, brings about. Rather than be “people of faith”, these Anti-Christ christian nationalists refuse to hear the call of either the Declaration of Independence that the founding fathers wrote nor the Declaration of Independence found in the Bible, the New Testament! We the People have to take back our power, take back our control, take back a government that is of the people, by the people, for the people which we the people are allowing to perish, even after knowing Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address! In the Revolutionary War as in every war, people of all faiths and colors, many different ethnicities fought for the principles above, the principles of the prophets, and were willing to “give their last full measure” to “Let Freedom Ring”.

As one who has returned from the “dark side”, from the narcissistic, self-centered belief that I was ‘owed’ something, that if I could steal it, then it was meant to be mine, from the prisoner, to a free man, a man of faith, a man of deep connection to “my Creator” and the Prophets-I can tell you the gains received by being with, in, on, the “dark side” with the liars, etc is not the panacea that is being sold. It is a cruel trip and when I “return again to the land of my soul”, I began to and continue to understand “certain unalienable rights” for me and for you-hence my devotion to helping people recover and “return to the land of their souls”!
How are you engaging in a return to who you are, what you are?

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 59

For the next week, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I am going to look at the words, discern meanings and intentions and look to see how they are in sync with the Bible, the prophets, and when and how they are not.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (people) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” WOW, what a truly revolutionary document, what a spiritual document written by deeply faithful men and men who knew their misogyny was suspect, their treatment of Black people even more suspect, and rose to meet their higher angels in this document. What has happened to “these truths” that, to the men who wrote and signed this document, are believed to “be self-evident”? What happened to the idea that each one of us, as a religious group, as an individual have different experiences with “their creator”? According to the stories of the Rabbis, which were supposedly passed down through the generations, each person who crossed the Red Sea, each person who stood at Mount Sinai, had their own personal experience with “their Creator”. Each of the prophets had their own experience with “their Creator”, each of the Biblical Heroes had the same, yet, in these 250 years, we the people have lived down into ego, narcissism, being pharaohs to black people, to immigrants of all stripes when they first come over, and now to the refugees from different lands-“how  have the mighty fallen” is both King David’s lament at the death of King Saul and his dear, dear friend, Jonathan AND the lament many of We the People are saying now.

Caring for, loving the stranger has become so passe, for so long, that it seems as if the people following our “founding fathers”, lived in a narcissistic bubble and rather than learning from the stories in Exodus about how not to be a Pharaoh, they seem to have believed Pharaoh is good, Slavery is fine and only “certain” “men are created equal”! This is as true if not more true today than it was 200 years ago. The question for me, for we, is how does a Donald Trump, a Stephen Miller, a Steve Bannon develop into the Pharaohs they have become? All of their ancestors came here from lands that were not treating them so well, Drumpf running away from military service in Germany (sound familiar), Bannon from Ireland during great poverty, the Potato Famine, and Miller’s from Nazi Germany, yet these three have made it their life’s passion to deny the same rights, the same opportunities to the people in need right now, to the refugees from Haiti, from Syria and, soon from everywhere else! Thanks to the Supreme Court, one of who’s members adopted 2 Haitian children-will they have to go back also, declared the ‘right’ of Trump to deny entry, to deport the hundreds of thousands of refugees who are adding to our society, who work, who pay taxes, etc-all because of the color of their skin!

“Proclaim Freedom throughout the Land and to ALL its inhabitants therein” is the writing in Leviticus, the writing on the Liberty Bell, and the LAST CONCEPT that a portion of we the people want to see happen. The taskmasters in charge right now, listening to the directives of their Pharaoh, Trump, are enjoying a renaissance of hatred towards anyone who is not a “white Christian nationalist male”, being a believer in Jesus Christ as a Catholic is not good enough forthe Evangelical far right who believe they are more equal than the rest of us Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, etc is the name of the game right now. Miller, Trump, Bannon are repeating the insidious, horrific, hateful actions of Cordell Hull when he turned the St.Louis away after pressuring Cuba to not take them in either. His ancestors were seeking a better way when they immigrated to America yet, he and his descendants like Bannon, Trump, Miller don’t want anyone else to have the same opportunity! WTF?

“Give me your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free”, these words on the Statue of Liberty gave hope to people like my Grandparents when they were on the boat-in steerage of course-coming into New York Harbor, running away from the hardships of their homelands, Poland, Ukraine, etc and this hope developed into determination to be decent to all, neither of my grandfathers would allow disparaging talk in front of them, they welcomed everyone in need to their homes and businesses, they adopted two children and in my father’s home, took in 5 of their nieces and nephews when their mothers died. My amends to them, at their graves in 1990 was for shitting on their courage, on not making their hope into a reality, my living amends is they way I conduct my affairs, the help I have given to many and the humility to serve God, repay the debt and love my neighbor.

ACTION STEP

“How the mighty have fallen”, is the question we have to ask about our self and our country

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 58

Acknowledging TRUTH has become very difficult in the world we live in now and have lived in for the past 11 years. While politicians and elected officials have always “spoken with forked tongue”, the assault on TRUTH has never had this much cooperation from “those fine christian folks” and “those keepers of the jewish faith” like Vought, like Vance, like Netanyahu, like Trump! What is so terrifying to me, a child of the protest movement, a child who’s parents and grandparents were subjected to Anti-Semitism for so many years, is that the young people, people from the age of 14-25 have no idea what TRUTH is and how to discern it, they are ill-equiped to suss it out because even the College-Educated young people no longer are given the space to seek and find themselves, TRUTH, how to get along with one another, etc. Rather, it is all about the Benjamins, all about the money, all about seeing another human being(s) as an enemy who is ‘after your job’, “after your wives”, “eating your pets”, and other such BULLSHIT!

JD Vance, speaking at the Nixon Library, says what Nixon did with Watergate is no big deal, he was run out of office inappropriately, and just like Donald Trump, Nixon got us out of Vietnam in strength, he conducted foreign affairs with an iron hand and other bullshit. Trump gains a victory from the Supreme Court so he can throw out asylum seekers, refugees from Syria, Hatti, rather than follow the call of the Founding Fathers, the promise of the Statue of Liberty. According to Sam Alito and the right-wing majority on the Court, calling people of color as “coming from shithole counties” is not racist, calling out the Somalis who came here under extreme duress as less than human, begging people from Norway to come instead of ‘those people’ is not racist. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER HISTORY? DOES ANYONE REMEMBER GERMANY in the 1930’s? What the Fuck People??!!

The hubris of Trump, et al, of the Republican Party writ large, of that ‘fine christian gentleman’ Mike Johnson in ignoring the words of Amos 2:12 “But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink and commanded the prophets, saying Prophesy not”! This is referring to the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the priests, royalty, wealthy got people who took vows to not drink to drink and people who were called to speak truth to power, to shut up. SOUND FAMILIAR? When CBS caves into the lies of Trump, when Trump engineers the takeover of major media outlets by his ‘good friend, Larry Ellison”, when the ultra rich, the oligarchs in and of America, keep using the rest of us to feed their insatiable need for more, more, more, when people who speak up and out are indicted by Grand Juries with lies and innuendos by this NON-JUSTICE department, when people of color, women, Jews are denied promotions, denied access, forced to quit, made to swear allegiance to TRUMP and not the flag, not the United States Constitution, I believe we are in the ballpark with Ancient Israel, with Hitler’s rise in Germany.

When Mamdani has done to undermine the Center of the Democratic Party is atrocious! His left-wingnut bullshit ‘progressive’ agenda is not about equality, not about freedom of thought, choice, etc- it is as racist as Trump’s! Remember the Nazi Party was called the National Socialist Party! Mamdani and his co-horts, AOC, Bernie, et al are not seeking to find common ground, they are feeding the narrative that Democrats don’t care about the average joe, the average jane! How could I believe they will protect my interests as a JEW, when they have such venom and hatred for Israel-not the government of Netanyahu, the entire country, when they go along with and, in some cases, lead the “from the river to the sea” chants? When I am not one of poor nor am I one of the rich-I am part of the millions of Americans who live in the “middle of the road” politically, religously, spiritually, and financially-the part of America these ‘fine progressive folk’ seem to hate as much as they hate the rich!

What is the solution? It has to begin with hearing the call of Amos’ words. We the People have to demand that our elected officials get back to serving the Constitution and their constituencies-US! We the People have to return to our roots, the Bible. We the People have to demand of ourselves an endng to the Lies, to the excuses, to the ways we run after the majority, and sometimes, lead the majority to DO EVIL! Amos is calling us to account and We the People have to make a spiritual accounting of our actions:

ACTION STEPS

We the People have to see how we have betrayed the people who sacrificed so much so We could live in, grow up in a Free Country.

We the People have to make our amends, take the corrective actions that will change our thinking

We the People need to follow the paths of the Bible, the paths of T’Shuvah.

We the People are being called back to living decently, to doing justly, to be merciful, to walk in the ways of God-will you begin anew today

GOD BLESS, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 57

‘Don’ Trump has watched the Godfather too much, it seems. I believe he keeps believing he is “offering them a deal they can’t refuse”, because of the behavior of some of these so-called “independent” lawmakers on the Republican side of the aisle. Maybe he is threatening them, a guy like Bill Cassidy is, or at least once was, a man with morals and concerns for the people he serves-not no more! After he and Rand Paul stood for the courage of their convictions, they both backed down like sheep, afraid of their shepherd. What a shepherd the ‘don’ Trump is-he has invaded sovereign countries, he has fucked over our allies for over 80 years and kissed the ass of our enemies for over 80 years, he has treated the stranger with cruelty and contempt, he has treated the poor as if they are criminals, has led the wealthy in running after evil, has never been responsible for anything except his lies about his greatness, etc. This is the shepherd that the Republican Party is raving about, following around like a puppy, and worshiping more than they worship Christ!

Watching this reminds me of the words of Amos: “but for the 4th, I will not turn away his punishment; because they have despised the Torah(teachings) of Adonai and not kept the commandments; and their lies, after which their fathers walked have led them astray”(Amos 2:4). Here we the people are, some 2700+ years later, some 2500 after the first reading of the prophets STILL despising the Teachings of God, not keeping God’s commandments, and our lies are still leading us astray! What the Fuck, people? Is humanity this stupid, this arrogant? In the United States, learning about the heroism of the founding fathers, the ‘soldiers’ in the Revolutionary War, soldiers in all of our wars fighting for our freedom of choice is automatic. Yet, here we the people are, denying their heroism, giving up our freedom of choice, going along with the despot because of fear, because believing his/her lies is better than facing the truth of our own? It is inconceivable to me that after all these years, all of the readings of Amos, the prophets, that we the people still act like small frys, like idiots that need to be led, like people who have drank the juice and want to follow ‘der fuhrer’ and yet, here we are!

What makes it all the worse, what makes our current situation all the more confusing and despicable, is that these lies, the despising of the teachings of Adonai, are being fomented, aged, pushed by the very Clergy Amos is speaking to! The very people who claim to have “heard the call of God to serve”, are the ones promoting the lies, the despising of Adonai’s teachings! This is so revolting, I don’t know where to put this. I keep asking myself how does this happen and then I realize this has been happening forever! What is so annoying is the refusal of we the people to learn about the consequences of following our lies, the consequences of not following the teachings of Adoani when it keeps happening over and over again throughout the history of humanity.


The punishment is, as we learn in the Bible, exile and wandering. While we can see this on the macro level, it is as important, if not more so, that we look at our individual experience. “Despising the teachings of Adonai” led Jesus to call out the priests and the wealthy, led Jesus to teach the ways to love your neighbor, to do justly, kindly, follow the ways of God. Yet, the Christians also have had an issue with their clergy “despising the teachings of Adonai” by perverting them, using them to spread hatred and strife, to value themselves and Christians in general over any other peoples, etc. They have been spreading and following the lies of their fathers which has ruined many good people, promoted hatred of Jews, hatred of indigenous people and their religions, ‘worship(ed)’ Christ and not followed the ways in which he lived. The Rabbis in their fear of the prophets have done this also, have gone along with the altering of the Biblical Text by Ezra(I have learned) and keep spreading the lies of their fathers as well as making up new ones of their own!

THIS HAS TO STOP! Haven’t we suffered from the consequences of our behaviors enough to learn? I guess not because electing Trump, voting people who see the both/and when it comes to Israel, to change being incremental, all show that we the people have learned nothing in the past 11 years since Trump announced he was running. I keep thinking about the lies I told myself for so long about myself-never believing I was able to return, that my return was even wanted, that my shame was so great I would never be able to dig out of it, etc. These lies kept me stuck in a life that was not mine, that “despised the teachings of Adonai” for over 20 years. Only when I began to immerse myself in the Bible, in the teachings of the prophets, could I begin to have hope and the rest, as they say, is history. The teaching I want to leave you with today is:
Redemption and Return are “Teachings of Adonai” -are you practicing both

Writing down the Lies you tell yourself helps you separate fact from fiction

GOD BLESS, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 56

The prophet Amos tells us about the 3 things God will forgive different nations for and the 4th God will not. When talking about Israel, ie the Northern Kingdom, Amos states they will not be forgiven because they “sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes”. Does this sound familiar? Isn’t this way of almost every autocrat, fascist, dictator, Monarch, power-hungry asshole, almost every Musk-like person? Have not we watched throughout our lifetimes the rich banding together to get richer and fuck over the little guy? As I am writing, I think of the story and King David and Bathsheba and Uriah. The prophet Nathan pronounces King David guilty of having enough and then stealing what a poor person only has one of, in this case-Uriah's wife and, on top of that, sends Uriah to his death! Every time Trump is being pushed, forced to admit truth, he covers it up, he deflects by causing death, be it in Iran, Ukraine (because he isn’t helping our ally), in the Carribean, and who knows where next!

When we went to war to help Kuwait, it was about the oil/money, when we went to war against Saddam, it was about the oil/money, when we went to war with Iran it is about the oil/money and for the oil/money, we the people have allowed our leaders, our military to commit war crimes and taught our children to hate and shoot first, ask questions later, causing so much mental and moral injury to our young men and women in uniform. People who stood up and railed againt these practices, these actions done for the money, were/are villified, primaried, sold out by members of their own party. We have seen this on the Republican side of the aisle and, now, Mandami, AOC, Bernie are taking the Democratic Party to the other extreme-I keep hearing Pete Seeger’s words: “When will they ever learn”! That Israel is ‘the issue’ for these ‘progressive’ ‘socialist’ democrats is a JOKE! Israel’s beginnings were all about socialism, now that this government has taken the country to the extreme is not what Israel is about, it is what this government is about. According to the logic of these ‘progressive democrats’ the Constitution should not be followed nor should we uphold the principles of the Declaration of Independence because the only way to be eligble for the freedoms provided for within each is to be on their side!

When they had power, especially during the Obama years and Biden years, these ‘progressives’, made bathrooms their Alamo! Unless people would allow all bathrooms to be non-gender they were homophobic, racist, etc! How about the truth that some women don’t want to see dicks hanging out in their bathrooms? How about the truth that some men don’t want women seeing their dicks hanging out when they are using the urinals! This never occurs to these so-called ‘progressives’. They “sold the righteous for silver” because they can’t see anyone but themselves as “righteous”! When it comes to the poor, they use them as spears to attack everyone else-no one does enough for the poor except them! Bullshit-Lyndon Johnson oversaw and initiated the “Great Society” and did so much for the poor-it is the rich bastards on both extremes who keep the poor people down, who sell them out every chance they get! So, mr. mandami, ms. AOC, mr. sanders-what you are reaping is going to kick us all in the ass when you sow! Dan Goldman is a decent righteous man and your opposition to him because he supports Israel as a Jewish State and believes in limitations to the aid given to them, is ridiculous and a prime example of how you have “sold the righteous for silver” and to the people of New York, I ask you: “How could you go against the truth, the decent, the righteous and say you are ‘progressive’ and at the same time ANTI-SEMITIC?

I call BULLSHIT on you Mandami, AOC, Sanders- your so-called socialism is nothing but a new twist on you being the rich and powerful, you doing to your ‘enemies’, aka, decent righteous people who see the both/and of life, what you claim they have done to you and the ‘poor’ people around you. It is WAY PAST TIME for We the People to re-assert OUR POWER, it is WAY PAST TIME for We the People to take back the reins of government, follow the call of Amos and repair the damage we the people wrought by selling “the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes”. We the People are being called upon to find our humanity again, to seek out the righteous for their wisdom and guidance, to lift up the poor so they can make a life that honors their infinite worth and provides them with the opportunity to regain their dignity, to honor the uniqueness of every human being including our own so the world can move forward and each of us can be a little more decent, loving, and join together to find better solutions than come out of just being in an echo chamber. I am, once again, afraid that there is no place for the both/and I live in the American political system!
ACTION STEP:

  1. Find the ways you have sold out your righteousness and the righteous around you for “silver”

  2. Look at the ways you have exploited the poor within you and outside of you

GOD BLESS, Stop Ghosting God, Stop Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 55

On page 132 of God in Search of Man by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, he states: “In this sense, faith is faithfulness, loyaty to an event, loyalty to our response”. I have been thinking about this a lot lately, as we are approaching the 250th year of the Declaration of Independence, the precursor to freedom which we supposedly revere and can’t seem to be loyal to its calling to us, the same is true of the Constittution since it was ratified in 1787! It is also true for the ‘religious’ people who are constantly displaying their DISLOYALTY to the Bible, to the ways of Christ, to the words of Christ, to the thoughts of Mohammed and all of these disloyal ‘holier than thou’ ‘religious’, charlatans, idolators, authoritarians are reminiscent of the days prior to the destruction and dispersement of the Northern Kingdom, Israel and its inhabitants therein!

I am so enraged, righteously indignant, spiritually fighting about our current situation, which is not really new-just an extension of what was, what has been passed off as loyalty and, we the people in our “faithfulness” to the glory of our self-deception, are like guppies lapping up the lies, promoting the deceptions of society and our own self-deception. I keep asking WTF and I realize each time that living into TRUTH is too difficult for most people. It is anathema to the willful blindness many of we the people have come to cherish, relish rolling around in like pigs in slop! I experience the rage of the prophets, which all of them had to a greater or lessor degree. The inner sadness they experienced because we the people did not listen, believe, change as they spoke to them God’s words, God’s call: “RETURN” as they reminded us that “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely”(Hosea 14:5) and we the people in our smallmindedness, in our rejection of spirituality and spiritual, moral teachings/ways of being, caused and are still causing our own destruction. It is not “Why is God doing this to me”, which people ask and have asked for ages-my mother among them when she would look at me in my other lifetime:). It is not “God has a plan, God works in mysterious ways” bullshit either because, while God does work in mysterious ways, while we human beings will never fully know God nor understand God because God is limitless, God’s plan is laid out in the Bible, in the words of Jesus, whom David Brooks calls a “Jewish Radical”.

Of course being Jewish is being a radical, just as the prophets were radicals who kept pounding into the Kings from David on how to live in agreement with God’s principles rather than their own self-centeredness, their own false ego. Understanding that kingship was a privilege not an entitlement, that with this privilege comes great responsibility to BE LOYAL to God’s PRINCIPLES. Be it Christ who says: “If you love me, keep my commandments”(John 14:15) or reading the Bible where it states that to love God is to keep God’s commandments, We the People are constantly being called to BE LOYAL to “caring for the stranger”, to “loving our neighbor”, to “rebuking people when they are going off the path”, to “not run after the majority to do evil”, to “pursue Justice, Righteousness, TRUTH, Kindness” continuously. DUH PEOPLE!

Listening to the politicians who claim such fidelity with Christ go against the commandments would be a joke if it were not so serious! Listening the the Clergy preach the Gospels of Hatred, of Power, of Disloyalty to God’s Will in the Churches, Mosques and Temples across the globe is INFURIATING! Being in the midst of the current war amongst the Jews over how to love Israel, who is a Zionist, not just who is a Jew is so ridiculous, so reminiscent of the senseless hatred that, according to the Rabbis, caused the destruction of the 2nd Temple, that I am jumping out of my skin at this DISLOYALTY to principles, to faith, to Emunah-loyalty to God. That so many clergy, leaders invoke the names of Christ, Adonai, Allah to make their cruelty, their graft, their despicable behaviors “come from God”, as mike johnson likes to say, if you want to know my political agenda read the Bible-the fucking problem is johnson is NOT READING THE BIBLE, DOES NOT BELIEVE IN CHRIST! If he were doing either-his agenda would be so different, if the Republicans in Congress and across the land either read the Bible or believe in Christ, Trump and his thugs would not be in office and would not be encouraged to burn down the Declaration of Independence after 248 years!

Being loyal to God is to allow God to “heal our backsliding”, “to take us back in love”, to know that “God’s anger is turned away” from We the People. Being loyal to God is living a life based on the principles of the Bible, the ways of living in concert with God, the ways in which we take our rightful places being servants of God and not servants of our rational minds, of the liars and cheats, of the idolators and charlatans. IT AIN’T EASY and it is simple. I have been doing this for better and worse each day for the past 39+ years and the joy of being faithful greatly outweighs the rush of the score!

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 54

WooHoo, the first day of talks with Iran are over and niether side walked out, tried to sabotage them!! I have such confidence in Jared the lying, grifting, ‘businessman’ and Steve the real estate mogul Wytkoff, both of whom have been barred from Putin’s presence, to be productive in the subtleties of these negotiations with JD Vance and his vast experience with diplomacy being able to pick up their slack! NOT

As we get closer to the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the birthing of the United States, I keep getting drawn to the prophets, in this case Hosea. These phony balony ‘good dogmatic jews and christian nationalists’, the idolatrous clergy who support them, the news media who give them oxygen and notice, we the people who cheer them on are the very reasons the 13 colonies revolted! AND no one is saying this. The level of cruelty, nastiness, lack of civility is astounding and was on full display at the PGA U.S. Open yesterday. For 17 of 18 holes, fans of Scotty Scheffler who was in the last group booed when Wyndam Clark had a good shot and cheered when he hit a bad one- how unkind, how disgusting and, I wonder, why didn’t Sheffler do something to stop it, to mitigate the cruelty? Yet, this is just another indication of how far we have fallen, how far we have gotten away from the principles that were outlined in the Declaration of Independence and fueled the fight against tyranny, against taxation without representation, against having to be of one faith, having to read the ‘company’ paper/news, etc.

What we the people are watching happening is all of the above: Trump’s tyrannical hold, reign over the Republican Party has rendered the Republicans in the House and Senate to be neutered, they have allowed themselves to be castrated which leads the people who elected them without personal representation because all they do is bend over and take it in the ass from Trump, Lutnick, Bessent, Rubio, Blanche, et al. The Christian Nationalists driving Project 2025 want the United States to be a “christian nation” while discarding Christ’s teachings and ways of being and Trump is having his cronies, also autocrats like Larry Ellison, buy up the media so most of the media will be like Fox News(which doesn’t engage in news at all) a mouthpiece and a clean-up for all that this horrific government is doing.

For a solution, I turn to Hosea again! In chapter 14, verses 2 and 3 mentioned in the past two days give us the path back-turning towards the Ineffable One, asking for forgiveness and having a plan to make the amends needed and to find a different response to the triggers that will happen again. In the case of the United States’ current situation of abandoning the principles that led to our Declaration of Independence, the taking on the same ways as King George III, trying to make this nation a ‘christian nation’, etc We the People have to gather on the 4th of July and say NO to this bullshit, NO to the lies, NO to the tyrannical rule, NO to the thievery, NO to the proliferation of White Supremacists trying to intimidate the rest of us, NO to going against our beginnings of being a nation which was a haven for the outcasts from another(s) country, NO to the cruelty, NO to the deceptions, NO to our own self-deceptions!

In Hosea 14:5 the result of our “turning back to Adonai” is: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely”. This is God’s will, this is Christ’s God, not the bullshit we are led to believe by the lying Christian Nationalist Clergy who are racists, anti-semites, haters of Islam, and any other spiritual discipline that isn’t their brand of Christianity. I know that verses 2, 3, 5 are the real deal. 39+ years ago I began my “turning” and I have kept engaging in turning and returning to God, to the principles of the Bible which are all throughout the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. I know that God heals our “backsliding” because my has been healed every time I turn back to God after failing forward, learning something from my not so good actions. I experience God’s free love as it says: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now am found Was blind, but now I see. God’s healing of my/our backsliding is immediate as is our/my experience of God’s love once we/I made the turn back to the beginning, back to the creator’s words, messages, and the story of the ‘founding mothers and fathers of the Bible’. “When will we ever learn” rings in my ears each and every day-it seems like we the people refuse to learn today, refuse to turn back today, refuse to be grateful for what we have today!
ACTION STEPS:
1) What are your foundational principles How do you live them each day

2)  What “backsliding” do you need healed

3) What is the state of your “return”

4) How do you reconcile your need for freedom with the ways in which your cruelty, your autocracy, your’s being the only opinion that matters

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 53

STOP THE PRESSES: VANCE IS OVER IN SWITZERLAND TO SAVE THE PEACE DEAL WITH IRAN! Thank God for JD, for DJT, for MR, for HL, et al for saving the United States from the threat of nuclear war that Iran posed after Trump tore up the first Iran deal because it was made by Barack Husein Obama, a black man who had the audacity to live in the White House! A black man who called Trump out at a Correspondents Dinner over his ‘birther’ bullshit! How he got elected fair and square remains a mystery to many of We the People! Hillary ran a bad campaign, Joe’s ego telling him he was the only one who could beat Trump and his family/advisors indulging him was horrific, and Kamala did not run a good campaign for her 101 days. So, here we are with Trump in charge, Trump stealing, grifting, picking the pockets of America and individual Americans each and every day - while telling us this is what the Founding Fathers meant to happen? OY VEY! Isn’t WAY PAST TIME for us to hear the call of Hosea with new hearing aids, read his words with a new pair of glasses?

“Turn to Adonai and say: forgive all iniquity and take us back in goodness and graciousness. We give you the words instead of the calves”(Hosea 14:3). I am calling out the Clergy who go along to get along, the FBI who have forsaken their sworn duty, the Department of Justice who have perverted Justice because as Deuteronomy teaches: “bribes blind the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous”(Deut.16:19) for not hearing this call of Jesus, of Moses, of God and, instead doing everything that the beginning of Parasha Shoftim in Deuteronomy warns against! Rather than appointing officials and officers to guard the gates, we the people elected someone who appoints officials and officers who will tear the gates down so the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Billionaire Boys Club will be able to enter, rape, rob, and pillage this beautiful land, this democracy, and no more let freedom ring, no more “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. Rather, how can I steal from Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, NATO, etc to gain more power so I can be more corrupt is the way of this administration, is the way of these ‘fine christian nationalists’, these ‘fine Israel-loving jews’, etc. It is ingenious to make loving Israel and its current administration one and the same, which Trump has done forever because he is “the best friend Israel has ever had”! BULLSHIT- Friendship requires Truth, it requires rebuking your neighbor, friend, family member with love and concern-neither of which are present in Trump and his cronies-including the Jews who suck his ass!

For the Clergy to not be SHOUTING FROM THEIR PULPITS and ROOFTOPS is totally bewildering to me and, it is typical of what has happened to all people. Rather than channelling their inner prophet, their prophetic inheritance, Clergy want to ‘belong’, they are willing to WHORE themselves to ‘be accepted’, each day they live in fear of speaking truth to power because they are worried about making a living-financially. Their reasons may have some logic to them, be real and their rational minds make them HARLOTS just like Ancient Israel (and some would say modern-day Israel under Netanyahu. “Turn to Adonai” is the beginning of change, change cannot happen without both a turning away from old ways and ideas AND a turning to new ways of behaving, acting our ways into right thinking, returning to the source of wisdom and the stories of both successful and unsuccessful living found in the Bible, in its entirety and I especially am enamored with the tales of the prophets and the Psalms because they once again illumiate the lessons taught during the 40 years in the wilderness!

“Turn to Adonai” is only the 1st step in change, Adonai does a lot for us, for sure-AND Adonai doesn’t do it all, I can’t just turn my troubles, my foibles over to Adonai and believe everything will be okay-I have to do MY PART! I have to make the amends necessary for past behavior, I have to ask for forgiveness, for goodness, for grace and I have to forgive another(s), I have to practice goodness and give people grace. It is incumbent upon me to be Adonai’s partner, not supplicant, not mealy-mouthed slave, a partner. In fact, with the exception of the “big Aleinu” on the High HolyDays, we the people are always standing when we say God’s name in our prayers. We the People are called to face God, to be in a “face to face” relationship with God, to make the words of our lips become the reality within which to serve Adonai, our family, community, world! This is the goal, the yoke I accepted almost 40 years ago and I keep moving forward, with a lot of ups and downs each day.

ACTION STEPS

  1. How often do you read the prophets, the Bible and mine the wisdom from it and practice the wisdom in your daily living

  2. What will it take for you to STAND UP against the harlotry being pursued openly in America, in Israel, in your own living

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 52

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 52

WOW, what a day it is as the Psalmist says: “This is the day God has made and let us rejoice in it”. I think of this verse each and every morning when I walk outside and marvel at the weather, the wind blowing, the sun shining and know that human beings had, have NOTHING TO DO WITH THESE THINGS, except maybe to fuck them up! I keep shaking my head at how humanity, since our beginning, have been unable to “Rejoice in it” and how sad this is. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel is quoted a lot and his teaching of “radical amazement and wonder” still eludes most of we the people. He would talk about the great miracle of the sun setting and the moon rising each day and people would look at him and not understand his marvel and joy at these ‘everyday occurences’ to most people and the electrifying charge of spiritual energy these daily miracles that abound around us daily mean to people of faith, people who know that “This is the day God has made” and to “rejoice in it” means to appreciate it, care for it, use it to move at least one grain of sand closer to finding and fulfilling the purpose each of us, individually, are created for and joining with family, community to promote the actions that make us worthy to “rejoice in” this day.

This idea was on full display yesterday at the opening of the Obama Presidential Library. The joy on the peoples’ faces who were there was infectious, the power of the musicians who were there infused all of us who heard them with hope and belief, the words of both Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama filled us with direction, being called to action, and with the task of making “this day” a day to “rejoice in” because We the People are not pining for what was, rather we are marching ahead to what can be. This is what President Obama said his Library is about, watching Presidents Clinton, Bush, Biden all sit, know and believe that “this is the day God has made” and their ability to “rejoice in it” together, without worrying about ‘party loyalty’, only caring about the personal bond they all share as former Presidents, only caring about their shared loyalty to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, only caring about being “trusted servants of God” and of We the People!

Having met President Bush and corresponding with him for a minute, I was and am deeply moved by his faith in God, his belief in recovery and the brightness of his soul, while disagreeing with so many of his policies. After stating this to him in an email, he wrote me a hand-written note and I have it to this day on my desk-another reason to “rejoice in it” because two people who have such different backgrounds found the commonality of spirit to bond together and know that “this is the day God has made” and, together at times and individually we “rejoice in it”. I imagine the same is true for the Clintons and know from their words that this is true with the Bidens and Obamas. All of these men and women aspired while they were in office to “form a more perfect union” and kept fidelitty with the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to the best of their ability and in their understanding of them.

Each day, We the People have the opportunity to acknowledge “this is the day God has made” and NOT THE DAY THAT TRUMP HAS MADE! Each day, We the People are able to have the experience of “rejoice in it” rather than go along with the MAGA CROWD AND SHIT ON IT and ALL THE PEOPLE THEY DEEM AS “ENEMIES”! While I am loathe to believe that the MAGA crowd is unredeemable, I keep thinking about Pharaoh and how he kept going back on his words, kept breaking the promises he made to God, to Moses, to the people-both the Egyptians and the Jews, ie the stranger- and how at a certain point he just wasn’t able to return, he was too far gone. I see this in Trump and know the responsibility is upon all of us, beginning with his father, then Roy Cohn, then the NY media, then NBC and now with the portion of we the people who actually bought the bullsht that he cared after his 1st term! These people, who claim such devotion to Jesus, are the charlatans, the “money-changers” in the Temple and in such stark contrast to the 4 former Presidents we were able to see yesterday, in such stark contrast to the staff, volunteers, people on display yesterday.

We the People are being called to make a very deliberate and decisive choice “this day”: Do We follow the Psalmist who teaches: “this is the day God has made and let us rejoice in it” or do we follow the MAGA’s who believe that “this is the day” for “christian nationalism” and Trump “to rejoice in”. I choose the former, no matter whom is President because to “rejoice in” God allows me, forces me, guides me to live in wonder and radical amazement!
ACTION STEP:

  1. Make a practice of rejoicing in this day, in this moment

  2. Make a practice of rejoicing in what is, even if it is shitty

  3. Make a practice of recognizing how to make this day better for the sake of Heaven, the sake of another(s)

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 51

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 51

There is a Memo of Understanding between Iran and the United States, YAY, except neither nation understands the other, neither nation can count on Israel to agree, and how can one make a memo of understanding between untrustworthy people? I am elated that the ‘war’ is over-maybe- and afraid that, besides giving away the store, making a worse deal than Obama made, that Trump is so unpredictable, his ‘advisors’ are so hateful, that this could blow up at any moment. It is truly a both/and experience for me and many others, across the political spectrum. It points to a larger issue, for me, the trustworthiness of We the People. Since the beginning of the Bible, human beings have demonstrated their untrustworthiness to God, to one another and we the people have paid the price by being enslaved, exiled, taken over, and made into scapegoats-think Hitler blaming the Jews, the Southerners blaming the Blacks, the ‘White Man’ blaming the Native Americans, the white christian nationalists blaming LGBTQ+, the Jews, immigrants, Muslims, Hispanics, for all the ills of the nation while their ‘leaders’ rape, rob, and pillage the treasury, the government, foreign policy, etc.

Thinking about this, in this moment, I have an insight as to what Adam and Eve saw after “eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil”, they saw their own mortality, their uncertainty, there were answers to questions they would never be able to find, and there is more to a human being than our material selves. Their fear at seeing what truly is caused them to become untrustworthy to God, to one another. Curiousity may have been the reason they disobeyed and they ignored their curious mind once their ‘eyes had been opened’ in favor of their fearful mind; hence they hid, what I believe is the actual sin. Cain couldn’t be trusted to have a conversation with Abel because he was untrustworthy in SO many ways; beginning with him not bring his best when he made an offering to God, he did not bring his best self when dealing with Abel, and this is a theme repeated over and over again throughout the Bible.

We the People have been lying to ourselves and one another forever and it leads to wars, to slavery, to deep unhappiness, to authoritarian governments, to family mistrust, to scaring our children at their most vulnerable moments, ages, to cheating the customer because I can, to not covering the insurance plans a company sells because of some arithmetic, etc. In our dealing, a handshake is no longer to be trusted, a contract is something to break, find the loophole in, etc. This may be a reason that kids like their chatbot therapists better than actual ones-they can trust the chatbot, they believe they can trust AI or so the people behind AI are telling us and people like Musk, Trump, Lutnick would never be untrustworthy, would they? Most distressing is that we the people have come to accept our deception of self and another, our indifference to evil, our politicians are going to accept money from lobbyists and do their bidding rather than serve the people who elected them, our belief that screwing someone else before they screw me is acceptable behavior, that “love your neighbor” has turned into “suspect your neighbor”, that “love the stranger” has turned into imprison the stranger, that care for the needy, the poor, has become fuck the little guy over and over again. We the people are engaging in untrustworthy behaviors across the political, social, economic spectrums without regard to the ways of God, the words of Jesus… WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE?

Hosea 14:2 has part one of the solution to our untrusteworthiness: “Return Israel to Adonai your God, even though you have stumbled in your iniquity” Return is the first step in our recovery from being untrustworthy, our first step in our recovering our inner life, our essence, our authenticity. It means we have to first admit that we strayed, that we were/are in error, that our untrustworthiness has permeated every area of living. Most of we the people don’t have the ego strength to do this, there is plenty of egotism surrounding us and the people who suffer from egocentrism do not have the Ego Strength to be real, to be trustworthy. The only way back, I found, is to return to God first, returning to my spiritual essence gave me the impetus to continue the journey to finding my authentic self, my purpose. I have gone from really untrustworthy to very trustworthy and it started with my “return to Adonai”, with letting go of the lies, the deceptions, the suspicions, and being open and making deals that might not work and keeping my end of the bargain up to the best of my ability-faltering sometimes and making amends for the missing the marks.

ACTION STEP:

  1. Make an inventory of the times/areas where you are untrustworthy

  2. Make an inventory of the times/areas where you are trustworthy

  3. What do these times/areas share

  4. How do enhance #2 and repair #1?

GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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