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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 32

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 32

What happened to us? This is the question that has occupied my being for some time-I don’t mean only right now, I am speaking about the ideal/idea to “make a more perfect union”, the idea/ideal of “all men(people) are created equal”, the idea/ideal that “all of us have intrinsically dignity and worth, uniqueness and we all possess equal measures-hence there is no one who has more dignity, worth, uniqueness than another person. I am thinking about the Psalmist King David and the warrior King David,the David who could listen to women and his prophet, who could admit his errors and repent and everyone who followed him who has been unable to do the same. I am thinking about the prophets who came to warn, cajole, lovingly and harshly coax the People Israel back to the Sinai experience, the Red Sea experience, knowing the difference between slavery and liberty, liberty and freedom.

I am not thinking about doubts, about wondering if it is God or Ego that we are connecting to because we the people do both! Abraham, the man of great faith, even greater than Moses’ because there weren’t a lot of people around who thought about, practiced, spread the idea, the concept, the Truth of One God, he had doubts, he had foibles-remember he pimped Sarah twice, (but never Hagar, hmm…), threw out Ishmael, almost killed Isaac, AND he had great faith, great allegiance, to God. Yet, we tend to forget, gloss over, explain away the foibles, the errors of our ancestors in the Bible because We the People do not want to come face to face with our own incongruities. Rather than continue the tradition begun in wilderness of Sinai, the practice of bringing an offering so we don’t stray from the community nor from God, so we don’t go into the “poor me, I’m so bad” bullshit, the “I will never be forgiven” lies, rather we make our amends to the people harmed, we make restitution to the best of our ability, and we re-sew the fabric of our connection to God. Since the destruction of the Temple, this process is T’Shuvah-return, repent, response. This is the true greatness of King David-he did it willingly, as completely as he could and he was not afraid to stand up, admit his errors, do his T’Shuvah and experience the consequences of his bad behavior just like he did the same regarding his good behavior.

This is the basis for the opening question, “What happened to us? As Dara Horn state state in an article in the journal Sapir: monotheism is a political idea, that the reason the Jews are hated, and I would add admired, is because “Jewish Civilization is an anti-tyrannical movement, a nonconformist movement, an anti-hierarchical movement, based on a story of liberation that taught the world that change is possible”! We the People know the solution to the ills of today, to the autocracy that is trying to enslave the world today, the cruelty, the power struggle, the stealing, the disgusting actions of so many who are in power-forgetting that We the People gave them the opportunity to serve the Greater Good, not themselves and they have FUCKED WE THE PEOPLE, Royally! It is WAY PAST TIME for we the people to rise up once again, to stand up once again, to say LET MY PEOPLE GO to the various Pharaohs in the world today and to say NO to the rational mind that has gone along with the lies, the self-deceptions allowing us to become enslaved ONCE AGAIN!

“What happened to us?” We the People have stopped immersing ourselves in the Bible, we have made a conscious decision to not read, hear, listen, understand the gifts that the Prophets are constantly giving to us: the strength to go against the grain, the reminder of our experience at the Red Sea and then at Sinai, the bitching and moaning of the desert years, and the whole shebang-we the people are stiff-necked and stubborn, seeking certainty and knowing there is none, wanting consistency and knowing the only constant is change, etc. Yet, as my recovery has taught me, liberation happens all the time, none of us have to be too far gone for redemption, for those who are, it is a choice they have made-like Pharaoh in Egypt made. I am living proof that the anti-tyrannical, anti-hierarchical, nonconformist Jewish culture saves lives! This was the basis of the way Harriet and I ran Beit T’Shuvah, where if one staff member thought they could help the resident everyone thought should leave, we kept them, where telling the truth is more important than the crime, usually. This is the path, nonconformity, anti-hierarchical, anti-tyrannical  actions to returning to the ways of the Bible, the path of King David, the ideals/ideas of Moses and God!

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Each day, for a week, write down how conformity served your soul and how it harmed your soul

  2. Look at how you are Pharaoh and the Pharaoh you are following

  3. How has your nonconformity hurt your status/revenue and helped your soul

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 31

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 31

America is bombing Iran, again after saying a deal was close. Israel is bombing Hezbollah because Trump gave Netanyahu permission, evidently. We just commemorated the offering that our military people gave so We the People can live free, saying “Happy Memorial Day”. This got me wondering, what is “happy” about Memorial Day? The original name for this day was “Decoration Day” to decorate the graves of the soldiers lost in the Civil War as a way of honoring their offering of “their last full measure”. Unfortunately, given the reign of chaos, terror, ignorance, cruelty that this “great nation” that is supposed to be a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” and “shall not perish from this earth” is putting this dream, this vision, this idea/ideal of the founding fathers and each successive generation in grave danger!

It is a custom, with some Jews, to offer a prayer, a statement at the time of death, on the anniversary of the death of a loved one: “HaMakom YiNachem”, which means “God will comfort you”. A lot of people add “may” to the beginning of this phrase, which is the same people do to a lot of blessings when the “may” is not in the phrase, the blessing. What these two words tell us and the mourner is: we cannot give you the comfort you need from our rational minds, from our facts and figures, we can only sit with you, hold you, connect with you and together seek the wisdom and way forward, not out of grief, the way forward to live without this person you/we love so much. To every mourner, each day is Memorial Day, for the last 60+ years, my father’s memory, his wisdom, his calling for me to be one grain of sand better each day has nagged at me, given me bad conscience when I was screwing up and embracing me since I am doing well.

“God comforts you” is a way of putting order to the chaos of death, to chaos of living without this important person in our lives, to the immense sense of being alone. It is a refusal to give in to the cruelty of vengeance, to the need to be right, to the need to blame and shame, to the seeking of injustice, to the need to hate. This is what is missing today here in the US and in Israel-a refusal to Hate, to Cruelty, to Blame and Shame, to promoting and bragging about Injustices Trump, Netanyahu, et al are perpetrating with glee and reckless abandon. Really BIBI, Really Ben G’Vir, you whom are descendants of the people who “wrote the book”, who taught us how to behave no matter who was the physical leader of where we live, who coined the phrase “God comforts You” are perpetuating hate, cruelty, dehumanization of another(s)? I understand Trump doing this because all his life he has cared about himself alone, sought to be rich, sought to have people kiss his ass, wanted to be a Mafia don, and now he is Capo D’Tutti, the head man and his evil inclination, which was always on display, has free reign, hence the back and forth with Iran, the need to show how strong he is, the decisions he makes based on who is pumping him up at this moment. But you, Netanyahu, YOU ARE A JEW and MORE IS EXPECTED OF YOU! It is not about turning the other cheek, it is ABOUT REJECTING CRUELTY! It is about not being like the “other nations”, it is about representing the Kindness, Truth, Justice, Love, Compassion, etc that God promotes, that God teaches us to have, and the Loyalty to Principles that the Prophets remind us of each day! You have screwed the pooch BIG TIME, Bibi and Israel, like the US, will take a while to recover from your corruption, your lies, your destruction of freedoms, your hateful actions towards the Images of God that Palestinians represent!

When we allow for “God comfort You” to overtake us as visitors to the mourners, as mourners ourselves, a change happens. I no longer needed to blame society for my father’s premature death at 42, I no longer needed to be angry that I was alone with no one to understand/“get me”. Rather, I became and grow in gratitude that Jerry was my dad, that I got to learn from him and still am talking to him, that my siblings and I have good relationships, that I am connected to my wife and daughter in close and loving ways. “God comforts You” whenever you open yourself to the healing powers of the universe, when we the people become ready and willing to be comforted because the anger, the getting even, the cruelty, is not serving us at all. It is like the family who, after the guilty verdict, are happy that justice has been done AND they are still not whole, the hole in their soul that their loved one filled is still empty. When and if We the People allow “God comforts You” to make an impression upon us, to hold the hand of the people who offer nothing but comfort in whatever way you need it-the hole starts to get smaller because, like my experience with my father (who was a veteran of WWII) our loved one never leaves!

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Each day, write down the moments, experiences when you allowed ‘God comfort You” to help you out of the morass you feel you are in

  2. Each day, ask yourself is you are honoring the memory of our deceased loved ones or not

God Bless and STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF! Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 30

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 30

Today marks 30 days since I began this new blog and I am just getting going! Today is also Memorial Day in the United States, a day of remembrance of the people who “gave their last full measure” to protect and defend our democratic way of living, our belief that “all men are created equal” is a work in progress that we must keep working towards, that the freedoms guaranteed us in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights are to be followed and never be ripped apart-no matter what Vought, Miller, Kushner, Vance and, of course, Donald say and do. I am wondering how the Republicans in the Senate and the House can celebrate our veterans while continuing to tear down the very freedoms, the democratic way of being that they died for? What are the lies Lindsey Graham has to tell himself to defend the Republican abdication of their duty to serve, protect and defend the Constitution that John McCain-his good friend (supposedly)- served time in the “Hanoi Hilton” prison camp to protect and defend in Vietnam? What are the lies we the people are telling ourselves that prevent us from rising up as We the People did in the late 50’s and 60’s?

A Country Pastor, a group/person on Facebook, that my wife Harriet has turned me on to, wrote yesterday about Balaam and his Ass. The Ass saw what the great seer, the prophet of God could not-the danger ahead- probably because he had visions of riches in his head, he saw his retirement being fully funded, and he sort of got approval from God to go ahead. Yet, because of his visions of no more financial worries, he didn’t hear clearly and decisively that he could only speak the words God gives him and not the words that Balak wants him to speak. The same seems to be true in our politics today, and do not think for a moment that the Bible is not Political, that Judaism isn’t political because they both give us ways to live a decent lifestyle, ways to be of service to one another and to God/universe, ways to grow our inner life and learn how to live in cognitive dissonance, live into the Both/And of “this is true and this is true”. What is really interesting in this story is that the Ass knew what his mind didn’t, this may be the first example of not being able to “save your ass and your face at the same time”!

It gives a whole new meaning to “talking out of your ass” as well. In this story, the Ass speaks truth, the Ass sees the danger, the Ass tries to protect the idiot that is riding it, thinking that the Ass is only there to do his bidding, that Balaam believes he can hit it unmercifully, he can be cruel to it because it is impeding his drive for riches and fame. Does this sound like anything that is happening now? Of course it does and the real question is: what are we the people going to do to stop the attack on what the brave men and women throughout our history have given their lives to defend? What are We the People going to do to ensure the principles and ideals like “certain unalienable rights” grow and flourish instead of being thrown away as the powers that be are trying to do right now? Maybe the person we are calling an Ass is the truth teller, the warning from God, the prophet we don’t want to hear nor listen to? Maybe we should be paying more attention to our Ass than to our rational mind, to the lies we tell ourselves and to being less oblivious to what really is happening. Ending our self-deception ain’t easy and it is the only path to freedom of self, freedom for another(s), acknowledging the infinite dignity within our Self and every other Self!

Watching the world I fought for as a teenager, the world my father and uncles fought for in World War II, the friends who fought in Vietnam, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, the ones who made it back with such inner scaring, some even took their lives from their experience over there, come apart because of greed, of lust for power, because of a Bastardization of Christ’s words and deeds, a Bastardization of the Bible, is so very painful. Watching Recovery from Addiction treatment centers become big business rather than serving the needs of people, seeing them as individuals, hurts my heart. Knowing that we are in need of a Prophet, in need of a Moses, Jesus, Mohammed like person, another MLK type, another Ben Franklin and knowing how difficult it is to be heard when you are like Amos, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, makes some people give up hope. WRONG! This is the moment to infuse hope into the conversation with yourself, this is the moment to find the Ass that you can ride to vision, to hearing, to being safe and being a SERVANT of God! This is the challenge, the solution.

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Make a list of the times when looking good was more important than being good

  2. Make a list of the Ass’ who have told you to get on their back, ride their coattails to a richer and more meaning full life

  3. Raise your hand to salute the myriads of soldiers who gave their lives so we can live free, the myriad of social activists who dedicated their lives to the proposition: All people are created equal, having certain unalienable rights.

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 29

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 29

Today is Pentecost Day for Catholics and Protestants; Friday, I did not write because it was Shavuot, the time of “Receiving the Torah” and both have in common the principle of each human being has a personal experience of God, a confrontation, a visit, being enveloped in love, mercy, kindness, in this moment and, I would add, at every moment. The religious, spiritual and moral significance of receiving the Torah, being ‘struck’ with the ability to speak in tongues as Christianity recounts, is BE HUMAN!

None of us can BE HUMAN without an experience of God, without God being our constant companion-be it higher consciousness, Allah, Jesus, Adonai-the names do not matter. What the experience of the Pentecost, of receiving the Torah does is let us know that we are “loved by an unending love”, that we are always being cooed, being called to return ‘to the fold’, to be healed and move forward. Yet, most of we the people are not interested in this knowledge, most of we the people are more concerned with self and self-interest that we are constantly doing everything in our power to Ghost God, Ghost our true Self and go against what is in our best interest: Serving another(s), serving God!

Thursday night, I had the privilege of studying with my dear friend Rabbi Hazzan Danny Maseng. We looked at Hosea, given the whoring that is rampant in our world today we decided to look at the prophet who speaks most about the whoredom of Israel! The study of the Bible is not to confirm the truth of what it is talking about as much it is to confirm what is happening again and again in the different times since the Bible was written down! Even the Rabbis who compiled it, who canonized it, could not, would not live into it enough to effect a psychic change within themselves and within the People Israel. How sad that throughout the ages, we Jews, who are supposed to “carry the message” of Hosea, of the prophets, of the entire Tanach, the Bible, instead continue to live like the Rabbis of old-making excuses and being victims(which we have been victimized throughout the ages) and not living into the principles that are gifted to us, Jew and non-Jew, in order to live a principled, joyous life! There were, I am sure, many all-night studies Thursday night/Friday morning, I used to lead one at Beit T’Shuvah and the miraculous experiences of residents, alumni, staff, donors, community members is still spoken about! This happened because people came to learn, came to be moved by the study, by the myriad of teachers from the Community, and to have their own individual experience of God that could only happen in community. At 6am, when the study was wrapping up, I would recite the 10 Commandments, stopping at each one and asking if the people still awake would accept and live into each individual one-after an all-nighter, the energy of their YES infused everyone, especially me, with a spiritual high. This is what the Tikkun is aboutnot to show how smart and erudite one is, not to argue the minutiae, rather it is about having the experience of the people at Mount Sinai, the experience of the people crossing the Red Sea, the experience and declaration that “Zeh Eli”, “This is my God” and keeping our end of the covenantal love!

The people of Israel, of the Northern Kingdom were called to account by Hosea for their whoring after false gods, their whoring after women from Baal, their whoring after money, power, prestige, doing anything and everything to keep control, to put down ‘the other’ instead of loving the stranger, proclaiming Freedom throughout the land-they sought to keep power in a very tight circle, impose harshness and cruelty upon ‘those people’ and God knew they would have to experience/bear the consequences of their behaviors. While the innocent got exiled with the guilty, it is an example of how connected we the people are to one another and how responsible we have to be to one another. Hosea, keeps reminding the people, however, that doing TShuvah, returning to God will repair the damage, that God will take them back in love and heal their backsliding. Yet, the people don’t believe, they don’t heed, the just keep going on as if they are impervious to the consequences of their actions. SOUND FAMILIAR?

The Jews who study all night and give money and support to the cruelty, the injustice, the callousness, the sins being committed here and in Israel are eerily similar to the people who populated Israel in the time of Hosea! It is time for the Jewish People, the Christian People to take seriously Shavuot, the Pentecost and the commitments made that have been broken. It is time for We the People to repair the damage and recommit to Doing and then Understanding!
ACTION STEPS:

  1. Reread the giving of the Commandments in Exodus, reread the account of speaking in tongues in Acts and recommit to living into the underlying principle of serving God, serving another(s)

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 28

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 28

There was a piece on Facebook yesterday that Harriet liked by “A Country Preacher”- whether it is AI or real, is of no matter to me in the moment because what it talks about is Very Real! It cites the myriad of times that the People Israel are warned about having a King and, of course, their not heeding the warnings!! DUH! Yet, to this day people are seeking to have “the big strongman” take care of them, protect them, ensure their safety at the cost of their money, property, freedom-yet we the people persist to this day, refusing to learn the lessons of the Bible, the lessons of history, so we keep being bewildered when our “king”, our “autocrat”, our “dictator” turns on us-unbelievable! Yet true.

This “Country Preacher” quotes from the Bible, the New Testament, and makes an interesting point: “before kings, Israel was far more communal, tribal, local and shared in responsibility. There were judges, elders, prophets, community discernment. It was imperfect because human beings are imperfect”. While historically the “more communal” can be argued, the main point of “tribal, local, shared in responsibility…judges, elders, community discernment” is more to the point. In fact, in their “community discernment” the People Israel pushed Samuel to appoint a King, which he was vehemently against and did it. It was all downhill from there-this is not to say the Priesthood was not without its own imperfections, like the sons of Samuel, of Eli being bullies, thieves, extortion artists. All of which speaks to the issue of power and where does it emanate from. When it is a “top down” power structure, abuse is sure to happen. David was a ‘benevolent’ king because he had Nathan, the prophet, at his side and when he didn’t have Nathan or one of the smart women in his life by his side, he fucked it all up, ie the murder of Uriah! His son Solomon was a pig and could never get enough, he turned the people against one another and created a rift between this faction and that faction that is getting bigger by the day-thank you Bibi and your thugs for proving the lessons of the Bible are still unheard, still ignored by you and your ‘good torah jews’ who are idolators and charlatans!

In America, as we prepare to celebrate 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, we the people need to look at our own history to see how fractured we have been since the beginning-Slave states and non-slave states, the Civil War, the isolationists and the Nazi-lovers like Lindbergh, Coughlin, Ford, et al. “We the People in order to form a more perfect union” has been the goal and it is still unrealized and, under the current climate, becoming more and more unrecognizable. The current push by the President to be shielded from any and all prosecution, any and all false tax returns, any and all responsibility for his actions is ANTI-AMERICAN! It goes against the Bible, the New Testament, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the spirit of how, when, why the United States of America was founded! Yet, here we are-thank you ‘you good white christian nationalist Republicans, you non-white jewish christian nationalist Republicans’! Thank you Bibi, Ben G’Vir, Smotrich, et al for showing us that Jews can act as antithetical to the Biblical concerns today as they were back then!

I am calling for a different kind of protest, not just a No Kings rally-although they are super important- I am calling for a ballot box protest, a voting with our feet protest, a Get out of Our Elections Mr. President, you disgusting Proud Boys, you not living up to your name Oath Keepers, you ICE agents who are too afraid to be ‘unmasked’. Hey Trump, Hey ICE, at least Hitler and the Nazis were not afraid to be seen stealing, looting, raping, killing innocent people just because they were not white Aryans. You all don’t even have the balls to do this-you ‘big strong’ PUNKS.

I am calling for a Return to our Spiritual Roots and Callings. I see and hear God’s demand upon us all, people of any and all faiths, people of no faith, people who follow Eastern Spiritual Disciplines to GET UP and BE FREE! Is it any wonder we are told to NOT GO BACK TO EGYPT? Is it any wonder that the prescription for a King is to read the Bible every night with advisors/prophets who speak Truth to Power? Is it any wonder that we have forgotten and/or twisted the words of the Prophets, the words of Jesus, the words of the Bible to fit the lying, mendacious narrative our power-hungry self wants to wield? We the People are being called by the Voice on Sinai, right this moment, to STAND UP and take back our freedoms, take back our countries, take back our religions.

ACTION STEP:

  1. Write down the ways you have/are improving your community

  2. Make a list of the ways you kiss the ass of the Powerful, speaking lies instead of truth so you can ‘get by’

  3. “Make your home a meeting place for the wise” and start planning on how we will win at the ballot box

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 27

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 27

I am being told that my writings are political and may not carry well with people who disagree with me politically, who may read these years later when the people mentioned are long forgotten, and they may be correct. And my intention is not to be political-rather to point out how we the people are ghosting God by not standing on and for principles and ghosting self by not following the demands, the calls to be holy, to be decent, to be loving, to proclaim and ensure freedom to “all the inhabitants therein”! Just as the Bible is written so humanity can read, hear, do and then understand, so too am I attempting for these blogs to be written so everyone can read, hear, learn, do and then understand how far away from Godliness, from Holiness, from the principles of the Bible, of the New Testament, AA, Buddhism, all spiritual disciplines we are and, in future generations, not stray as far as we the people have!

Watching what is happening in the United States in this moment gives me Agida, heartburn, heartache, sadness in my soul! The mendacity, the indifference, the idiotic belief that ‘these good christian men’ are the only ones who should have power, that ‘these followers of Christ’ would go against everything he stood for, is simply enraging to a Jew like me! I do not have the same reverence for “Christ, our Lord” as my Christian friends do AND I have great reverence and respect for the principles Christ espoused because they all come from the Bible, they all are reminiscent of the words and deeds of the prophets! The situation Christ encountered, from my reading of his words, is the same the prophets encountered and the same We the People are encountering today: the Priests, the Ministers, the Rabbis, are going along with the people in power and the wealthy so they can enjoy and reap the benefits of being next to power! Just ask Clarence Thomas what this feel likes and the joy he experiences by selling his soul to “The (WHITE) MAN!!

Of course my disdain, my bewilderment, my rage is pointed mostly towards the Rabbis who are on their knees in front of Trump and his gang. These supposed ‘men and women of god’ are worshipping false idols, they are making graven images of God, they are taking the Name of God in vain, they are murdering innocent people by their lying ways, they are stealing the soul of the Bible by their grift and graft, they are bearing false witness before Congress, before us, they are whoring themselves out to the highest bidder, they are coveting their neighbors ass, the neighbors’ wives ass, etc. Howard Lutnick and Jeffery Epstein’s were pals after all! That AIPAC would throw 100’s of millions dollars to defeat Republicans who have shown some backbone and pushback to Trump’s shielding Epstein’s files and his friends(which donny boy is one of), to the Iran War, to the high cost of living  that is impacting people from every walk of life-except the billionaires who are reaping insane amounts of money-keeping the tariff refunds for themselves while they gouged the rest of us is unfathomable to me. Yet, this is where we are at. Do AIPAC and the Jewish Republican Coalition really believe that the KKK/South will rise again ‘good white christian men’ will “take care of them”? Do they not realize that every ‘good white christian man’ throughout history has either killed Jews, made us the reason for the troubles of the masses, spoken blood libel about us, culminating in the Concentration Camps in Germany and Poland? Are they so drunk on their ‘power’ that, like the priests, the wealthy, the people in charge in the days of the prophets, they are unable to “lift up their eyes and SEE” what is real?

I guess so! Hence the NEED for We the People to stop letting a minority of people run our country, our livelihood, our moral fiber, our spiritual health into the ground. I am calling out all of you so-called ‘normies’ who think your shit don’t stink, who believe in your “progressive” ways, who are certain that only my “conservative friends” will save us, who support the doings of Trump and Bibi in creating camps to demean and store like inanimate objects, the “stranger in our midst” instead of loving the stranger as God calls for! I am calling out We the People to fight these hateful, vengeful, thieving individuals who are giving money to the very people who go against the principles of Christ, of the Bible, who abuse the legacy of King David; calling him a warrior and forgetting his writing of the Psalms, his connection to God, his ability to admit his errors and do TShuvah for them. I know the life of People of the Lie and it is not good for the rest of us, it attacks our reality, our knowing and spits on our dignity and worth, our uniqueness and our gifts! We must put a stop to this RIGHT NOW!

ACTION STEPS:

  1. What lessons from history have you internalized and are not repeating-personal history and global history

  2. How are you confusing what is ‘good for your pocketbook’ and what God is calling on us to DO

  3. What is the draw of the liars, the thieves that you keep buying their bullshit and your own lies

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 26

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 26

Each morning I wake up, sometimes WAY TOO EARLY, and I am excited to be alive and dreading what the latest horrific news from Trump et al is going to be. This is NOT Trump Derangement Syndrome-it is knowing what a lying, cheating grifting asshole is capable of-since in my youth I was one! Knowing that everything coming out of his mouth is probably a lie, except when he says he doesn’t think about the average American- only the rich idiots who keep kissing his ass and sucking his you know what! Yet, he was able to defeat a good and decent man like Dr. Cassidy in Louisiana, one of the places where his followers are getting royally fucked! What is wrong with people? The bombing in San Diego at the Mosque he called a terrible thing-thank God he didn’t say, ‘well, you know, they hate Trump and the Muslim people come from shit countries, and we are at war with them’ and other such idiocy-can you imagine, I am grateful he wasn’t an asshole this time, pretty low bar that he and his gang of incompetent thugs continue to go under it!!

Hegseth in Kentucky to campaign against Thomas Massey while the ‘war’ with Iran rages on, Kushner and Wytkoff in the Middle East, Russia, etc  seeking money for themselves and Trump while Marco Rubio keeps his nose up Trump’s ass, and other ridiculous goings on that capture our imagination and sense of horror. The best may be how many stock trades he has done and then those companies are either visited by him, promoted by him, obtain Government contracts, etc. His graft, his destruction of the emoluments clause is total and unprecedented and our Congress which is supposed to be one of the checks and balances on the President and the Supreme Court is DOING NOTHING!! These ‘fine Christian men and women’ are turning a blind eye to the stealing by Trump while wanting the 10 Commandments to be posted in every school. Jesus complained about “the money changers in the Temple” while these “true believers” cheer Trump’s thieving ways and give him another 1.8 billion to give out to the Jan 6 rioters, the Proud Boys, etc. Is this really what Jesus would want?

The Jewish Republicans who are cheering these behaviors on, who are in lockstep with Netanyahu in Israel, who promote hatred of the stranger, who believe the enemy of my enemy is my friend, who are putting stumbling blocks before the blind and cursing the deaf are even more disgusting to me! How can these ‘learned jews, bible thumping practitioners of everything that goes against the prophets, that is inline with all of the actions like senseless hatred, ignoring the cries of the poor, the needy, the stranger, call themselves Jews, I just don’t know. I am positing that to BE A JEW, is so much more than birth identity, so much more than circumcision, so much more than Bar/Bat Mitzvah, following dogmatic rules imposed by the Rabbis and other men. To BE A JEW is to “be a light unto the nations”, it is to “be a blessing”, to carry the words and deeds of God to every experience we have, to “love the stranger” said 36 times in the Bible, to do TShuvah for our errors, to come back to the fold because God heals our backsliding and loves us in our return, to know that where the truly repentant stands, not even the most saintly can reach her/his level. Yet, what do we have? We have Rabbis who say the right things and look right through people, who we are told to not take their ignoring of one personally because he/she does it to everyone. We have Rabbis who look to be politically safe rather than use their prophetic voice and call out the Bullshit around them. We have institutions who are so afraid of losing their funding they will not speak out nor up-even the ADL under Jonathan Greenblatt has caved to Trump, to the Republican massacre of Truth, of Decency, of Kindness, of Love!

It is way past time for Jews to START BEING JEWS/JEWISH again/for the first time. We wandered in the Desert for 40 years to get slavery out of our inner life, we wandered in the desert for 40 years to experience the wonder that wandering provides for us, we wandered in the desert for 40 years so we could learn how to be free, how to be a people, how to serve something greater than ourselves in our own unique way-not according to some bullshit societal nonsense! The way that some of these ‘frumma yids’ worship the Golden Calf of Trump in Florida and DC, the way that Meir Soloveitchik promoted a Christian Bible day when the speakers were calling for the US to be a ‘christian nation as the founding fathers wanted’ (WRONG), and NOT speak out about Religious Freedom, Freedom of the Press, Freedom to choose, etc is mind-boggling to me. We the Jews who believe we are “a light to the nations” have to speak out and speak up; have to live by the 10 Commandments, the Holiness Code, etc and CHOOSE LIFE instead of the slow death of allowing our rational mind, our fears, our need to be certain, our need to be rich to kill us softly.

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Decide how you are going to stop Ghosting God, losing your authentic self and serve God instead.

GOD BLESS, Stop GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 25

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 25

Continuing with Einstein’s quote and looking at the macro, seeing how since time immemorial there have been people with “great spirits” in conflict with people who have “mediocre minds”, it is evident that we are deep in the throes of this battle for the soul of the U.S., the soul of Israel, the soul of the world. It is precisely this moment, when our capability to destroy everything God has created is being threatened by those ‘fine christian men’, the ‘good Jewish men’, and, not to be left out, our ‘brothers who continually preach killing the infidel muslims’, that We the People are being called upon like some of We the People were in the 60’s and 70’s.

A moment of euphoric recall: Kennedy in the White House promised youth, new thinking, “a new frontier”, positive energy-with all of his faults, with all of his infidelities, he gave us young people hope that change was possible. Martin Luther King Jr. gave us the kind of fiery sermons that, the young Jews of my generation longed to here from our Rabbis. Bobby Kennedy stood up to Jimmy Hoffa, to George Wallace, to Bull Connor, etc giving us kids hope and then John was assassinated by  whom we will never know, Johnson took over and did great things for the inner workings of the country-including getting the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed AND he fucked up our country by lying about and escalating Vietnam. Then, when Bobby was going to run-he was assassinated by whom we will never know and Tricky Dicky paved the way for Reagan who was a closet racist, John Roberts who’s life mission was to end the Voting Rights Act, and Oliver North, et al who gave rise to Gingrich who’s lasting legacy is one of political hatred and evil who gave rise to the Tea Party and their outrage that a Black Man would be in ‘their White House’ bringing about Trump and his assault on Truth, on Freedom, on the average Joe, on everyone but himself and his family!

Mitch McConnell took over for Gingrich albeit in the Senate and has made a mockery of Freedom through his Supreme Court choices, through his loyalty to party, to making a name for himself, to wealth and NOT TO THE CONSTITUTION which he swore an oath to. He is such a “mediocre mind” that he supported Trump after his wife quit, after Trump insulted her with ethnic sneer campaign! He is consistent, I guess-he is not faithful to the vows he made to care for and defend neither the Constitution nor his wife!

My greatest disgust, as always, lies with the Clergy, the “good christian nationalists, orthodox jews, Israel love it or leave the US people of many stripes, the Israel hate it no matter what they have brought to the world in life-saving medical, technological advances, rescuing people from disasters, and the MAGA believers that TRUTH DOESN’T MATTER!! The “mediocre minds” like Hegseth, Rubio, Lutnick, Vought, Bessent, Miller are doing everything they can to kill the spirit of the United States, the spirit of Freedom. Throw in Trump’s grift and graft, the meaningless Republicans in Congress who suck up everything he says and kiss his ass and the recipe for disaster is being stirred and baked. That Black Clergy and Orthodox Jews can stand and hold hands worshipping the Golden Calf Statue of Trump in Florida, that Black and Jewish clergy defend Trump and love him because ‘he is the best president Israel has ever had’, ‘more black people are working under Trump than ever before’ is MIND BOGGLING. It is the prime example of the great spirits like Pope Leo, William Barber, Sharon Brous, encountering the “violent opposition of mediocre minds”. Unfortunately these “mediocre minds” have been winning the day, the South has risen again, the KKK is back in vogue-or at least their principles are- and disenfranchising of Black voters, of democratic voters, the trampling on the Freedoms that have made America Great is sad and, I KNOW in my bones this will change sooner rather than later.

How do I KNOW in my bones? I know because the Bible reminds me of all the times we the people Ghosted God, Ghosted our Self and then did TShuvah and returned. It has happened throughout the Bible, throughout History and it is happening now. The sad piece for me is that we Jews have forgotten the lessons of the Prophets, the ignoring of truth, of human decency that they teach us and we the people will hear their voices again, will heed them this time and We the People will throw off the yoke of “mediocre minds” and “Proclaim Freedom” in every corner of the Earth and to ALL People everywhere. This is the ACTION STEP We the People need to take!

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 24

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day24

As many of you know, I love quotes because in a few words they capture the moment we are in, the moments that have repeated themselves over and over again, and forearms us with ways to counter-act the horrific inhumanity that human beings perpetrate upon one another.

For the past few days, I have been living with and talking about Einstein’s quote: “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” WOW, what a mouthful, what an apt description of this moment, just as it was at the moment he said it in defense of Bertram Russell who’s brilliance was being demeaned because of his social and moral unusual views. His views on religion, capitalism, and other societal norms would not be considered so ‘out of the box’ today, and they were then. Why Einstein said it is not as important as that he did say this and leave this to all of us as part of his legacy!

In speaking with people over the past few days, I realized that there are both the macro and micro levels to this quote. I have been thinking about how this quote is used to denigrate, explain, defend another person’s behaviors; the negativity of the “mediocre mind” and the soaring of the “great spirits”. Today, I am writing about the MICRO level because not only does another(s) do this to We the People, we the people allow our rational mind to violently oppose what our guts/souls know is the next right thing to do.

How often have any of us ‘gone along to get along’? How many times have we given up our principles and knowing in order to keep the job, the wife, the kids, …? How often have we ‘cut corners’ in order to get ahead, keep our social standing, get what we think we deserve? I know I am guilty of all of these, most prior to my recovery and, I, regretfully admit, there have been times in my recovery that I allowed my servant mind to override what my spiritual mind was telling me because I was afraid, because I convinced myself that this was for the ‘greater good’ and in many cases it was…for a while. What is at stake in every decision we make, every choice we choose, is our dignity, our longevity, our ability to “look at the man in the mirror” and not be disgusted by my decisions, by my choices. When I “go along to get along”, “cut corners” for my sake and not for the sake of heaven/another person, when I compromise my principles to ‘keep’ anything, I have lost myself, I have allowed the “violent opposition” of my own rational mind to overpower the spiritual truth that is reverberating inside of me. This battle between “violent opposition” of my rational mind servant and my intuitive/spiritual mind gift goes on all the time, yet most people are unaware of it, psychologists and psychiatrists believe they can medicate the war away, talk the war out when in reality they are helping to promote the “RATIONAL MIND’S “VIOLENT OPPOSITION”!

This is not to say that the rational mind isn’t useful and necessary-of course it is! At issue is the when, where, how we use it! As Einstein also says; “rational mind is a servant” and in modernity, since the renaissance maybe, society has elevated the rational mind to a much higher status than God does in the Bible-remember even the Israelites said “we will DO and then we will UNDERSTAND-not the other way around as is the case today.

My ‘math brain’ allows me to see way ahead of time the problems coming down the pike, it gives me solutions to material issues that come up all the time. It gives me a long-view of living in the material world that has helped me to succeed. It has also given me bad advice and when I have allowed it to take over, the chaos and evil that comes out is debilitating to everyone around me, bewildering to people, to me. It always comes out after its “violent opposition” to my soul’s solution and it sounds so rational, so correct that even after all these years, it still fools me sometimes. In Judaism we call this “violent opposition” the Yetzer HaRa-the evil inclination. Its is necessary and it is good when the energy is transformed, it is evil and very unnecessary when the energy is not transformed. I know the war, my soul has won overwhelmingly over the “violent opposition” of my “mediocre mind” and I have to be on guard all the time because it is a sneaky bastard!

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Do a daily inventory of when your rational mind overwhelms, is in “violent opposition” to your soul’s knowing

  2. Make a list of when your intuition was right and you followed it, when it was right and you didn’t, when it was wrong and you followed it and when it was wrong and you didn’t.

  3. Ask yourself what the reward is from following the servant and is it worth it

  4. Make a list of the times you did and then understood and the times you have waited to understand before taking action.

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 23

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 23

In one week Jews around the world will be celebrating the spring festival of Shavuot. It is a harvest festival like all the other major festivals and it has had the receiving of the 10 Sayings, the Torah added on by the Rabbis. Not a bad idea, it goes along with the Biblical narrative of the timeline from leaving Egypt till arriving at Sinai. The custom of staying up all night on Erev Shavuot (the night before) began with Isaac Luria, the famous Kabbalistic Master. Their are so many fervent Jews of all denominations who participate in this ritual while at the same time supporting the very ideas and principles that are diametrically opposed to what the Torah teaches, what God is demanding and they just don’t care-they just want to be seen, look good and sound smart, so they can keep on being next to power, in power, getting richer while we the people are getting poorer, suffering indignities that go against “certain unalienable right”, having the Freedoms promised and fulfilled for the most part for most of these past 250 years TAKEN AWAY, RIPPED APART, and the Supreme Court, the Congress, both of whom are the checks and balances, are sucking the private parts of Trump, Vought, Lutnick, Miller, Bessent, et al. WTF?!

As we Jews study all night in order to repair for the Israelites supposedly “sleeping in” on the day the Torah was being given, We the People are actually being called upon to repair the damage being done to the principles, the call, the demands of God to we the people. I love this night and have for the past 37 years because I have stayed up all night and studied, except for the last 5. At Beit T’Shuvah, it was a time for our residents and alumni to teach all of us, staff, residents, alumni how to live better through the principles that made a difference in their life. We would start at 8PM with 100+ people and by 6 AM there would be 50+ left and we read the 10 Commandments out loud, with everyone wrapped inside an open Torah Scroll-a very powerful, spiritual uplift to end this experience. There are many recovering people who still remember the “word of Torah” that they pointed to and lived into each year one grain of sand more.

Rather than speaking about living the principles of the Holiness Code, of the 10 Commandments/sayings, most of the Jews keep trying to outdo one another with their erudite knowing of the sources, the Talmud, the Mishnah, etc. Rather than delve into their need to Tikkun/Repair their ways, their inner life, their Ghosting of God, their living inauthentically, they keep pretending that they are fine, they know what they are doing and they are doing “god’s will”; “god’s will” being whatever they decide it to be, whatever serves them, not another(s), not the betterment of the world, not loving the stranger, not loving their neighbor as themselves and they refuse to be rebuked, they refuse to acknowledge the myriad of ways they put stumbling blocks before the blind, they are cursing the deaf. It is ‘just business’, just ‘the way of the world’.

Shavuot is the moment in time when God called upon We the People to make the ways of the world in line with the Divine rather than follow the insanity, the hubris, the egocentric paths of the rich, famous, cruel autocrats. Hence, the ways of the Jews who work for, support, donate to the Trump bullshit, the Republicans who have no backbone, the Christian Nationalists who spout their ‘love for Israel’, who worship at the Statue of Donald J Trump in Florida, ARE NOT THE WAYS OF GOD, ARE ONLY MAKING THE DAMAGE HARSHER, BIGGER, MORE IRREPARABLE, rather than actually DOING TSHUVAH, DOING TIKKUN!

I know the power of Torah, it saved me when I began to read it, study it, LIVE it in earnest when I was in Prison for the 2nd time-I am so smart it took me going to the joint twice to “get it”. Each day I study something so I can learn, I wake up excited to learn, to use whatever is happening to better my daily living-be it coming in first or the middle of the pack at the bridge club, be it trying new glaze combinations and shapes in the ceramics studio, be it in leaning into the conversations I have with Harriet, with any of the people I am connected to. What is important for me is to live these principles in all my affairs-as AA also stresses. How am I being in truth, being kind, being just, being merciful, being compassionate, walking in the ways of Godliness are the questions I ask myself many times a day and, I am happy to report, as the years have gone by-I get more and more in line with the divine!

ACTION STEPS:

  1. What do you need to repair this year on Shavuot

  2. How are you preparing yourself to receive Torah this year

  3. What are the Incongruence that  you keep refusing to deal with

  4. How are you hiding behind dogma and looking good rather than being just

  5. How are you living and not living the principles of love, truth, kindness?

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 22

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 22

Each morning I wake up with joy and trepidation, excited and scared, Oh my God- how is this happening and OH MY GOD-How amazing is this day. Living in the tension of these seemingly opposing experiences is, to me, the essence of living in the “both/and”, the radical amazement and wonder of living with purpose, passion, and meaning.

Each morning I do my mental exercises, playing games on my iPad, doing the NYT’s wordle, mini and regular crosswords, practicing my bridge skills(which are not all that great), read the latest news, say my prayers and sit down to write this blog. Through all the turmoil and chaos in the world, through the cruelty of Trump and his master/good friend Putin and their buddy Netanyahu, through the idiocy of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, through the lunacy of people who support these charlatans even though their policies are killing them, I keep hope, faith, compassion, love and Truth alive within me.

Am I concerned that Trump will abandon Taiwan-of course and it will not surprise me because he abandons EVERYONE! Am I aghast at what Trump has done to the people of Cuba-of course and it doesn’t surprise me because he doesn’t care about anyone besides himself and maybe Ivanka and Marco Rubio wants the US to take back Cuba so he is willing and able to watch innocent people die, be treated with abject cruelty and starved, have their electricity turned off, run out of fuel to obtain his goal. Does the hypocrisy of the Supreme Court in allowing State Legislatures to redistrict Black legislators out of office with their ‘redistricting’ while stopping the officially elected redistricting maps of Democratic States- OF COURSE and it is not surprising given the absolute racial bias of Alito, Roberts, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Thomas along with the “good christian belief that women should follow what their man tells them to do” of Barrett! Am I scared to death at where the country is going, that the midterms are being co-opted, that We the People are having our Freedoms stripped by these wonderful ‘christian nationalist lies’-You Bet! These are what keep me up at night, what invade my sleep, and give me trepidation, fear, and Oh my God how is this happening.

And each morning I wake up grateful to be alive, reading the Bible, hearing the call of the prophets, the calls of Rabbis Hillel, Shammai, the prophets, of Rabbi Heschel and the original founders of the Hasidic movement, etc. I know that my job is not to worry about the results and to be in action, doing my part to bring the words emanating from Sinai to the ears of the people around me. I know my work is never done and I cannot fall into despair at the situation that is happening around me. I know my job is to be God’s Cheerleader, to be “a light unto the nations”, to use my prophetic voice to speak to the prophetic voice of you and everyone I engage with. I know these truths and they give me joy, excitement, OH MY GOD-how amazing is this experience! I continue to be “maladjusted to notions and words” so I can “have an authentic experience of that which is” and live in wonder, radical amazement as Rabbi Heschel teaches.

Being maladjusted has its drawbacks, there is an exilic experience because most people just want to go along to get along-even the people with whom I share concerns and outlooks with-stay political enough to not ‘rock the boat’. It is an experience that keeps me on the outside looking in because I am not ‘good’ in polite society-THANK GOD! I use street language that my brother suggests I may want to tone down, I use capital letters to show my outrage and anger. I am my father’s son and can get bombastic in a moment when I see injustice, mendacity, etc. I wake up early and meditate on the day ahead, continually trying to be one grain of sand better. Living in the BOTH/AND of life is impossible when Dogma takes over, when the need to be certain is more important than the need to be in truth, when the need to be right, powerful, wealthy is more important than the need to be decent, to be free. AND WE SHALL OVERCOME, someday-this is my belief, my knowing, and what keeps me excited, joyous, and in radical amazement each and every day.

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Take your spiritual temperature each morning

  2. Find and follow a spiritual routine and don’t do it routinely

  3. Don’t deny the evil that surrounds you and don’t be beaten down by it

  4. Know the good within you, the good around you and join with these “good angels” to defeat despair, abject fear, and acquiescence to power

  5. Stay maladjusted to words and notions so each experience is new, empowering, and you become spontaneous.

  6. God Bless and Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 21

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 21

“Am I your favorite” is a refrain that evey child says, every friend asks, every student desires, every employee seeks, etc, etc. It is as old as the story of Cain and Abel. The name Abel means “mist”, so the idea that one could be God’s ‘favorite’ is RIDICULOUS! Just as seeking “favorite one” status is insane, it is even crazier to seek it from Donald J Trump as Rubio and Vance are doing, as Lindsey Graham is doing. Rather, we the people should take a lesson from Zelensky and Ukraine, Europe, etc and ignore Trump, ignore Netanyahu, ignore Putin and fight for what is right and good. It is written in the Talmud, Avot 1:3: “Antigonus said: Be not like servants who serve their master expecting a  reward, be like servants who serve their master without expecting a reward”. Yet, how often do We the People not expect something in return? How often are we butt-hurt when we don’t receive at least a ‘good boy, good girl’ for our efforts, how many times during a day do we get pissed off like Cain does and, while not killing our brother, rival, friend, enemy, how often do we set fire to the relationship that stands in our way of being #1?

This way of being plays out throughout the Bible, except with Isaac and Ishmael! There is no sibling rivalry, in fact, as I read the Biblical account of Issac, it seems as if he is coming home from visiting Ishmael when he first sees Rebecca! I wonder if the spiritual nature of Isaac, the meditative, thoughtful, serving without expectation of a reward that was Isaac is the difference between their relationship and Jacob’s with Esau-where Jacob is the shit-disturber, the one seeking ‘favored status’. This dynamic of seeking to be the favorite of the people, the favorite of God is ongoing throughout the Bible and We the People still haven’t learned how to live the wisdom from Avot!

It is playing out in our political realm, ignore the machinations of Trump because no matter what Vance and Rubio do-there is no loyalty, no commitment from anyone who needs to be ‘the favorite’, ‘number 1’ in the eyes of parents, teachers, groups of friends, employees, politicians, etc. Loyalty is at the core of what Antigonus is saying above, I am discovering as I write this. When any of we the people in our small-minded, ego-centered, soul bankruptcy seek to “be like a servant who serve their master expecting a reward”, we have no loyalty to any principle except “getting mine”. However, when We the People are “like a servant who serve their master without any expectation of a reward”, We not only are loyal to something/someone, We are being loyal to God, to principles, to values, to truth, to love, to kindness! Rather than be relationship arsonists, We become relationship builders, rather than being ‘out for number 1’ We are seeking to serve a greater good, rise above our small self and grow into the “Self our soul wants us to be” as Thomas Merton teaches. This is the challenge of Antigonus, the challenge of the Bible, the challenge of every spiritual discipline! And it is a challenge that is ignored by most people. While many of we the people claim to be doing God’s bidding, like Mike Johnson, the god they serve is an idol, is a self-serving one, is worse than the ones in Greek and Roman mythology because at least Zeus, et al told us they were out for themselves while Johnson and his like-minded racists, haters, anti-semites claim to be serving Jesus-who was not White most likely!!

I also sought “favorite status” in my youth and it was only in recovery that I came to realize and decide this was a fool’s errand. When people were seeking to be my favorite, I put a picture of my daughter Heather on my door with the caption: MY ONLY FAVORITE CHILD! Everyone laughed and got the message. My ‘favorite’ people are the ones who live by the principles of Truth, Love, Justice, Mercy, Kindness, Compassion and help me live into and up to these principles as well. I work hard to not fall into the traps of relationship arsonists and not be one as well. It is difficult because when I see someone who, in my experience, is full of shit- I want to warn another(s) and some people interpret this as me being a relationship arsonist. Yet not do this violates the commandment from the Holiness Code: Lev.19:17 “You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear guilt because of her/him”. This is the challenge I face every day-speaking truth, guarding people and self, serving God just because it is the right thing to do. It AIN’T EASY!

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Make a list of the ways and areas of life you continue to seek to “be the favorite”

  2. Write down each day for a week, how you were a relationship arsonist this day

  3. Write down each day for a week, how you were a relationship builder this day

  4. Make a daily list of the things you did to get a reward

  5. Make a daily list of the things you did just because it was right to do

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 20

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 20

Trump is in China going to get outmaneuvered by Xi, again. Trump is in China and he could very easily give Xi the green light to attack Taiwan. Netanyahu is in Jerusalem and using AI to gin up more racism and hate, Putin is in Moscow and sowing his usual hatred for everyone not Putin and where are We the People? This is the question that is nagging me every day.

Witnessing the successful pushbacks in cities where Miller et al wanted to open concentration camps for immigrants they deem here illegally is one way that We the People are showing up. The Democrats keep trying to win the redistricting map war through process while the Republicans just muscle their way to victory-one way to witness the NON-SHOWING UP by these phony ‘good’ people. We are in a war for the soul of America, the soul of Freedom and to allow the enemy to use our vulnerabilities against us is EVIL ON OUR PART! I am not advocating violence, I AM advocating “taking it to the streets” once again! We the People are being called by something much larger than our fears, our need to “go along to get along”. It is the call of our ancestors who WERE IMMIGRANTS- many of them could be considered illegal, the ‘dregs’ of society, even Trump’s grandfather may have come here illegally! It is the call of our descendants, our children and grandchildren. As a child of a WWII veteran, there were never war stories spoken about, my father did not want to put his trauma upon his children. When my oldest brother left college and had to go to boot camp for the National Guard, my father shook with his memories of boot camp and the anti-semitism he encountered. We the People owe our ancestors who braved everything to allow us to grow up in freedom, we owe our children and grandchildren the same opportunity we had, we owe one another the dignity of being human and decent towards one another, we owe God gratitude for being alive, for the hope that this day brings, and the power to change, be one grain of sand better. None of this is possible as long as we the people hide and stay small in our little bed with the covers over our head!

I am thinking about the 3 ‘men’ who visited Abraham to bring him news of Sarah giving birth, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the saving of Lot, his nephew. Abraham, instinctively knew these were messengers, he rushed to serve them, he listened to them intently, and then had his famous conversation with God-bargaining for the life of the people of Sodom and winning the bargain, only to be unable to find 10 good men in the kingdom-which sounds crazy and, how many good men/women can we find in positions of power in our government today? I do not think we can come with 10 either. Against the greatest power in the universe, God, Abraham stood up through his fear and argued for the sake of people he did not know-just as the demonstrators are doing when We the People stand up to: ICE, to the proposed and in use ‘detention centers’, to the illegal raping and pillaging going on in the West Bank, the illegal war Russia began and CAN NOT SEEM TO WIN against Ukraine, etc.

While as every recovering person will attest to, we may be powerless over Trump and his ilk here and abroad, We the People are not powerless over protesting, changing the ‘way things are’, arguing for the sake of heaven-not self, and fighting for what is Holy- “love your neighbor”, “proclaim freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants therein, “love the stranger”, “all men are created equal… with certain unalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, etc. It was done in 1776, it was done in the French Revolution, it was done with the Magna Carta, it was done with the Russian Revolution, it was done in 1948, 1956, 1967 when Israel was attacked and/or going to be attacked.

I am the son and grandson of men who believed in the human spirit, who practiced the principles of the Bible while not being what most would call “religious”, they would not have worshiped at the Golden Calf of Trump like some Black and Jewish ‘holy rollers’ do! They fought for the dignity of all people, they believed in the freedom-having come to America without much, having fought in WWII to preserve our freedoms and the freedom of Europe and Asia, stood up against prejudice and senseless hatred because they were subjected to both. This is my inheritance, it may be yours as well. We the People have the epi-genetics to resist the cruelty and fight for freedom.

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Have an inner dialogue with the cruel, negative parts of you that still want to prevail

  2. Find the antidote, the contrary action necessary to transform your cruelty/negativity into ways to serve decency and kindness

  3. Read the story of Abraham and God re: Sodom and meditate on standing the FUCK UP instead of sitting down to “get ahead”

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 19

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 19

Iran, Voting Rights, Freedom of the Press, even Freedom of Religion are being threatened in this moment, as they have been in the past. I am not sure if because it is history those times do not seem as bad as today’s or if it is truly worse in this moment because the fascists, the autocrats, the ego-centricity of the people “leading the charge” today, are more acutely aware of the errors of their ancestors and the errors they made to hold onto power forever. Either way, what is being lost, most of all, in my opinion, is Freedom to BE whom one is and not conform to the societal norms.

We hear a lot about Trump Derangement Disorder, we hear a lot of handwringing about what is going on, and what comes to me are Ann Frank’s words: “ In spite of everything, I still believe people are basically good at heart”. What comes to me are Rabbi Heschel’s words: “The greatest hinderance to knowledge is our adjustment to conventional notions and mental cliches, wonder or radical amazement, the maladjustment to notions and cliches, is, therefore, a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is.” On one hand, we have all the Democrats complaining, speechmaking about the cruelty, the lawlessness and they are dismissed because they HAVEN’T DONE A DAMN THING TO CHANGE ANYTHING. On the other hand, we have the Republicans beating their chests with how powerful, how cruel, how disenfranchising, how racist, how anti-semitic, how islamaphobic they can be while sucking FAT ASS’S private parts and kissing that FAT ASS because they are making money at it. On another hand we have Kushner, Wytkoff, Lutnick, et al making a fortune off of the war with Iran, kissing Putin’s ring so they can make money in Russia-our ‘good white friend’, and pushing the agenda of MBS because he has the spigot open for them. On another hand, we have the examples of Minnesota, Chicago, Los Angeles where We the People took charge, where We the People did not listen to conventional wisdom that ICE was too strong, too pervasive, too popular, that Trump was keeping his promise about the criminal underbelly of illegal immigrants and STOPPED THEM IN THEIR TRACKS, at least for the moment-they are still rounding people up and, just like Westmorland in Vietnam, Stephen Miller and Tom Holman want the numbers-no matter if someone is not a criminal or even here legally, if they are brown-they are fair game.

What is so disgusting about what is going on today is how many Black and brown people, how many Jews voted for Trump going against their self-interests, going against what they knew to be true about him, going against what his words were saying. Even more disgusting and distressing is how people of all stripes and colors went along with the “conventional notion” of the Southern States-‘Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Asians, are here to serve THE WHITE MAN’ and they have brought to fruition: “The South will rise again”. As I look to the Bible for strength and wisdom, I find that  Sarah mistreated Hagar, a slave who became pregnant at Sarah’s request and Abraham was so disinterested in what Sarah was doing, he told her ‘go do what you want to do’, Sarah’s jealousy of Hagar was so great because she was younger, hotter, became pregnant when Sarah couldn’t and her frustration came out so badly, Hagar ran away-only to be brought back by an Angel of God. So too are these ‘good white christian folk’ going against the principles, the ways, the values, the preaching of Jesus, of the prophets, denying the exodus from the narrowness of Egypt. So too are these ‘fine white christian men’ afraid that their women will like Black men better than white men and so many other fears that these ‘fine Christ spouting men and women’ have which they hide in their cruelty. While they spout Christ’s words, they live the exact opposite of what Christ said! While the Kushner’s, Wytkoffs, Lutnicks spout the words of the Bible, they live the opposite as well, the Rabbis who support these assholes, bowing down to the Golden Statue of Trump in Florida by Hasidic leaders and, praising Trump’s Peace efforts by naming a ‘peace park’ for him in ANETEVKA!! What the FUCK, People. I am crazed over this, I hear the prophets in my ears, I hear my ancestors who fled Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary prior to WWII, I hear the cries of the 6 million who the Nazi’s murdered in the name of RACIAL PURITY, get it??!!! And here we are again-it is beyond sad, beyond anger, it is the ultimate betrayal of God, the ultimate betrayal of our Self!

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Make a list of the Freedom’s you have let go of in order to ‘make it in today’s world’!

  2. How has senseless hatred of people who are ‘different’ than you led you to suffer from a “cancer of the soul”?

  3. What are the ways you are like Sarah and/or Abraham-mistreating someone who has given you the gift of how to live well?

  4. How are you fighting the fight of the Prophets against the ‘money-changers’ in the White House and Congress?

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 18

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 18

I have been in spiritual turmoil for days now and I know the root of it and I don’t want to not be in this spiritual turmoil until there is a solution to cruelty, the hatred, the racism that is THE SOUTH, that is THE REPUBLICAN PARTY! Oh how far we have fallen-from the days of Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation to Trump calling Black women nasty, demeaning names, to the Southern States doing everything they can, legally and illegally, to prevent any Black Congresspeople to win a district! WHAT THE FUCK?!

Watching Jamie Harrison speak to the pain in his soul, watching and listening to Eddie Glaude cry on National TV, knowing the fight I participated in as a youth-even while being a criminal and a drunk-hurts my soul so terribly and, at my age, what I can do is protest, is to write about it, to remind my fellow Jewish Clergy of Martin Niemoller’s Poem of his realizing that not standing for another(s) means there will be no one to stand with me when ‘they’ come for me. As Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes et al gain more and more influence, as the Progressives in the Democratic Party gain more and more influence- IT AIN’T GOOD FOR THE JEWS!! Yet, somehow, my fellow clergy, my fellow Jews are cheering the cruelty, the racism, the hatred, the power grab by their (supposedly) White Supremacist and White Christian Nationalist friends? REALLY?!

I haven’t slept well since the Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act because “it isn’t needed anymore” according to Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, et al. So of course, the Southern States do immediate redistricting so there is no way Black people can vote in a block, however, these “fine upstanding christian men and women’ ensure that White People can continue to vote in blocks. I am sure this is what Christ had in mind when he said: “The meek shall inherit the Earth” because these ‘poor white christians’ are being so mistreated!?!! What many of my fellow Clergy people, both Jewish and Black, have forgotten that We the People have a common enemy-the same enemy that brought Jews together with Dr. King, the same enemy that brought Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to Selma to participate in the 2nd march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge: CRUELTY, ASSAULT ON TRUTH, BASTARDIZATION OF the BIBLE! The idea that Jews are going to stand on the sidelines while Black people are being treated with such cruelty, such indignity is anathema to the principles of the Bible, it is very similar to the reason for the destruction of the Temples-senseless hatred and allowing/participating in the cruelty towards the stranger, the poor, the needy, the women, the children. Yet, so many ‘fine orthodox, amazing liberal’ Jews say that Blacks did not support them after October 7th-and while there are many instances where this is true-just as there is no monolith called “the Jewish stance” so too is there no monolith called “the Black stance”. Ultimately it doesn’t matter if Blacks ‘stood’ with Palestinians, if they stood against the destruction of Gaza and deaths of innocent civilians, what is going on now is ANTITHETICAL to the principles laid out in the Bible, in the Holiness Code. These machinations by Trump, by the Republican Party, by the Supreme Court to hold power are not so different from the machinations being done in the time of the prophets. To quote Pete Seeger, again: “When will we ever learn”?

I am calling for the impeachment (casting doubt upon) of any and all Clergy who are promoting these indignities, who are advocating for the racism that permeates our politics, our business’, today. I am calling for my fellow Rabbis and Cantors to Preach like the Prophets from their bully pulpit against the racism and the cruelty being perpetrated in our name- THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR THE JEWS! Thinking about the Bible, Abraham prostitutes Sarah twice, he does this out of fear for his survival, not thinking about what it means to his wife to be asked to demean her Self in such ways-btw, God never tells him to do this. Hagar is called “the Egyptian”, Abimelech is referred to by his country, Gerar, these are descriptors that have been used by ‘those fine orthodox scholars’ as epithets, as ways to demean a people, the same tactics used against Jews for the millennia! WHAT THE FUCK? “WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?

ACTION STEPS:
1) Call or go see your Rabbi, Cantor, Priest, Minister, Imam and deman d they speak out against injustice, against cruelty, against racism in all its forms including anti-semitism, islamophobia, etc

2) Examine your Self and root out the racism, the cruelty you support wittingly and unwittingly

3) Find and visit an AME or any Black Church in your area, seeking out the Pastor and offer to join in their battle against racism, cruelty, senseless hatred that is, once again, running rampant.

4) Write, talk to, knock on the doors of people to help them go above “party lines” and do the next right thing.

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 17

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 17

I keep thinking about the myriad of ways we the people continue to ghost God and lose our authentic self to lies, mendacities, self-deceptions, running after the majority to do evil. It is infuriatingly disgusting seeing all the ways we the people miss the “angels” that are in our midst, unlike Abraham who recognizes the angels, I believe, and acknowledges their disguise as men-yet calling them “my lords”.

Listening to the political rhetoric, watching the values, principles, morals that are at the foundation of every spiritual discipline/religion be bastardized by the very people meant to safeguard them, grow them is ridiculously idiotic and dismaying. The Dalai Lama, at a conference I was privileged to attend, said every one of our religions and spiritual disciplines have at their core: truth, justice, kindness, compassion, caring, and LOVE. Watching all of these foundational ways of being dissipate and disappear is saddening and infuriating. Yet, here we the people are; what is worse is that there are still the ALWAYS TRUMPERS, the WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS, the Inheritors and descendants of the KLU KLUX KLAN who reveal in the cruelty, who promote the distortion of these principles, these calls from God and proclaim their loyalty to Christ! BULLSHIT is abounding and if We the People don’t do something to stop it right here, right now, there will not be a United States of America loyal to its Constitution nor its Declaration Of Independence! WHAT UP, WE THE PEOPLE?

One of the most beautiful aspects of the Hebrew Bible, to me is that there is no hiding when even our heroes, even the authors show their prejudices, show how easy a slide into misogyny is, how simple it is to see the flaws of another(s) and ignore the same ones within ourselves. Abraham laughs when he is told he will have a child with Sarah and nothing is said-Sarah laughs and she is scolded-MISOGYNY at its finest! The people of Sodom are to be extinguished because they don’t follow God’s ways, they are cruel and unwelcoming of the stranger, while there were the people of Nineveh who were just as cruel and nobody is calling them out, because Ishmael lives there? Abraham speaks up for the people of Sodom, not believing there could not be at least 10 decent human beings there and God ‘relents’. Is it a test to see if Abraham can be the leader God needs; the leader who will speak up for the people, the leader who believes in the basic goodness of being that can be found in all of We the People? Maybe and Abraham passed the test!

Which brings us to today-I cannot tell you, with any degree of certainty, that Sodom was destroyed and became the Dead Sea-I can tell you with absolute certainty that when evil is defeated, it leaves deadness in its wake, there is no way for life to immediately come back when the evil like Sodom, the evil like Rome, the evil like Spain, like Germany is defeated, it takes a minute for anything good to grow, it takes a minute for we the people to regain our moral compass and be able to govern with kindness, truth, love, compassion, justice. What is happening in America, in Israel is, in my opinion, the same unjust, unloving, deceitful, and hardheartedness that was present in Sodom! The cruelty towards the stranger, the power grab and land grabs both are engaging in is DISGUSTING, is AGAINST THE PRINCIPLES of the Bible and the New Testament. Yet, clergy of all faiths promote these deceivers, these narcissists, these lovers of cruelty, these assholes who continue to accuse everyone else of the evil they are perpetrating! What is the difference between the leaders of Sodom, Rome, Germany and the leadership in America and Israel? I don’t know how to discern this difference, do you?

What is needed is a SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION, an action like Abraham’s where each and everyone of We the People who still worship God and not the idolatry of power, wealth, fame, deception, mendacity, have to STAND THE FUCK UP and ARGUE FOR THE DECENCY OF AMERICA and ISRAEL! There is no ‘standing on the sidelines’, there is no time to be wishy-washy, there is not excuse for not engaging in this debate, in this fight against CRUELTY, MENDACITY, ANTITHETICAL, HATRED being perpetrated upon all of We the People who believe in decency, who live into the teachings, ways of the Bible, like “love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”, “love your neighbor”, proclaim freedom throughout the land and to ALL its inhabitants therein”, etc.

ACTION STEPS:

  1. How are you like Abraham-arguing for the basic goodness in everyone

  2. How are you like the people of Sodom-seeing how you can take advantage of the stranger

  3. How are you standing up for the poor and the needy in your midst

  4. How are you trying to build something ‘beautiful’ out of the evil being perpetrated upon us?

    GOD BLESS and STOP GHOSTING GOD, SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 16

Ghosting God Ghosting Self

Day 16

The Bible teaches us that we are all created in the image of God we all have within us the spirit of Godת hence, we are all created equal. As the Declaration says: “All men are created equal… with certain unalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”! Yet, as has been throughout history, some “men” think they are more than equal, believe they have “certain unalienable rights” that no one else has. They forget where they come from and where they are going. They have jettisoned the image of God that lies within them and replaced it with an false image of self as god! And these are the people, the ones who consider only themselves to be human, that we the idiotic people have elected and are running our country and many other countries! OY VEY!

Be it the Ayatollah, Trump, Vance, Rubio, Netanyahu, Erdogan, Putin, Xi, or any of their lackeys and minions, they all are the same, they all are like the king of Sodom who only cares about having people to carry out his whims, believing everyone is as ruthless and dishonest as he is, sure that everyone has a price for their loyalty, everyone will sell their soul. This is the greatness of Abraham on display; after he and his nephew separate because of disputes over money, property, when Lot is captured, Abraham comes to his rescue and to paraphrase what he tells the King of Sodom: Motherfucker, I am not for sale, you can’t buy me nor can you have anything to lord over me! After pimping Sarah to the Pharaoh, this is a big turnaround. Unfortunately, there are not enough people saying the same to the ‘leaders’ above!!

I watched Eddie Glaude right after the Supreme Court decided it was a good idea to gut the Voting Rights Act and the spiritual pain he was in, the moral outrage he felt, and his not wanting to talk about what’s next in that moment because the pain, the denial once again of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, was so devastatingly painful. I thought of my own ancestors who were betrayed over and over again by the Tsars, the Polish people, the German people, the British people, by people and governments across the globe, being forgotten for the good we have done, the help we gave to Isabella and Ferdinand, the friendship we had with the Arab countries in education, medicine. I thought of the stories of my Uncle’s siblings about the treatment by the Hungarians for no reason-the war was already lost and everyone knew it- CRUELTY WAS THE POINT then, just as it is now. WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE?!?!

My brothers and I were called ’N-word’ lovers because my father, z”l, made sure that Black men who worked for him made the same hourly amount as White men-every white man quit and no white man would work for him for the entire time he owned his business. Black people were not ‘servants’, they were members of our family-so much so that our cook, cleaning woman, Alberta, went to visit my grandfather when he was in the old home and called him Uncle-think about this, in the late 60’s, early 70’s, a black woman felt so connected to a white man, to a white family that she visited him of her own volition and never said anything-we only found out because the old home asked me about Alberta calling my grandfather, Uncle and I responded because she is his niece! They were dumbstruck, except for one Black nurse-she just smiled and cared for my grandfather like he was her only patient.


When community, when cooperation, when there is no comparison, no competition, when there is acknowledgment of the uniqueness of each individual, the need for all of us to be in our proper place, then CRUELTY, PREJUDICE have no oxygen, no space to breathe, to expand. Telling the ASSHOLES above; YOU CAN’T BUY ME, MOTHERFUCKER, is following in the footsteps of Abraham, following in the paths of Christ, doing what God asks of us-why is it so difficult? Because of the societal norms of separation- the need of these phony ‘good christian white men’ to make Ben Franklin’s words come true: “either we all hang together or we all hang separately”. It is WAY PAST TIME for Jews and Blacks and Hispanics and Asians to “HANG TOGETHER” and fight these BASTARDS! Heschel and King came together as did many other Rabbis of the 60’s-where are their descendants today?

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Uncover, recover, discover your unique talents/gift that the community/world is in need of in this moment and live them

  2. Take off the blinders, cure the EYE DISEASE of prejudice and see the humanity, the divine image of each and every human being

  3. Find the commonality and ensure that ALL PEOPLE are able to pursue “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness”

  4. 4)Stop taking the bribes of the rich, the majority, and tell people to FUCKOFF-I AM NOT FOR SALE

GOD BLESS STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 15

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 15

There is an inner war within all of us, a battle between what we “know in our soul/guts” and what our minds are telling us. Sarah is an archetype of this war when she gives her handmaid, Hagar, to Abraham so he can have an heir and then gets so enraged when she gets pregnant and treats her so badly, Hagar runs away. This war within seems almost schizophrenic, like we have dual personalities, and psychology has given this spiritual condition a name, bipolar. The drug companies love this because they have a new drug to push on we the people for this ‘disorder’. The need to pathologize normal human reactions, conditions, is how science wants to ignore the truth of the Bible, the solution offered by spiritual disciplines, and make a LOT of money! The last thing science wants is for We the People to be connected to the spiritual forces present in the world, to use the angels that are “going up and down” on Jacob’s ladder, to live into the meaning of what an Israelite is: a God-wrestler.

Science is an important part of living well, the words above are not to degrade nor despise science, they are to remind us that, just as any one religion is not the “be all/end all” neither is science! Psychology is an important tool in the maturation of a human being AND spirituality, maturing the spirit, hearing the soul within us is also an important tool in the maturation of a human being. Sarah, after having given her husband a gift got jealous, probably because Abraham started hanging out with Hagar A LOT! The pretty young woman was more fun, didn’t know him as well as Sarah did, and adored/worshiped him, maybe, and he was ‘tired’ of Sarah and her advice, her wisdom, her nagging, her complaining. What is interesting in this story is we don’t hear nor see the inner conflicts of Abraham except with regard to Sodom/Gomorrah  and when Ishmael and Hagar are banished by Sarah. In regards to Sarah, who he pimps out twice, and Isaac, we hear no dialogue indicating he had any conflicts at the ways he treated them both! Talk about Ghosting God, even while talking to God! This is the trap many of us fall into-prayer, meditation are important parts of our daily life AND we treat women as second-class citizens, we practice our prejudices against Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Asians, ie anyone NOT white, never seeing the incongruence of our actions vis a vis our supposedly being “fine christian folk, good temple going Jews, devout muslims”! I ask, once again WHAT THE FUCK?

This inner war, this wrestling with God, with our inclinations is not pathological, it is not something to be ashamed of, it is not something to drink over, to lie about, to hide, etc. The inner war is to celebrated, to be spoken about, to seek spiritual help for, to “stay in the ring” and not be defeated, no matter how many rounds we have to go;)! What our religious education has forgotten to inform us about: Sarah is not an anomaly, she is no more flawed that the rest of us. Abraham is not some ‘prefect example’ of right living, he is no more flawed than the rest of us either. Yet, too many of we the people engage in whitewashing Abraham, making Sarah’s mistreatment of Hagar okay, and, in doing so, miss the lesson of incongruence, miss the lesson of imperfections not making us bad, miss the lesson of engaging in the inner war-if a situation doesn’t give us pause to discern the next right thing to do, then we are probably not engaging our spirit in finding the solution!

I am calling out all my colleagues, Jewish or not, who are unable to engage in the inner war themselves, who constantly “need to look good”, who are teaching the way of perfection, the goal of perfection. What they should be teaching is how to deal with the inner battles between the rational mind and the intuitive mind, how to deal with the opposing inclinations that are given to us by God, and the spirituality of imperfection and the importance of T’Shuvah. Yet, they continue to blow right by these basic human needs, these gifts God has given us- SO SAD and INFURIATING!! I know the power of T’Shuvah, I know the joy of dealing with my inner battles, and I know the hard work of finding the spirituality within my imperfections! It is not easy, I am blessed that I had a spiritual awakening because of being arrested AGAIN in December of 1986, being gifted with Rabbi Mel Silverman to help me learn during incarceration, Rabbis Jonathan Omer-man and Ed Feinstein as mentors ever since.

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Write down the times you felt any angst over a decision/situation you were in

  2. Write down the times you have beaten yourself up, demeaned your self-image because you are not perfect, you didn’t “get it right”

  3. Make a list of the time you have ignored your soul’s/gut intuition’s messages

  4. Do your mentors, guides KNOW your soul so they can help you grow spiritually as well as intellectually, in business, etc?

  5. Do you KNOW the soul of the people you sponsor, guide, mentor?

GOD BLESS and STOP GHOSTING GOD, SELF, Rabbi Mark

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 14

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 14

I am thinking about family today and how it is both wonderful and horrible, loving and competitive, honoring and dishonoring, generous and miserly, etc. The same, of course, is true with friendships. What is it about human beings that prevents us from acceptance of who we are at our core; acceptance of whom someone else is at their core and no longer needing to put up our facades, put on our masks, hide our authentic self from the people ‘who love us only because they don’t really know who we are’?

My wife, Harriet Rossetto, believes it is shame that began with Adam and Eve in the Garden when they hid from God-the first time we read of human beings ghosting God-. Then we have Noah getting drunk and his two sons trying to cover it up followed by Abraham pimping his wife to the Pharaoh of Egypt, after being blessed by God, given extraordinary powers to bless another(s), and the job to BE A BLESSING in the world! I agree with Harriet, of course:), AND I know it to be more than ‘just’ shame. I believe from both personal experience and professional experience, human beings are unable, for the most part, to accept themselves for who we are stems from the Greek belief that human beings can achieve ‘perfection’. BULLSHIT! This race to be perfect has colored and clouded every aspect of living, every aspect of human relationships and WE THE PEOPLE keep Ghosting our SELF and Ghosting GOD. When the clouds are covering our eyes, when we are suffering from the EYE DISEASE of prejudice, jealousy, seeking power and control, wealth and being ‘the smartest person in the room’, there is no way for authenticity to break through, only more subterfuge, more facades, more mendacity, more masks, more selling of bullshit by “dazzling them with the baubles”.

It begins in the home, watching parents struggle to make ends meet, knowing that our last name used to be ____(ill in the blank) and now it is ____. We change our name, right J D Vance, we change our rhetoric/politics, right D J Trump and the rest of the Republican Party, we change our alliances based on how to best “get ahead”, “get ours”, we throw someone else under the bus so we can get the job/promotion-all the while hiding our authentic self, running away from the values we were brought up with, that our faith tradition, spiritual discipline teach us! “Selling our soul to the devil” is an old story, we see it in the earliest chapters of the Bible, we read about our heroes giving in to the lure and the siren call of mendacity, of wearing masks, of not believing we are good enough to be loved for whom we are so we keep trying to be whom you want me to be! IT NEVER WORKS!!

A very dear friend of mine tells of his father reminding him that “Every room you walk into is better because you are in it”! What a remarkable message for our children, my father spoke to each of his sons in different ways because none of us heard things in the same way-it was/is the trait I loved most-my father knew me and then there was no one who did, who cared enough to know me. This is what We the People are being called back to: BE REAL, BE AUTHENTIC. Stop ghosting ourselves so we can stop ghosting God, and then we the people add our unique gifts and talents to the world without fear nor favor.

Imagine the world where cooperation rather than competition is an overriding principle, where community rather than ‘rugged individualism’ is an overriding value, where being truthful about oneself, about another human being, rather than wearing the masks and hiding behind the facades is the main goal of living. Imagine a family where each member is recognized for what they bring to the table rather than asking them to fit in, imagine a school where the teachers are not so interested in getting through all the material and more interested in finding the spark that turns this student on to learning and watching them glow and shine. Imagine a friendship where the friends speak the truth to one another, where they hear one another, where they change/grow into the soul they are created to be!I know this way of being is possible, I know this because I am living it and have been living it for the past 39+ years, since my spiritual awakening in a jail cell. Certainly NOT PERFECTLY! In fact I keep growing into this way of being, keep growing into my own authenticity-it is my daily spiritual work.

ACTION STEPS:

  1. Write down the ways you hide, the masks you wear and the facades you put up.

  2. Write down how these ways have helped you, harmed you, and do they still work or are you losing your SELF more and more

  3. Make a list of the people you KNOW you can be real with and speak to them about what they see, asking for their help to be more authentic

  4. Letting go of these old ideas behind the masks, write down the values, principles, characteristics that make you unique and wonderful

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

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Ghosting God, Ghosting Self - Day 13

Ghosting God, Ghosting Self

Day 13

Listening to Pete Hegseth last week as he testified, under oath, and gave so many misleading, misdirected, not on point responses to the questions of the Congresspeople, I was struck with how this ‘fine, upstanding, christian man’ could use subterfuge, innuendos, attacks to hide his incompetence, his hubris, his NON-FAITH, NON-COMPLIANCE with what Jesus says in the New Testament, with what is taught in the Hebrew Bible and call himself a ‘man of deep faith and commitment to ‘christian values’! Yet, he does, as do so many of the mealy-mouthed Republicans like Lindsey Graham, Mike Johnson, J D Vance, Marco Rubio, et al. While  this  behavior is practiced on a national stage, it is also performed on a local stage, it is happening in families all over this country, in Israel, in Europe, etc. The family is the breeding ground for racism, antisemitism, islamaphobia, religious bigotry and hatred, etc, as well as the rich soil for love, kindness, oneness, caring, compassion, forgiveness and learning the “Spirituality of Imperfection”, a book by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchum. Our modern society, with all its technological advances, is ignorant and willfully blind to the essence of being human; treating one another with love, with kindness, with rebuke when necessary, with truth, with generosity, caring for the poor, the needy, proclaiming Freedom to ALL the people who live in the land, etc.

There have been liars in power forever, AND, the assault on the TRUTH for the past 11 years by Donald Trump and his band of merry LIARS, has been relentless and a generation of young people are growing up not knowing what is true and what isn’t, adding in AI, now none of us know what is real and what is fake when we see something on social media, in our emails, etc. “The war is over…but we are sending more of our troops into harm’s way”, “We annihilated their nuclear capabilities…but we had to go back a year later because they were days away from a nuclear bomb”, and some of we the people still buy his BULLSHIT! The Republican’s control of Congress is propping up his lies, mainly because they don’t want their lies to come out and they lose their jobs, their meal tickets, they don’t want the spigot of their grift and graft to be turned off! Again, these ‘fine christian folk’ lie, cheat, abuse the poor, the needy, the stranger, abuse justice and righteousness, and proclaim their unswerving allegiance to Jesus Christ, and the Orthodox Jews like Kushner, et al proclaim their absolute faith in God, in Chabad…! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!

How is it possible that so many people, the ones who elected DUMP TRUCK in the first place and the 35% that still think he is doing a great job? Yet, this is where we are at, ⅓ of the people in this country believe the lies, are willfully blind to the truth, celebrate and revere people who go against the major teachings of the Bible, the Prophets, Jesus and fervently believe they are ‘doing god’s will’, just not the God Jesus describes, not the God the prophets describe, not the God the Bible describes much more than the ‘god of war, vengeance’ that, in my learning, was added in.

The reason this is happening goes back to the call of the prophets: stop ghosting God! Stop kissing up and shitting down. Stop putting self-interest ahead of doing the next right thing. All of these messages have been ignored by many of we the people! Rather than stand up for what is right, we have learned to “go along to get along”, we have adopted the societal norm of following the majority to do evil instead of the prohibition of the Bible NOT TO FOLLOW THE MAJORITY TO DO EVIL! Just as in the times of the prophets, in the times of the destruction of Israel, the conquering of Judea, the destruction of both Temples, senseless hatred, hard-heartedness were the tools of those in power so we the people would not band together, rise up, allow a Moses to lead us and it still works!

Martin Luther King Jr., as a flawed human being, was a Moses for so many black, white, brown people in this country, as was Nelson Mandela, Elie Weisel, John Hancock, the Adams brothers, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and who is the Moses to lead We the People out of our current slavery to societal norms, to mental cliches? Each and every one of us has to feed and nurture the Moses that resides within us, each and every one of us has to tame and transform the energy and power of the Pharaoh that is within us, each and every one of us has to renew the vow at Sinai-We will DO and then we will understand. This is the challenge, this is the job.

ACTION STEPS:
1) Each day recommit the challenge, the job of feeding your inner Moses and taming your inner Pharaoh

2) Every day write down how you “kissed up and shit down”, accepting ugly and cruel as ‘just part of living’

3) Discern the truth you lived into each day and the lies you worshiped

4) Each day, Celebrate the ways you STOOD IN TRUTH!

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

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