Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 5
I was talking with Harriet about my new blog-which she likes, Thank God, and I said that the entire Bible is the story of Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, finding and connecting to God, finding and connecting to self, and then the cycle begins again! Immersing ourselves in the Bible gives us the insight to see how easy it is to Ghost God, Ghost self, and how difficult it can be to return. Hence, the Rabbis teach that T’Shuvah was put into the world before the world was created and I add: Because God knew we would fuck up and need a way back! Unfortunately, most of us do not avail ourselves of the path back to God, back to authentic self, choosing to Ghost God and our self - just read the prophets, listen to news, watch what they do, not what they say!
Continuing with the Biblical story of Noah, his son Ham saw his nakedness, whatever one understands this to mean, and is cursed for it. Noah’s other two sons, Shem and Japheth, cover their father up and are praised for it. Maybe the Rabbis got it wrong! Maybe Ham is the hero here for not “covering up” his father’s errors, not “covering up” his father’s alcoholism, not hiding from the truth of what is! Maybe Noah, Japheth, and Shem were Ghosting God, Ghosting their self when they cursed Ham, maybe they had to curse their ‘enemy’ for their own bad behavior! Sound familiar?! The hypocrisy of Noah, the incongruence of the Rabbis, the ridiculous need to make the people in the Bible ‘perfect’ is antithetical to the truth, the real lesson of the Bible: Human beings will err, we will fuck up AND God heals our backsliding, God takes us back in love-as soon as we turn back and stop Ghosting God, Ghosting our authentic self- read Jeremiah and Hosea.
The hypocrisy of the Republicans in elected office in this moment is as monumental, as ridiculous as the Rabbis cleaning up the messiness of our Biblical characters. The Trump sons are making money hand over fist selling shit to our Government, making side deals with our allies and our enemies, using their father’s name and influence to land lucrative contracts, become part of companies they know NOTHING about. Anyone remember Hunter Biden and the Republicans? Anyone remember Hillary Clinton and the Republicans? There is no shame to their game, they are brazen in their hypocrisy, in their incongruence, and we are the ones to suffer from their actions-while Donny, Don Jr., Eric, Jared, Ivanka all get richer! THESE ARE THE PEOPLE some ‘fine christian nationalist clergy’ declare our Christ’s messenger? WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE??
Where are the Jews condemning Howard Lutnick? Where are the Jews condemning Bibi Netanyahu, where are the Jews condemning Stephen Miller, where are the Jews railing about the theft of our money-paying off Jan.6 rioters-, the insider trading going on Kashi, etc? Where are the Jews condemning the indiscriminate killing of Lebanese, Iranian, and Gaza’s civilian populations? WHERE ARE THE JEWS?? This hypocrisy is, to me, the worst of all! We Jews are the people who first brought to light the “narrow place” of Egypt, first brought to light the “narrow place” of inner slavery, the “narrow place” of idol worship, of bowing down to a mere mortal, the “narrow place” of ignoring the infinite dignity of ALL human beings, the uniqueness of ALL human beings and now, We are the people who are going along to get along, we are the people that are “covering up” the wrongs of the State of Israel, the wrongs of Trump and his ‘mafia family’?? WHAT THE FUCK FELLOW JEWS?
I know these narrow places, I lived in them prior to my recovery some 39 years ago. As I grew up in prison, as I learned and learned anew the lessons of Noah and the flood, I realized prison was my flood time, it was the time for me to begin to “get clean” of my lies, of my unrealistic fears, and begin to re-learn how to live as a decent human being. It also was the moment when I knew I could not hide if I was to be a father to Heather, a sibling, a son, etc. I have stayed true to this awareness-not always doing the next right thing, sometimes coming up with excuses, and never hiding who I am and/or what I am thinking. It is not always popular, I am usually very messy and I WILL NOT COVER UP what is, I WILL NOT COVER UP the TRUTH. I WILL NOT STAND IDLY BY while the lies, the destruction of freedom is happening.
ACTION STEPS:
Ask yourself: What am I covering up and what is the reason I am doing this
Look around you, at home, at work and SEE how people are hiding from you and you from them
What about TRUTH scares you so much that you rather hide/be a slave than be free?
What is your fear of doing T’Shuvah each day
GOD BLESS and STOP GHOSTING GOD and SELF, Rabbi Mark