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:
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