Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 79
Jonah is so, so upset that he asks God to kill him rather than face the ‘shame’ of his words helping to change the people of Nineveh. Rather than see himself as a redeemer, in the shadow of Moses, Jonah sees himself as a failure because Nineveh didn’t “get what was coming to them”. Rather than see himself as a life-saver, he is so pissed off that God is “full of compassion, graciousness, slow to anger, great in kindness and repents evil” for Nineveh, while at the same time, he prayed for all of these attributes for himself in the belly of the fish! Jonah wants “strict justice” for those he considers enemies, evil, etc and wants “great compassion and grace” for himself! He is so, so upset that he reminds God, this is why he did not want to come to Nineveh, this is why he fled to Tarshish, so he would not have to watch the people repent, he would not have to see the people redeemed. Rather than rejoice in a “mission accomplished” moment, he is angry, depressed, suicidal that people repent and live-WTF
This is, unfortunately, a very human response. Too many of we the people are upset when people are given a “second, third, fourth” chance to make amends, to ‘get it right’, to live up to their divine nature and not stay stuck in our animal nature. This same segment of we the people, however, believe they are entitled to these multiple chances, believe they should not be punished for their errors, because they are not really wrong-the rest of us just don’t understand, etc. This segment of we the people are as two-faced, as incongruent, as evil acting as Jonah. I use the word evil because when what is hateful to you, you do to another, when you use the vulnerabilities of another against them, this is an evil action. AND the rest of us, the Clergy, the ‘good people’, the progressive fascists, perpetrate the evil we hate upon “those” people! Rather than put an end to discrimination, to prejudice, many of these so-called “freedom fighting supporters of Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7, 2023”, haters of Israel/Jews, attackers of Jews on Campus, in our Houses of Worship, promote more and more prejudices, more and more Cancers of the Soul upon themselves, their followers and the rest of us.
Be it the “manosphere” or the “Bernie crowd”, both of these insane factions one with concern about testosterone levels, how they look, power to the White Christian Nationalists ONLY, the other with concern only for the current underdog, hating the rich, ignoring the crimes of ‘their underdog’, wanting to allow the Arabs in the Middle East to decimate Israel as they have tried to in 48, 56, 67, 73, the intifadas, and all of these Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi attacks. Israel is not wearing Lilly-white gloves here by any means, yet this ‘fine progressive, socialist democrats’ look the other way when it comes to the ‘poor Palestinians’ and their crimes, not wanting to admit their responsibility for their plight because they would not say YES to a deal that gave them 95% of what they asked for! Again, I DO NOT agree with Netanyahu and the Israeli government, AND I have to see both sides. Just as Jonah could only see his desires, his wants, his need for revenge and destruction, so too, the right and the left can only see life from their narrow viewpoint, with their blinders on. Isn’t this the root of prejudice-seeing only what you want to see-, isn’t this the manifestation of the cancer of the soul these two extremes have grown within themselves and their followers so they are blinded by their desires, isn’t this the epitome of rejecting the cure for this cancer of the soul-spiritual maturity, spiritual counseling? Of course it is and I am holding all of us responsible! Rather than shutting down the Bernies and the Manospherers, we the people either ignored them or supported them, either we actively helped them grow because some of what they are saying we could go along with-unwittingly helping their agenda and being blind and deaf to their motives and end goals, or we passively helped them grow because we ‘could not be bothered’ to discern truth from fiction, bought the lies because we the people are more like Jonah that like God. How sad, how criminal!
AND We the People still have time to say NO to these haters, to these ‘flavor of the month’ causes, to these fascists who want control, who want to steal from the rich and give to whom-AOC seems to have a lot of money for a girl who claims to be so poor, just saying. We the People have the opportunity during this period of time, from Tisha B’Av to Yom Kippur to clean up our acts, to tame the Jonah-hatred part of us and enhance the Jonah-messenger part of us. I have been honing the Jonah, the prophet in me for 39+ years and I am a much better human being for it-not great, not perfect, just many grains of sand better from the guy in the Jail Cell who was caught again, from the guy who denied his father’s wishes to be a decent human being. This is the joy of being human, the gift of “You are forgiven as you have spoken”, the essence of Yom Kippur.
ACTION STEP:
Do a deep dive into the prejudices you still hold, the ways you deny forgiveness to another(s) and want it for yourself
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark