Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 82
Turning back to the Book of Jonah, I find it fascinating that more time is not spent on this important book, more time is not spent on immersing ourselves in the text and its teachings for us right here, right now. In the final chapter of the book, a small book by the way, only 4 chapters, God asks Jonah if he is upset that the plant God caused to rise up, give him shade, and then die and Jonah responds: I do well to be so angry even to death”. God then tells Jonah that since his concern for something he had no hand in creating, growing, was so great, should God not have compassion and concern for “Nineveh, that great city where… and they cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand?”
Here we are, on Yom Kippur afternoon, in the home stretch, just prior to the “closing of the gates”, and we are reading but not really talking about the lack of concern that humanity, we the people have for what God has wrought, what God’s words brought into reality, into being-including We the People! This message of being more upset over ‘things’ especially ‘things’ we did not create, that we may have improved upon, and since “there is nothing new under the sun”, even our wealth is earned, sometimes, and yet not really material to the survival of the world, of our humanity, of our dignity. Yet, we cry often about not having enough, where’s mine, and other such bullshit. We believe we are owed something, that fucking over the immigrant, legal or not, screwing the stranger, suspecting our neighbor, proclaiming freedom for only ‘those fine christian nationalist and Jewish white men’ are all GOOD THINGS!
Rather than hear God’s concern for Nineveh, that evil city, many of we the people would agree with Jonah and be pissed off that their T’Shuvah was accepted by a merciful, slow to anger God who should be ‘getting even with those MF’s’. Rather than having compassion for people who just do not know how to discern right from left, good from not good, holy from profane, too many of we the people are like Jonah-wanting to see “those guys” punished for doing what we ourselves are doing. Rather than hearing Jesus’ words on the cross, “forgive them father, they know not what they do”, these ‘fine christian nationalist white men’ persecute anyone and everyone who is NOT LIKE THEM-in other words, senseless hatred for those of We the People who believe in decency, who are painfully aware of our own foibles, who do our T’Shuvah daily, weekly, monthly, even yearly. Rather than honor God’s creations-human beings- some of we the people believe the only people worth honoring are themselves, their sycophants, their true believers are being used they steal from them, they lie to them, which is the ultimate of spiritual rape because Trump, et al, promised to care for and about them and, as we can see right before our eyes, Trump and all of his cronies and puppet masters care only about THEMSELVES! Like good narcissists, they are always right, they are the only ones whom matter, and if you don’t kiss the ring, then you deserve to be locked up or die-they keep it really simple.
Since human beings are created in the Image of God and We the People have free-will, each day, each moment, each experience gives us the opportunity to choose whether we are going to live down to our lowest common denominator or whether We are going to live up to our highest self- our divine image. This stark difference between these two choices is being played out in this last chapter of the Book of Jonah very powerfully to me, and I hope you. Jonah is pissed off that God, after Nineveh repents, saves the city and the people. Jonah then gets reprieve from the heat when God creates the plant to give him shade and then when the plant dies, Jonah is more upset about that than the idea that 100,000’s of people would die if Nineveh were destroyed! Can you imaging that someone, anyone, would be more upset over material loss than over the death of 100,000’s of people? Can you believe that there are some among we the people who would agree with Jonah, kill the bastards and save the money, who cares about “those people” when I can be served by something I need?
This is one of the messages of the Book of Jonah. The Rabbis were courageous in including this book that has nothing to do with the Jewish people and it has everything to do with the Jewish people. Unlike Israel and Judea, Nineveh listens to the prophets, Nineveh is saved. Jonah, the reluctant prophet, the miserable SOB, the hateful individual is the savior of Nineveh, talk about God working in mysterious ways! Like Amos, I am a fiery messenger of God’s. Unlike Jonah, I cried, cry over the death of ‘those who do not know how to discern right from left’, like the prophets, I have no idea if my words mean anything to anyone, I know this is the call for me now to keep writing to keep doing what I can to help We the People stop ghosting God, ghosting Self.
Action Step: Write down when cruelty overrides decency and visa versa
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi mark