Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 88
After reading yesterday’s blog, which she does every morning with the coffee I bring her when she wakes up, Harriet commented that I sounded mad. I was taken aback by her comment and as we spoke about it, I realized how often we the people take the words of the prophets, the words of another(s) when rebuking us, which is a holy action according to the Holiness Code, when we are disagreeing and passionate about our point of view, when we are aghast at the myriad of ways the words of Christ, Moses, the authors/editors/translators of the Bible, the New Testament, the Koran are bastardized. There is a tremendous difference between ‘mad’ and outrage, between ‘mad’ and righteous indignation, between ‘mad’ and deep sadness, grief over the degradation of humanity that is so prevalent in so many areas of living, be it racism, anti-semitism, anti-Israel, anti-immigrant, anti-stranger, anti-anyone who is not a ‘fine white christian nationalist male or female’. This is the outrage of the prophets, this is the outrage of the Jews, this is the outrage of Black, Hispanics, Somalis, all immigrants, and white people who have not drank the juice of Trumpism, of the Republican Party, over the hatefulness of the government and ⅓ of the population of the U.S., over the cruelty being so blatantly displayed by ICE, by the people in power like Lutnick, Vance, Miller, Blanche, Vought, et al, over the disdain for human kindness that is so proudly displayed by Trump and so many of his followers, his sycophants.
“Mad’ has a connotation, at least to me, of it being a personal, egotistical wound whereas what I am outraged about is, while deeply personal, not egotistical, rather it is a deep wound in my heart, in my soul over the ways some of we the people continue to receive great joy from the cruelty being inflicted, continue to revel in the disabilities of another, experience warmth and power from using the vulnerabilities of another(s) against them. HOW CAN WE THE PEOPLE NOT BE OUTRAGED? This is the real question for all of us to respond to, I believe. And yet, most of we the people will not, whether we go to confession, to Church, to Synagogue, go to Temple for the High Holidays, TOO MANY of we the people refuse to be outraged, refuse to see the suffering, the cruelty, the hatefulness, the denigrating of the Image of God found in ‘those people’ and THIS is the tragedy of the moment. Rabbi Heschel teaches: “Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself. It is a silent justification affording evil acceptability in society.” This is what is happening today, as it did in Rabbi Heschel’s lifetime and it has been happening throughout the millennia-no people has been immune to this phenomenon, no matter how often world history is studied, no often how many times the prophets are read in Temples and Churches across the globe, We the People remain indifferent to the evil surrounding us and have come to accept it as “this is just the way of the world”! BULLSHIT!
My capitalization is not to yell at you, well maybe a little, it is, however, more to emphasize the wrongness of the evil we the people remain indifferent to, emphasize the need to be outraged and serve God, serve one another, serve our souls, not some idiotic, cruel, hateful, societal norm. Making fun of people with disabilities, denying the truth of what is by creating a picture of what you want reality to be, making alliances with people who only want power to enrich themselves, to be able to inflict more cruelty upon us, is NOT the way of being faithful to God. We are told to not forget Amalek, not because we are supposed to get retribution, Donald Trump, rather because we are to never forget HOW NOT TO BE! Remaining indifferent, not being outraged and “taking to the streets” in whatever way one can, is proof that not only have some of we the people forgotten Amalek, we have decided to BE Amalek! Just as the American Bund Party wanted us to be German prior to WWII, so too do today’s ‘leaders’ and their sycophantic followers want We the People to join them in being part of Amalek. This is true here in the U.S and it is true in Israel with Bibi, Smotrich, Ben G’vir and their thugs, it is true for Putin, Xi, MBS, Iran, Qatar, and many others-all ‘friends’ of Donald Trump! Get the point?
I have been accused of being ‘mad’ most of my life and, for a time, it was personal and egotistical. In my recovery, my outrage has been mistaken for ‘mad’ most of the time. While in recovery, I have had a few bouts with egotistical ‘mad’, I have been living in the outrage of the prophets, the pathos of the people being mistreated, the victim of anti-semitism, prejudice against the formerly incarcerated, the recovering person and my fighting this cruelty, this subtly cruelty is taken as egotistical ‘mad’-it is not. My fighting the indifference of people to not give to help another in need comes from outrage, my arguing with people because I see the souls they are, the ways they can live well is not egotistical ‘mad’, it is outrage for the evil we do under the influence of societal norms of indifference, getting ours.
ACTION STEP:
What, when and how are you practicing your indifference to evil
Can you discern between ‘mad’ and outrage
GOD BLESS, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark