Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 96
Beginning on Thursday, which celebrates the new month of Elul, this blog will focus on preparing ourselves for Yom Kippur, a new and, hopefully improved version of my High Holy Day prep workshop
I awaken each morning excited for the day and dreading the news; what horrendous, idiotic, undemocratic action did Trump and the Republicans in Congress do yesterday, what idiotic and anti-semitic action did the Socialist Democrats do yesterday, knowing I have to live in the tension of this cognitive dissonance, excitement for what I will learn about me, about living well, about Harriet, and dreading the continued decimation of everything I grew up on, the tenets of democracy, as my 9th Grade Civics teacher, Ed Roach, of blessed memory, taught us, the Bill of Rights is also the Bill of Responsibility. The anti-semitism of both the left and the right, which I mention often, gives We the Jewish People much dread and fear, after all we have seen this movie before.
Today, I am shaking my head at the degradation that Bill Cassidy displayed on Friday as he voted for a man he knows is unqualified to be Attorney General by saying the next person would be worse. This kind of rationalization of the betrayal of one’s morals, one’s standards of decency and competency never work out well for the self-betrayer, Mr. Cassidy. I am also, as I write this, realize most of the people in the Senate betray their oath of office to defend and protect the Constitution, to represent ALL the people of their state, not just their party. The ugly, distasteful partisanship is the proof of their betrayal of their promise, their oath, their responsibility to “one nation” and their weaponizing their ‘christian nationalist supposed faith’, their bastardization of the words of Christ and the words of Moses, the warnings of the prophets and the wisdom of the Bible and New Testament is an ABHORRENCE, one that is worse than their misguided belief that homosexuality is an abhorrence. Idolatry, taking God’s Name in Vain, Misrepresenting God by bastardizing God’s words are violations of the 1st 3 commandments and these bastards don’t care! Oh how far the Jews who support Netanyahu and Trump have fallen as well, We the Jewish People who gave the world the Torah and the Bible, the 36 times of welcoming, loving, caring for the stranger and the poor, the needy and the widow and orphan, displaying such hatred, such violence, such acquiescence to bullshit and indifference to the evil they are participating in.
El-Sayed spoke with Obama and the Jews were not mentioned? El-Sayed’s disdain for ‘regular’ democrats wasn’t talked about? Bernie and his babies like El-Sayed have their heads so far up one another’s asses, as well as their own, they believe that We the Centrist Democrats should automatically yield to their power, to their beliefs, to their way of thinking or get the fuck out of their way. The arrogance and smarminess of El-Sayed comes through all the time, to me AND I don’t want Mike Rogers to win in Michigan, I do want to “take back the Senate”, “take back the House”, and I also know that doing it with people like El-Sayed who truly believe they are smarter and ‘more in touch with the people’ than the rest of us, is dangerous in itself.
Where does this leave the majority of We the People? It leaves us with the task of standing firm for our principles, it leaves us with the opportunity to speak to these ‘progressives’, who in many ways are as reactionary as the far right, and find compromises, not everything they speak about is bad and find the common ground as well. Reminding people of loyalty to allies is crucial in these times of ‘let me get mine’, reminding We the Jewish People of our loyalty to the Covenant made at Mount Sinai, loyalty to the Voice that continues to call from Sinai, loyalty to the principles of the Torah, loyalty to the knowing that learning never ends, none of us are the smartest in the room, there are many ways to see things and, while the majority rules, the minority’s voice is never forgotten and never denigrated.
I have found living in the sadness of “how far we have fallen” and the fear of the anti-semitic rage that is happening all over this country and the globe, is difficult at times. What is more confusing is that my personal life is not touched by the abhorrent behaviors, lunacy, and hatred that is overtaking our democracy, our world. I live in a bubble and in relative safety AND I know it could disappear in the blink of an eye. Only by knowing that there is a Power Greater than Myself, knowing God gives me guidance, knowing that the music of my soul, when I play it out loud(some would say too loudly) do I have the wherewithal to withstand the onslaught of violence against my principles, the assault on the Truth of God, the hatred being spewed by so many and Stand with God, Stand with Truth, Stand with the Stranger, Stand with my People whom I may disagree with and know that we are “kin under the skin”!
Action Step: Do something to lessen the assault, the violence in life
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark