Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 98
I keep wondering what is happening within me and within the world. Internally there is much turmoil, much angst, much hurt/sadness; all of which I will delineate beginning tomorrow, as my and, hopefully, your preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In the world around me, I/We are being bombarded by lies, cover-ups, thievery, scams, people being placed above the law, bullying, and attempts to tear out the foundation of our democracy and our freedoms.
In the weekly Torah Portion, that I began yesterday, there is a verse, Deuteronomy 16:19 which reads: “You shall not pervert Justice, nor shall you recognize people (give favor to someone in power, someone you know), and don’t take a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes and perverts the words of the righteous”! I add the exclamation point for effect. Given that Todd Blanche’s first official act after being confirmed by the Senate, THANK YOU SEN. CASSIDY, was to give Donald Trump almost complete immunity from any crimes he has committed and will commit as well as the crimes of his ‘outside’ advisors! If this is not a perversion of Justice, I don’t know what is! The asshole who condemned the Central Park 5 without knowing anything and who could not admit they were innocent even after they were proven Innocent by DNA, now has Blanche’s cover, the cover of the Justice Department to do whatever he wants and he is going to do it all before the Midterms because he is afraid of a Blue Wave.
We the People have been taking bribes forever, we go along with the liars, we follow our self-deceptions to the wreck and ruin of another(s) and ourselves, we engage in ridiculous rationalizations to soothe our consciences, we are willfully blind to the truth, to what is happening, and-most of all- to the participation in the dissection of justice, the empowering of the Pharaoh, the lapping up whatever Trump, Vance, et al say like trained seals for some of we the people.
We the People, who in the late teens of this Century up till now, have been more worried about ‘optics’, more concerned with ‘the poor’ (fill in the blank) that with the rights and freedoms FOR ALL! Hence we have the rise of the Fascist Democrats, OOPS, I mean Socialist Democrats, who want to burn it all down, who are not respecting nor honoring the will and wishes of the vast majority of We the People to find the middle ground, to not take the bribe of their self-deception to believe “only we know what is needed”.
“Perverts the words of the Righteous/Tzadick” is the issue that has faced human beings forever. The perversion of the Bible, the ways it was added to and subtracted from by Ezra and other scribes is atrocious and criminal, that they and ‘religious’ people since them could “pervert the words of the Righteous” is infuriating to me, it enrages me and I am volcanic about it. That the greatest perverts of justice(and maybe perverts in other areas of living) use the Holy Words of the Bible to justify their abhorrent behaviors, their lying, cheating, stealing, their bribing of judges, their bribing of Senators and Congressmen with promises of things to come or with threats of things to come is WRONG, ENRAGING and WHY ARE NOT We THE PEOPLE THROWING THEM OUT?!!
“If you can’t beat them join them” is an old adage that I followed into the depths of spiritual hell, of moral bankruptcy, and it seems to be what is going on now. Senators Cassidy, Cornyn, Tillis all know better, all know what is happening and they decided to “join with the majority to do evil”, another teaching from the Bible that is being perverted! I know how difficult it is to go against the grain, to swim, canoe against the current, and how spiritually important and morally necessary it is in times like these, maybe in all times as the prophets cajole, beg, cry out to We the People as they do. I am thinking about my Rabbinate which certainly wasn’t ‘according to Hoyle, plan’, how many people thought of me, and maybe still do, as a “niche Rabbi”, saying “who else but ‘those people’ would have him”? If the people saying/believing this are right, I know that my message, my channeling of the prophets is what is right and good now as it was then, I know my message of spiritual growth, moral uprightness, loving the stranger, practicing kindness, love, truth, justice, not taking bribes is the foundation of a spiritually, ethically wonderful life. I may be a “Niche Rabbi” and my “Niche” is living the verse above, living the words from Sinai, living the truth of my soul.
ACTION STEP
Make a list of the times you have followed the commandment above
Make a list of the times you have not followed the commandment above
Discern the context of both and how you gave in to “running after the majority to do evil”
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark