Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 132
“This is the day that Adonai has made and I will rejoice in it”! We are heading into the holiday of Sukkot, the living in a hut outside in the elements to remind us of the journey of our ancestors in the desert. It also reminds us of the fragility of life, the impermanence of ownership, the reality of nature and the both/and of being human-important and powerless, significant and insignificant all at the same time. The greeting we say to one another is “season of joy”, coming after the “day like death” of Yom Kippur. Yet, are We the People really able to rejoice? One of the observations I have made is: most people seek to be happy rather than joyous.
Joy is not a destination, in my understanding of living. It is an address that some of We the People live at while others keep substituting happiness for joy. Happiness is fleeting, it is a momentary experience. Joy, on the other hand, has nothing to do with being happy, it is the experience of realizing “this is the day Adonai has made and I rejoice in it”. It is the realization of the wonder and awe of being alive. It is the realization of knowing that, as Rabbi Heschel teaches, “our destiny is to serve”. It is the satisfaction of doing a mitzvah, it is being transparent and choosing not to hide. Being in truth is a foundational attribute of joy and the only way to live at it’s address. It is a state of being that transcends moments and transforms every day into an opportunity to “be the soul we are created to be” as Thomas Merton teaches us.
Truth is at the core of the Bible, of Judaism, of Christianity, of Islam, of the Eastern traditions. Yet, it is a commodity that is sorely lacking in most human beings. It is not for lack of our ability to be in truth, truth is in our core, in our guts, in our souls, rather it is for lack of willingness by we the people. Watching people in services go through the motions, watching people sitting in the Sukkah who have no relationship to the need to be in truth, is painful and infuriating to me. It is also a sign of our times, where lies, alternative facts, graft, the one with the gold rules prevail over truth, decency, caring for the stranger, etc. Nowhere in Christ’s words nor in Christ’s deeds is mendacity, lying held up as a standard of behavior. Rather, the exact opposite is what got Christ crucified, in my opinion. Christ called out the people in power and they did not like it. Christ, like the prophets before him told the people what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear. Christ, like the prophets, was congruent in that his actions and his words matched.
Yet, today this way of being is seemingly too costly to pursue by the Clergy, by ‘the faithful’. Rather, desecrating Christ’s name, words, deeds is the the path too many of we the people are on. The bastardization of the prophets’ warnings and calls to return is much too popular in our times, as it has been throughout history. Rather than seeking to raise up our thinking, our knowing, our spiritual truths, we the people seem bent on being lazy, letting someone else tell us what to think, what the ‘real deal’ is and, in doing so losing our freedoms, losing our humanity. The protests happening around the ICE killings and shootings, the ridiculous and unholy actions of masked people stopping cars, raiding homes after children have left for school, just because they are “strangers in a strange land”, just because they may or may not have come to America legally(both are being targeted by ICE), is anathema to the founding of America by IMMIGRANTS! Each and every one of we the people are descendants of immigrants to America-including and especially Trump and Miller.
My address is Joy! I live here because I know what living anywhere else leads to-destruction of my goodness, uplifting of my negativity, harming the people around me. Each day, each year I find nuanced ways to change my way of being, realizing that what might have been right in those moments are not right nor appropriate in this moment. Living in truth and joy forces me/gives me the opportunity to find the mitzvah this moment calls for and begins with being grateful that I am alive this day, realizing that Adonai’s returning my soul to me means I do not have to be bogged down in the lies and the deceptions that plagued me yesterday, my soul is clean again-waiting for me to use it well more than schmutzing it up! It ain’t easy and living at joy and in truth is exhilarating beyond description! I am blessed to have a partner who thinks, who wrestles with me, who is my ezer k’negdo and we find pathways to joy and to truth together.
ACTION STEP: Choose Truth and Joy over being happy
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark