Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 134
“This is the Day Adonai has made and I will rejoice in it”! Once again, given Bibi’s defiance and his inability to acknowledge any wrongdoing, his absolute belief that everything he does, everything he has the IDF, the Settlers, the Far-right religious nationalists in Israel do, even inciting the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin, z”l, is correct and properI imagine Bibi and his cronies don’t even bother with the confessionals as they do it all right-just listen to him talk! AND THEN there is Donny-baby in diapers- kissing Xi’s ass, bowing down to him, begging him to like him, while Xi is helping Iran, meddling in the elections with their bots, their AI, conspiring with Vladi to make America GULLIBLE AGAIN! Musk, Bezos, Altman all betraying our country, doing everything they can to destroy the Freedoms that Americans have “given their last full measure to preserve” is on full display, , it can be difficult to understand how to “rejoice in it” for some of We the People. Which is precisely the reason the Psalmist tells us we have to!
It is easy to “rejoice in it” when everything is going our way-DUH! The hidden meaning of this verse, to me, is to realize the resilience and ability of one human being to make a difference in spite of the chaos, the cruelty, the ‘power’ of the autocrat. I am still stuck on the Hannah Arendt movie we watched over the weekend. It is not only thinking that forces us to BE HUMAN, it is thinking combined with spirit, combined with the sense of moral outrage and knowing of the Prophets, that is found in the Bible. The challenge, the power of this verse of Psalms is to allow the truth of our power, when combined with our spirit, to DO GOOD, to BE KIND, to LOVE MERCY, to DO JUSTLY, to transform the Evil Inclination into a Power for GOOD. This opportunity, is one of the reasons “I will rejoice in it”!
Challenging We the People to rise above being we the people is part and parcel of this verse and has me wondering how have so many of We the People turned from our birthrights, from our core values, from the spiritual DNA and RNA that courses through our being and become we the people, actually become we the sheep being led by shepherds who only want what is best for themselves, their families, their co-conspirators. The relinquishing of everything that makes us BE HUMAN is beyond my ken to understand, it goes against every fiber of my being, it is a Hillul HaShem, a Desecration of God’s Name, it is the way the Israelites became slaves in Egypt and why the hell can We the People stop repeating the same behaviors, what is the T’Shuvah that is not being done that allows some of us to keep turning to autocracy, to non-thinking, to CHOOSE DEATH?
I have no idea what is happening in this Country, in Israel, across the Globe. Hating Jews is an old trope and fallback position, Jews hating Jews is also an old story, Jews relinquishing their moral compass, their freedoms, their covenant with God for ‘status’, for ‘wealth’, for ‘happiness’, for ‘power’ etc is also an old story and fallback position. When I see Lutnick smiling, I want to smash him in the face and go upside his head to get him to “RETURN AGAIN to the land of his soul” as Reb Shlomo teaches us in his song/prayer of the same name. The question that keeps arising in “this Day Adonai has made” is how do We the Rabbis, We the People dedicated to God’s Will, We the People in Recovery who know the pull of the dark side help the rest of humanity recover from their spiritual maladies?
This is one of the experiences “I will rejoice in it” today. My writing, my books, my old speaking, my new opportunities to speak-while few and far between, all give me the opportunity to help another human being recover from their spiritual malady! I know the power of the negative, I know the power of the “dark side”, the force of Darth Vader is alive and well, growing in power through Trump, Netanyahu, their co-conspirators, which is reminiscent of the Robber Baron time in America that a Republican President, Teddy Roosevelt, put an end to! I had to put an end to blindly falling into the hypnotic state of listening to my “dark side” and willingly go along with it to where I was on the precipice of believing the “dark side” was my “good side”! This is when I heard God calling out to me, my higher consciousness calling out to me, and this time, I LISTENED! This is what makes “this day Adonai has made I will rejoice in it” possible-our ability to listen. It changes my life, it changes the lives of people around me, it has changed the lives of 1000’s of recovering people and their families.
ACTION STEP:
“REJOICE IN IT” at some point each day for the next week and see how much changes within you and around you.
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Stop Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark