Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 136
“Today is the day Adonai has made, I will rejoice in it”. It is interesting how many of We the People fail to recognize this basic truth; none of us has the power to make a day come into being, it is a law of nature that, unless we the people cause the destruction of the world, that is immutable. Yet, too many of us believe we have the power to make anything and everything happen. Too many of us believe all that matters is what can be gained for self is all important. Hence, this verse from Psalms comes to remind us-it ain’t all about our egos, our comforts, our desires. There is something greater than ourselves in play each day and our mission is to find it, promote it, and aid another(s) and God in our own unique manner.
In the September 20 edition of the New York Times magazine there is an interview with Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor about their new book “End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World”. Harriet showed it to me after she read it and it is a chilling interview. It tells a story of how far the selfishness, the cancer of prejudice, the disdain for humanity some people, especially people in power right now, have for the rest of us, for the world itself. There is a new coalition of ethnonationalists, religious fundamentalists, and tech oligarchs who want to make the world theirs after they destroy it-believing they will be saved, they have the bunkers to last until it is safe to come out! What strikes me deeply in this article aside from the fact that the religious fundamentalists come in all faiths, these groups have historically been sworn enemies, is that Klein and Taylor call this unholy coalition: “traitors to creation, traitors to life”. WOW!
What they are saying, the warning they are giving, is the same warning that the prophets give in their talks with Israel and Judea in the Bible, the same warning that prophets have given throughout the millennia, the same indictments that have been called out by God through different people throughout history. The question for all of us is: Are we going to live into the promise of “Today is the day Adonai made” and our rejoicing begins with protecting HaYom, this day? Are we going to end our incessant need to deceive ourselves into thinking ‘this too shall pass’ ‘we have seen this before and it will burn itself out’, ‘God will send someone will come to save us’, and other such lies we tell ourselves and one another? Will I stop thinking of only myself and join with community to stop the hatred that is spewing forth from ‘leaders’, put the cancer of prejudice, racism, antisemitism into remission hopefully leading to a cure for this insidious cancer?
Thinking about these questions reminds me of Jeremiah 2:8, “the priests don’t say “where is God”, the ones who lay hold of the Torah don’t know me”. God keeps calling out Ayecha-where are you and we the people don’t respond, we are still hiding like Adam and Eve. The people who speak so reverently concerning the Torah, the Bible don’t know God, don’t know that God loves the stranger, the poor, the needy, and when we the people abuse them, use them to practice our cruelty, forget the dictates to love them, these ones ‘who lay hold of the Torah’ are wielding it’s voice, it’s power for their sake, not God’s! Yet, too many of we the people believe they speak in God’s name and either reject their lies and bullshit completely or accept their deceptions as truth that comes from Mt. Sinai-OY!! When the priests in the churches, the ministers in the churches, the Rabbis in the synagogues, the Imams in the mosques fail to ask “where is God”, they are superimposing their will, the will of the wealthy in their congregations. How Sad!
I am appalled at what passes for spiritual health today, I am appalled at the lack of courage of the Clergy today, just as Martin Luther King was appalled in his time, just as Abraham Joshua Heschel was appalled in his time both in Germany and in America, just as Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Muslim clergy have been appalled during other times in history. That these ‘fine religious folks” raise the Bible above one’s head and then use the bastardization of Jeremiah, the prophets, the imperfect heroes of the Bible as weapons of mass destruction to the soul of human beings, to be “traitors to creation, traitors to life”is infuriating. AND it will continue until enough of We the People stand up and say NO, as the people of Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Connecticut and all parts in-between are doing. It is going to take ALL of We the People who want a better future for our children, who want to honor the call of God, who want to change the indictment of Jeremiah to band together and put these cancer-spreading prejudice people into remission, casting them outside the norm once again. This is today’s ACTION STEP
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark