Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 137
“Today is the day Adonai has made and I will rejoice in it”! These words remind all of us to be grateful for one more day, one more opportunity to serve something, someone greater than ourselves AND We the People seem to have forgotten this truth, this call. While it is easy to see this in another human being, it is crucial to see our own obliviousness to this truth. Rather than continue to seek what I want, this verse calls on me/you to seek what God wants-kindness, truth, justice, mercy, love, compassion. Jeremiah 2:7 speaks to our actions: “I brought you to this country of farmland to enjoy its fruits and bounty; but you came and defiled My land and made My inheritance (to you) an abomination.” WTF, people? Have we truly learned nothing throughout these 1000’s of years, have we truly read, studied the words of Moses, the prophets, King David, the Psalmists, Jesus, and learned NOTHING? How is this possible?
Exactly the way the people of Judea did; by giving into the lies of society, the erroneous, egotistical belief that “only I can do this”, “only I can save you” of the autocrat, “we know what you need better than you do”, “we have to tame these savages who have their own religion and customs” of the religious fundamentalist, “if you ain’t white, you less than”, “I have to keep power by any means because if I don’t, they will do to me what I have been doing to them” of the ethnonationalist and the tech oligarch. These societal norms, the making of a scapegoat, the making of ‘the other’, the creating a narrative that is so intoxicating that the uniformed, the lazy, the tired will buy into have brought us to the brink of ruin, the brink of the loss of Freedom of the press, of religious observance in our own ways and not dictated by Hegseth et al, the brink of slavery, the creation of concentration camps which deny contact with the outside world, even lawyers; which deny basic health safety conditions, which separate families, which deny medical care.
Isn’t it time to realize the gift of living in America, the gift of living in Israel and STOP “defiling the land”, STOP “making the land an abomination”, STOP making ourselves abominations, STOP believing we are entitled to do whatever we want and fuck the rest of the people? Jeremiah is screaming at us to HEAR, LISTEN, UNDERSTAND that we the people cannot go on for much longer like we are and keep the freedoms our ancestors fought so hard for, some giving their lives for! I know people don’t like the prophets because they are always ‘wagging their fingers at me’ as people have told me, I love them because they are bringing the indictment of my actions, of society’s actions and telling us “YOU CAN DO BETTER”, “YOU CAN RETURN”. This is, I believe what is meant in the morning prayer upon arising, the Modeh Ani, “great is Your faithfulness”. God, the prophets believe We the People can change!
This is the conundrum that we the people face right now-God, Jeremiah, the rest of the prophets, Pope Leo, calling we the people back home, believing it is possible to return, renew, move forward and Trump, Musk, Netanyahu, Putin, Xi, et al calling us to move backwards, return to the times of the robber barons, the times of feudal estates, the times of anti-semitism, the times of fucking over the poor and the needy, the times of hating your neighbor in your heart! The amount of people who want to be sheep to these liars, these wannabe Pharaohs is astounding and that all of them have not retreated from supporting Trump. Which master will you serve?
Having served the Pharaoh within me, having served the Moses within me, having been ruled by people who did not really care about me and having chosen to be ‘ruled’ by God I know this dilemma well and, since Dec of 1986, I have chosen to serve God, to stop being the abomination I was, hear the Call, do the work and live a life that is compatible with my stature: being human. I have come home, returned to God’s ways, and never been alone since. I have made mistakes, I have acted like a Pharaoh in dealings with some people over the years, I have been misunderstood, I have misunderstood another(s), I have been exiled and I have always welcomed the return of those I have had to exile from my life, from my workplace. It is hard to say the Modeh Ani, know that “today is the day” and see the ways I mess it up and it is the most exhilarating experience to live into the words of the prayers, the words of hope and return of the prophets-I do it every day and I gather strength, experience and hope from this.
ACTION STEP:
How are you making life an abomination by serving Pharaoh
How are you making your life a gift by serving God?
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark