Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 138
“This is the day Adonai has made, I will rejoice in it”. Watching Sen. Eric Schmidt make a fool of himself both by not having the facts regarding his accusation against Jack Smith in a Senate hearing yesterday and by spitting on the dignity of the Senate Chamber by smugly calling Jack Smith a “dirtbag” causes me to wonder how these ‘fine christian white men’ like him reconcile their behaviors with this verse from Psalms, with Christ’s teachings, with human decency. Yet, these ‘fine christian white men’ continue to bastardize Christ, God, and the holiness of both the Bible and the New Testament. How sad and infuriating. The question that lies before We the People is will we keep buying their lies, their thievery, their shitting on everything We, People of Faith hold dear? These are the people Ramban is speaking of in his commentary on “you shall be holy” in Leviticus 19; “it is possible to be a scoundrel within the bounds of Torah” so this comes to remind us to keep the spirit of the law, the spirit of the Torah as well as the literal. Yet, far too many of We the People who claim to be ‘good jews, good christians, good catholics, good muslims’ continue to bastardize the Holy Texts we are privileged to engage with, continue to misquote and misuse the words of God, of Moses, of Christ, of Mohammed, of the prophets to suit our own selfish desires. WHEN WILL IT END?
It will end when We the People make a decision to bring together the “House of Jacob” and the “House of Israel”. These two descriptors are used interchangeably according to many scholars and in my immersion into Jeremiah, into the Bible, I believe these two terms connote, if not denote, two different ways of being. We know the ways of Jacob, ie conman, liar, cheat, thief, and we know the ways of Israel, ie connected to God, grateful for what he has, decent and human. The ways of selfishness, of greed, of cruelty can and will end ONLY WHEN WE THE PEOPLE put together these two parts, using our cunning to help another, using the energy from the negativity inside of each of us to do the opposite of what the negative inclination is hounding us to do, the opposite of what the selfishness, the greed, the need to be right is telling us to do. AND, we the people can do this only when the ways of God become more important than the societal norms We the People have come to accept. While in AA, acceptance is the answer to all our problems today, according to Dr. Paul, in our daily living, acceptance of evil leads to more evil, acceptance of greed leads to more greed, acceptance of cruelty leads to more cruelty. Dr. Paul is speaking to the truth that unless I accept that cruelty is here, that evil is real, that greed is one of the deadly sins for a reason, I cannot change the hold it has over me and certainly not help another(s) person change the hold it has on him/her.
The actions taken in the name of “We the People” by the founding fathers led to the revolution, led to the Constitution, led to the Bill of Rights, led to the rule of law, led to the freedoms this country was built on. The actions taken in the name of “We the People” by the current powerbrokers, the idolators in charge, the purveyors of cruelty with a vengeance, the grifters, and their families under the guise of ‘christian values’ is ABHORRENT! I am screaming in this moment, in this blog because I am so enraged, so overwhelmed with righteous indignation because way too many of we the people believe that God gives them the right to be cruel, to steal from ‘those people’, to lock people up in cages treating them like animals, to deny truth, to do things only to make “sound bites” and to lie with impunity. THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO REJOICE IN THIS DAY THAT GOD HAS MADE!
These wannabe Mafia Bosses are nothing but PUNKS and, having known some Mafiosos, they do not have the integrity that those men had back in the day. I know the power of societal norms, standards, keeping up with ‘the Jones’, etc. I also know the power of living into “this day that Adonai has made” relieves me of the pressure of having to keep up with anyone! It gives me the freedom and the obligation to be maladjusted, to see this day as new, to see each experience as new, different, non-repeatable, and exhilaratingly full of promise and potentials for learning, growing, becoming more of the person I am created to be. This is what is important, as I read the prophets, as I hear God’s call, as I continue to lessen my own Ghosting of God, Ghosting of self. It is the only way to make my corner of the world better. It is the only way you can make your corner of the world better. ACTION STEP:
Write out a plan to bring your Jacob and your Israel more together
Write out a plan each day to “rejoice in” “this day” knowing it is a gift
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark