The First Peoples of this continent – that white Christian colonizers named “America” – believed that no one owns the land. But, this did not stop them, the indigenous, from fighting for the right to live freely and peacefully within their ancestral places. To oppose the white Christian colonizer, and their revisionist history! The same is true for Hawaiians, and for the Kurds. So it is, this is also true for the Jews, and our desire to live freely and peacefully in *just a portion* of our Levant ancestral places! Un-persecuted by the conquests and revisionist histories of the Christian and Islamic colonizers/conquesters of the land. Jews, too, believe that humans don’t actually own the land.
Our ancestral literatures, the Torah, teaches us that only YHWH god owns the Levant land (think Israel, West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan/ancient-Moab of today) – דברים ח:ז-י. All other portions of the continent, other lessor gods under El/Elohim owned in their proportions, like YHWH god owns his portion – דברים לב:ח-ט, תהילים כט:א. (This is actually what Torah teaches!) To each nation, a national god-King, aka Landowner. Between the two peoples, Jews and Edomites/Idumeans, that YHWH god subjected to his national rule for having been established in the land – דברים כג:ח, Jews are specifically chosen to live under the covenant of YHWH god laws – דברים כט:ט-יד. And, in return for commitment to YHWH god, Jews will always have a presence in the land of Judea (historic Palestine) – בראשית יז.
Our ancestral literatures, our Torah, also teaches us that the sanctity of human and all other animal species life is universal – בראשית א:כ,כא,כד,ל! We all have the same breath – דברים יב:כג. We all, regardless of species, breathe and have life because of Elohim god’s breath (“soul”) within us. Further, Torah teaches that, among humans, both male and female were created *together*, at the same time – בראשית א:כז-כח, and from these many humans spawed the nations of the land – בראשית ד:טז. (This is actually what Torah teaches!) Now, because Jews specifically are covenanted to following YHWH god’s laws, being the Levant indigenous, Torah demands that there will be one law for both Jews and gentiles within Israel – שמות יב:מט. … Modern day Israel is a continuation of this “democratic” ideal, within her Jewish borders – albeit, still with a few social flaws.
For Jews to realize the Messianic Age of peace upon the land – ישעיהו ב:ד,יא:ו-ט, the persecution of the refugee nation ישראל (the only nation in the world comprised of mostly refugees – the present nation-State of Israel) must end. No more conquests by Christians and Muslims! Acceptance of the right of Israel to exist on a sliver of her former national land-self.
Education, especially historical education – verifiable and demonstrable – frees the mind from near two thousand years of hate tropes and irrational conspiracy theories. Within me and through all fathers before me, I am a Levantine Jew through and through. Oddly though, through admixturing, I look Scandinavian-ish. This is because my Levantine Dad (the Levant “First Peoples”) married my Sardinian Mom (the European “First Peoples”), and surprise(!) – four different versions of the world of humans came out of her womb (I kid you not)!
If you look at the skin surface, you’ve missed the human being before you! Learn from him/her first. … Yes, the land only belongs to the ancestral gods of the land, but it is right for the indigenous to fight for freedom and safety upon the land! And for both the indigenous and the emigrant to share the land in peace. Humans *must* find peace for the sanctity of life – or the gods that be will kick us off the earth and into extinction – yes, as a failed primate species experiment upon this planet!
An indigenous and Jewish photographer wants to tell her people’s story before it’s too late
At the age of 20, Kali Spitzer left her home in Victoria, British Columbia, to travel north and immerse herself in the culture of her father, who is a member of the Kaska Dena, a First Nations people native to Canada.
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“Many of us continue to feel besieged and beset by the contingencies COVID has brought.”
Let’s reflect deeper, shall we? Sars-CoV-2 is a virus, plain and simple. It is not an enemy seeking to frustrate, oppress, and victimize any human’s life. Present day Covid19 has an earlier version brother (Sars-CoV-1), and my brother has been lucky to survive both – but with great physical costs, as a price. The suffering and oppression – and, for many now, the impoverishment – that we feel during this pandemic stems from two human sources, specifically.
One, we do not, as modern nations, believe in nor demand the social democracy responsibilities that are demanded of in the scroll of D’varim to prevent injustice and suffering – and, even worse, we are nations caught up in a reversal age of extreme science-denial, compounding this social anti-collective mentality. Two, for those not really suffering even yet – just mightily inconvenienced, which feels like suffering – the daily engagement in egocentric attitudes and behaviors that are literally furthering the spread of this virus back and forth within human societies.
We humans, collectively, are the creators of our own suffering here upon planet Earth. We ARE capable of making better collective choices. We are able to suppress a possible pandemic, before it becomes one. But, this requires finding “G-d”-like love within us for all humans and other species of this planet. Questions, if I may: When will we work together to make this world a paradise – a gan eyden – for all humans? Are we actually capable as a gifted species of achieving this? Or, are we forever doomed to our inherent self-made sufferings.
Those not truly suffering in this pandemic need to be on the front lines of encouraging a collective shift towards the social survival – by healing, providing for, and protecting the most vulnerable amongst us. “I”ism at the expense of “We”ism is a sure path towards never reaching Eyden. Nor, even, really overcoming this pandemic.
בזאת אני בוטח …
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When someone says “Trust in God,” my first response is to be confused. To which “God” are you referring, for there are many in the realm of humans. Of these, only Elohim do I trust in, and it is only YHWH that I bow before – and no others, for they are not the same.
If you asked the Founders of this colony-Nation called the USA what “Trust in God” means for this nation, we would have to talk about their Deist beliefs and their beliefs in inherent natural rights (inaleinable) that applies only to white Christian males. It was a progressive violation of this core USA concept by Abolitionists that was the fundamental reason for the Civil War.
Salmon P. Chase was deeply influenced by his uncle, Bishop Philander Chase. Bishop Chase was a leading Scottish figure in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the West. This sect were the first missionaries of “America,” who saught to turn the USA, and specifically whites, to their sect of Christianity. Chase’s “God” is the white Jesus Christ “Trinity” god, that many of the USA founders rejected, in favor of the Maimonides’ “God” (utterly transcendent, leaving life for us to govern). But, this Protestant “God” found full audience in the chattel slave-owning Southern States.
Both sides believed that the Christian “God” was on their side, so much so, that bloody year after bloody year, the South fought to keep its new Conferate Republic as the true perpetual representation of the Founders’ ideals, and the North struggled over whether freeing the slaves would bring the South back into the Union.
This is now the 21st century, and the USA has still not resolved this War over original founding sin. “”God Save the South” is a poem-turned-song written by American George Henry Miles, under the pen name Earnest Halphin, in 1861. It is considered by some to have been the unofficial national anthem of the Confederate States of America.” – Wiki
I believe that we should question and ask the name of “God,” everytime this generic reference is invoked. Because, the “G-d” of Torah demands this of Jews. Even here in the United States! I believe that an immature understanding of “God” is the very fundamental reason for all the sufferings and traumas that is the history of the United States.
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Tzedaka literally means “justice” and, when applied socially, is a demand and not an option. It seems to me this pasuk comes to remind us of this. For it is made clear in D’varim that what we need for prosperity has been already provided to us, so long as we maintain justice (aka, charity).
Mishna Peah 8:9: One who has fifty zuz and is using them for their business, they must not take [from communal charity pot]. And anyone who does not need to take [charity] and yet takes, will not depart from this world before they actually need [charity] from others. And anyone who needs to take [charity] and does not take, will not die of old age until they support others with their own money. Concerning them the verse says:
“Blessed is the person who trusts in the Eternal and whose trust is in the Eternal alone.” (Jeremiah 17:7)
“There will be no needy among you, for all that you societally/communally need is already provided in nature for you!” (D’varim 15:4-6)
This law demands that we find ways to ensure all within the community are able to sustain a livable social standard of living – home, food, living wage occupation, medical care, and needed education/reeducation that remains in balance with the present costs of social living, so that there are *none* within the society/community that is trapped below the poverty line.
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Faith, by definition, is allegiance to a duty, a belief, or a person. Faith does not require evidence or proof, for it is a sincerity of intentions – a firmness of conviction. It is not rational, being a perception that we devote ourselves into.
Faith is different from trust. For trust is a dependence on something, whether physically real or socially imagined, that one places confidence in – in its reliability or truth. Trust is based in lived evidence, and does not require any kind of faith.
Faith resides in the mind. The mind, a virtual perception of “self” (aka, our individual “soul”) created by the collective cells that we call a body for while we have breath. The body, with the breath of life (the temporary physical “soul” of “G-d”) within its blood sustaining life. The heart beats in relation with the breath within and, from this, temporary physical “souls” are joined together.
The neshama is in the dam within the nefesh of all creatures. In this, we can all trust! But, humans have the gift of perceiving what is not obviously/demonstrably real – thus allowing for an experience of faith.
I trust that my ethno-religious Jewish family embraces me. And I have faith that our ethno-religious people will survive upon the land, and become true examples of tzedaka. … I would love to know the kind of perceived “faith” that can be felt as “shapes and textures” in the body! What an experiencing that must be?
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Elul Elevations: 4 of Elul
Provided by Rabbi Mira Rivera
“Letting Go underscores my Elul. Letting Go of the fear of actually facing someone whom I have wronged or not done enough for. Letting Go of how the other may rebuff my request for forgiveness. Letting Go of my drama over repeated failings. And the classic one of all, letting go of how other people fail and do not measure up. I have become agile at disappearing into the night with my basket of disappointments that I have not let go. So as I enter Elul, it is strangely liberating to know that there is a world out there where our spiritual heritage prepares for a season of reparation, teshuvah, and for Letting Go of attachment to the results of our efforts.
I was once saying a penultimate goodbye to an Elder who had been declared in hospice. I was one of the “nice, nameless people” who visited her. Casi familia – almost family – she would say about us. She and I had prayed and reminisced about her birthplace and so much more. I made a mental note that on my ultimate visit, I will guide a prayer session for her comfort and well-being and together we will say good-bye. Somewhere down the line, she will let go. I will not know when, or how, yet I must trust that her care team will hold her with the gentlest of hands.
Letting Go at Elul with no guarantee of the kind of response that I want, when I want it. I love you. Please forgive me. I see you. And now I let go.”
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My grandfather, first generation Jewish-American for our family, got caught up in the Great Depression. Hence, his unfortunate ties to the Chicago mobs and the moonshine “trade,” which ended his life (and others) horrifically! He died, before he was burned, so the medical examiner of the time suspicioned. Guns, assassination, moonshine running, alcoholism, family abuse, affairs by both grandparents, and what we would call rape today – the notorious age of the USA Probibition Era, which some call the “Roaring 1920’s.” To this day, when my peace-loving Turkish-looking brother walks the streets that my Grandfather walked, older folk step away from my brother to the other side of the street. Damn, I feel sorry for him, because my brother is the spittin’ image of gangster grandfather!
I have a photo of my Jewish-American grandfather with “Pretty Boy” Floyd, the nortorious ganster/bank robber, who some see as an American Robinhood for allegedly burning mortgage documents while stealing banks’ money. Seriously, I don’t make this up, I just report what I’ve learned in life (no matter how embarrassing, at times, like now)! A photo taken just days or weeks before BOI caught up with Floyd, and shot him the eff dead.
My Dad had to live through all this (ish)! And the generational traumas have passed down with no resistance, until my and my brothers’ generation. “Not all that leave, return” is a hasidic Jewish saying. But, some of us *do* return (though maybe not so chasid anymore), for the pintele yid is real, folks! Like Torah – however you choose to view it.
What I hope for this Elul is to remove the sufferings of life gone horribly wrong – starting with my family – that has deprived two generations now of a healthy and safe דרך life in this world, and ending with saving the world itself (from us inherently conflicted humans!). Generational trauma is *real*, folks, and all of us minorities *know* this first hand! Please listen to the stories. No one can be expected to fulfill the social ethical imperatives of the scroll of D’varim, until we truly embrace *social democracy* and *sanctity of life* – regardless of the species. Meaning, we now as humans value and respect all that are the weakest and most vulnerable around us, supporting their growth!
It takes a society to do this! HONESTLY, no one – not individuals, philanthropists, nor “non-profit” organizations – can achieve what HUMANS *must* learn to *collectively* achieve – despite our cherished beliefs! We must *all* value life together, not just some lives! Or, these generational traumas will eff up many more generations to come – needlessly! (What I could have been, without baggage. Just ask *everyone* around me!) I feel! Therefore, I still am.
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Oh my, this year, I am got! This this Elul has been my worst. Maybe it’s time to trust and relate “as is” presently.
#elulelevations I’m so not ready, again!
Elul Elevation | 24 of Elul
Provided by Rich Orloff
Trust is an act of courage
At least that’s been my experience
To trust when one has known trust betrayed
Takes daring and strength
Betrayals by parents who were willing to demolish your dignity
And separate you from your holiness
By siblings who promised alliance
But who used you as a snack to feed their demons
By teachers who imparted lies under the guise of wisdom
And graded you harshly if you revealed the truth
By societies who refused to acknowledge their shadows
And threatened to banish those who questioned their delusions
By lovers who treated love as a disposable pleasure
Instead of a gift from the soul
And yes, even by deities who promised salvation
But who really only desired your submission
Like everyone I have ever met
I have ample reasons to distrust
(And have not always been trustworthy myself)
And yet I’ve discovered
Trust is a divine yearning woven into our soul
An act of willful surrender of skepticism and doubt
Recognizing we cannot expand
If we stay confined within our walls
Trust is a sacred medicine
To heal the wounds of the past
To permit the ecstasy of connection
To fulfill our role as a star in a tantalizing universe
And as I wrestle with the question
Of who and when to trust
I also ask
Should I trust myself
To my surprise I hear
Neither Yes nor No, but
There’s only one way to find out
Risk
Share your thoughts. #elulelevations
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Final Elul Elevation | 29 of Elul
Provided by Rabbi David Ingber
As we conclude every Jewish wedding, we break a glass. The origin of this custom, the Talmud claims, is a desire to ritualize a remembrance of our destroyed ancient Temples. Broken glass represents the loss of our sacred center and the beginning of exile. That this takes place at the end of a ceremony that in our tradition is the sacred container for the holiest of holies- intimacy-should give us pause and invite us to ask, ‘why? Why now and why here?’
Perhaps, the brilliance of this custom points us to the heart of genuine relationship and true intimacy; how do we safeguard that which is fragile in a broken and breaking world? Or perhaps more profoundly, this custom tells each loving couple, on the most hopeful and joy-filled day of their lives, ‘you will break stuff, others will break stuff and stuff will be broken’. How will you repair what you break? How will you learn to trust one another and life itself in the face of broken promises, broken dreams, and broken hearts? How will you know how to (re) awaken trust?
As we come to the close of the month of teshuah, we are reminded that our Sages taught that Elul was an acronym for Ani L’dodi Ve’dodi Li, (אלול) the romantic verse in Song of Songs, ‘I am to my beloved, and my beloved is to me’. This month is dedicated to healing all the brokenness in our lives and see it as a practice that brings more love into our broken world.
Share your answers. #elulelevations
My thoughts: Guess what time of the year it is! Anyone?!
After an intense lunar month of Elul, I think and hope that I am now ready – to embrace, having let go! Welcome יומא אריכא yoma aricha (one long double day)!
The “Book of Life” now “opens” for this coming Jewish year for Rosh Hashanah and will be “sealed,” as every year, on Yom Kippur. How will we decide our new year to be?!
“Rosh Hashanah sort of opens the period of intense retrospection that leads up to that moment of atonement [prepped for during the previous month]. But it’s also a joyous holiday in which people celebrate and hope for a sweet new year, a happier, an enriching New Year.” – Samira Mehta, the director of undergraduate studies in the program for Jewish studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Well succinctly said!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/09/02/rosh-hashanah-2021-dates-what-know-jewish-holiday/5669527001/
What is Rosh Hashanah? Here’s what you need to know about the Jewish New Year
Why do we blow the shofar prior to Tishrei, during the month of Elul? Ask me. 🙂
#elulelevations
This post concluded on September 6, 2021.
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