The Abundance of Fools...I Mean Fall

Well, here we are in the middle of Jewish Holiday Season. For those of us who observe, the period between Rosh HaShana and Simchat Torah usually feels like 24-days of endless holy days. You are so tired of cooking by the end of Sukkot, that the shabbat dinner that this year follows Simchat Torah by a day is usually pretty basic shabbat dinner. I have long suspected the Jewish holiday cycle is the real punishment for whatever went down in Gan Eden. 

Beth Jacob's Sukkah 2021

Still, there is something magical about Sukkot. If you're observant, you might build a sukkah in your back yard, and maybe even sleep in it. The roof is not solid; you have to be able to see the stars. Eating in the sukkah is always fun. It's a harvest holiday kinda thing, and no matter where you are in the world, you have to think about agriculture because this is what the holiday is about: first fruits. And by extension, you have to think about growing seasons, the land, the weather, and all the rest of the natural world that allows us to eat. 

If you know your Bible well, you know there is a call for a jubilee year for the land, and this year, 5782 is one of those years. In Hebrew, it's called shmita ...return:  

             Leviticus 25:1-7

1 The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai:

2 Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:

When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of the LORD.

3 Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield.

4 But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the LORD: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.

5 You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untrimmed vines; it shall be a year of complete rest for the land.

6 But you may eat whatever the land during its sabbath will produce—you, your male and female slaves, the hired and bound laborers who live with you,

7 and your cattle and the beasts in your land may eat all its yield.

Shmita is still observed in Israel today. For example, Jewish National Fund does not plant trees during the shmita period unless it's an erosion emergency needed to protect the land. This year, however, medical cannabis is a new issue facing Israel. Read the article; it's fascinating.

See, it's like this. stewardship of the land is nothing new. The idea that we need to take care of the land so the land takes care of us was codified thousands of years ago. That concept was taken pretty seriously back then, long before university ag departments and rural extension services. The drafters of the bible did not overlook the relationship between earth and humankind.

The weather events of the past couple of weeks are more indications of an imbalance in our atmosphere. The increased power of hurricanes and typhoons coupled with what we know about rising ocean temperatures should be a pretty serious warning, especially for all those evangelicals who are busy with climate science denial. I wanna know if any farmers in places like Iowa, Alabama, Florida, California, or even Minnesota are observing the Jubilee Year for their land. Or is this just another one of the inconvenient laws tossed out along with observance of kashrut or the sabbath on the seventh day? 

NY TIMES

Meanwhile, back in Washington, D.C., everyone is asking What if we threw a rally and nobody came? Apparently, only 400-500 people were there although a permit had been granted for up to 700. Earlier in the week, the word was out that a far larger crowd was expected, and the U.S. Capitol Police prepared and executed a significant show of strength at the event. However, the crowd was peaceful and nothing of note took place. A friend in DC said they strolled over to watch, and she thought there were more reporters than protesters. That might not be strictly true, but the comparison she drew was rather telling. 

Kids watching soldiers at Second Bull Run

She mentioned that during the Civil War, it was popular to take a picnic lunch to some of the battles, sit on the nearest hill, and watch as soldiers slaughtered each other. It was a fine afternoon's entertainment if you didn't mind the smell of death. She said it was  like driving on the Belt Parkway and seeing a car crash off to the side. The Belt is so narrow that you are right on top of the scene, making rubbernecking inevitable. Gross, but human nature. I did not doubt her assessment for one New York minute. As we talked about the lack of a rally, she admitted that they had, indeed, gone to see the blood and gore, figuring they could join a counter protest if necessary. 

I know she is reading this, and I can hear the guffaw when I shamefully admit to thinking they are fair weather patriots. And I know there will be another phone call in my future. 

But It got me to thinking about what we take for granted. We assume democracy will save us when, in fact, we are watching it erode. The recent attempts, some successful, to restrict access to voting is clearly an attempt to control what should be a free election. We assume Roe v. Wade is settled law when it is clearly under attack in Texas, with a dozen or so states waiting to see what happens before passing their own draconian laws. So much for settled law.

And about those laws. Do any of them hold sperm providers responsible for this? Are there laws preventing men from inseminating women willy-nilly? Or taking responsibility for those offshoots? A woman can have sex once, conceive, and bear a single child in 9 months. A man can fuck a swatch through a population, inseminating hundreds of women, yet there is not one law on the books telling him that's illegal or that he is responsible for the care, feeding, and raising those hundreds of children. That, by the way, is a really BIG hint about what those laws are really about. And it ain't about the children. 

In a 2017 interview, Margaret Atwood, the author of The Handmaid's Tale, said:

Sometimes people have to live their dream. So if living their dream means a lot of dead women and orphans, maybe they're going to have to live that dream and maybe they're just then going to have to figure out, 'Who's going to pay for this?'" Atwood asked. "Who's going to pay for the orphans and the dead women, because that's what you're going to have. And I'm waiting for the first lawsuit. I'm waiting, you know, in which the family of the dead woman sues the ... state and I'm also waiting for a lawsuit that says if you force me to have children I cannot afford, you should pay for the process. They should pay for my prenatal care. They should pay for my, otherwise, very expensive delivery, you should pay for my health insurance, you should pay for the upkeep of this child after it is born. That's where the concern seems to cut off with these people. Once you take your first breath, [it's] out the window with you. And, it is really a form of slavery to force women to have children that they cannot afford and then to say that they have to raise them.

It is a form of slavery to remove self-determination from a person. And it's a red herring. If a legislative body can do this to women, what other groups can and will be targeted? I don't think we have to think real hard for that answer. The demise of democracy in this country will not be with a bang, but with a whimper. (Thank you, T.S. Eliot, for The Hollow Men.)

But I digress. This week's episode is supposed to be about the abundance of fall...not the abundance of fools. 

So, at this juncture, I want to point out that fall is a great time of year for changes. The weather is a bit snappier, the bugs are slowly disappearing, the fruit is ripe, and the colors are grand. Take a moment to think about the gift that is autumn. Take a walk. Go to an orchard. Visit your local farmer's market or farm stand. Then remember that all of this comes from the earth to you. Be aware. Be cognizant. Be considerate of the planet. 

As a very young Junior Son once insisted, "Be ecowogicawy fweindwy." (Yes, he really did sound like Elmer Fudd.) And that drive toward ecological responsibility continues to this day as he and Mrs. Junior Son teach Little Miss and Young Sir how to be ecologically friendly. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Check your living footprint.

Work to make it as small as possible.

Your children and grandchildren will thank you.