Long, Long Ago, In A Mindset Far, Far Away

U of Mn. May, 1973.
Ziggy is somewhere in there. 

Long, long ago, in a universe far, far away, children rose up against the government to protest a war. Children took to the streets. Okay, we weren't technically children, we were kids; high school and college students mostly, but not all that many were grown-ass adults...although there were a few out there. Whatever. We rose up because we believed that we could change their world. We could make our voices heard, and we were a force for good to be reckoned with. 

Sorta. Kinda. 

Four dead in Ohio made a lot of us realize the world wasn't as simple as we wanted it to be, even if that didn't stop us from taking to the streets, the campus quads, and the administrative buildings. Other forms of protest, often very tiny ones, were embraced; we believed if we stopped paying the federal excise tax on our phone bills we could topple the government. We couldn't, and maybe we were naïve (yeah, we were very naïve) but we were full of the idealism and optimism that came with youth. And the US did ultimately pull outta Vietnam. Maybe they heard us just a little?

In the aftermath of that tumultuous decade, a lot of us believed we had, in many ways, changed the official life of these here United States. After all, the voting age changed from 21 to 18 in 1971, which meant guys being drafted could vote. Roe v. Wade brought reproductive freedom to women when, in 1973, the Supreme Court decided a woman had the Constitutional right to choose to have an abortion. And finally, in 1975, US troops were withdrawn from Vietnam. Kids may not have directly forced those three things to happen, but it was clear our raised voices were being heard. 

Shame it didn't last. 

Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States announced a woman did NOT have the right to self-determination of her own body, that the state does, and she must abide by the laws of any state in which she resides. We, the Women, are deemed incapable of determining how our own bodies should function. Keep in mind, the same mindset that overturned Roe V Wade is now attempting to exclude contraception from Medicaid coverage. Which makes one wonder what the real intent is here. 

They talk a great pro-life game, those GOP'ers, but not really. They refuse to prevent killing people outside the womb by refusing to pass sensible gun legislation. It was bad enough the House of Representatives seated a man who lied about everything on his resume, and still gives him committee assignments, but to assign Marjorie Taylor Greene, denialist and supporter of the insurrection to the House Homeland Security Committee is simply terrifying. Here is a woman who is supposed to represent her constituency in Congress, yet she advocated for the overthrow of the government she is sworn to uphold. What scares me most is that she was re-elected even after she did that. As much as it says about her, what does it say about the mindset of those who sent her back to congress after she rallied for its overthrow?

Don't even get me started on classified documents. Yes, documents were found in Biden's possession. Why they heck he didn't have his houses and offices thoroughly searched immediately after the Feckless Files Debacle...or at least when the first pages were found... is beyond me. Plus, the delay before the midterms was just plain stupid. Someone had to know it would come out that the pages were turned over before election day. He's been around long enough to know he just set himself up for impeachment. As my mother would say, "Dumb, dumb, dumb."

So, here's where I get to say that I may love the United States as my country, but I do not love nor support actions by my government that are childish, potentially damaging to democracy, or just plain stupid. In other words, Congress should neither be a playground nor a sandbox lacking in adult supervision. Where are the adults in the room? Clearly not in the House chamber. Instead of tending to the issues of governance, the entire congress sounds like a bunch of chronic complainers. The GOP, especially, complains about everything yet never offers a potential solution. The only thing they are aiming to do right now with their one-vote-out Speaker, is to tear down and topple our government. How the hell did these people get elected?

Or maybe the real question is how dumb are We, the People, that they were elected?

And speaking of governments, here comes the really tough stuff. 

I cannot support Israel's government under the leadership of Bibi Netanyahu. He, along with his coalition, is damaging the state part of the State of Israel. His apparent desire to alter the judicial system in order to circumvent his own criminal charges is abhorrent. 

The naming of ultra-right wing ministers to determine who is or is not a Jew, who can or cannot make aliyah, or what is taught in secular schools, rends the already delicate fabric of Israeli daily life like a mourner's ribbon. They throw rocks (literally) at Reform Movement and Masorti Jews, they deny women the right to read Torah or pray in a women's minyan at the Wall, and have their own terrorist gangs harassing Arab Israelis. They claim to be defenders of Israel, but it's not the State they are defending. Most ultra-orthodox men do not serve in the army, work outside the study hall, or contribute to the Israeli economy while they accept public assistance in the form of government subsidies. It becomes the job of the rest of Israel's secular population to protect them when they will not lift a finger to protect the state. And if they say the rest of us are less than Jews.....?

Secular Israelis have had enough. More than 100,000 of them poured into the streets of Tel Aviv, (and even more if you count the demonstrations in other cities) last Saturday night to protest this hard right turn of the government. Secular Israelis are correctly concerned that once the far right has tasted what power in the Knesset can do, they will not be satisfied until they wrest greater control from the centrists, turning themselves into a new Taliban. 

For 2000 years we dreamed of ending our exile. The State of Israel was supposed to be a beacon of hope for Jews worldwide, a place where we could be just us, Jews, living in a place where we didn't have to explain ourselves, our customs, our holidays, our calendar, our food. Israel was supposed to be the place where we were welcome and welcomed. The Mosque of Omar might sit on the Temple Mount,  but it's still where our Temple once stood, the place were Jews came to gather, to pray, and yeah, to make sacrifices. But it was our sacred place. We may share the space and some history with others, but that history begins with us. 

I don't want it to end with us.  None of us do. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you have family and friends in Israel, give 'em a call.

Ask them to explain what's happening in their world.

Don't offer comments or solutions.

Just listen.

When G-d Sends A Rowboat

Well, the nation is moving slowly back to some kind of normal. I'm not completely certain what that means or what that is, but I think that isn't completely realistic thinking. BACK is not the right word. We will never go back to what once was. We have lost our 21st century pandemic cherry to COVID, and while a hundred years ago we managed to survive Spanish Flu, this time, the vast array of transportation modes made transmission rates explode. For the moment, masks are off, people are gathering inside public spaces, and even I'm trying to figure out if my fall jaunt to Israel is gonna happen this year. The jury is still out on that one.

The first minyan back in the chapel
17 bodies/16 zoom boxes. Not too shabby

One of the more interesting conversations about the new normal came this weekend. Our shul had regular services with a full Torah service. Yes, masks were in place. At the same time over 100 intrepid souls sat in our regular places in the pews, we were still streaming live. That stalwart factor of my life, morning minyan, is now outside on Sundays, weather permitting, and inside on Tuesdays. We will gradually add more days. But therein lies the rub: our morning minyan now spans two countries and a bunch of states. 

We have regulars zooming into Minnesota from Canada, New York, Alabama, and Wisconsin. These folks are there every morning and as long as we can see 'em, they are counted to make up the 10 necessary for a minyan. As we go live, do we stop counting them? Does it have to be 10 people in the physical room? Or 10 faces we can see? But we have created this incredible, diverse community and we were there for each other during the duration. How do we not continue to count them to make a minyan? 

One idea is 10 in person is a minyan. 10 on zoom is a minyan. 5 and 5 is not. For a full Torah service with aliyot, 10 must be in the room. What happens if there are not 10 in the room? Is reading from a tikkun without aliyot permissible in this configuration? 

To many, this is a tempest in a teapot. This is our shtick and who cares so long as we make a rational decision for our community? Why does this matter?

Well, it matters to me. Or, should I say, the process matters to me. The conservative movement (not to be confused ever with conservative politics or political parties) looks to the traditions of rabbinic Judaism when faced with change. 

Balancing tradition and modernity is a dance, which ignites innovative ideas—those that shape our work to strengthen synagogues and those that influence how we live meaningfully as Jews today.                                                                United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism 

I'm not going into all the details of what the movement does or does not do, follow the link above if you're curious. But I am interested to see how the adjustments we have made this past year to deal with the pandemic become part of the new reality. It's really very exciting to be in the middle of these changes. 

Changes are not to be underestimated. They aren't always perfect or even tidy. Sometimes, they start small and snowball into something greater. Sometimes it's a small adjustment that ends up with a seismic shift. You never know. Kinda like the butterfly effect. 

And speaking of seismic shifts...

There's an old joke (#3 according to the ZJOD hit parade of humor and one of my all-time faves) where Sam is in a flood zone. He's on the porch when a man comes by in a rowboat, then the second floor when a motorboat comes, then on the roof when the helicopter comes, each time, turning away help by saying "G-d will save me! I have perfect faith!"  And he drowns. When he stands before the throne, he complains "Why didn't You save me? I had perfect faith!" And G-d answers, "But Sam, I sent you a rowboat."

G-d sent Israel a rowboat this week. 

Naftali Bennet & Yair Lapid

Look, I think the first PM of this shift, Naftali Bennett, is significantly too far to the right but here's the thing: this is a coalition government. An Islamist party is in the mix, and the ultra-orthodox are out of the coalition. This is progress. NOT having the Haredim in the mix means that the rest of the Jews have a chance of having more democracy in a place where the population is so diverse and the government these last twelve years has been so deaf. 

I was listening to Arieh O'Sullivan's interview with Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Ya'akov Katz for KAN, the Israeli English news service. Like most Israelis, he sees this election as an opportunity for the government to actually work for Israelis instead of themselves and power. He points out that Bennett may hold right wing views on some policies, but in the past, while holding other posts, he has encouraged meetings with all sectors of Israel, including Reform and Conservative rabbis. The exclusion of the Haredim from this coalition means relations with the Jewish Diaspora stand a chance of improving. 

Israelis are exceptionally good at criticizing their own government. They have raised it to an art form. Bibi is still a MP and is already saying he will bring this government down. Haredim are planning a march for tomorrow (Tuesday) to protest the new government. Bennett et al are not going to sail smoothly into fixing what's wrong. But they get to begin that process. They will learn to navigate the reefs and the shoals. With luck, they'll have lots of co-pilots willing to help out when and where needed. With even more luck, they'll all cooperate and learn to listen to each other.

This election isn't a rescue helicopter or even a motorboat. It's definitely a rowboat, but one that might help Israel to move slowly forward out of the morass that it is in politically, socially, and internationally. 

Yeah, year, I'm Pollyanna. We know this. But I need to believe that there is hope for the new government the same way there is hope for our government.

Meanwhile, back at the golf club: Yurtle McTurtle made one hellaciously stupid pronouncement today. As The NYTimes reported today:

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and minority leader, threatened on Monday to block any Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Biden in 2024 if Republicans regain control of the Senate next year.  

“I think in the middle of a presidential election, if you have a Senate of the opposite party of the president, you have to go back to the 1880s to find the last time a vacancy was filled,” Mr. McConnell said in a radio interview with the conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt. “So I think it’s highly unlikely.”

Why now? Why say something this stupid before the midterms? Well, when you have a teeny-tiny tootsie like the other guy and you're under his thrall and desperate to keep him from exposing whatever teeny-tiny Acme Anvil he has dangling over your head, you're going to say anything to keep him happy. The GOP is not in control of the Senate. The GOP continues to prop up that less-than-benevolent despot because if they don't, he will drop that anvil on their heads. Which, of course, speaks to the larger issue of whether or not our rather fragile democracy is in danger. The biggest hope we have is that in their investigations into tax returns and business practices, the various attorneys-general will be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Feckless Loser is a fraud, a phony, a thief, and a charlatan who has preyed on his minions. We can only hope that his minions finally come to understand they have been betrayed in the worst possible way. If not.......

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

COALITION: 

an alliance for combined action, 

especially a temporary alliance of political parties forming a government 

In Israel's current state, this is a good thing.