August 8, 2020
Cutting the payroll tax seems to mean no $$$ going into Social Security and Medicare. Isn’t that special? Thanks for the non-gift that will hurt many people and break a campaign promise, oh resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
August 8, 2020
I think someone forgot that there is no mask exemption for indoor peaceful protests, and that peaceful protests of the last couple of months mostly took place outside with people wearing masks (with some social distancing). I also don’t understand how a press conference turned into a peaceful protest.
And.....it would seem to me that one side of negotiators in the coronavirus relief package may have been told to stonewall so that a certain person could portray himself as the hero (against his opponents) by signing executive orders to that would accomplish what one chamber had already proposed and passed weeks ago.
The art of the deal. Such a deal.
😞
August 7, 2020
As Shabbat is about to begin, I must say emphatically: this election campaign had better not turn into a “who’s hurting God and the Bible more” contest. I have already seen that Pastor Robert Jeffress has said that Evangelical Christians who support Biden have “sold their soul to the devil.” Well, thankfully, Jews really don’t believe in the devil, as such, so I am off the hook. Many who have said “they want to keep God out of our schools” were unable to recognize that, if they believe that God is everywhere, then they have to believe that is God is already in the schools, and that if God could be kept out of the schools, God would certainly not be God. Moreover, hurting the Bible and hurting God is not a thing, especiallly in a non-theocratic country, and also, if God is not a human being, then God cannot be hurt. And if the Bible is a book, the Bible can’t be hurt. We can talk about reading the Bible and following the Bible for those who are intellectually curious or for those who say they are religious. In this nation, the Bible is not the only sacred text followed by people of faith. So, “hurt the Bible” is a very narrow, non-diverse statement when it comes to religion in America. It is a statement of judgment by a self-appointed religious authority that goes against the Establishment clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Hmm. Let’s try to really protect and defend the Constitution.
I am going to exercise my religious freedom (First Amendment) in a few moments to observe Shabbat (“Remember/Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy”).
Shabbat Shalom!
July 30, 2020
For those who say “of course, Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter”: will you join those who oppose voter suppression through closing polling places (especially to prevent people of color and young people from voting)and taking legitimate voters off the rolls, and will you work against housing covenants that still discriminate against people of color?
July 30, 2020
Stop believing a man who would make false claims about mail-in voting and who would withdraw troops from an ally nation because he despises the leader of the host country and because he wants to please and appease a non-ally/ nemesis to whom he defers at nearly every turn.
July 29, 2020
So....
Some people say that taking down a video with inaccurate information about hydroxychloroquine is a conspiracy and cover-up rather than a move to preserve their health,
While tax returns that a certain resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue should have released as a positive gesture, like his predecessors, remain secret, and that is NOT a cover-up, and that people pursuing the release of that information believe in Fake News, of course.
What a nation we live in.
July 26, 2020
Watching the John Lewis’ casket being taken across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I am wondering if there are some people who want to take us backwards, to undo the work of John Lewis and others.
I believe that I have seen examples right before my eyes. It’s up to us to stay on John Lewis’ side of that bridge.
July 25, 2020
As I prepare to lead a Torah study session for Temple Beth-El Las Cruces on the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy, I am feeling a little like Moses, who, in this portion, began to retell the history of the Israelites from his perspective. It makes me wonder how, as the months and years go by, I would tell my own story in the context of the communities of which I have been a part.
In his commentary on the Torah, Richard Elliott Friedman notes that Moses is relevant to us because, while he was the first great man and leader in the Bible, he was also a regular human being, with weaknesses, a temper, flaws, and fears. He was seen as humble for many reasons, perhaps, because we were able to see him not as perfect, but as someone who dealt with challenges that might relate, in some way, to what we face in our lives.
As I near the end of the first month of my retirement, I do feel like Moses, in some very small ways. I remember most everything of my 39 years as a rabbi. There were challenges, pitfalls, times when I didn’t do what I should have. There were times when partnership with a community, and, specifically, members of those communities who shared with me values and goals, led to positive and productive results which created warmth and connection.
Hopefully, there will be adequate time to reflect, so that this new chapter will emulate the best of the past. That is something that each of us can do, even before retirement. Of course, retirement is simply a starting of a new chapter, perhaps, even, a new book. May the chapters we generate in our lives bring us goodness, blessing and hope, as we look forward to the future.
July 22, 2020
I don’t think that, when people thought that a business man would make a good national leader, that they expected that person to run the country exactly as he did his business and organization. There is no need to use the term “deep” for this appropriation of our country and its de facto transfer in to that organization. This is shallow. It is insidious. It is everything that this person has ever said and done and imagined, including accusations against African-American men who were innocent, answering legal actions against him with stonewalling, praising contractors who did work for him and then not paying them, saying that they did a terrible job, and that they could take a pitifully small amount of payment or they would get nothing. It is about someone believing that he can be in charge without needing to be accountable to anyone, that he can shift and change his story at will, and that he is always a victim and never a perpetrator (or bully). And now, he can use others to impose a certain type of will based in physical force rather than working with others to solve problems and address concerns for the well-being of people in the country. And now, he can claim that the number of lives lost from a pandemic could have been much higher, so that makes him successful.
I know that this person would not make it a week as a clergy person.
That is for sure.
July 19, 2020
Stop it with the “they said no masks, and now they are saying to wear masks. Why did they change their mind?”
The “no masks” statement in late February was intended to be sure that medical personnel in hospitals and clinics had masks.
Once the spread of COVID-19 among us was recognized as a reality by mid-March, it became clear that the aerosol spread of the virus would be significantly prevented by wearing masks. Your mask protects others from what might be in your system. Another person’s mask protects you from what might be in their system.
Maybe some people think they have never carried germs that they have inadvertently given to someone else. It’s inevitable that such a thing has happened. Now, it’s happening big time.
So, I declare that my inhalers are NOT political, they are intended to control my asthma. My blood pressure medicine is NOT political, it’s intended to keep me alive and safe. My medication for my new lower back ailment (it’s been painful, folks) is intended to keep me COMFORTABLE and is NOT political.
My mask is intended to keep you safe and healthy when I am in your presence. It is NOT, in any way, political. So I ask that others wear masks to keep me (and people in their presence) safe and healthy.
July 15, 2020
Dear Gracious Giver of Knowledge (says one weekday Jewish blessing),
Franklin Graham says that You are truth, and science isn’t. Why did You give us this knowledge, including to keep us safe and healthy, if we can’t use it to help one another?
Oh.....that IS why you gave us the ability to deepen our knowledge, and to be Your hands to bring healing when we are able?
Okay. Thank you.
July 8, 2020
Sometimes a pandemic is just a pandemic - fatal, sadly, for some, challenging healthwise and emotionally, a crisis during which we must be cautious and resilient. As for delusions that it’s all about you, you can stop. Many of us are looking in other places for guidance, insight and comfort.
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