5786

The Jewish new year begins tonight. Under normal circumstances, I would be keyed-up and mobilized. This year is 5786, a count that begins with the creation of the universe. I love the idea that I can live in many worlds at once, including one that is just under 6,000 years old. It opens the windows inside old assumptions and lets you see the universe from a different angle. According to this count, everything is new, certainly not old enough for capitulation or despair.

But the truth is that I’m feeling sunk, and my guess is that you are feeling some of the same. The Netanyahu government has failed its citizenry and the cause of the Jewish People in the world. I take no responsibility for its actions in Gaza, but what it has done this year affects us all, especially since its speaks the language of Jewish Peoplehood and roots its claims in sad Jewish categories: persecution, victimhood, anti-Semitism, blood libel. It’s difficult—OK, impossile—to get out from under this, and establish our independence from its actions. Complicating all of this is kinship and love. I identify strongly with the victims of October 7 and the hostages beneath the rubble of Gaza.

The other half of this is the threatened ruin of this country. There is no famine yet, but a sense of foreboding. The Big Brutal Bill will shred health care for the poor and leave working-class America scrambling for access. Rural hospitals will close their doors, consigning the chronically unwell to the cruelties of rationing. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way, but neither was the cancellation of fundamental freedoms. Firing Stephen Colbert is not good for America. Firing Jimmy Kimmel is not good for America. It’s not in the same class as gutting Social Security or turning the Justice Department into an instrument of revenge, but it’s all part of the sludge stream of toxicity that Trump and Miller have brought to the country.

I mourn our losses, but I am determined to resist, if only for the sake of my immortal soul. I don’t want to have to confess to my grandchildren that I was too busy or frightened or despairing to fight. The moment I dreaded has actually arrived and we will all be tested in the days ahead. Not to get crazy or theatrical, but my measure of personhood for 5786 is whether I did one thing a day to fund the good guys, protect the vulnerable, speak my mind, and carry the torch against tyrants. Pledges like this have a way of failing, if only for the fact that it is hard to be heroic, and I personally don’t feel up to heroism. But it doesn’t mean I won’t be trying.

Blessings to all of us in 5785. Let’s hope the universe delivers better news this year and that we can create communities of justice, compassion, and love. Let’s hold hands on this one. It’s going to take everything we’ve got.

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Please note that I will be settling into the High Holidays for the next two days. See you again on Thursday or Friday.