Gil “Falling upon one’s face” in supplication and confession after the standing prayer/guided meditation is an essential part of the ancient Jewish way of prayer
Bring the body into the moment and the heart out of its shell
It may not be advisable in your synagogue, depending on how educated the crowd is, but it’s definitely a viable option at home or in the forest field
Is prayer broken?
Do you find the act of praying meaningful, or even coherent?
Do you connect to the text of prayer?
Does the melody of prayer resonate with you?
Do you have a praying community?
Do you have a relationship with the one to whom you pray?
Do you find yourself in prayer?
They may not look like it but these are some of the most pressing questions of our times.
Worldwide injustice and social division, the abandonment of the poor and the monopolization of the environment, and so many more ills and madness of our times, all have their roots in an existential and practical state wherein the average human being does not pray.
Worse, for many who pray, the act of praying becomes a barrier between them and the divine.
There are many pathways out of this predicament.
The Jewish path of prayer is not the only path of prayer.
But it is a path with heart – if you can unlock its gates.
“Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!”
The siddur is not a book.
The language is not important.
The body is not to be left out.
The ancient way of Jewish prayer can meet the psycho-spiritual-eco-political needs of the meta-modern transhuman being – if we take it seriously and free it from the confines of dusty room and printed page and esoteric incantation.
If we transform it from a formulaic recitation into a self-constructive act of divine revelation.
We can fix prayer, if we restore it to what it was always meant to be.
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Fine, you say. High and lofty ideas that are all well and good. But you’re ignoring the elephant in the room.
Where is the God to whom you’re praying?
Where was God during Auschwitz?
You’re right.
This is the most pressing question of prayer out of them all.
And I’ll share with you my simple answer, the fruit of decades of study and reflection:
In Auschwitz, God was in the slave barracks, in the gas chambers, in the crematoria.
With every body and soul made in the divine image that faced the utter inhumanity of human beings.
And I’ll ask you in return,
Where was Man during Auschwitz?
Where was the divine image in those who allowed themselves to be seduced by hate into murdering millions?
The God to whom we pray does not act on the stage of human life with force and might, robbing us of both our freedom and our responsibility – but resorts to fervent whispers in human hearts urging us to see things in a new light and to make better choices.
It is up to us to heed the whispers.
It is up to us to act.
And so it is up to us to pray.
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May we merit to learn to pray in the way of our ancestors, and may the House of Prayer for all nations be rebuilt speedily in our days.
Dear fellow men,
Free advice for you.
Whatever your proposal is –
Whatever your event is –
Whatever your organization is –
Whatever your startup is –
Whatever your new religion is –
Whatever your messianic eschatological vision is –
Does it include women?
It should include women.
๐
Signed,
A Man Living in the 21st (58th) Century
Thoughts on the current situation, on this evening after the departure of Shabbath:
This is a dangerous time to be a Zionist.
On the one hand, Nazi- and Soviet-era anti-Zionism is alive and infecting both the modern Islamic world and Leftist movements worldwide. Propagandists have successfully equated Zionism and genocide in the minds of millions of people, and violence against Jewish people carried out in the name of anti-Zionism is at an all time high. Jewish people in every country are being put in the impossible position of having to either disown Israel or accept condemnation and punishment as a supporter of genocide.
On the other hand, an objectively fascist government has taken over the USA and is mobilizing “Zionism” as a pretext for suppressing free speech and other gross violations of the rights of citizens and legal residents alike, as part of a broader transformation of the country into its vision of a White Christian utopia. This “Zionism” is weaponized not just against Palestinians and Muslims but also Jewish people who have freely expressed their opinions on the state, government, military, and/or wartime conduct of Israel. It is a “Zionism” that subverts real Zionism, replacing traditional Zionist values of holiness, justice, law, land, etc, with an eschatological battle between projected (and ultimately symbolic) ethno-national groups eventually leading to global Christian domination.
Say you’re a Zionist and someone’s bound to get the wrong idea, one way or another.
But nevertheless, here we Jewish people are, still dreaming of Zion. โค๏ธ
A land, a city, of justice and holiness, of reverence for the divine image in humanity and fellowship among all human beings.
Zion. The banner of the prophets, the prayer of history, the call to return to God, to land, to ourselves.
Those of us who live in harmony with our traditions and with each other know:
Zionism is not the cause of this conflict but rather its solution.
Morning meditation on political Zionism:
The political component to Zionism is not Jewish sovereignty over the land.
According to Jewish tradition, the Creator was, is, and forever will be the sovereign over this land and all lands. We are just migrants, tenants granted the right to reside here and the responsibility to live with the land’s sanctity and natural sensitivity to injustice.
What political Zionism seeks to promote is Jewish autonomy.
The freedom to rule ourselves according to our laws and values, without external oppression, persecution, or pressure to participate in a supremacist social hierarchy.
Jewish people believe that the Creator brought us to this land in order for us to exercise that freedom, in safety, security, and holiness. Over the millenia our ancestors lived, prayed, and died in this land, our traditional culture was born and flourished in its mountains and its plains, its coasts and its wilderness.
But land – protected space – is just a precondition for full autonomy.
Full autonomy, according to Jewish tradition, finds expression in lawful self-governance. The ืื ืืืจืื autonomous individual is the one paradoxically bound by the laws of the Torah. As a nation, full autonomy is found in our laws.
“The tablets were inscribed with autonomy”
Physically returning to the land is inarguably necessary.
Mentally healing from the exile is essential.
But the political goal of the re-establishment of Israelite civilization in the land of Israel is the reassertion of Israelite autonomy – and that comes through the establishment of a fully-functioning lawful society.
“There is no sanctity except in the Laws”
In the merit of our rejoicing in both the Torah and the return of our captive brothers to the embrace of our national family, may we merit to achieve full autonomy in this land in the establishment of a lawful, just, and holy society dedicated to the liberation and elevation of all sentient beings through the civilizational program of our sacred Torah. You know, political Zionism. ๐
On October 7th, 2023, the Hamas military invaded southern Israel. For an entire day, they systematically murdered every Jewish person they found. Their stated goal was to join with Hezbollah forces scheduled to invade northern Israel on the same day, and together with militant cells in the West Bank successfully wipe out millions of Jewish people.
From October 7th, 2023 onward, for a period of two years, the IDF invaded, bombed, and shelled the Gaza Strip, targeting military tunnels, weapons caches, and Hamas units densely embedded and enmeshed amongst and under civilians, their homes, their schools, and their hospitals. Their stated goal was to rescue the captive Israelis that Hamas kidnapped and to destroy Hamas as an organization.
To my mind, one of these is clearly attempted genocide.
The other is not.
However, it would seem that there are many, many people – some of whom I would even count as friends – who disagree with this rather straightforward assessment.
Since October 7th, I have read and heard arguments from anti-Zionists accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Not just war crimes, not even ethnic cleansing, but genocide.
While the accusation originates in authoritarian state propaganda and is largely promoted by ignorant talking heads via memes and reels, it also has the support of several academic bodies dedicated to the study of international human rights law and genocide studies (as well as a bogus pseudo-academic fake institute, but I won’t dignify them with inclusion here).
These academics published and co-signed a paper suggesting that according to the standard and accepted definition of genocide, Israel is commiting genocide against Palestinians. As proof of this claim, they cited: select statements by Israeli politicians, the “totality of evidence” of the war’s devastating impact, select instances of IDF soldiers targeting civilians, and the widely-circulated casualty statistic claiming that roughly 3% of the population was killed.
Based on this paper, co-signed by several reputable academic centers for genocide studies, I am supposed to believe that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
If I don’t accept this supposed consensus, then apparently I am a “genocide denier.”
๐ค
Here’s why I am not persuaded by the argument.
1. Cherry-picking statements from hyperbolic politicians who ALSO made many statements asserting the goal of self-defense and the need for humanitarian aid for Gazans, completely fails the standard of the “only possible interpretation” of these statements being genocidal intent.
2. The recourse to the “totality of evidence” in the alleged absence of direct evidence of genocidal intent is completely unnecessary: the direct evidence available – in the form of all the measures the IDF took to protect Gazan life, from sending warning phone calls and leaflets to evacuating civilians to literally scheduling airstrikes in advance – indicates that there was no genocidal intent.
3. While over 70% of the Gaza Strip was reduced to rubble, only 3% of the Gazan population was killed in this war. The wild disparity between these two percentages indicates that rather than wantonly disregarding Gazan life, let alone targeting Gazans for slaughter, the IDF waged war in a densely-packed urban setting without genocidal intent.
4. Gazans are not a separate religious, ethnic, or national group. They are part of the Palestinian people. While Gazans were dying from Israeli airstrikes by the thousands, millions of Palestinians across Israel were completely safe from any threat of genocide; in fact, they were in greater danger from rockets and missiles from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. While military measures in the West Bank intensified and settler crimes against Palestinians increased, there was no genocidal targeting of Palestinians as a religious, ethnic, or national group at any point in the past two years.
5. As mentioned above, only 3% of the Gazan population died in this war. That number is not just civilians – it includes Hamas soldiers. And the fact that, on analysis, it actually *disproportionately* includes Hamas soldiers as opposed to, say, children (roughly half the population), indicates not only a lack of genocidal intent but a lack of genocidal *outcome*.
Kappara, this war has been undeniably devastating for Gazans.
The question itself of whether we have committed genocide or come close to committing genocide, is a valid question.
The debate itself in international human rights law regarding the meaning, nature, and definition of genocide, is a valid debate.
It is also clear that the IDF did not always follow its own policies and it may even be that war crimes were committed over the past two years.
Israel is a democracy dedicated to the rule of law, and we can and should investigate everything that needs investigation.
Howthebleepever.
The accusation of genocide, in light of the evidence, is a blood libel.
Its origins, its memes, its subtext, its imputation of ultimate guilt, its baselessness, make it a blood libel.
Not everyone who believes it is a rabid antisemite – but everyone who believes it has bought into modern antisemitism on some level. Including those Jewish people who support, repeat, and insist on the truth of the libel.
As I’ve written previously, I believe that Zionism must reckon with the devastation of Gaza, and that a new future must be built from the ashes of both Beeri and Gaza. And as anyone who has read my posts knows, I’m the last one to place the Israeli state, government, or military beyond criticism.
But the truth is the truth.
May the genocides actually occurring right now across the world be swiftly stopped, and may the world know no more genocide.
May a just peace come to this land and may Palestinians and Israelis together take the right steps forward towards a shared future of liberty, equality, and security for all.
People (especially those from a certain North American country) are obsessed with politics, especially partisan politics.
Everything must be explainable by reference to your political ideology or better yet, your party affiliation.
My concern for the welfare of the poor, of immigrants, of queer people, of Palestinians, of strangers within my community and outside its borders, does not derive from a political ideology or party line.
I am concerned with the welfare of these people because I am a Religious person.
Note that I don’t say, “because I am a Jewish person,” although my Judaism, from the days of Abraham abinu until our own, has had a lot to say about such concern.
Note that I don’t say, “because I believe in God,” although my belief in the divine image of humanity, the human ikon of God, is entirely aligned with such concern.
But because I am a Religious person – I am a vulnerable, imperfect man trying to grow past my failures and limitations in the process of actualizing my full human potential, under the same cosmic conditions shared by every other human being who seeks to live between birth and death, and in existential harmony with whom I seek to create a better world – I am concerned with justice and welfare and inclusion and equity and diversity.
Even my political beliefs – Zionism, Libertarian Socialism – ultimately flow from and around my core religious experience and conviction.
Don’t get it twisted.
Politics and parties may have their place, but the foundation of civilization is Religion.
Yesterday I saw a video of an execution on Facebook.
A row of kneeling men, shot in the head from behind.
The person who shared the video asserted that the shooters were Hamas soldiers, the victims were men accused of “collaboration” with Israeli forces. From what little I could tell, this was the case.
This event happened after the ceasefire went into effect and while the kidnapped Israeli captives were being returned to Israel.
Like the war itself at the beginning, I accept this ceasefire now for its necessity while harboring many questions and doubts.
It is necessary to stop bombing Gazans without a strategy or endgame or even evaluation of our tactics. It is necessary to rescue our kidnapped citizens. It is necessary to chart a new course forward, that neither abdicates responsibility for the populations of Gaza and the West Bank nor supports fascist enemies as “assets” for political expediency.
But there are many points in Trump’s updated Biden Plan that raise eyebrows, if not red flags. And the key security assurances depend on Hamas disarming, accepting an international transitional force, and withdrawing from Gaza.
None of which they have agreed to do.
While they apparently reorganize as a “police force” and execute Gazan dissidents.
Look, I’m glad the kidnapped captives are reunited with their families. I’m glad the airstrikes have stopped. I have deep gratitude to the Creator for these undeniably good things, and I recognize that neither our relationship with divine justice nor the tools it utilizes to achieve its implacable ends, are uncomplicated or pure.
But this deal – Biden’s deal – is a bad deal.
As much as I detest Benjamin Netanyahu for being a generally incompetent and criminal prime minister, and for unnecessarily prolonging this war in particular, this deal was and is a bad deal.
And if Donald Juniper Trump contributed to this deal, what he contributed was political pressure and/or guarantees (the ol’ carrot and stick) to Benjamin Netanyahu in order to persuade him to accept a bad deal.
It’s unsurprising that POTUS would be so proud of a bad deal for Israel (and Gazans, if we’re being honest). The mess he’s proudly made of his own country suggests that he’s not the man to bring about peace in the Middle East.
(So, no Noble Prize for him.)
But it seems that Israelis and Palestinians will be footing the bill for this deal in years (if not months) to come. (More exemplary leadership from the worst prime minister in Israeli history.)
But where does that leave us?
We still have a democracy. As the war (or this round of it) officially draws to a close, we can turn our focus to next year’s elections and the long-overdue investigations of the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for October 7. There is no longer any political excuse for delaying action on these crucial matters. For two years we’ve held off on holding our leaders accountable. The bill has come due.
We still have joy. Communities across Israel had a dual celebration last night and today – the regular celebration of the Torah on the eight day after the joyous festival of Sukkoth, which was stolen from us for two years and only resumed today – and the unprecedented celebration of the release and reunification of kidnapped captives with their families and friends and people, after they were stolen from us two years ago. Across Israel, we sang “the children have returned to their land” like never before. That joy was palpable and is a source of great power, if we nurture and bring it with us into the days ahead.
We still have each other. Despite every effort by the Russo-Sino-Iranian Axis to isolate and turn the world against Israel; to coerce Gazans into embracing Hamas; to radicalize Israelis and Palestinians, and their respective supporters, against each other – despite the horrors and devastation and trauma of war and occupation and loss, the bridges burned and the alliances torched in the livestreamed shock of rubble and bodies, the skyrocketing mistrust of the other’s intentions and good faith – despite this dirty diaper of a deal that neither ensures Israelis’ security nor grants Palestinians autonomy – Israelis and Palestinians here in this land are still talking to each other, quietly, two here and three there, as neighbors and fellows bound to the same land with the same fate. So much went so wrong in the wake of Oct 7, and we’re slowly picking up the pieces – together.
I don’t know what bends, twists, and dangers the road ahead will bring.
But I know where the road leads.
Peace. Justice. Security.
For all.
Zion.
Really felt the
ืื ืืืื ืขืฉื ืืื
ื ืืืื ืื ืฉืืื ืื
vibe during Hallel today
Last Hallel of Sukkoth
Last day of captivity
This will make some people irrationally mad but: Zionism must reckon with the devastation of Gaza.
We’ve left behind the naive days when we waged war solely and wholly in self-defense, with great concern and cunning strategy to decisively end wars with as little human, moral, economic cost as possible.
Rejecting the blood libels and insulating ourselves from the propaganda is insufficient in light of our public failure to meet our professed standards of conduct and policy in Gaza.
Correct assignment of moral agency and culpability to Hamas for instigating and doing their part to prolong the war is insufficient in the aftermath of what we, together, wrought in Gaza.
Even if the bombs were meant for the deserving, even if steps were often taken to protect the undeserving from the bombs, the net result has been thousands dead that should have lived and they too have a claim on our dream of Zion.
Zionism is about return.
Return to the nation.
Return to the land.
Return to the covenant.
Return to right relationship.
Now as we end this miserable war, we must return to our senses and show the world what it means to return to the right way.
What return to the unfinished dream of Zion, as a nation of individuals with agency and autonomy, truly looks like at home and on the world stage:
– a just and peaceful law-abiding society
– a symbiotic relationship with the land
– a common culture of beautiful holiness
– a sanctuary for all human beings, created in the divine image
And furthermore.
In the name of building the Zion of which we have dreamed for millenia – in the name of return – it is not enough that we bring about the rebuilding of and return to Beeri and Nir Oz.
We must do everything we can to rebuild and encourage the return of Gazans to their homes, their communities, their lives.
Yes, Gazans – those who have unfathomably suffered for the past two years as they scrambled for cover trapped between Hamas and the IDF, deserve to return home no less than any Israeli.
We must reckon with their loss at our hands, just as we must reckon with our own – and build Zion from the ruins of Beeri and Gaza together.
At this delicate and uncertain time, on the eve of the Hebrew anniversary of the attempted genocide that started this horrific war, when so much about the future remains unknown and opaque to us – I pray that the Creator of all hearts accept our prayers for a just peace, for an end to wicked injustice and cruel violence, for the remaining kidnapped hostages to be reunited with their families, for a rebuilt Gaza, and for a day when awareness of our common Creator fills the world like the waters of the ocean.