Imbolc and the 78th Birthday Moon
Shabbat gratefuls: Candles. Zornberg. Moses. Torah. Bagel table. Evergreen. Mountain Lions on video. Fox, too. Great Sol. The Gray Man. Stable PSA. New pain meds? Journax. Tara. Arjan. Vincent. Alan. Luke. Hawai’ian Blues. Rick. www.clearcreekradio.com. 2 pm today. DJ’ng while old. Flannel Shirts. Vermont Flannel.
Sparks of Joy and Awe: Passover
Kavannah this week: Curiosity. Sakranut
One brief shining: Unboxed my new curved monitor, 32″, bigger than most of my older television screens, wrestled with putting the stand together, struggled lifting it onto my computer cart, but I got it done, didn’t think I had it in me, but I was wrong. Yay.
With the exception of lunch with Tara I spent the day reading Zornberg’s commentary on parsha Bo. That’s the chunk of Exodus that includes the last of the plagues. Each Torah cycle I gain a new appreciation for how it has shaped, shapes, and will shape generations of Jews. Not because it’s the inspired word of God, which almost no one I know believes it is, but because it is our story. And a story which requires a new hermeneutic each time its read.
By delving into the midrash*, which Zornberg knows so well, we learn no matter how you may think about a particular passage, somebody has thought the opposite, or had a weirder explanation. Drawn a stranger conclusion. This frees the contemporary reader to look for meanings relevant to our time and space, yet to have them in the context of Jewish history and culture.
At 8:30 I’ll head over to CBE for bagel table where we’ll construct our own midrash around this seminal Torah portion. I love the communal study, the careful reading, the surprising aha’s. My inner student is so happy being a Jew.
This day in Oligarch world: Trump’s acting Attorney General fired Jan. 6th prosecutors and ordered investigations of every FBI agent who pursued the various lines of investigation necessitated by this complex crime. This is the President, a Republican President, going after the FBI. And after Federal Prosecutors who worked on the cases they were given.
I know mirror world makes it hard to see the irony here. Trump has weaponized his acting Attorney General to fire and investigate Federal employees he accused of weaponizing justice.
Tariffs on Mexico and Canada. Our sworn enemies who’ve done nothing but diss us over the 200 plus years since our founding. Not to mention tariffs on China, too. But since they’re been our friend and ally since forever they get much lower tariffs
Alice, my dear, are you still tumbling through the air toward Wonderland? Stop now. You need proceed no further. The Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen have merged and sit in what used to be the Oval Office. Mirrorworld. Wonderland. Crazyville. All available right here in the United States of America.
Up, up, and away. The American high speed express to irrelevance has left the station.
*Midrash are collections of commentaries written by rabbi’s throughout the centuries. And, they’re still being written.