Lughnasa and the Cheshbon Nefesh Moon

Shabbat gratefuls: Shadow, morning Dog. Alan, coming to Aspen Perks. Irv, leading the CBE men’s group today. CBE legacy fund dinner. Slichot. Elul. Cheshbon Nefesh. The Days of Awe. Rosh Hashanah. Yom Kippur. A cool morning. Charlie Kirk. Desmond Holly. Guns. Gun control. Australia’s protests. Mark in Hafar. Fatima.

Sparks of Joy and Awe: Slichot prayers

Year Kavannah: Wu Wei

Week Kavannah: Derech Eretz  literally, the way of the land.

• Natural law. In some interpretations, it represents a natural, moral order that exists independent of formal Torah law. This is reflected in the saying, “Derech Eretz preceded the Torah,” and speaks to the innate decency that human beings should possess. 

Tarot: Ten of Cups, (Druid Craft)

• Emotional fulfillment: You have reached a state of profound happiness and contentment. This can be the culmination of a long emotional journey and a feeling of having a “happy ever after”.

One brief shining: Oh, the tendrils of hate growing up through the streets of peace and decency, bullets fired from sniper rifles, a presumption of moral rectitude, a bracing and easy identification of the other whether they be white supremacists or Jews or far right Christians or immigrants, a human tendency to run with a crowd already like us perverted into us against them instead of we for all, smashes my face up against human frailty and its real world, every day costs.

 

Just a moment: Here’s a paragraph from a Washington Post opinion piece that struck an especially deep place for me:

“There’s something to be said for respect. I want to put in a good word for forbearance in the public square — for holding off on payback if someone’s struggle for justice doesn’t accord with your own. I want to say as best I can that there are ways to confront people without resorting to bashing heads, pulling guns or attacking one another with mean words and malicious deeds.” Colbert King, Washington Post, 9/13/2025. Political Violence in America is an Endless Scroll.

While I know my own rhetoric here has not always conformed to the principle King underlines, I wish it had. I do love satire and the taste of fighting words when it comes to politics. Also, the actions they inspire. I hope my work on the New Apostolic Reformation and Hazony’s Conservatism Rediscovered will reflect what Rabbi Jamie calls appreciative inquiry.

And yet. I still embrace and hope I embody an attempt always to go to the root of injustice and social discord. To fight power that corrupts, oppresses, demeans, dismisses. Difficult positions to hold at the same time.

An initial approach might look like this: consider another, or a different political expression say, first from the attitude of appreciate inquiry. What strengths and skills does the other have? What positive message can be found in, say, Trump’s America First policies? This relates to the Jewish concept of judge others on the side of merit.

So, what, from a leftist perspective, does America First offer? It reminds me, and could remind others of my persuasion that justice and economic opportunity begins at home. Along with Hazony I would emphasize family as an important place to start political analysis. In fact, I would say that we, the left, lost sight of just this focus: the injustice and imbalance among poor families in this country. Including poor, working class white families.

When we entertain solutions, policies, social change that focus on those families, well, we move in different directions. I believe government has not only a role, but a responsibility to level the playing field. Charity and moral uplift do not have a broad enough reach. Yet we can agree, I think, that American families need our priority attention.