Samain Thanksgiving Moon
My journey on the fringe of Congregation Beth Evergreen continues to fascinate me. In our mussar class yesterday the conversation turned to postelection feelings. Jews are an interesting subgroup in these matters, mostly part of the educated elite, often part of the moneyed elite, yet vulnerable to shifts in public attitudes, very vulnerable, as all post-holocaust, post-pogrom Jews know. I know this intellectually, as I imagine you do, too.
It’s different up close and in person. One woman yesterday talked about her postelection reality. She couldn’t sleep. She had, very uncharacteristically, purchased a gun and headed off to a shooting range. She’s maybe 65-70. She’s getting her homes ready for sale and has looked into landed immigrancy in Canada and requirements for becoming an Israeli citizen.
She sees, she says, the signs of a pre-holocaust Germany. The holocaust devastated her family and left a deep imprint on her soul. Heads nodded around the table, no one dismissed her as hysterical. Her position was extreme for this group, but not at all off the spectrum of reactions.
Other reactions to the postelection time were offered in a round table discussion last Saturday morning. This was the service for that shabbat. The most common words, echoed yesterday in mussar, were afraid, sad, depressed, fearful, angry. I emphasize this because this is not a group lacking power, financial and political. And yet they still find this election disturbing at a primal level. The woman I mentioned senses her survival at stake.
My Beth Evergreen experience has put me in touch with the dread that must be filling African-Americans, Latinos, anyone here without documentation, LGBT folks, Native Americans, the disabled, the destitute, the homeless. This cannot be, must not be our nation. Whole subgroups should not live in fear of their lives or in fear of their lives being reduced from miserable to untenable.
The safety pin is not much, but it’s a start. Let’s at least do that while we get our heads and hearts around what must come next.
