God is a Communist (Tisha B’av & Va’etchanan)
Earlier this week, my husband and I, coming home from a walk, stopped.
The doorman looked perturbed.
He was staring at a screen.
“What’s the matter?” we asked.
“Another bank going down,” he said.
I told him he should listen to some good news.
(Because you have to smile and laugh in the midst of pain.)
He laughed.
My husband and I talked about it after.
Why was the average person so concerned about the banks?
Was he losing money if that bank failed?
Do their profits “trickle down” to him?
Back during the financial crisis of 2008, the Obama Administration bailed the banks out.
“Too big to fail!” was the slogan.
If they failed, our economy would fail.
Same with the stock market.
But who’s actually losing out?
And who’s gaining?
This week, starting Wednesday night into tonight, we are in mourning;
With Tisha B’Av, we commemorate the destruction of the Temple.
Tradition has us hear the chanting of Lamentations in the dark, sitting on the floor.
We’re told to bring a flashlight so we can see the texts in front of us.
But there are those who say we shouldn’t be mourning the Temple.
Why should we want to return to a system of sacrifices?
Even in Isaiah, last week’s reading from the prophets, it says:
“What need have I of all your sacrifices?”
Says GOD.
“I am sated with burnt offerings of rams,
And suet of fatlings,
And blood of bulls;
And I have no delight
In lambs and he-goats. That you come to appear before Me—
Who asked that of you?
But in more progressive Jewish circles today, mourning for the Temple takes on new meaning:
We have plenty to mourn in today’s world.
(And it’s not the failure of banks or big business!)
As humans, we seem to go between believing that things used to be different—
—and that they’ve always been the same.
“Things will never change,” is also a common refrain.
But I recently learned something.
Starting about a hundred years ago, there began an unrelenting propaganda campaign.
This campaign was to get Americans to believe that the “free market'“ is a good thing.
This campaign was made by businesses very deliberately—and very united—in their efforts.
They convinced Americans that socialism and communism could never work.
(You can hear about it all here—if you don’t know this history, I highly recommend this episode on On The Media!)
They convinced Americans that capitalism is not only a good thing, but that it’s the only way.
Because humans are the way we are, right?
—Greedy and ready to fight or exploit each other.
“It’s a dog-eat-dog world.”
They’ve done a great job making us think that things will never change.
They’ve taught Americans that our sacrifices are necessary—for the economy.
—That in the end, the money from big business will trickle down.
This week’s parsha begins with Moses’ memory of pleading with God to allow him to cross over into the Promised Land.
He’s kind of in mourning; God will not allow him.
The Haftara reading from the prophets this week from Isaiah begins with Nachamu—be comforted, my people.
We do indeed need comforting as we look upon and experience the destruction in today’s world.
We are in mourning.
But that flashlight might come in handy to shed light upon the types of sacrifices we should be making.
Because burnt offerings made to God certainly will not solve the problems we are experiencing today.
But other types of sacrifices—like reducing our consumption of resources as Americans—would do well.
On the corporate and on the personal level.
Isaiah even gives us a solution:
Wash yourselves clean;
Put your evil doings
Away from My sight.
Cease to do evil;
Learn to do good.
Devote yourselves to justice;
Aid the wronged.
Uphold the rights of the orphan;
Defend the cause of the widow.
Your rulers are rogues
And cronies of thieves,
Every one avid for presents
And greedy for gifts;
They do not judge the case of the orphan,
And the widow’s cause never reaches them.
As we face record heat this summer on a global level, we need to get serious about all this, people!
We are even seeing what happens right now if we don’t, as predicted in Isaiah:
Stored wealth shall become as tow,
And he who amassed it a spark;
And the two shall burn together,
With none to quench.
But maybe we can be grateful for one thing:
That at least it’s not snowing.
Because, (my friend sent me this meme);
Imagine shoveling snow in this heat.
And because you have to laugh even when there’s pain.
Don’t believe those people who think things will never change.
It seems to me that God wants a world of socialism—or even communism.
Because we actually don’t know if communism might have been successful if it hadn’t been for the CIA.
If we believe Isaiah, it doesn’t really matter what you call it; God wants a world where everyone is taken care of.
Where there is justice for all.
It’s not communism we need to be afraid of.
It’s the big banks.
Isaiah has the answer of how to cross over into the Promised Land;
God says, it’s not our pleading and praying that will bring about change.
So help spread the word!
It could be the word of God, or just yours.
Shabbat Shalom.
