This year, the Jewish holidays ambushed me.
My brother’s Celebration of Life landed on Rosh Hashanah, a New Year beginning amidst my last era of Minnesota Nice. My Mother the Flapper left us years ago while living on Lake Minnetonka; Jim had tucked her into bed the night before she died. My brother Mike is gone. There were no apples, no honey at our erev-shiva-like evening for Jim. Only testaments to a life well lived from friends and colleagues, some funny, some poignant some echoing his early life, our Year of Living Dangerously.
Through my fault, through my fault…
Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. We Jews confess our sins in the Temple, in public all together, not just on Fridays in a tiny confessional to a priest. The way I was taught for years at Sacred Heart School. We are supposed to fast, not even to drink water unless for some medical reason we must, like pregnancy. Or if we are in the business of saving lives, like say ER doctors? They get a pass.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…
Our country is at war, a US-Israeli illegitimate war with Iran. Israel is continuing its relentless war against Hamas in Gaza after the October 6th attack. The news is sickening: a building collapses killing 21 Palestinians; an American aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is all but forgotten in the Middle East, and now Houthi rebels are threatening to close another strait, crippling Saudi Arabia. We are peeling an onion with repercussions beyond our understanding. Here at home, in of all places Philadelphia, Ed Sheeran is trying to resurrect his tour after ousting rapper Macklemore, saying, “My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives, of children’s lives,”
“I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes and I’m so, so sorry for them. I don’t want to disappoint fans, and I’ve never wanted to be an activist musician, but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet.” https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/sep/20/ed-sheeran-gaza-catastrophic-and-unjustifiable-first-show-tour-loop-philadelphia-us
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us….
Can an artist be apolitical? Sheeran brings up a good point about freedom of speech. My very own artist, the Rocker, wrote an impassioned essay about/against censorship when he was the Pumpkin’s age in middle school. We Americans pride ourselves on this FIRST Amendment’s Constitutional Right – Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech. AND YET, this past weekend our President has banned three major news networks from the White House simply because he doesn’t like what they have to say about him! It does my heart good that the whole press pool has decided not to cover the President today.
Today is Yom Kippur, tonight the Book of Life will close. Who will be inscribed in the book to live another year, and who shall die? The funny thing is, not all Jews believe in the strict interpretation of the Torah. Reform American Judaism allows for many ways to practice our faith. This allowance for critical thinking, for dwelling in the grey, is what eventually sold me on conversion. Many of the Jewish people I know think Bibi is a war criminal, along with our own idiotic toddler-in-chief. We have had ten days to repent, to evaluate our lives and promise to do better. To listen to the ram’s horn. To do better, to listen, to behave with civility around others and online, to interact with AI or not? This is it for us, our chance to wipe the slate clean and begin again.
Instead of repenting, I’ve been on the phone with the VA about my brother, seeing to his affairs, trying to grieve with my sister. Looking after a Golden Retriever who was fostered by us for just a day because of his grieving family.
Yes, people go to a concert to be entertained. And people go to a football game to watch football. And yes, billionaires own these venues and they too have a right to free speech. That is our complicated and brilliant way of life here in America. As my Nana would say, “God help us.”
But we are on our own, there is no cavalry coming to save us from ourselves. The Book of Life never closes and every year is becoming more dangerous. If we want to get this tyrant out of office we must show up at the polls in November. In the Torah, the wedding processional comes before the funeral cortege if they happen to meet at a crossroad. Life comes first. Here we are celebrating two Virgo birthdays last week.
