Day Of Atonement
Today for all of my Jewish brethren, it is Yom Kipper, or the day of sweating to the oldies. WE all go to shul, sit and stand, and then sit, but stand more than sit. And we pray God to allow us another year on Earth before he slams us like that Roadrunner did that coyote. That was one of the first cartoon parables. The Roadrunner was God, and Wylie Coyote was just another slob trying to get to heaven before the anvil got to him.
I'm not in shul today. I won't lie and say that my Orthodox synagogue installed personal computers alongside the tallis, and siddurs....know what I mean, goyim honey? I'm at the library with all of the non-Jews practicing web-surfing and trying to remember the dirty pictures. If you don't have a good memory, what good are they, huh?
Besides, and God forgive me, but there are time when I think this "Day Of Atonement" should at least apply to our heavenly father as much as it does to us. It was not we who brought forth unto us little'uns here Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans, or a tsunami to all those hapless folks in helpless land. Jesus (not for use on Yom Kipper) what do think God is thinking when he SEES you living on a speck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. You're asking for some mighty smiting, no?
One day, and that day may never come, we may see the Lord walk into a synagogue on Yom Kipper and apologize. Not for everything, but for not allowing the powerful peeps of this wonderful world run it as we see fit, and only sticking his nose in to foment wars, pestilence, disease, and all of his others goods. Yes, I do realize that God created us, and the world. But he took a hike. But not far enough to let us run our affairs as we see fit. He was always around so that we could always count on some evil dude stuff. I love the Lord. He created me and everyone I love. And my planet. That's plenty.
We'll take it from here.
Joey
I'm not in shul today. I won't lie and say that my Orthodox synagogue installed personal computers alongside the tallis, and siddurs....know what I mean, goyim honey? I'm at the library with all of the non-Jews practicing web-surfing and trying to remember the dirty pictures. If you don't have a good memory, what good are they, huh?
Besides, and God forgive me, but there are time when I think this "Day Of Atonement" should at least apply to our heavenly father as much as it does to us. It was not we who brought forth unto us little'uns here Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans, or a tsunami to all those hapless folks in helpless land. Jesus (not for use on Yom Kipper) what do think God is thinking when he SEES you living on a speck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. You're asking for some mighty smiting, no?
One day, and that day may never come, we may see the Lord walk into a synagogue on Yom Kipper and apologize. Not for everything, but for not allowing the powerful peeps of this wonderful world run it as we see fit, and only sticking his nose in to foment wars, pestilence, disease, and all of his others goods. Yes, I do realize that God created us, and the world. But he took a hike. But not far enough to let us run our affairs as we see fit. He was always around so that we could always count on some evil dude stuff. I love the Lord. He created me and everyone I love. And my planet. That's plenty.
We'll take it from here.
Joey
posted by Mr. Liberty at 10:34 AM
2 Comments:
I am curious, Joey, which of those hurricanes, earthquakes, etc do you believe that our "heavenly father" has caused, in, say, the last 2,500 years or so?
You seem to have mixed premises here.
I admit that there is some rather good evidence that the Holy One "took a hike" sometime after, say, the end of the Exodus. But if he "took a hike," he took a hike. He isn't around and active in human affairs when something goes wrong, but not when something goes right.
Now, having said that, I agree with your skepticism regarding Yom Kippur. The traditional Jewish notion was that there either was no afterlife or that everyone who was going to have an afterlife had it at the same time [give or take a couple weeks in the equivalent of purgatory] through a mass resurrection. Resurrection does not require the Holy One to be present and active throughout history - only that he be present long enough for the rules to be given and then that he be present at the end of things.
This "inscribed in the book of life" thing, however, does require a continual hands on approach. Which then gets us back to your argument about natural disasters.
So, maybe one of your premises is wrong. You think?
Hi Craig!
First, thanks for reading my blog and commenting on it. You are now eligible for membership in my "Phone-Booth" club, which as you may expect is quite exclusive.
You are quite on the ball in indentifing the problems with my last post. However, rather than mixed premisis, I think I contradicted myself somewhat.
If God indeed has "taken a hike" can we really blame him for hurricanes, and famine, pestilence, etc...? Perhaps. If he created the world with all of nature in it, and then walked away for the Earth to work upon its own axis, moving along its own line of development, movement, and direction, then can we hold The Lord responsible for neglecting his own child, our Big Blue Marble, and therefore, by default allowing everthing He created to occur from time to time, without his direction. No, I'd say. God is subject to the varities of the natural order, EVEN if he did create it. Plus, at no time, dispite taking on the load of creation, did he make a promise or contract to guard the henhouse, and therefore is not responsible, in a "Godly legal sense" for our fates. We are. Evidenced by my contention that he walked away. But the winds of the world still blow us down.
Essentially, we are on our own, and my contradiction did made that unclear. A mostly absent God has pressed upon his creation the responsibility of maintaining his own being(s).
And thus we do or we don't. Overall, I believe strongly, man has taken Earth from God's hands and has mostly done quite well, considering the state of our race 2,000, 1 million, or a billion years ago. And even with the natural order imposing its will without direct guidence from its creator, the human race has survived and prospered far beyond the imagination of the people of Jesus' time, or of the mind of God himself.
I haven't even approached lots of your contentions, but I hope this little screed places me where I can be understood better.
Thanks for writing, Craig.
Joey
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