Exile and the Prophetic: The Jewish pandora’s box

This is part ten of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.

Though I walk by the beach mezuzah daily, my feelings change each time I pass by. So does the look of the mezuzah itself. When the sun shines on the dark blue door, the large wood mezuzah is highlighted. On cloudy days it recedes into the background. Did I tell you that in the foreground of the house are a number of palm trees? It’s a Florida beach scene. The mezuzah on the beach is quite beautiful. Like a picture postcard.

Yesterday, two girls sat outside at a stand selling various forms of lemonade. This included a lemonade smoothie. Price – one dollar. They must be the Rabbi’s children. I chatted with them for a minute but didn’t have any money to buy a drink. I asked them if they would be there tomorrow.

The girls are young and I’ve also seen the Rabbi outside working in the yard. He’s young, too. Things have changed over the years. Depending on the denomination and the seminary, some rabbinic students read my books. Even on occasion, I am told, writings of mine are assigned. Or through a clandestine network, they are passed around. Perhaps I am misjudging. If I introduced myself to the Rabbi perhaps he would know who I am – and react in a positive manner. Odds aren’t good, though. Not worth the risk.

I’m also not sure that I want to be known to the local Rabbi even if he loved me for what I stand for. Chances are he can’t announce that to his congregation anyway. Besides, somewhere in the world – with Jewish power all around us – I want to remain anonymous. If you think I’m paranoid it’s OK. But then try on the life of a Jewish dissident. In public. Then report back.

I wonder what it would be like if the Rabbi’s house was sold and the new resident removed the mezuzah. How would I feel? The door without the mezuzah would look barren. If our history hadn’t come to this, I’d miss it. Or would I? The mezuzah is a reminder of past and present. Regardless of how I feel each day, it’s important. I guess. As Jewish history goes, its disappearance would be a change for the better. I suppose. Disappearing Mezuzah. An advance?

If, with the new owner the mezuzah was tossed into the garbage – after all, the new owner might have no idea what the wooden case is – no doubt I would retrieve it. Where would I put it? In a place where I could see it on a daily basis? Or would I hide it away, taking an occasional peek at most? Perhaps I would take it, keep it and then one day toss it in the garbage. I certainly wouldn’t place it on my doorpost here. I just thought about this yesterday. Though wherever I’ve lived I’ve placed a mezuzah on the doorpost, here at the Cape I’ve never even thought of doing this. Not once.

As you see, I go back and forth on a daily basis. Like a surveillance video, I scope it out. Mezuzah Watch. Beach is beach, sun and beauty. I don’t need to be reminded of what we have become on a daily basis. I think.

If we hadn’t squandered what Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt and others hoped for. If we hadn’t squandered the Holocaust or, at least, the meaning of the Holocaust for the future, we and the world would be better off. Squandering is human. Yet the toll is tremendous.

Instead of being down on Elie Wiesel, since his witness to the Holocaust remains, look at how much he squandered. In his own life he chased dollars and hobnobbed with every elite under the sun, minus Arabs and Palestinians of course. He trivializes the Holocaust, “There’s no business like Shoah business,” a prominent Rabbi once told me in a mocking way.

Throwing away our (un)colonial history is one thing. But for a state in the Middle East with Prime Ministers that resemble the County Commissioners I grew up with in South Florida – with an army? That’s another thing entirely. Taking envelops with cash or their equivalent, under the table or in broad daylight, corruption is widespread among Israel’s leaders. Though profoundly human, it’s unseemly, especially with the grand claims the state of Israel makes about itself and in reference to Jewish history.

The Disappearing Mezuzah. But I also think of the mezuzah as the Colonial Mezuzah. The Colonial Mezuzah by the beach. Blue period. A rift on Picasso’s blue period. Picasso had his oriental gaze, as did most Western artists of his day. Though famous, Picasso was only a painter. His Orientalism, unlike ours, was without military power. Quite a difference a state with an army makes.

Making it seems to be everything. As in the Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky, Penn State child abuse investigation shows. But let’s not limit it to Penn State. Even at my and other “Christian” universities, athletics is so marked with hypocrisy on all fronts. Just follow the news. Over the years: murder, children born out of wedlock, abuse of live-ins, rape, lesbians at the forefront when “homosexual acts” are forbidden, coaches cited for infractions and other dubious dealings – all of this where the code is “strict” – zero tolerance. What a joke when athletic structures need to be built, alums courted and revenues upped. The best thing is for all of it to be outed. Sandusky for sure. Paterno’s attempt to quash the bad news. Penn State’s former President’s silence. More on the way.

So squandering is part of life. For everything and everyone. We pick up the pieces. That are leftover. But what if the squandering goes too far that even the leftovers are tainted beyond repair? When the leftovers we collect are so toxic we become infected by just drawing near to them.

As in, Chernobyl and the land around it, fenced off. No human habitation allowed. Well, you say, it was one of those bricks falling that brought down the Soviet Union. No doubt. After having squandered Marx’s vision with forced starvation, Gulags – we know that score. Good to see the Soviet Union dispatched to the dust-bin of history. Now it has been replaced with the Putin (elected) dictatorship. No doubt this structure is likewise destined to go the same way. There will still be pieces leftover to collect after the next fall. I assume.

The proverbial tipping point haunts this also discussion, doesn’t it? There seems to be points of no return. This end time scenario confronts us on the ecological front. Have we reached that in Jewish life? Of course, “Jewish” will continue after the ethical bottom has fallen out. Like Christianity. Christianity still performs 1500 years after it conformed to state power and became the most successful imperial religion of all time. It’s only rival being Islam. Yes, they’re both still on the march but what are they, really, other than thinly disguised agents of this imperial agent or another. All empire religions are promiscuous. Is “Jewish” any different, except smaller, now climbing into bed with every empire that will have us?

Making it. When the tipping point arrives, then what? Continue on with the same name, like an old, noted and failed company being bought for a lot of dough because the brand name is iconic. Branding is crucial in modern business. The religion business is no different.

Those who can’t abide by the ethical emptiness struggle to rebrand themselves. Or refuse a brand. Or try to reclaim the ethical content so the same brand can be worn around their necks. Jewish feminism is the latest effort, without leaving out Jewish Renewal. They say: “No, no, we simply won’t allow Empire Jews to distort our namesake so out of proportion that we seem like everyone else (which we might actually be when the squandering is figured in).”

Fighting the good fight is worth it up to a point. But, then, when the discourse and corpses are piled higher than high, we have to take a deep breath, exhale and see where our breath leads us. Chernobyl-like scorched earth doesn’t give us much leeway in the leftovers’ realm. Do we have any choice but to begin again?

Think of Jews of Conscience as scavengers after the Jewish ethical tradition has been scorched beyond recognition. That is where we start. If we are honest.

New York Times headline front page yesterday: “Abuse Scandal Inquiry Damns Paterno and Penn State.” Sports: “The Paterno Legacy, Changed Forever.”

Translated: “The Jewish Legacy, Changed Forever.”

Notice, the lack of question mark, as in – Changed Forever?

The Jewish tipping point has been reached. Get over it. Even the leftovers are tainted.

Front page subtitle: “Fear of Publicity Cited in Effort to Conceal.” Fear of airing Jewish dirty laundry?

One Penn State official was fearful of opening Pandora’s Box. What if there were other abused children?

The Jewish Pandora’s Box. If we open it will every “Jewish money” conspiracy monger in (their pre-historic) existence fly out? The idea is that if we keep the lid on, no one will know what is happening behind the establishment’s Wizard of Oz curtains. Including those Jews who travel on the proverbial Yellow Brick road.
If we just click our heels, perhaps we will be transported out of our ethical/denial dilemma.

Originally a Greek myth, today, to open Pandora’s box means to create evil that cannot be undone. But translated Jewishly, it means keeping the lid on the evil we are participating in. The evil we were once experts in blowing the lid off of.
If Pandora’s Box opens do we fear that the maps of the disappearing Palestine will appear out of nowhere? They’re known all over the global block and I hear that they’re appearing on train platforms in the New York suburbs even as I ponder the end. I wonder if the suburbs referred to are upstate New York, in Croton-on-Hudson, where I used to live?

I can you imagine all the execs waiting for the commuter train in the early morning, eyeing the changing landscape of Palestine as they try to avoid interacting with their fellow commuters. I doubt most of them would understand what they’re looking at or care if they did.