The Ninth of Av

I'm not sure what to say. (Then why is she writing, you ask?) But there seems to be a lot in me that needs saying these days, if that makes any sense, and there are fifty minutes left before I have to go to services. So let's see.

I came across a comment that Elf made to a post on Meredith's blog -- "the world has been scaring me lately." She has this incredibly powerful way of both admitting her own self-doubt and belying the idea that such doubt is justified, of putting the fear and confusion that everyone feels into frank, simple words.

I don't know how long it's been since I've instinctively avoided reading the newspaper. Oh, I check the online headlines in the Times, skim the local news on the papers left on the dining-room table, read the movie and theater and book reviews. Many times I make myself read articles that look nationally important, and I'm usually glad I did. But my inclination is against it, because I know that what I read will only make my world that much more complicated. That's not right. The world is complicated whether I know it or not. But it will be one more thing that a responsible person and citizen ought to have an informed opinion on. And having informed opinions is hard. And scary.

Facts are easy to find, and often they're even accurate. Much of the disagreement in the world, however, lies in how those facts are read, in the context they're given. To truly understand the issue, one has to look at all sides of the issue, all the ways it can reasonably looked at. I think to be responsible one also has to figure out why the opinions that strike one as implausible are held by the people who hold them -- particularly if those people make up a large segment of the country. Then one has an informed opinion that will keep for a while, but eventually the facts will have to be thoroughly revisited in light of a changing reality. To do otherwise is to ensure that -- even if circumstances never do change -- eventually someone will ask you why you hold the position you do, and all you'll be able to remember is that you did once have reasons.

The problem is, I don't have time for this -- literally do not, not even within this relatively relaxed summer. This means that I'm left acquiring many of my opinions on the state of the world second-hand. Of course, judges and lawyers do the same sort of thing with information, though they (hopefully) draw their own conclusions -- no one has the time to find out everything for themselves. But I don't have to like it. I deliberately don't decide religious questions that way, and I see no reason why it's a better means of deciding politics.

Even more problematically, the people and sources I trust either 1) disagree with each other, with valid arguments and conceptions of facts on both sides, and/or 2) are also operating on derivative opinions and information. The first means I still need to do research; the second makes me just shake my head. Because almost NO ONE has time to really understand what's going on in their world. Everyone who doesn't make a career out of following the news and the Court and the world holds derivative opinions from people they already agree with, and discusses those opinions with people they also agree with, who got their information from the same sources. And these are all incredibly intelligent, thoughtful people. There are plenty of people out there who aren't either of those, and they vote too. So we all sit around and talk to ourselves, and somehow history happens regardless.

Today is a -- the -- traditional day of mourning for the Jewish people. It marks the destruction of both Temples, and assorted events that didn't quite happen today but seem like they ought to have. Some Jews have been anticipating it (in the not-happy sense) for nearly a month now, neither shaving nor listening to music nor eating meat, nor apparently -- I just found out -- doing laundry. Other Jews have never heard of it because the tradition within which they were raised isn't so big on the whole Temple idea. I fall somewhere in between. It seems to me, however, that there is plenty to mourn and to do. As Elf pointed out a while back, the central thrust of the book of Lamentations is the horrible devestation and degradation human beings are capable of inflicting on each other, on entire other civilizations. It seems to me that has never not been relevant.

I can't help but wonder -- if we all knew, or at least tried to know, what everyone else believes and why, would we be less likely to behave that way? Or more likely?

Either way, with what we do know we can certainly do better.

"Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free
And break every yoke?
Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'"
-- Isaiah 58:6-9

A safe fast where applicable.