My wife is 80. We are broke. Our social life prior to the Plandemic was not so bad but obviously conditioned by her age and our lack of “cutter.” For her the tight ties to religion were very important. For years we attended religious observation and participated in activities with her Temple. In many ways her social life was built from this community.
After Covid the situation shifted to Apartheid.
Safety was the mantra. Indeed safety replaced the Divine. The commandment Thou shalt have no other Gods before me always played third fiddle in the Reform tradition. Israel always was first. Then money. Then the Divine. Now the Safety God commands masks, social distance, and vaccines.
The fascinating aspect of this is social life has ground mostly to a halt. Many members of her Congregation though 200% compliant are afraid to meet in small groups outside of Temple. The writing group she participates in on Zoom tried to get together all the true believers but none wished to be with another vaccinated soul out of FEAR.
She is emotionally crushed. I am not. I instead analyze and think and process the Bourgeois mindset. I look around my fair City, I look closely at the Covid hysteria and knowing how people are shake my head. Here is a taste of the Fear.
In-Person Temple Event Policies (effective 5/13/2022)
Please note the following:
Advance registration is required. If for any reason you are not able to register in advance, you are still welcome to attend and we will take care of registration at the gate.
At this time, masks are required for services taking place indoors at Emanu-El. Masks are not required for outdoor events, including in the courtyard.
Full vaccination status is required for those eligible when participating in our programs (including booster for those eligible). Consistent with city, state, CDC and other public health authority guidance, COVID-19 vaccines are the most important and effective tool in preventing COVID-19 disease, especially severe illness and death. Per updated SFDPH guidelines, a fully vaccinated individual means:
The individual is two weeks past completing the full initial course of vaccines AND
One week past receiving a booster of any type, once eligible for a booster.
Please have your proof of vaccination and ID ready before approaching the front gate at Emanu-El.
All staff are fully boosted. Masked. No gloves though for some reason. Presumably nothing unclean is touched.
I have written to the Senior Rabbi about the danger of vaccines. I gave him data from Israel thinking perhaps it could move him to thought, and it did. His thought was vaccine death and injury was “above his pay grade.”
I struggle with my wife. So far I have prevented PCR and vaccine. Her daughter has of course fully complied and fully boosted and constantly pressures her mother to confirm. Her daughter also does not believe in vaccine damage. Safety first after all. God saves by injection of safe and effective. The chosen are fully vaccinated.
This is a dark time. Darker daily. A religion for the believer can offer hope. Now it offers only Apartheid. And curiously the most fundamentalist sect of Judaism locally does not require any of these rules. Only the most LIBERAL.
Steiner:. Religion, which represents a fantastic reflex in the minds of human beings concerning their relations to one another and to nature, is doomed to natural decay through the victorious growth of the scientific, clear and naturalistic grasp of reality, which is bound to develop parallel with the establishment of a planned society.”
What is it that is to bring about the decay of the old religions one and all? It is all that has arisen during the last three to four centuries as modern science, enlightened science — all that is taught as objective science in the educational institutions of civilized humanity. Bourgeois teaching and bourgeois methods of administration have been adopted by the proletariat. What the teachers of the universities and high schools right down to the elementary schools have put into the souls of men, comes out through Lenin and Trotsky. They bring out nothing but what is already taught in the institutions of civilized humanity.
Fay I agree and she knows intellectually. Feelings are different. Yom Kippur is important to her. Community important. Pandemic has isolated millions and does still. In little ways and large.
Take the ubiquitous mask hiding the human face. I see masked people in cars. I see masked clerks in stores I see masked people on the sidewalk.
Masked madness.
The sadness is palpable in your words. I am so sorry that the world has forgotten to love its neighbour. I am sure you are a rock for your wife, please pass my respects xx