The Nine Days
Ron Coleman
We are now entering a time referred to as "The Nine Days." These are the days beginning with the first day of the Hebrew month "Av," and ending with the ninth of Av [which is this Thursday]. These days are the prelude to the destruction of the Holy Temple which was located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Code of Jewish Law directs us to keep the laws of mourning to varying degrees culminating on the ninth of Av when we fast and mourn as a mourner does during the seven-day period of mourning for a close relative known as "shiva".
Harsh times at a harsh time.
I sometimes see observant Jews as people who figuratively but purposely strap themselves to the top of some sort of hard wooden table just to mortify themselves endlessly.
Sort of like the glorious color photographs of the hussein folk, marching down the streets with the usual hideous scowls on their faces, whipping themselves into until their bright red blood literally poors out of their backs.
But, anyway, unhappy mortification to you over the nine days of endless mourning, if that's what trips your trigger. And I suppose fasting is a good way to lose weight. But you or one of the blacksuits would probably tell me that weight control is not what jewish fasting is remotely about.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Of course I want to live, Ron. What else do I have but my life, my personal memories, my relationships with my wife, my children, my friends, and, I suppose, even with my tax collectors?
And all that, I would venture to say, comes fairly close to what what you believers would think of by the term "soul".
And because once I grew into a thinking and increasingly mature adult, I tended to sustain myself less on the weak reeds of promises of immortality, life after death, meeting in heaven with this or that creator, with all of us dressed in heavenly bedsheets.
In place of all that, I developed a finely hone sense of objective reality about the lives that we actually have and the deaths that end those lives forever.
That's part of why I want to live as long as possible. Another reason, which makes a lot of sense to me, is that I am infinitely curious, and, fortunately, the approach of real old age has whetted rather than dulled my curiosities about the wonders of the product of the human mind.
Would I like to be around to watch on television the landing of the first permanent human settlers on Mars, and the beginning of the transformation of that now-lifeless planet into a habitat suited for the future development of the human race? You bet your ass I would.
If I could keep my body and my mind healthy, and if could have another 30-40 years of life, there are any number of adventures I should like to undertake with my wife. Rail travel across Europe and Asia via the Trans-Siberian railway. Studying and mastering calculus. Writing of my life experiences. Photography of interesting and pleasing architecture.
Maybe I am in fact affected by the realm of the spirit. But my spirit is the faustian drive toward accomplishment, self-fulfilment and self-sustainment. I think that spirit is the diametric opposite of the spirit of the devotees of the semitic monotheisms. You see, Ron, I take liberty and the american experience very seriously. A sort of secular religion, you could term it.
I am not certain that I answered your statement in a way that makes sense to you. But I have made my answer from within the context of my own mind, my own memories, by own loves and dislikes, and all that is paramount to me. Because I intend that I shall live and die as my own master.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI