Don’t tell me to pray.
Don’t tell me to pray.
Don’t tell me not to pray
Don’t tell me when or how to pray.
Stay out of my relationship (and if I have one) with Hashem entirely.
Don’t tell me what to do, when it comes to private conversation between me and my presumed maker. That’s for us. Not public consumption.
Media frenzy names like “Shabbat 250” are gross. Never mind exhorting Jews “come together in gratitude for our great Nation.” Is this about Jews? Or vanity? No one has authority to decree what someone else’s prayers should be. “This day will recognize the sacred Jewish tradition of setting aside time for rest, reflection, and gratitude to the Almighty.” Um. K. Well it’s also about other things, like freedom from Egyptian slavery, and community – but not as good talking points politically.
Moreover. Shabbat is private. I won’t be commanded. It’s neither wise nor safe. Today we’re commanded, tomorrow we might easily be commanded not to pray how we choose. We have separation of Church (or synagogue) and State. People come to this country for many reasons, one of which is – irony – freedom of religion. Which means… freedom to observe or not- as we please. Troublingly, new edict comes from the same man who has repeatedly weighed in on whom he deems the right kind of Jew, the good Jew (unshockingly… the one who votes for him) and questioned Jewish loyalty to our shared country. Now he wants us all not just to pray, but wants to dictate what the content of our prayers should be? How not to engage a community: proclaim we do something most of us do anyway. This is not support. Rather, it’s quite a vulgar commandment to do what we do– publicly. We are not TV.
This is not the acceptance we seek. These aren’t the Droids we’re looking for, my Heebs.
Jews inherit worry about being singled out and identified. Presidential proclamation to pray (apologies for the alliteration) is participating in our own identification for targeting. Slippery slope. Will prayers be monitored? If they don’t contain explicit gratitude for country, does next tantrum strip away citizenship? It sounds crazy because… things are crazy. What’s next? Fining, rounding up, imprisoning “bad Jews” who skip the Shabbat so magnanimously mandated?** We have no way of knowing what’s enforceable in 5 minutes. We no longer have checks and balances. What happens when we displease? Look to his own administration. Also the nasty little problem of reverse-Midas: anything touched turns seamy. Don’t want, don’t need. Most would say we’ve plenty tsouris already.
Commanding Shabbat’s also absurdly fatuous. No one who isn’t observing already will start because he said so. Anyone observing already will continue doing so because it actually has nothing to do with the president; it precedes him by centuries. Those of us in-between, the sometimes Shabbat-ers, depending what else is happening: just no, frankly. It’s offensive, ham handed and an invasion of my most delicate privacy: communion with the divine. Whatever that means to me. It will never mean a bombastic fool sitting in a public house anointing himself hero to the people. I’m no Torah scholar, but know a golden calf when I see one.
For secular Jews, aside from the occasional Shabbat dinner with friends or family, Friday means simply texting other Jews “Shabbat shalom”, as a not-so-coded way of noting “we’re Jewish; it’s Friday.” It doesn’t have to mean more than this. And doesn’t because someone on a capricious whim decided. If ignoring prayer mandate makes me a target of thoroughly predictable derision: whatever. I’m flawed. Doing the best I can generally, because it’s important to me. Not because I’m trying to please… him, or a hashtag someone created from the fully informed position of not even being Jewish. I am not a puppet to be used for entertainment. Jews are not puppets collectively for amusement. Make no mistake. We’re too close to what we escaped.
It’s faux-King ridiculous. My Jewish Life is not content. I am a Jew, having a life. Different.
Whatever we do or do not do on Friday is ours to determine. Allyship is not picking one element, then demanding we perform it. Players in a play before medieval king. Actual King (Charles) isn’t telling Jews how to Jew (verb, as an action). He’s articulating need to better protect British Jewry. Which needs doing. He isn’t mandating, “how do you Jew.” Irony I’ll repeat: people left England and came to America… fleeing religious dictates. Doesn’t… anyone anymore believe in our Constitution? It’s there for a reason. Also has anyone even seen our friend the Constitution lately? (Wellness) check, please!
Do I think this because I’m liberal? No. I’d think this of any sitting president who swerved into how- or if- we observe. Irony once more again: not intruding into religious life is actually Republican. This is all deeply, deeply problematic for any partisan interpretation of Land of the Free. This is paternalism cosplaying liberty.
Accepting government mandate around personal identity = losing claim. My family came to the US for autonomy. Not another czar telling us how to be. Not another Nazi. “Shabbat 250” means we walk into shackles and call it a party. No one, I mean no one, dictates my prayers to me.
Faith, whether I have it or not, or choose to- is a beautiful, historic thing. Shabbat, whether I choose to observe or not- is a lovely reframe and respite from the week. It is not handed us by a president, as tablets to Moses. It’s not his to give. Shabbat was always ours already.
**I said what I said here, I don’t regret it. Unless of course you never hear from me again, in which case- check deportations to Eastern and Central Europe.
