In the study of scripture, there are many scholars who view signs of editing of the biblical texts as evidence that they are false and completely fabricated over the course of centuries with no connection to true events. I want to make a statement about this matter in a different way. Below I am going to publish my account of an event that happened to me. I will publish this post today September 20th, 2024. The event occurred on Saturday, September 14th at approximately 11 PM in Los Angeles on Western Boulevard, south of F f ountain Avenue, just a bit north or south of Santa Monica Boulevard, I can’t exactly remember.
I first told this story in a comment on Facebook. I then copied it to my Discord server because I wanted to talk about it with my daughter and friend Booker, and maybe Pat, if he shows up. I’m going to copy it here below, and make sure it’s cleaned up. Two things happened during the encounter it describes that I did not put in this narrative. Very strange things. Mentioning them would have really changed the emphasis of the story, so I left them out. I will never, ever forget these two things. I am going to do my best to come back in some time, a few months maybe, I don’t know, and work those two things into this narrative in such a way that the fact that I added something later will be obvious. I’ll put the new stuff in bold or something. I’m not sure.
The context of the event was that a rabbi was conducting a lesson, and a woman asked a question, “why is the world so bad?” The rabbi told the students to give answers. One student gave an answer from the Tanya, a central text of Hasidic Judaism. I gave my answer to the question with a Facebook comment. I ended it with a quotation from the New Testament that I thought was consistent with the student’s understanding of the concept from the Tanya.
You have understanding. You have Torah. You have learned that God is good. You know that the horrific things of the world are temporary. You know that they play a part in God’s plan to show us what he is not so that we will seek him and love him. You have had a good enough life. You have found the tools you need to cope with the bad.
You you you you you you you you you you you you you.
A few days ago on the streets of Koreatown in Los Angeles, I ran into a once beautiful but now completely bedraggled homeless black woman walking around on the streets utterly naked. We talked as best as we could. Her words were simple. Mine were completely chaotic. I was so devastated, I could barely speak.
We talked about forgiveness. She told me that she had sold her [insert word here]. She had been a prostitute. I thought, she is reaping what she has sown. With more ferocity than ever she could have thought possible. I asked her where she slept. She said, “usually on the street.” She asked me if she could come to my place to get a shower.
On the inside, I was afraid. She would want to sleep there. Out of compassion I would let her. I would go to sleep. Desperate people do desperate things. I might just wake up and find her gone with my credit cards. I did not say this, though. I told her, “if you come with me now, tomorrow I will have to put you back on the street. I have to go now. I have things to do. And if I do them, I will be able to help you more later than I ever could now.”
I gave her $20. She tucked it in the crease between her chest and her breast. The closest thing to a pocket she had. I tried my best to pray with her as well as I could. I couldn’t form the words. Assuming she wasn’t Jewish, I told her to find a church and ask them for help. There are five Korean churches and three latino ones on every block here. How they could let this happen, I will never understand. Satan has everyone by the throat. If she goes to a church and asks for help, and they don’t help her, my serene and humble hope is that the almighty God rains fire from heaven on their asses. How they could let this happen, I will never understand.
My Reform synagogue knows what I am talking about. They pass out pork to the homeless because it is all they can get from the vendors they work with. I guess I should have taken her to my place and brought her to my synagogue. But I was just so blown away, I did the best I could at that time and place with that person. I sobbed on the way home, drank, and passed out. Like the PTSD vet that I am.
I am not you. She is not you.
Chabad is the most impressive expression of Judaism I have seen. Not in the commandments you follow. The Rebbe told you to follow every commandment that any rabbi has ever passed down because he was preparing you for greatness. Your mission is to turn Jews to Torah so that Jews can enlighten the world. Don’t for a second think the Rebbe didn’t ponder whether wearing those beards and those hats and turning those phones off was worthwhile or a waste of time. He was making warriors, and he wasn’t going to let any Litvak tell his boys they aren’t true Jews. Not every Jew has to be like you, but the Rebbe was going to reach those Jews through you. All of them, from the haredi to the secular.
I am not you. That woman is not you. The issue is not whether or not the world is bad. We know it is. Words from an old rabbi who I think deserves some respect:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age/world (עולם).
Galatians 1:3-4
Look beyond the confines of your fairly comfortable life. Heathen rockets rain upon you every day. Don’t let it get you down. Power is coming. But let’s face facts. And let’s teach them.
Now here is the interesting thing. The two things that happened in this story that I did NOT include in this initial version not only inspired me to coin my very own Jungian archetype, but those two things caused my mind to conjure images from a story in the New Testament: the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman. Again, though I am NOT going to mention those two things, I hope to add them later, I AM going to paste the New Testament verses that speak of this story. In fact, the story is told twice, with little complementary details. There is the version from Matthew, a Jew writing to Jews, and the version from John Mark, Jewish on his mother’s side, but not his father’s, writing to gentiles. John Mark was a student of the apostle Peter.
And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Matthew 15:21-28
And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Mark 7:24-30