Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ There's a powerful symmetry b/w how I feel about Nov's election & how I generally feel about #RoshHashanah

Ya see, I really think Biden will win & consequently that we'll save America & likely the world (not an exaggeration). But I'm so worried that I can't feel confident.

2/ Am I doing enough to save the country? Are my neighbors - the ones in the same boat, in the metaphor of Yonah made literal with a plague - doing enough.

Feeling too confident about Nov. right now, for me & multiplied across the nation's resistors, will lead to doom

3/ I carry the year's confidence at the start of Elul about my habits & thoughts, that I'm doing my best. Elul's progress is meant to shake me from complacency. The daily shofar is to wake me up. Ironically, this year's lack of shofar did that even more; b/c of why it's missing.

4/ A plague running rampant, fueled by hatred, ignorance, indifference. Weaponized Dunning-Kruger. The confidence I feel from Cheshvan to Av is shaken b/c I see the deadline in front of me. Tishrei & November, two calendar deadlines where death is all too literal.

5/ So I can't feel confident any year that I'll make it to next Tishrei, either b/c my allotted time is up or b/c my noxious behavior caused my own demise (after I've infected others w/my spiritual cruelty or literal virus-laden indifference)

(See here

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1302643743376453632

)

6/ We're can't feel confident in Elul:

"through the year, a person shld always see himself & the world as equally balanced b/w merit & sin. If he performs one sin, he tips his balance & that of the entire world to the side of guilt & brings destruction"

chabad.org/library/articl…

7/ This is metaphysical, but 2020 makes it literal. Rambam describes how people lose the World to Come b/c they think they are righteous.

Dunning-Kruger's mechanism, that makes the ignorant confident & the educated skeptical, is in the spiritual realm as well.

8/ So every worry I have about Biden losing (or, more accurately, the fascists stealing an election they are clearly losing) I must apply to myself in Elul & Tishrei.

Complacence leads to hell; worry is a good sign that I know how bad I can be & how bad in could be in the US

9/ One last note about forgiveness. TB RH 17a: forgiving others is paramount for having God forgive you - b/c compassion is also justice.

10/ (רבא אמר) כל המעביר על מדותיו מעבירין לו על כל פשעיו שנאמר נושא עון ועובר על פשע למי נושא עון למי שעובר על פשע

sefaria.org/Rosh_Hashanah.…

10/ "Rava ... said: With regard to whoever forgoes his reckonings with others for injustices done to him, the heavenly court in turn forgoes punishment for all his sins, as it is stated: “He bears sin and forgives transgression” (Micah 7:18). [cont.]"

11/ [TB RH 17a, cont.] [Rava said:] "Whose sins does He bear? The sins of one who forgoes his reckonings with others for injustices committed against him."

We can't know what's in each others' minds. We barely know what's in our own. Let God judge on Rosh Hashanah.

12/ There are many people who I can blame for our situation. I ask God to be fair, compassionate & just. And I need to worry about my own actions on #RoshHashanah

(see this good article for some good sources, as well): myjewishlearning.com/article/how-we…

13/ #ShanaTovah everyone. May 5781 be filled with health, ease, and peace.

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