On Spinoza, Einstein and Carl's Western Bacon Cheeseburger

Two days until Rosh Hashanah!!!

You guys have all your noise makers and party hats ready to greet the New Year? Ready to celebrate the joy and blessings that were 2020? And prepare yourself for the bountiful good tidings that are sure to come in 2021?

I'm sorry, we're talking about the Jewish New Year. I think we're up to 5784 or 9328 or 10,437. I'd look it up on the Google, but why?

At this time of year we usually shell out exorbitant money for tickets to the High Holy Day services to thank our Lord. You know, for the pandemic, the recession, the forced closure of all known ways of life, that kind of stuff.

Being a devout atheist, I would go just to make my wife happy, she is nowhere near as cynical about this sort of stuff as I am.

But as readers of R17 know, God and I are not on speaking terms. And though I will go through the tribal motions, I have no need for organized religion and see it for what it is, a means for those in power, to manipulate those without power, usually the poor and the uneducated. And the ones with no weekend hobbies.

Let's remind ourselves that these precious divine stories about our humble beginnings and our place in the universe were written by people who believed in burning bushes, water turning into wine, and a 900 year old man who built a boat for all the animals of the earth in order that they could ride out a 40 day rainstorm instigated by a loving god to demonstrate his love of his people. WTF?

They also had no idea about gravity, astronomy, mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry or even the taco truck at Venice and La Brea.

Nevertheless, this Saturday the Siegels will ring in the New Year. In style.

Hat tip to our friend Glen who clued us into a local Culver City restaurant, AKASHA, that prepares a special Rosh Hashanah feast, which will be delivered to our house by Goy-Hub, because the holiday falls on the Sabbath and in order not to stir God's anger, it has to be delivered to our house by a gentile. Again WTF?

Along those same lines, and according to the little research I've done on the matter, this year's Rosh Hashanah festivities will NOT include the blowing of the Shofar, the bony remains of a ram's horn. Why? Because of the very strict and arcane rules that might have been proscribed on a sheet of papyrus by a goat herder suffering from sunstroke somewhere in the Sinai desert some 5,000 years ago. The same shoulder shrugging rules that say I can't have a cheeseburger or enjoy a lobster roll on a toasted kaiser roll.

This is not to say that I am not curious or spiritually indifferent towards our nature. Despite my somewhat nihilistic disposition, I would like answers too. In fact, this week I found some. Not in a church. Not in a temple. And certainly not in some Abrahamic text.

I found it on Facebook, of all places.

It was a posting by shared by one of my advertising colleagues, let's call him Bob (mostly cause that's his name). It's a little lengthy, but it's worth a read. It is, as far as I'm concerned, the best replacement theory for religion these days. All religion.

So instead of my typical snarky little ending to each of the pieces, I will leave you with this:

Did you know that when Einstein gave some lecture at the numerous US universities, the recurring question that students asked him was:

Do you believe in God?
And he always answered, "I believe in the God of Spinoza."

The ones who hadn't read Spinoza didn't understand...

I hope this gem of history, serves you as much as it does me.

Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher (a secular Jew like myself) considered one of the three great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, along with René Descartes in France, and Gottfried Leibniz in Germany.

God says:

Stop praying and punching yourself in the chest.
What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to enjoy, sing, have fun and enjoy everything I've made for you.

Stop going to those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and say they are my house. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That's where I live and there I express my love for you.

Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don't blame me for everything they made you believe.

Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can't read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son's eyes... you will find me in no book. Trust me and stop asking me. Would you tell me how to do my job?

Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry, or seek to punish you. I am pure love.

Stop asking for forgiveness, there's nothing to forgive. If I made you... I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies... free will. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I'm the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of God would do that?

Forget any kind of commandments, any kind of laws; those are wiles to manipulate you, to control you, that only create guilt in you.

Respect your peers and don't do what you don't want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that your consciousness is your guide.

My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing that exists here and now, and it is all you need.

I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues... no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.
You are absolutely free to create in your life heaven or hell.

I could tell you if there's anything after this life, but I won't... but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is nothing after... as if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.

So, if there's nothing, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won't ask if you behaved right or wrong, I'll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?...

Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don't want you to believe in me... I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.

Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?

I'm bored being praised, I'm tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy!... that's the way to praise me.

Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you've been taught about me.

The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, and that this world is full of wonders.

What do you need more miracles for? Why so many explanations?

Look for me outside... you won't find me. Find me inside... there I am beating within you.

Spinoza.