Yom Kippur II? Did we have governmental attonement?

By EDMON RODMAN

In a mixed-up Jewish calendar year when Chanukah falls on Thanksgiving, did Yom Kippur fall twice? In the first weeks of October, with the government on partial shutdown and the debt clock ticking, we felt that some kind of atonement was coming, that’s for sure.

As a recent Pew study has told us, fewer belong to a synagogue, or even believe that God exists, but who in the last two weeks did not take a moment to ponder their puny place in a political world that day by day, even though it was standing still, was still inching towards chaos?

With China and Japan warning us about default, like a flock of sheep we passed before the world who was sitting in judgment.

If you began to wonder, who would die, so to speak, by furlough, and who by eviction, and who would drown in debt, or be consumed by worry, then you felt a ripple, at least thematically, of Yom Kippur.

The day leading up to the Congressional vote especially felt like Yom Kippur II. Washington had the nation fasting, commentators were blowing shofars trying to warn us of the impending doom, and all while our leaders sat motionless in their pews ignoring the sermon.

When the TV newsman announced, “25 hours to go to before default”–the length of a Yom Kippur fast– I knew I would have to give up something.

Stop watching TV News shows? That would definitely settle my jitters, but how would I find someone to blame?

What about laying off my cursing of ideologues? That was way too much fun, and without someone to blame, wouldn’t that mean I would have to take some of the responsibility?
After finally deciding to give up calculating the daily loss from my 401K– it was casting me down to the depths– I went to bed. Watching the news, and hearing that the House Speaker’s plan to break the deadlock had failed, I went to sleep hungry for better news.

At dawn, Congress was like a confused rabbi who couldn’t decide if their congregation should stand or sit. First, there was news that a Senate compromise had been reached. Arise. Then we were pushed back in our seats with news that Senator Ted Cruz might object, possibly leaving us to beat our chests for one more day.

Then, the page turned. A Senate compromise had been reached. A deal had been struck for a bill that would raise the debt limit until February 7 and reopen the government until January 15. The moment became an aliyah of blessings from majority leader Reid, with a choir of democrats even singing the praises of minority leader McConnell. However, the mood darkened as Cruz chanted a haftarah of Obamacare doom.

Still not yet done for the day, the national congregation had to stand for Neilah, the final service of the day, and wait for nightfall and news that both the Senate and House had passed the bill before the gates had closed.

As the stock market climbed in anticipation, I wondered maybe it was time to say a prayer for our county. “Teach them insights from your Torah,” says the “Prayer for Our Country.”
“You mean like the commandment “bal tashchit,” (“do not destroy or waste,”) as in do not destroy our savings and waste our time,” I thought in a not very biblical spirit. And in the trope of Yom Kippur I wondered, “Will they ever say ‘I’m sorry’?”

By dusk, the Senate passed the bill, and at evening the House as well, though no “tekiyah gedolah” was sounded. President Obama soon signed and the fast was broken.

America could once again sit down and break their fast, at least until January 15.
Yom Kippur III anyone