Alongside the Rio Grande is a small town named after a game show where Elon Musk set up camp for Space X. Truth or Consequences pairs perfectly with June 13, 2025.
As I write these words alongside its bath houses and very far away from just about anywhere, Israel defends itself against long range missiles and drones from Iran’s attack showering upon the Tel Aviv night sky. Israelis run in and out of bomb shelters on yet another sleepless night for an already traumatized people. And the international stage lights up for what will not be (nor has been) a short run.
Palestinians also seek shelter, as the Houthis fire missiles from Yemen falling short of Israel, and hitting Palestinian villages. Several Israeli fighter jets have already been shot down by Iran, and Israeli pilots eject into lands yet unknown. Children and mothers in Gaza are all too familiar with these air raids, as they have witnessed and suffered from them for almost 20 months. Perhaps they, too, are thinking, “Truth and Consequences.”
Beneath the streets of Gaza, 55 hostages remain unaccounted for, at least 20 of them, we know, alive and living in tunnels built by Hamas over the past 20 years with money sent from international aid to create a Gazan Riviera, but instead, used to militarize and radicalize a people without a leadership alternative. In the region known as Gaza, everyone suffers from this Truth and its Consequences.
And on the streets of Los Angeles, the ICE raids erupt a second Los Angeles fire this year, as concrete is pulled from overpasses and thrown onto police vehicles and Waymos are ordered so that they can be set aflame as a few miles away friends sleep on the couches of their family having lost their homes in the Altadena and Palisades fires (and they didn’t have insurance. Or were renters. Or have fallen into depression as they were not prepared for this). Our city seems surprised that “illegal citizens are being pulled away, denied habeas corpus” as most of us don’t even know what that means anymore. Truth and Consequences.
Over 25 years ago, Jack Nicholson in Aaron Sorkin’s “A Few Good Men” shouted into the camera at America, “You can’t handle the truth.” In the face of fewer and fewer people engaging in the moral interplay that religious spiritual communities ask of us, and instead, “choose yoga or gratitude groups,” it is the Truth that has come back to bite us. The truth that we need to “create a path for all dreamers who want to contribute positively to our land to become Americans” just as Israel creates a path for all Jews to become Israelis. The Truth that “we need the hostages returned home” so that we can leave Gaza and allow the creation of an infrastructure so that the Palestinians there can begin their own post-trauma Truth journey outside the grip of Hamas and Iran’s indoctrination. The Truth is that Bibi has proven to be Biblical in his leadership, leading Israel to do the world’s dirty work, while also, arguably, overstaying his welcome, as his leadership of Israel is as long as some dictators in recent history. Another Truth is for Israel to self-define new leadership and its future on its own, as we are not Israelis and it is upon them to innovate to Israel’s vision of a Liberal Democracy as radicalized regimes do not do democracy well. And for the US, it’s time to admit the Truth – that both the Left and the Right have gone too far, and we need to return to a reigning regime of Logic and Reasoning rooted in the concept that if we continue to live in naval gazing denial, it’s only a matter of time that the Consequences find their way onto our own soil.
Apropos to all of the above – this week’s Torah portion features God’s sick sense of humor. Reading it as “Fantasy Literature” as the Book of Numbers is truly other worldly, we could say that this is the Land of Lewis Carroll where logic and reasoning are thrown on their heads as well as challenged like a physics experiment. Quayle fall from the sky as the Israelites complain of hunger; Miriam’s body turns squamous as her punishment for the way she uses language against Moses. And we are instructed about how to bang gold into a candelabra to illuminate ourselves in the midst of all of this vivid darkness. It’s a Stranger Things world kind of quid pro quo.
As we watch this horror show from the portals of glass in the palm of our hands as fireworks illuminate the Tel Aviv sky like Shabbos candles, may we put down our screens and turn to the wise advice from Ibn Ezra’s insight from the Torah portion (Numbers 10:9): “When you are at war in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before your God and be delivered from your enemies.” Ibn Ezra, in his commentary, remarks that the sounds of the shofar are to be read also as “an alarm or a reminder for the people to call out to God.”
As in: Pray.
At a time where most believe that a cold plunge is a good enough way to feel reset and renewed and God-optional is a real choice in most religious institutions in the US, that might not be helpful. But, in a world of Truth or Consequences, perhaps the best way to describe God is through Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “For Every Action, there is an Equal and Opposite Reaction.”
And so – pray. Pray to increase our awareness of what we can understand, pray for our ability to discern the truth from manipulation and illusion; pray for the grace to make choices that merit the highest human good and pray for the humility to meet the consequences that come when our best intentions fall short.
Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray.
We pray to counter the evil in those tunnels and to offer the world the Truth we are looking for – a return of the hostages home. We pray that all children in Gaza have a better future ahead of them and the support they need right now to get there. We pray that our friends in Israel (including beloved Open Temple musician Josh Goldberg) be held through this time and find his way home to Andrea in Nashville safely soon. We pray that all living in the United States return to the holiness of this land, and feel in every footstep its radiant and gracious truth of freedom for all who cultivate and nurture it. We pray for all world leaders who support peace and pray that those who support destruction find a new job. We pray that holy community find its way into our lives as the loneliness in the US is a part of what is tearing it apart. We pray for a return to logic and reasoning, we pray for a return to education where we focus on what is important and not surface deep. We pray that curiosity and compassion lead us through these times and we pray that we have the courage to create personal spiritual practices that help us deal with our truths, whatever they may be. We pray to accept what we can’t change and change what we can’t accept and to discern the difference as that is what Truth requires of us.
As nothing may come from our prayers but a change of ourselves. And then, perhaps, our prayers will empower every human in this world to have space for their own prayers. As after we pray, we are better suited to deal with Truth when it comes along and triggers us. For, if we can’t handle the Truth, we won’t in any way be prepared for the Consequences…